A human pilot from New Eden on an exploration mission finds himself in a pony-filled universe.
Canderous Nord was just a simple pilot in the universe of New Eden, doing whatever he can do to get by, yet he soon finds his way into the ranks of the Gallente Federation Navy. But an expedition through an ancient stargate goes awry, sending he and his division into another part of the universe, one filled not with other humans, but with ponies. Now Canderous, with some help from the new-found species, must find a way to return to their home.
Eve Online and Dust 514 belong to rightful and respectful owners and co-owners, CCP Games. I do not own ANYTHING related to Eve Online, Dust 514, or CCP Games.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Docking request accepted
Canderous Nord pressed a flashing indicator button on his control console from within the cockpit of his Atron-class frigate, recalling his camera drones back to it’s very small drone bay. He felt the usual gravitational tug on his ship as the station’s tractor beam began to pull his ship towards the hangar bay behind a long line of ships also waiting to get inside. He looked out from his cockpit window, gazing at the vibrant nebulae thousands of light-years away. The gas and dust came together to form a beautifully vibrant shade of yellow and blue. He moved his gaze back towards the station, watching several freighters from multiple races and corporations slowly making their way out of the station.
“Just another day in Dodixie.” Canderous said with a sigh. Not much happened in the highly populated trade-hub system, but the system does get it’s fair share of the occasional "lemming" criminal. A poor, but stupid soul would come along and forget that they have been marked with a Global Criminal Flag, whereupon noticing this flag whatever police force that occupied the system would send an automated warning asking to the pilot to "politely" leave. The pilot, being about as smart and attentive as a concrete slab would have never noticed the warning, he and his ship getting blown to bits a few moments later.
Canderous took notice to a single Obelisk-class freighter sluggishly moving out of station, a fairly large escort party consisting of Brutix-class battlecruisers accompanying the steel whale of a ship. He pondered as to why a common freighter would need an escort party of that size for a simple freighter, until he noticed that the Obelisk and it’s escort party were making a wide turn to the left, moving away from the station and towards an even bigger ship of truly colossal size.
A Nyx-class supercarrier sat idly by about eighty kilometers away from the station, surrounded by a large defensive fleet consisting mostly of Megathron-class battleships belonging to the Federation Navy, their truck-sized ion blasters unsheathed from their holding places. To say that a Gallente battleship was armed to the teeth would be somewhat of an understatement. Canderous immediately recognized the titanic supercarrier as the FNS Iron Giant, the only capital-class vessel allowed in the crowded trade system. It was truly awe-inspiring to see a ship of such raw power at a simple trade hub and not at the front lines where it’s legions of fighters and fighter bombers can chew through the armor. Canderous kept his gaze upon the shining symbol of the Federation’s power for so long that he didn’t notice he was next in line to be pulled into the station. His ship lurched forward and entered the station’s gaping maw, snaking around several corridors and going down two levels until it entered the station’s central hangar bay, where it slowed down and came to a halt at an unoccupied hangar platform. The frigate was now hovering in place. This was possible by another tractor beam, one located at every hangar platform.
“Time for payday. Hope that bastard doesn’t get lazy this time.” Canderous stood up from the pilot’s seat and made his way to the back of the ship. He reached a small steel door and pressed a flashing button on the side, causing the door to shoot upward into the wall, revealing the ship’s escape pod, in which it’s name applies, is normally used for fleeing one’s ship should you ever get into a tough spot in a fight. However though, since stations in New Eden do not posses a simpler method of reaching the captain’s quarters other than being transported to and from your ship via your only means of escape, this was the only option.
Canderous climbed inside the cramped pod and strapped himself into the seat. He fiddled around with the control panel inside, programming the pod to take him down to his personal quarters. The pod doors closed and a circular escape hatch opened from below the ship. Not even a second later, the pod shot out of its holding place, and began making it's way to the clamping point on the quarter’s viewing deck.
~~~~~
The typical living areas of stations in Dodixie weren’t all that impressive, or good smelling either. Most pilot’s owned much larger ships, like battlecruisers, battleships and the like, so they have a place to eat, sleep, and (fortunately) bathe. The living quarters did however though give you a bed, long-distance communicator to talk to contract agents with, a Holo-TV, and a Quafe vending machine. Canderous never tried the strange green-ish soft drink, fearing it through rumors from other pilots saying that it causes brain damage and a mild case of diarrhea.
Canderous slumped lazily over the couch, waiting for his contract agent to call him. While waiting he decides to take a look at the Dodixie market prices for ships on his holo-tablet to pass the time. Turning it on, he scans through the listings of ships and modules, previewing assorted large weapons and ships, until a certain shiny length of steel catches his eye. A Hyperion-class battleship at it’s lowest-price was listed for the ludacris price of one-hundred and fifty million ISK. Much too expensive for him, or for anyone else.
Yet there was something about the Hyperion that made Canderous look back at all the previous ships he piloted with shame and disgust. Was it the sleek, majestic look of the ship’s hull, the bow and stern coming together at the middle where the engines were to form a streamline sheen of elegance and beauty? Or the destructive force of the ship, outfitting it with the best weapons and modules money can buy just so you can watch with pride as its eight forward gun batteries tear apart the ship of any unfortunate pilot who should ever dare cross it’s path? Canderous has always dreamed of commanding one of these powerful vessels himself, ever since he was a little boy. Yet the dream never seemed to come true, with the rising cost of ship components anyway.
Incoming conversation call: ID Tag unknown
“It’s about damn time he called” Canderous sighed with relief. He used his holo-tablet to accept and connect to the call. The face of a rugged, bold-faced man appeared on the screen. His face was covered with beads of sweat, and his hair was in a tattered, dirty mess.
“Hey Canderous, you sent that wormhole location yet? Me and my men have been waiting here for hours!”
“First things first Malak. You send the money, I send you the bookmark.” Canderous commanded in an impatient tone.
The rugged man sighed and picked up a holo-tablet next to him and began pressing buttons. Canderous saw that the wallet icon on his holo-tablet began to flash. His pressed the icon, displaying his current wallet balance. What used to be only a meager amount of five million ISK, bubbled up to twenty-five million ISK, nearly enough for a Tier two frigate.
“There, twenty-million ISK, as we agreed to. Now send me that bookmark!” Malak commanded while angrily pointing his finger at the screen. Canderous navigated through the tablet menu until he found the correct bookmark, which displayed the location of a wormhole he found earlier that day. By the simple press of a button, he sent the bookmark to Malak.
“There it is sent. I’ve already explored through the other side. Leads straight to the Dronelands, so you and your boys have plenty of things to blow up.”
Malak fiddled around with this holo-tablet once more, until a smile began to creep up on his face. “So, you actually kept your end of the deal this time huh? Good.” He twisted his head to the right and yelled out to some people in the background.
“Yo guys, get in your ships! We’re going hunting!” Loud cheering could be heard in the background. Malak turned back to the camera, “I’ll have more jobs for you soon. Right now though, me and my boys are going out for a little pirate killing. Go and buy yourself a lap dance or something.” The screen went black, ending the call. Canderous tossed the tablet to the side and slumped back on the couch. The money he was awarded didn’t amount to much as a freelance pilot in New Eden, but every pilot had to start somewhere.
“Might as well go grab a beer. It’s gonna be boring as hell for next few days anyway.” He got up from the couch and walked over to the door. He pressed a button on the right side of the door and the door flew up into the wall. Canderous started to walk out, only to bump into someone on his way out. “Hey buddy, watch where you’re go-.” He looked up to see who he bumped into, what he say, made his heart stop dead cold.
Standing before Canderous were three Federation Navy officials, an officer and two armed marines. The officer looking down at Canderous with an angry scowl beset on his grimaced face.
Canderous was forcefully shoved away from the officer by one of the marines. He slowly backed away, turned around, and began to walk back to his quarters, only to be stopped in his tracks by a loud, booming voice.
“Halt pilot!” Canderous slowly moved his head to face the source of the voice, “Are you the one known as Canderous Nord?”
“Y-yes...” Canderous replied.
The navy official extended his arm to Canderous, whom extended his own arm and shook hands with the uniformed man.
“Canderous, I am Markus Aran, commander of the Federation Navy fourty-seventh Marine Division, and I would like to speak to with you.”
Canderous’s face went from frightened to confused almost immediately. Why would a high-ranking Federation Navy lieutenant want to speak with a common pilot like him?
“Uh... alright I guess...”
“Good. Why don’t we find somewhere more...private to talk?”
Canderous thought about it before speaking, “Well, we could talk in my quarters. Or if you prefer another place...”
The commander shook his head impatiently, “Your quarters are fine.” He motioned the two marines to follow him, moving his hand in a passive, leading sway.
“Well Nord, lead the way.”
~~~~~
Twilight’s recent days spent in the Canterlot observatory seemed to have become much more tiring than she was used to. Ever since Celestia sent her a letter asking for her to come to Canterlot immediately, her days were filled with nothing but star charts and constant observations. Twilight became so hooked to her tasks that she rarely got any sleep, but with a good, and rather exciting, reason. One of Princess Celestia’s royal astronomers found a large, brightly lit magnetic storm, not to far from the planet, with a strange mass hidden inside. Whatever object this field surrounds though is unknown to anypony, and Twilight has been raring to find out what it is.
“And I think I have made a breakthrough.” said Twilight to Princess Celestia with a wide smile across her face.
“What did you find, my faithful student?” Celestia returned Twilight’s smile with one of her own.
“Actually princess, if you don’t mind, I think it would be better if I told you and the other astronomers at once so I won’t have to tell each one of them in person.”
“That is fine Twilight. How about... high-noon, here in the observatory, so we can see it for ourselves?”
Twilight’s smile grew wider. Not only would she get to tell about her discovery to some of the smartest ponies in all of Equestria, but she also gets to show it to them personally.“ That would be wonderful princess. Thank you.” Celestia and Twilight bowed to one another before Celestia left the room. Twilight turned back to a large star-chart spread across a table. A large red circle was drawn around a blank spot on the chart near the sun.
Canderous lead the lieutenant to his personal quarters, who ordered the marines to stand guard outside of the door. The lieutenant took a seat on the couch, so Canderous sat in a chair nearby. The lieutenant cleared his throat and began to speak.
“Well mister Nord, it has come to my, and the Federation’s, attention that you have been probing down and selling the locations of wormholes to some... private customers. Is this true?”
“Y-...err...yes.” Canderous’s face became red with nervous heat. He can only wonder as to what trouble he may be in for selling valuable merchandise to wanted men.
“Well...then I came to the right man.” The lieutenant said with a smile. He stood up from the couch and began pacing around the room. “Mister Nord, I have been over-looking your file, from which I happily obtained from Concord police, and I must say that I am quite impressed by how well you do your job. You have found dozens of wormholes, narcotics sites, and even pirate hideaways that cannot be detected by a ship’s standard system scanner. You can do in minutes what our even our most advanced scanners do in hours.”
Canderous was taken aback. A Federation Navy lieutenant was complimenting him on his work?
“I think you know where I am going with this mister Nord. I want you in my division as our forward scout.”
Canderous was shocked at the sudden offer. This was something only trained military personnel were offered to do, not a simple ship pilot who has never flown anything bigger or mightier than petty frigates. This could be his big break. He finally has the chance to do something worth while in his life other than sitting on a couch each day waiting for his “paychecks” to come in. A lazy freelancer’s dream come true.
The lieutenant perked up, “Oh, and not only will you be our new forward scout, but as an enlisted man of the Federation Navy, you will be given some of the best equipment and clothing the Federation has to offer. This, and more, await you... should you decide to join of course.”
Was this really true? Is he really being offered a fresh start? A chance to use his skills to assist the proud and powerful nation to which he belonged to (and maybe pocket some extra cash)?
“Well mister Nord, what do you say? Care to leave your old life behind for a new one?” The lieutenant extended his arm, palm open, towards Canderous.
Canderous stood up from the chair with pride, walked over to the lieutenant, and firmly shook hands with the official. “Sir, I would be honored.” Canderous raised his arm to his forehead in a salute.
“The honor is all mine mister Nord, glad to have you aboard.”
“So when do we um... leave sir?”
“Tomorrow actually. I will have a marine from my division escort you to the Navy’s private hangar bay. You will board a shuttle and be taken to the Nyx supercarrier, the FNS Iron Giant, outside of the station.”
‘This day just keeps getting better and better’ Canderous thought to himself. “You mean, the Iron Giant?”
“The very same. I hate to end this off early mister Nord but now is the time that I take my leave. See you onboard." The lieutenant walked to the door, uttered something to the marines standing by, and left the room, the door closing shut behind him. Canderous could only sit there, taking in the big change that has just occurred in his life. Nothing, not even when he first obtained his pilot license in flight school, could compare to this. Now, he was a military man, and no longer a low-life freelancer. He no longer had to deal with the harsh attitudes and complaints of his “customers” every day.
‘Speaking of customers...’ Canderous thought to himself with a devious smile.
Canderous grabbed the holo-tablet from the couch and opened the contact list. He scrolled through the menu until he found Malak’s tablet ID. “I’m in the Navy now. Might as well let the bastard know that I wont be doing his stupid jobs anymore.” He typed up a small message and sent it away. “Here’s to you asshole.”
It read as follows:
Malak,
F**K YOU
-Nord
~~~~~
The observatory was a bit too noisy for the purple bookworm, the continuous banter of scientists and astronomers filling the room. In one part of the room, a pair of astronomers were discussing the possibility of using magic to travel at light-speed through space, while another pair were arguing about who gets to see the discovery first. It made her feel good knowing that some of them were interested in what she has found.
“A bit nervous are we?” Celestia whispered into Twilight’s ear.
“Very. D-do you think they will like what I have found princess?” uttered Twilight in a nervous tone.
“You are one of my best and brightest students Twilight. If I have confidence in you, then I can assure you that everypony here does too.”
Twilight smiled, blushing at the same time. “Thanks princess. That means a lot to me.”
“You very welcome Twilight. Oh, it is time for your presentation. Go out there, and knock em’ dead, not really of course.” Celestia ended off with a wink and a laugh. That was all the confidence Twilight needed.
The lights in the observatory dimmed to a faint glow, the low light and starry landscape style of wallpaper set the perfect mood for the unveiling of a big astronomical discovery. Twilight stepped out and onto a podium set at the base of a giant, silver telescope in the middle of the observatory. She looked out into the crowd, the same feelings of nervousness started to creep up onto her again. She tried to let out words, but her mouth had sealed itself shut, preventing her from speaking at all. Twilight felt as if she was about to give out, until she noticed the familiar smiling face of her royal teacher near the back of the room. Twilight’s confidence returned immediately at the encouraging sight of her royal mentor. She cleared her throat and began to speak.
“Scientists and astronomers of Canterlot, as most of us may already know, we still have little to no information on what lies behind the magnetic storm, or as it’s current name is, 6-CZ49.” One of the astronomers in the back coughed loudly, sending a little comedic spark through the air. “But that hunt for an answer ends today everypony, for I have discovered what lies behind the veil! But I don’t think telling you would be enough, so why don’t I just show you.” Twilight’s horn began to glow with a bright-greenish hue, gaining luminescence with each passing second. The glow continued to grow in size until a bright, blinding flash of light ceased it all. When it was all over, the astronomers and scientists shook their heads and rubbed their eyes in agony, trying to figure out as to what the hay just happened.
“Oh no, oh dear! I am so sorry everypony! I didn’t mean for that spell to be so bri-” her apologies were meet not with angry verbal swears, but with the ooos and aaaws of several amazed ponies. Twilight’s spell had created a large, three-dimensional map of the known cosmos. Tiny, white specks of light came together to form constellations and distant galaxies. Brightly colored specks grouped together tightly to form nebulae and dust clouds, both sides of the map coming together to form a beautiful and vibrant display of colors, but one dust cloud on the map stood out from them all. A dust cloud much larger and brighter than all the others was hovering above the telescope itself, and above Twilight, almost as if she had cleverly placed it there for dramatic effect.
“Oh, well then. That worked out better than I thought it would. Now if you would all direct your attention to the dust cloud above me...” Everpony focused their gaze onto the spot above Twilight’s head, some stepping in a bit closer to get a closer look, their eyes wide and mouths agape.
“...well, it is not really a dust cloud, that is the magnetic storm, and yes their is something behind it, or rather inside of it.” This bit of information caused confusion amongst the group. One of the astronomers in the back perked up.
“Inside of the storm? Preposterous! Anything inside of that monstrosity would be torn apart in seconds!”
“That is what I thought at first as well sir, but upon further analysis, I have discovered that the object within is incredibly large. From what my best guess is, it may be a planetoid that has grown large enough to stabilize itself in space.”
Another astronomer perked up, closer to Twilight this time. “So a random planetoid just happened to stop at a random position in the galaxy and form it’s own gravity field, inside of a deathly magnetic storm? Highly unlikely.” Debates of question began to spring up from within the crowd. Twilight needed Celestia’s support, but for some odd reason, she was nowhere to be seen. Twilight was about to give out in front of half of the Canterlot science community, until a familiar voice next to her caught her attention.
“She’s right. Something is there.” Celestia somehow appeared next to Twilight without anypony noticing. Celestia stared very closely at the representation of the magnetic storm cloud, her eyelids lowered, focusing her eyes directly at the cloud. “But it is not a planetoid.” Celestia’s horn-tip began to glow a bright-red, sending out a beam of crimson light, scanning the storm cloud hologram. As the scan proceeded, sections of the cloud started to drift away from the core. Twilight could feel the tingle of excitement in the air as she and the other ponies watched in awe as the storm cloud was being peeled like one would peel an orange, until an object, no larger than a grape, came into view. Celestia directed her magical beam towards the object, magnifying it’s size. When the object was large to be viewed clearly by everyone, she stopped her scanning spell, taking deep breath before joining the other ponies in awe at the revealed object.
The object Celestia magnified had no definite shape. It was not spherical like a planet or a bumpy oval like an asteroid, it was a large hollow circle with two pylon-like structures attached to the “sides” of the object. The group moved much closer to the circular object now, Twilight and Celestia moving aside to make way for the eager scientists.
“I don’t believe it! Princess, that is definitely not a planetoid, or an asteroid or... anything! I don’t even know what to call that.”
“Neither do I. This needs to be looked into a bit further. A team will be formed to delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding this object.” At those words, Twilight’s face grew into a large smile. She was shaking with glee and anticipation in hopes of leading the science team further into the discovery.
“Can I lead the team princess? Can I, can I?!” Twilight jumped up and down with joy.
“Actually Twilight, I think I will need somepony else for this job.”
“But why princess? You know how much time I have spent on finding this thing. And with my expertise in astronomy, I think that I can-.”
“There is a reason why I don’t want you working on this right now Twilight. You said you have spent quite some time finding this object, but that is just it. You have spent too much time on this. You have been in Canterlot for over a month, and you have not been spending any time with your friends in Ponyville. And what about Spike as well? He must be getting terribly lonely in the library without you.” Twilight sighed at the sad, yet slightly irritating, truth. Maybe she has been spending too much time in Canterlot, not to mention that she was slightly neglecting her friends. And of course their was Spike to worry about. He has been all alone in the library for the past month with nopony to keep him company.
“And have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?” Celestia conjured up a small mirror and held it up to Twilight’s face. Twilight had bags forming underneath her eyes, and her coat looked as if it was rubbed with a rubber balloon for a few hours, giving it a frizzy look. She giggled at how ridiculous she looked.
“Maybe your right princess. I think I do need a tiiiny break from all of this.”
The mirror vanished into a shower of sparks. “I will send a carriage to pick you up and bring you to Ponyville tomorrow. Your belongings will be delivered there as well.”
“Thanks princess” Twilight put a hoof to her mouth and yawned loudly, “I think I need to get some shuteye.” The two bowed to each other before Twilight left the room. She made her way down the observatory corridors until she stopped at the open door of a comfortably lit bedroom, but the light didn’t come from candles or electricity. It came from an entirely different source. As a special treat for whoever spent the night in the observatory, with the princess’s permission first of course, was a bedroom with a custom-made skylight. It brought forth gleaming rays of golden sunlight in the daytime, and cool waves of silvery moonlight in the night. Twilight sluggishly walked to the four-post bed, climbed in, and pulled the silk blanket over her tired body. She closed her eyes, and drifted off into a well-deserved slumber.
Marked personnel at quarters bulkhead. ID Tag: Federation Navy
Loud bangs were heard at the quarter’s bulkhead door. Apparently Federation Navy officials don’t like waiting around for new recruits for more than five seconds.
“I’m coming, I’m coming, damn.” Canderous ran to the control panel and opened the door, only to be greeted by not one, but four Federation marines. One of the marines wore a suit of dark blue Federation-issue field armor, with a special insignia pinned to a patch of same-color leather on his shoulder. He carried no weapon, but had a stun-baton strapped to a utility belt around his waist, alongside several other unknown gadgets.
“Canderous Nord?” The marine in dark-blue armor questioned him with a raised eyebrow.
“Ya, that’s me.” Canderous shook his head in acknowledgment.
“Come with me, quickly.” Canderous complied with his command. The blue-armored marine motioned the other marines to follow him. The group made their way down a few corridors and through a maintenance doorway until they came to a large freight elevator, the door being guarded by two marines.
When the group approached the elevator, the guarding marines snapped to attention and raised their arms in salute. “Sir!” The men yelled simultaneously to who Canderous guessed to be a Sergeant, wearing a much more distinguishable coat of blue than the others, along with his special insignia patched to his shoulder.
“At ease. Private Felmon, what’s the current situation down in the plaza?” He spoke to the marine on the right side of the doorway.
“Getting worse sir, Concord barely has enough men to cope with panicking civilians. Some are getting violent now. Starting fights and whatnot. Won’t be long before all hell breaks loose.”
“Then we best not wait any longer. Take us down. Marines, until we reach the shuttle, stick close to mister Nord.” The marines nodded to the sergeant in acknowledgment, moving closer to Canderous at his orders. The marines guarding the elevator each took out a key card from a vest pocket, turned around, and in unison inserted their key cards into a port-hole. A siren blared and a red warning light flashed above them. After only a few seconds, the freight elevator doors slowly opened, revealing several cargo containers, some open and some sealed tightly with Navy issue bar-locks. The sergeant walked into the elevator first and looked around, surveying the large room, possibly checking for anything out of the ordinary, like smugglers or hidden explosives. “Looks clear to me. Come mister Nord, we can’t waste too much time here.”
Canderous, along his new bodyguards, strode into the elevator. The doors closed behind them with a loud bang, the noise resounding around the compartment. Somewhere, a power generator switched on, gears began to whire, and the elevator began it’s descent.
~~~~~
Canderous turned to the blue-armored marine, with a question or two in mind, “Sir, I never did catch your name.”
The marine didn’t turn to face Canderous, but instead kept his eyes forward. “Sergeant Bendak, Federation Navy, eighty-seventh marine division. That’s all you need to know about me.” Canderous liked the man’s description. Short and simple. Not to much information to remember should he ever find the need to.
“One other thing Sergeant Bendak, why are we using a freight elevator to get to the plaza? Wouldn’t it have been faster to just take the express elevator?”
“Too risky, several angry and panicking civilians down there, won’t be long before the riots start. This elevator is a back way down, so we won’t run into any of the angry little bastards on our way to the shuttle. ”
The elevator began to slow down, until it came to a halt with a loud thud, the sound of the locking mechanisms sliding in place soon afterward. Canderous heard the faint noises of angry shouts and screams coming from behind the door. Bendak turned to face the marines that surrounded Canderous.
“Marines,” shouted the sergeant, “Stay close to Nord, and keep your guard up.” After those words, the sergeant unsheathed his stun-baton gripping it tightly in his hand. Yellow warning lights flashed above them, a siren just the like one from before blared from some unknown source. The doors slowly opened up to a rather surprising sight. A wall of steel barricades and Concord police officers made what appeared to be a semi-circle around the plaza, where hundreds of angry civilians assaulted the police officers with threats and verbal swears. Security drones whirred overhead, their spotlights shining intensely bright on the angry mob. An intercom played repetitive advisories such as ‘To all station inhabitants. Please wait until the next outgoing shuttle becomes available’ and ‘To all ship pilots, the undocking queue is currently full, please wait until a position in the queue becomes available.’ The officers bore full riot gear, brandishing stun batons, riot shields, teargas launchers and the like. One of the police officers broke away from a conversation with a fellow officer and walked up to Sergeant Bendak as the group strode out of the elevator, his heavy riot gear clanking and bouncing around.
“Sergeant Bendak, the military bay has been cleared. Your shuttle will be the last one out before we seal it off.” The officer shouted through his helmet over the loud yelling in the background.
“Then let’s not waste any more time here.” Bendak shouted back to the police officer. He switched his stun baton on, sending an electric fizzle in the air. “Just in case. Marines, move!” The group advances in a rushed, but orderly manner. Bendak in the front, the marines in the back, and a fearful Canderous in the center. As the group walked by, the shouting of the mob intensified. Someone even had the guts to throw an empty Quafe bottle at them, who was soon grabbed by their arms and carried away by the police officers.
“Uhh, sergeant... why are all the people here so angry? There was nothing like this last night...” Canderous eyed the mob with nervous eyes, fearing that they might somehow break through the barricades and charge him at any second.
“You... don’t know yet? I’m surprised. The greatest event to ever occur in New Eden’s history happened, and these people want to get out and see it, which won’t happen I might add, or maybe they just want to get to their families to protect them.”
“Protect them? Protect them from what?” Canderous was confused, and in an another bit of shock when another Quafe bottle narrowly missed his head and shattered on the floor.
“Usually, when a event of great importance or urgency like this comes up, we would be briefed by the Fleet Admiral himself, but you have yet to be fully enlisted, so you won’t know until we get to the site.”
After a long and noisy walk, the group had finally reached the entrance to the military hangar bay, where a Concord officer greeted them with a salute and allowed them through. This hangar was designed differently from the others. Ships used in combat operations were still kept on their own separate hangar platforms, but there was a ground-level section near the entrance meant for shuttles that traveled to and from military installations.
A sleek, black shuttle was the only ship left in the hangar bay, it’s passenger door open and waiting. The marines led Canderous through the door and to a seat near the cockpit, the marines taking their seats near the back. The interior of the shuttle was surprisingly well furnished for a simple shuttle. The seats looked as if they came off of one of those rare Opux yachts, comfortable and sleek. Every seat had a holo-tv built into the back of the headrest of the seat in front of him, with a small holo-tablet in a holster next to it that acted as a remote control. He assumed that this was a shuttle meant only for the higher-ranking officials of the Federation Navy.
“Enjoying it Nord?”
Canderous jumped at the sudden voice that originated next to him. It was the voice of the sergeant, who decided to take a seat next to him.
“This shuttle belongs to the captain of the Iron Giant himself. This was the only shuttle available though, as every other Navy vessel left hours ago. So this was our only option.”
Canderous was about to ask why they didn’t just come sooner, until he was interrupted by the forward jolt of the shuttle, the hangar’s tractor beam pulling the tiny ship at a much higher speed than he expected. The shuttle made several twists and turns, snaking through the station like a mouse trying to find food placed at the end of a maze. The commander laughed at Canderous’s startled expression.
“We had to double-time it on the speed of the tractor beam’s pull. We leave for the site as soon as we board the Iron Giant. We wasted too much time here already having to deal with those annoying little rioters!”
By now, the strong pull of the tractor beam had ceased, indicating that the ship was now outside of the station. This time, a weaker, less surprising jolt propelled the ship forward, but for a shuttle, it didn’t feel as if they were going at full speed, until a voice over the shuttle’s intercom system gave the reason why.
“To all onboard personnel, we are currently experiencing heavy ship traffic coming out of the station. Flight time has been extended, but not for long. Estimated time to arrival at the Iron Giant, five minutes.”
“Well that’s just perfect.” The sergeant sighed, “Might as well see what Scope has been saying about this event.” The sergeant took the holo-tablet out of the holster in front of him and began scrolling through the Channels menu, pressing an icon labeled ‘Scope News Network’, causing his holo-tv to switch on, tuning in to the Scope News live feed. Canderous did the same, his holo-tv syncing up with the sergeant’s so that two differently timed, identical news feeds don’t cause confusion.
The news feed was nothing but static at first, but after a few seconds, the Scope News logo appeared on the screen.
"Are we live? Good. If you are just now tuning in, the event that some are now calling the “New Eden Rebirth” is attracting people from all over New Eden's systems."
The news feed switches over to a different scene, showing dozens of ships leaving a station at an alarming rate. Frigates, shuttles, and dozens of other ships were scrambling to move away from the station and warp away.
The feed switched again. This time the scene was inside of a station. A large mob was gathered at the middle of a plaza, shouting verbal swears and throwing small objects at Concord riot police.
"We are now broadcasting a live riot situation inside of a local station in the Dodixie trade hub, just one of many riots happening right now in some of the most highly populated systems around New Eden. Thousands of angry citizens are doing whatever they can to try and get out of the station, whether it is to get a glimpse of the New Eden Rebirth themselves, or just to get to their families and loved ones...OK, we now have a report from Concord police stating that the situation is currently under control. We will keep you posted in the meantime."
The feed switched once more, the camera now focusing on a large Navy fleet consisting of around a dozen Megathron and Hyperion battleships within close proximity of two Thanatos-class fighter carriers. Firbolg-class fighters were engaging a small fleet of Guristas pirate frigates, each one being torn apart with ease and exploding in a bright white fireball.
And in other news, a patrol flee-...brrzzzt... engaged...bzrrrrrzt...site."
The news feed cut off, along with the holo-tv a few moments later. The voice of the shuttle captain spoke clearly over the intercom once more.
“To all onboard personnel, we are now arriving in the docking bay of the Iron Giant. Sergeant Bendak, Captain Aran is requesting that you and Canderous Nord report to the bridge as soon as possible. Marines, you are to remain on standby.” Moments later after the captain finished his message, Canderous felt the hard bump of the shuttle landing in the supercarrier’s hangar bay, a loud bang of metal on metal confirming this. A door near the back if the shuttle unlocked and opened slowly, the sound of ion engines whirring-down flowing into the shuttle. The marines in the back of the shuttle filled out through the door, one by one, their armor clanking loudly on the metal floor. Canderous slowly got up from his seat, but a large, muscular hand reached out, grabbed his shirt collar, and yanked him upward. It was the sergeant, and from what Canderous could tell, he was impatient.
“This is no time to take it slow Nord. We wasted far too much time on the station and in that traffic jam. The captain is expecting us, now.” The sergeant walked with haste to the back of the shuttle and out through the door. Canderous, not wanting to anger the sergeant even more, or disobey a direct order, followed after him.
~~~~~
The trip to the bridge took less time than expected. You would think that for a ship of this size that it would take at least a half-hour to walk from one end of the ship to the other, but most of the many corridors and passageways were empty, so there was nothing slowing them down. Upon reaching the bridge entrance doors, the two were hit with a dark-green light. A small, camera-like apparatus in the upper-right corner of the ceiling scanned them down, looking for lethal weapons or contraband. After the scanner found nothing dangerous, the bridge doors swung inward, revealing a very busy control bridge. Navigators and astronomers were running to and from control consoles and a holographic star map centered in the middle of the room, holo-tablets in hand and scientific banter pouring out of their mouths. A marine near the door walked quickly over to the sergeant and saluted him.
“Sir, Captain Aran has been expecting both of you. He is waiting over there.” The marine pointed a finger towards a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a dark blue coat near a control console.
The pair wasted no time in walking over to meet the captain. Upon reaching him, the captain turned around to face the two, a wide frown of impatience spread across his face. The sergeant was quick to salute him, Canderous following suite.
“Well, well Bendak, glad to see that you finally made it. Did you get lost in the women’s section of the Noble Exchange?”
“No sir! Just had some traffic problems sir!” Bendak acknowledged the captain in the same loud, responsive tone that Canderous had heard Federation marines use whenever he had to travel to military outposts to do business.
“Glad to hear it Bendak. And I believe that this man next to you is Nord?” Bendak replied with a simple nod of his head. “Then I suppose it's time that we take our leave.” He turned back around and yelled out in a loud, booming voice.
“All hands! Prepare for long-distance jump to the New Eden system!” He pointed a muscular finger at a scruffy looking engineer standing near him. “Chief, tell your engineers to warm up the jump drive and prepare the LDJCS for activation. Have damage control teams on standby in case something goes wrong or we have to abort the jump. Bendak, you and Nord are on standby. We jump as soon as the Jump Drive is warmed up.” Bendak lowered his arm and motioned Canderous to follow him to a corner.
“A long-distance jump? From here to New Eden? That’s impossible! From what I know, a Nyx can only jump up to four light years! The odds of trying to jump any farther than that without overloading the jump drive's core would be near impossible.”
Bendak raised an eyebrow to Canderous, along with a clever smirk on his face. “Can it Nord...can it?” Canderous raised his own eyebrow in confusion. “Experimental technology Nord. A Federation Navy design of a jump drive stabilizer that allows us to travel much farther than before, giving us a huge advantage over our enemies, but it still a prototype. The Iron Giant is the first to receive this new technology.” A few moments of awkward silence hit between them, until Canderous perked up to break the quiet.
“So, what is this "New Eden Rebirth" that everyone is talking about?”
A large smile grew across Bendak’s leathery face. “You have to see it, to believe it.”
Canderous wanted to ask as to what exactly he had to see, but by the look of that smile on the sergeant’s face, he thought it would be best not to ruin the surprise of finding out for himself.
All hands, brace for long-distance jump....
The air distorted around the bridge, giving it a wobbly, malformed look to it. Each second it intensified as the supercarrier’s jump drive built up incredible masses of energy.
Commencing jump in five...four...three...two...one...mark.
The ship disappeared in a very large, but brief distortion of space.
“Fleet Admiral sir! Long-range scanners have eyed an vessel about to exit the jump lane! It’s magnometric signature is massive!” An officer yelled over his shoulder from his seat at his control console.
“Is it friendly?”
“Unknown sir, but it’s landing in approximately... five seconds.”
The Fleet Admiral grunted in acknowledgment. “Let’s see what we got here...”
A large area in the vast emptiness of space began to shift and change form, as if that one section of space were caving in on itself like that of a supernova. The space began to crush itself closer and closer, the distant stars through the clear area coming closer and closer to form their own ball of gleaming bright brilliance.
The contorting space had reached it’s limit. In less than a second, the distorted space burst outward in a bright-red flare, leaving only a single, colossal object in it’s place.
The officer perked up again, “Sir, vessel has been confirmed as a Nyx-class supercarrier. It’s ID tag has identified it as the Iron Giant. Should I set up a comms link?”
“Do it. Transfer the comms link to me once it gets through.”
“Aye sir. Will do.” The officer went back to his console.
~~~~~
Jump Drive core shutdown. All systems are green. No damage detected
“We made it. How are you holding up?” The commander turned to Canderous, who was face down on the floor and groaning in agony.
“Yea, I-I’m fine” said Canderous while struggling to stand up, only to fall flat on the floor again. The sergeant couldn’t help himself. He burst out laughing, holding his sides tightly as to contain some of the ironically joyful pain of watching a new recruit squirm around after their first long-distance jump.
After finishing his hearty laugh, he helped Canderous from up off the floor, patting him on the back good-naturedly. “You’ll get used to it Nord. We all had to get used to it. I remember watching the captain fall flat on his ass after we used the LDJCS for the first time. Everyone laughed it out for days on end, that is until he threatened to court martial us.”
Canderous was back on his feet, rubbing his forehead to regain some of his senses. He hoped would never have to do something that nauseating ever again, but then again, he had felt worse before, especially after a dozen beers or so at the local bar every night.
Disengaging port and starboard viewing port locks. Opening bridge observation deck.
Clicks and bangs resounded around the bridge as small metal hatches disengaged their holding locks and disappeared into the ship’s hull, revealing clear glass port holes no bigger than dinner plates. Each window did however give a clear view of the vast, awe-inspiring emptiness of space. It seems so simple that one can trigger a wave of artistic or calming emotions by simply staring at the nearest nebulae cluster.
Just then, an earsplitting noise of metal grinding on metal tore through the air like a knife grinding it’s sharp blade on smooth stone. Canderous covered his ears to block out the sudden torrent of noise, turning his head in every direction to try to discover the source of the noise, until he noticed how everyone but himself seemed perfectly fine. Everyone, even the sergeant stood there as if this sort of noise came around on a daily basis.
“Sergeant, what in the hell is that noise?!” said Canderous with a raised voice.
“Annoying as hell isn’t it? It’s the observation deck!” The sergeant’s voice got lower as the noise level suddenly rose higher.
“The what?!”
The sergeant grunted and rolled his eyes. He grabbed Canderous by his shirt collar and hoisted him up into the air. He let go of Canderous and pointed one of his muscly fingers towards the front of the bridge area. Gigantic twin steel panels were slowly sliding inward, revealing two large, very wide windows separated by a single girder. The grinding noise gradually lowered as the panels slowed to a halt, a loud bang and few extra clicks indicating that the panels were fully inward and locked in place. What they revealed to everyone on the bridge, was a glorious sight that very few non-military personnel get to see.
From what Canderous could guess was about fifty kilometers away, was a ship of incredible power and strength, an Erebus-class Titan, sitting right next to what could possibly be the largest Gallente military complex ever assembled, it’s walls stretching as far as the eye could see. Dozens of Megathron and Hyperion-class battleships guarded the only noticeable entrance to the complex, with sentry guns placed at strategic locations around them. Hundreds of frigates and interceptor craft patrolled the areas outside of the walls of the complex. A fleet of Moros-class dreadnoughts sat in assorted positions around the Titan, giving it an even stronger sense of power. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of warships at the complex. But behind all of that, there was something that every inhabitant of New Eden only dreamt of seeing.
The New Eden gate. The real New Eden gate.
No longer was the gate surrounded by a torrential magnetic storm. The gate itself was nearly triple the size of the Erebus titan that Canderous had gazed upon with awe for the first time. The gate’s form was a tall and wide circular ring, with two equally tall pylons attached to it’s “sides”, with the topmost part of each pylon an equal distance away from the other. Alongside the hull of one of the pylons was a single word, of which the gate is famous for, inscribed in bold white letters.
EVE
“Bendak! Nord! Front and center!” the captain yelled over his shoulder .
“Yes sir!” The pair replied in unison, Canderous breaking his gaze away from the sudden moment of beauty. They quickly made their way to the small pedestal-like control console where the captain stood, his fingers tapping noisily on the console’s smooth surface in impatience. When the pair made it to the captain, they stood upright and threw their arms into a salute. The captain signaled them to be at ease. He turned back to his console and pressed a series of buttons, causing the control console to lock up. After doing so, he turned to Canderous, his hands placed behind his back.
“Canderous, from what your recently received records tell me, you haven’t been in the Federation for more than fourty-eight hours. Meaning that you have yet to receive some combat training, a Federation issued ID number, or even taught how to properly identify and address someone of a higher rank than yo-.” The captain was interrupted by the voice of an officer near him.
“Sir! Incoming transmission from the Endar Spire. They are requesting a full identity code and calling card. Navy interceptors are closing in to escort us to our assigned position near the Endar Spire.”
“Good” the captain grunted, “Transmit the code and give them the go-ahead for the escort.” the captain yelled back. “Bendak,” The captain turned back to the sergeant, “Take Nord to the barracks and get him fitted with a uniform. His rank is Forward Scout, so see too it that he gets the right one. Report back to the bridge once your task is complete. Dismissed.”
~~~~~
“Well, now you see why I didn’t tell you earlier. It was a surprise, and a damn good one at that.” said the commander as he and Canderous walked through the barracks door.
“I can agree with you on that. I can’t believe that it actually happened. The New Eden gate...re-opened at last. Who knows what awaits us on the other side?!”
“Well the gate isn’t completely open. The gate can be reactivated and opened again. We just have to let the white coats in the science division figure out how to do it. It wouldn’t take too long I suppose. Those guys have been crawling all over that damn thing ever since we set up the outpost. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them decided to break off a piece of the gate and snort the space dust right off of it.”
Bendak and Canderous snaked through the many rows of lockers and benches of the barracks. Weapon racks lined the walls, holding various weapons such as EMP rifles and grenade launchers. Most of the heavy weapons were locked away inside of a fenced-in area tucked away in the corner of the barracks. The barracks was not empty though. Many marines were rummaging through their lockers or hunching over on metal benches chatting it up with their fellow comrades. As Bendak and Canderous made their way to the back of the barracks, some marines stopped their conversations to say something to Bendak, like ‘Evening sarge’.’ and, ‘Is the captain pissed off again sarge’?’ Bendak only replied to each of them with an annoyed grunt as he passed by.
After a noisy and rather annoying walk through the barracks the pair had finally reached the uniform room. Hanging on small hooks suspended from the ceiling were dozens of elegant uniforms of all sizes and colors, each color representing a different position in the Federation Navy. On the shoulders of each uniform there was a patch of same-color leather with a special insignia, defining the rank of whoever wore the uniform.
“The marine boys outside wouldn’t be caught dead in here if they plan on embarrassing themselves. To think that any of them would get out of their power armor and slip into something like this would make everyone in his platoon want to beat him senseless. So let’s make this quick. Take a seat on that bench Nord. I’ll be back in a minute.” Bendak walked towards the back of the room, turning his head left and right to try and find the uniform that would properly identify Canderous. He returned a few minutes later, a pair of Federation-issue boots in one hand and a large red jacket slung over his shoulder. In his other hand, he held a small medal, which gave off a nice silvery sheen in the glow of the light. The medal was shaped into the form of two bird wings, criss-crossing behind an eagle’s eye formed in the middle. The eye’s gaze practically stared into the soul of anyone who looked upon it’s gleaming form. Bendak let the jacket droop off of his shoulder and onto the floor, tossing the boots and the shiny medal on top of it.
“Put on those boots and make sure that the jacket fits. You pin that medal onto the front of the jacket. It will signify you as a forward scout for the Federation Navy...well you’ll be the only forward scout in the Federation Navy. There hasn’t been a forward scout in the Navy for years... one that survived of course.”
As Canderous was tightening the straps on his boots, he looked up to Bendak with worried eyes, “Survived? What do you mean survived?”
“Oh come on Nord everyone knows that the forward scout is usually the first to die in any fleet. The poor bastard might have to jump through a stargate to scout ahead into an adjacent star system, only to land right on top of an enemy fleet and instantly destroyed as soon as the enemy fleet commander catches eye of him. First to enter, first to leave... permanently.”
“That’s uhh...good to know I guess.” said Canderous as he finished securing the straps on the second boot.
“But there’s nothing to worry about. We’re surrounded by the largest Federation fleet ever assembled. We even have the Fleet Admiral himself here. With him around, no one would be stupid enough as to try and attack us.”
Canderous had finished zipping up the jacket and pinning the medal near the jacket’s front pocket, narrowly missing his skin in the process. Strangely, there was no mirror in the room, but he pictured himself looking like a typical “big shot fly-boy” like the ones he saw at nearly every bar in Jita, with their hair gelled back and usually two drunken women at their sides. Not exactly the look that he would normally choose, but for a Gallentean, this was considered common evening-wear.
“That err...uniform will signify you as the forward scout for the Iron Giant, and a forward scout for the Federation Navy should you ever get reassigned to another vessel.” Bendak continued, ” I’d go through the whole lecture on what to do and what not to do in the Navy, but seeing how pressed for time we are that will have to wait a while. Captain Aran ordered the both of us to report back to the bridge once we are finished here. Let’s go.”
Canderous got up from the bench and strode out of the room with Bendak. As of now, he no longer considered himself Canderous the common pilot, but Canderous the Navy Man.
~~~~~
“Fleet Admiral sir!” said a saluting marine with a deep tone of respect, “ The head of the research team has arrived with this findings. Should we allow him on the bridge?”
“Yes corporal. Let him in.”
The marine lowered his arm and walked back to his post at the bridge door control console. He punched in his ID code and a password to use the console. After pushing a multitude of other buttons, the bridge bulkhead door slid open, revealing a tall, dirt-covered man in a dirty white trench coat, beads of sweat on his forehead and a holo-tablet clenched tightly in his hands. You can tell that this man was the head of the research team just by his face, or rather his “eye”. The man owned a cybernetic ocular implant in his right eye, a rare implant that is usually meant for looks rather than scientific purposes.
The dirty man walked hastly through the open door, nodding to the marine at the control console as a sign of thanks. He calmly walked up to the fleet admiral, giving a short bow to act as a temporary salute instead of having to let go of his holo-tablet to salute him properly. The fleet admiral put his hands behind his back and began to speak.
“Head researcher Sticatto, I’ve been told that you have just recently found a way to use the New Eden gate?”
The researcher cleared his throat before speaking, “Y-yes sir. After throughly studying the gate, we have discovered a way to reactivate it. It uses the same methods that our jump drives of today use. With a few more months of research and development, we can integrate our own jump drives with the gate's systems, allowing us to use the gate whenever we wish. Main power to the gate’s control tower has been re-established along with it’s other basic life-support and tertiary systems, meaning that we can use the gate at any time. There is just one problem...”
The fleet admiral raised an eyebrow in question, “And what problem would that be?”
“We... we don’t posses anyone who is willing to scout out the other side. Oddly, we didn’t find any critical damage done to the gate by the magnetic storm, but this gate is ancient sir, very ancient. Who knows as to what could happen should we try to send a man through?”
“I know this Sticatto, and I know of the risks,” said the fleet with a heavy sigh before continuing, “but can it be done?”
Sticatto could only stare at the fleet admiral in shock. Was he really willing to risk another man’s life in the name of something that they barely know about?
“Y-yes sir, it can be done, with an eighty-five percent succession rate actually, in the gate’s current state that is...”
The fleet admiral moved his gaze down to the floor, thinking as to what the next course of action should be. He knew that no one, not even one of his battle-hardened marines was willing to risk his life for this. And the last time he had checked, the Federation hasn’t had a forward scout in ye-.
The fleet admiral jolted upward, a single thought setting off a hopeful spark for this discovery. He immediately turned to an man standing off to his side with a holo-tablet in his hands.
“Lieutenant Vadik, did the Federation receive a new forward scout just today?”
The lieutenant brought the holo-tablet up to his fingers, scanning through the Navy’s databanks of enlisted men. He stopped at the facial profile of a sleek-faced man, with four blue dots in a tattoo pattern across the right side of his face and a small scar across his cheek. The lieutenant walked over to the fleet admiral and handed the tablet over to him. The fleet admiral’s eyes went wide, his face slowly contorting into a smile.
“Sticatto, I believe we have a man for the job.” He handed the tablet to the researcher, who’s eyes grew wide as well.
“Yes, yes! With this man, who knows what we will find on the other side! We need this man, and we need him now!”
“Where is he located?”
The researcher’s implant clicked and whirred, zooming in on the tiny electronic text next to his facial profile. “According to his recent profile, he has been placed aboard the Iron Giant. Didn’t that ship just recently arrive?”
The fleet admiral grunted but kept his smile, “Yes. Yes it did.” He turned towards the front of the bridge, “Officer Fallman, send a message to the Iron Giant requesting that Canderous Nord report to me on the bridge of the Endar Spire as soon as possible.” A faint ‘Yes sir!’ acknowledged his request.
He turned back to Sticatto, who was now rubbing his hands together in an anxious mood. “Sticatto, you may head back to your team now. I will call for you when mister Nord arrives.”
Sticatto gave a quick bow and handed the tablet back to the fleet admiral. He shuffled to the bulkhead door, signaled the marine to open it again, and scurried out of the bridge.
Ever since he and Bendak reported back to the captain on the bridge, only to be stopped by a small guard of marines upon entering, he has had worry crawling all over him. Once they started walking through the bridge bulkhead door after the scanning process, two marines stopped them immediately. One of them briefly raised his right hand into the air, which made the captain walk over to them. Once the captain came up to he and Bendak, he explained that the fleet admiral of the entire Federation Navy requested an audience with him. Canderous went from brave and bold, to scared shitless.
The Fleet Admiral. Second in command. The grand blaster-master.
He wasn’t ready for this. He wasn’t ready for this at all, and he knew it, whole and true. He was going to make a fool of himself on an Erebus, with the fleet admiral no less. His brain was full to bursting. He felt as if he had to memorize a single order from the admiral he was going to explode.
*deep sigh* ‘Ok, I can do this...I can do this...I can do this.’ He thought to himself while drumming on his legs with his fingers as he walked down a corridor, Bendak and two marines at his sides.
‘Aw who the hell am I trying to fool? I can’t do this! I just enlisted, and now they want to test me by making me take a trip to the flagship of the entire Federation Navy? This isn’t gonna end well...’
The group took a sudden sharp turn down a wide corridor where at the end they had reached the the hangar entrance doors. A marine standing guard at the door’s control console saluted them and opened the door at Bendak’s command. The door swung open, revealing to Canderous as to what he feared to be the last flight of his life. A silver and chromed Gallente shuttle was awaiting in the hangar bay, it’s ion engines in standby mode and it’s passenger ramp fully extended. Alongside it’s outer hull was a name, that in his eyes, practically spoke the words of death itself.
GFT Endar Spire.
The Endar Spire was hell, and this shuttle was his silver, ghostly carriage.
Yup, I’m a dead man.
Canderous assumed that the marines standing guard near the shuttle were demons awaiting to drag him inside, but they stood guard as usual, their weapons in hand and their backs in a straight, stout position. The marines that had escorted Canderous and Bendak to the hangar bay saluted the sergeant before strolling out of the hangar. After the hangar entrance door closed, a tall marine in dark, black armor stepped out of the shuttle and onto the passenger ramp, his helmet completely hiding his unknown face. After taking a quick look around the room, the black marine walked down and off the ramp. He stopped again to observe the room once more. Canderous didn’t know why he was doing this, but for a marine with armor as black as space itself, armor that is in fact completely different from the armor of the other marines that he had encountered before, he must have been of a much higher rank. Higher rank usually meant more precautionary measures had to be taken before someone is brought aboard one of the most important command ships in the Gallente Federation.
After a few extra moments of forced precaution, the black armored marine made his way over to Canderous, where upon reaching him, he looked at Canderous square in the eye, his solid black and eyeless helmet gazing into his mortal soul like the famous ‘Black Monolith’ from a storybook he read as a child. After Canderous felt that his soul was throughly scrubbed with fear, the marine turned to Bendak. The marine brought up his hand to his forehead in a salute, Bendak following suite.
“Well Nord, I was only ordered to escort you to the hangar bay, so this is where I depart. Best of luck.” Bendak turned around and started walking towards the hangar entrance door, chuckling under his breath, “You’re gonna need it.”
The black marine said nothing, but motioned Canderous to follow him to the shuttle. After going through a handheld scanning procedure done by another marine at the shuttle doorway, he boarded the shuttle and took a seat near a viewing window. Windows were pretty uncommon in New Eden due to them acting as a structural weakness should the vessel ever come under attack. It was a rare occasion to be able to look out deep into space and gaze at it’s many wonders and splendors without the fear of a surprise ambush, making this hellish flight to his doom, a bit more enjoyable... well it would be more enjoyable if the black armored marine hadn’t taken the seat closest to Canderous, which just happened to be directly to his left side. The marine was starting to creep him out...
After the passenger door was sealed shut and everyone was secure in their seats, the grunt voice of the shuttle captain gave the all clear signal for takeoff over the intercom. A few seconds afterward, the engines roared to life. The captain spoke over the intercom again, his words muffled over the sound of the engines. Immediately after the captain finished his un-recognizable speech, the shuttle bolted forward like a rocket, the force of the sudden move sending Canderous’s body flying backwards into the seat. The force of the takeoff was so great that he couldn’t even turn his head without another torrent of forward force slamming his head back against the seat. He used a great deal of his strength to manage his head to his left side. He took strange notice to his armored bodyguard next to him. He just... sat there... straight up he might add. The marine looked as if he had experienced this sort of thing daily. He looked further down his black armored body, this time taking notice as to the safety straps that secured his body in pla-...
Safety straps... of course. Canderous thought as he vigorously rubbed his newly acquired headache in both pain and a feel of stupidity. The ship began to slow down very quickly. Canderous could finally move his body fluently again.
Microburn stage complete. Resuming normal flight path to the Endar Spire.
The shuttle slowed to it’s normal speed, if you can count a blazing six-hundred sixty-five meters per second “normal speed”. What kind of shuttle moves that fast? And why the sudden jolt of thrust when the shuttle exited the hangar bay? Canderous decided to save those questions for later and enjoy the majestic views of the deep void outside. ‘Majestic’ was certainly the word to use here, but not always for the views of space itself, but for the ever-expanding Gallente outpost flying past his eyes.
From the high viewpoint of the shuttle, the outpost was much larger than it looked before. Instead of seeing just frigates patrolling the outer walls and battleships guarding the main entrance, there was much more to be seen. Shipyards and ammunition production facilities were spread out in several places, different types of battleships already under construction in each one. It sent a fringe of pride in Canderous to see the gears of the mighty Gallente war-machine grinding along beautifully before his eyes. Around a dozen Thanatos-class carriers were lined up in two rows, six to each row, possibly acting as a reserve fighting force for the outpost. Alongside the carrier reserve, was a battlecruiser reserve force, consisting of dozens upon dozens of Brutix and even the new Talos-class battlecruisers. The Myrmidon-class of battlecruiser was also in the reserve, but not in nearly as great of numbers as it’s brothers in arms.
Canderous wanted to gaze some more, until the slowly appearing end section of a certain ship caught his eye. The stern of the Endar Spire slowly crept into view, sending an unusually cold pang of fear down his neck.
“Now on approach vector to the docking bay of the Endar Spire. Thane, Fleet Admiral Onasi has ordered you to personally escort forward scout Canderous Nord to the bridge. No exceptions.” said the shuttle captain once again speaking over the intercom, this time in a much audible tone of voice.
‘Well Canderous, it was nice knowing you...’
The shuttle slowed itself to an even lower speed as the maw of the Titan’s ship maintenance bay engulfed the shuttle. As with before, the shuttle slowly lowered itself to the floor and landed, a loud bang sealing the deal. The passenger door unlocked and extended outward, allowing a slew of random intercom noises and the stomping of boots on metal to flood his ears. The black marine stood up first and walked to the exit, only to stop, twirl around, and valiantly raise and stomp his boot on the floor, keeping his hands behind his back and his head pointing forward. Canderous slowly stood up and walked to the marine, who nodded his head and exited through the doorway, Canderous following behind him.
~~~~~
Remember how the walk to the bridge of the Iron Giant didn’t take too long with most of the corridors and sections being empty?
This was completely different.
A Titan is several times the size of a supercarrier, making the trip to the bridge a much more tiring and frustrating task. The Titan itself was so massive that a monorail was installed to get around the ship faster, but that wasn’t the worst part of it. A trip to the bridge seemed tiring enough, but the walk to the main monorail station seemed like walking to one end of a station and back. Hundreds of marines, mechanics, and sweaty engineers passed by Canderous and his armored bodyguard, most of them running and bumping into one another. Upon reaching the monorail station, it became very crowded very quickly. When the monorail that lead to the bridge arrived, his bodyguard stepped in first, looked around the monorail car, and motioned Canderous inside. Taking his seat, Canderous noticed that no one else had boarded the monorail. Just as he was about to ask his seemingly forever silent bodyguard why, the sliding doors closed and the monorail car took off towards it’s destination.
Upon arriving, Canderous noticed a group of marines standing guard at the door, weapons resting upon their shoulders. One of them was holding a handheld scanner instead of a weapon, staring at Canderous through the clear glass of the opening doors with serious eyes. After going through a difficult scanning procedure, his bodyguard walked him towards the bridge bulkhead doors, where he and Canderous went through another scan. He felt as if he needed to scrub his entire body clean. The bodyguard opened the bridge bulkhead using a keycard that he seemed to produce out of thin air. Canderous followed him inside, only to be greeted by a third scanning process.
‘These scans are starting to get a bit annoying’ said Canderous under his breath.
“He’s clean. Full scan detects no weapons or hazardous contraband.” said the marine performing the scan to another marine standing beside him.
The marine pocketed his scanner and looked back up to Canderous, “The fleet admiral will arrive shortly. In the meantime, stay here, and don’t touch anything.” said the marine before walking back his post. Canderous stood there with a stiff look on his face, preparing for his inevitable doom meeting with the second most powerful man in the Gallente Federation. He twidled his thumbs to pass whatever time he had left, taking occasional glances at the many marines giving him awkward stares..
He ceased his repetitive thumb twidling when he heard the bridge door open. A marine clad in shining silver armor regally stomped through onto the bridge, his heavy boots sounding off like a gunshot with each step he took. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned towards the new arrival. An eerie silence fell over the room for a few seconds as the marine stepped to the side, throwing his arm up to his forehead.
“Fleet Admiral Onasi on deck!” shouted the shiny-clad marine.
Immediately, everyone on the bridge stopped whatever task they were doing, stepped away from their posts, and threw their arms up to their heads. Canderous, no matter how badly he didn’t want to, put his arm to his forehead, his bodyguard slowly raising his own hand alongside him.
A tall, aged man slowly stomped his way onto the bridge, his hands behind his back and the noise of his heavy boots resounding around the room. He wore a long, blue trench coat with several medals pinned to the front pocket. A patch on the coat’s right shoulder clearly identified him as the Fleet Admiral of the Federation Navy. There was a much shorter man following behind him, this man appearing to be even older then the fleet admiral. The old man also seemed to posses one of those rare, occular implants that only the rich could ever afford. He must have a fairly large research budget to afford that shiny piece of equipment...
“Gentlemen, at ease...” commanded the fleet admiral.
Everyone nodded their heads in acknowledgment and went back to work at their respective posts. The fleet admiral walked over to Canderous, where upon reaching him, he extended his hand outward to offer a handshake. Canderous could only stare at the fleet admiral’s face, wondering as to what this man would do to him should he ever say or do something wrong. Canderous then realised what the fleet admiral was doing and shook his hand in return. A smile crept upon the admiral’s face, who then shook back. He turned to Canderous’s bodyguard, placing his hands behind his back.
“Thane, you to are at ease, and you can take that helmet off if you wish. I imagine that it must be awfully hot inside...” said the fleet admiral with his grinning face.
His now named bodyguard grabbed the helmet that hid his face and twisted it several times, slowly taking it off once it clicked out of place. Now Canderous can finally see the man behind the ma-...
What Canderous saw wasn’t the type of person he was expecting to see. It wasn’t a man, but a woman. A woman with long, black hair that was tied back with a hair bow. Somehow, Canderous knew that a marine with a body that slim couldn’t have been a man. It also explained why the armor was differently shaped from the male versions of marine armor.
“Argh, bout’ damn time. That helmet just had to come off. Not being able to breath is one thing, but having to babysit a new recruit...” said Thane with a tone of annoyance clear in her voice.
“Thane, you would do yourself well and think before you speak towards a superior officer.”
Thane looked deeply embarrassed, “Oh...uh...sorry bout’ that sir.”
“Thane! How nice it is too see my own daughter again!” said the old man as he came up from behind the fleet admiral, grabbing one of his daughter’s gloved hands and shaking it violently.
“N-nice to see you too dad. Mind letting go of my hand? I don’t really think this is the right place to have a reunion, your also kinda squishing it...” said Thane with a light hint of blush above her nose.
The old man looked down with wide eyes at his still shaking hands, releasing his grip once he noticed that her hand was starting to turn pale. The fleet admiral chuckled at the old man’s antics.
“I believe introductions are in order.” the admiral said with a bold voice, standing up straight and putting a clenched fist near his heart, “I am Fleet Admiral Sirian Onasi, high commander of the Gallente Federation Navy and captain of the Endar Spire. This man beside me is my good friend and head researcher of the Federation, Sticatto.” Sticatto took a slight bow at Sirian’s words.
Sirian turned towards Thane, “And I believe that you have already met Thane, daughter of Sticatto and one of the best soldiers I have ever seen.” Thane smiled at Sirian’s compliment.
“Sirian, introductions are all well and good, but I believe that mister Nord is wondering as to why he has been called here...” said Sticatto while he motioned his shaky fingers suggestively.
“Oh...uh...of course” said Sirian with an annoyed grunt, “Thane, you are to report back to your usual duties. This conversation is meant to be heard between the three of us alone.”
“Sure chief.” said Thane as she started to walk off. ‘So long as I won’t have to be around any new recruits...’ said Thane under her breath as she walked out of the bridge.
After watching and waiting until Thane left the bridge, Sirian and Sticatto turned back to Canderous, Sticatto’s hands somehow still shaking spasmatically.
“Well Nord...” Sticatto started off, “You have been called to the bridge of the Endar Spire for a very special purpose...” Sticatto continued, “As you may have already noticed, the magnetic storm that used to surround the New Eden Gate has dissipated, granting whoever should stumble upon the site up-close access...” Sticatto started to pace around in small circular patterns, “The Federation was fortunate enough to arrive at the site first, where we immediately began construction on this outpost so we can have a place to study the gate up close and keep any unwanted persons away. We have already had a few Guristas pirate raids and have found a few stowaways in the cargo holds of our Obelisk freighters when the outpost was still under construction. To counter these intrusions, we have placed shipyards around the area so we can keep a steady defensive line...” Sticatto stopped pacing but continued, “But I may digress. Before any further attacks can occur, we have to find out just what exactly is on the other side, and if it really is the birthplace of humanity!” said Sticatto as he moved his arms around in emphasis, “We have studied the gate for quite some time now, and we have managed to repair any damage caused by the magnetic storm. Even though the gate is very ancient, we have still calculated an average probability of success, meaning that we can travel through the gate whenever we wish.” Sticatto’s occular implant whirred softly after a few moments of silence, “But...there is...just one problem...”
Before Sticatto could speak, Sirian cut in first, “We need someone to go ahead of us to ensure that it is safe for the Federation to pass through.”
Canderous pondered through Sticatto and Sirian’s words in his mind, trying to figure out as to where he fits into this. After only a few seconds, it finally clicked.
“You need... a forward scout... and I’m the only forward scout the Navy’s got... right?” Somehow, Canderous felt like this could be his last moments in New Eden.
A moment of silence fell within the group, “Y-yes. Yes you are.” Canderous was deeply worried despite he previous thoughts of heroic status, “But don’t let that deter you from an opportunity like this! Not only will you be the first to see the place where humanity first began, but you will also be recognized as a true hero to all of New Eden, risking your own life just so we can finally look upon our true home and return to it! Think of the honors you would receive! No longer would you have to scrounge around the place, doing odd jobs for small coin just to get by like a desperate beggar.” said Sticatto, throwing his arms around in even greater levels of emphasis.
Sirian perked up, “But the choice to go through rests with you and you alone. Even though you are under my command, I will not allow a fellow Gallentean to risk his own life unwillingly. The choice is yours Nord...”
Canderous moved his head down towards the floor, a full blown wave of questions and emotions flooding his head. His brain was more than full to bursting. It felt as if it would cave in on itself and render him dimwitted for the rest of his days. He pondered for quite some time, taking into account every little thing he has ever done multiple times, only to come out with the same results each time. He had made his decision....
“You know what... I'll do it.” said Canderous, bringing his head back up to eye level with Sticatto’s, “I’ll do it." Canderous repeated, "What have I got to lose?” said Canderous while shrugging his shoulders and a planting a look of seriousness on his face
Sticatto and Sirian’s eyes went wide, a large smile stretching across their faces.
“Perfect!” said an exuberant Sticatto.
“Very well.” said a smiling Sirian.
“...but when exactly do we go through the gate?” asked Canderous.
“Oh? Tommorow actually. As I said, we need to see what is on the other side at our earliest opportunity.” Sirian continued, “Sticatto and his team of researchers will brief you on how things will go and how to prepare for tommorow. Sticatto, if you would...” Sirian motioned towards the bridge doorway
“Ah yes, come with me Nord. My team will be delighted to hear of your decision!” said Sticatto as he guided Canderous out through the open bridge doorway. As Canderous was leaving, he heard Sirian’s voice call out to him from behind.
“Nord wait!” Canderous turned around to acknowledge his voice, “The entire Federation will be looking to you tomorrow. Don’t let us down... I wish you luck and godspeed.” Sirian ended off his little speech with a salute to Canderous. It made him feel good knowing that he was part of the greatest event in the history of New Eden, and that the entire Federation, maybe even all of New Eden, was going to witness him starting it. Not only that, but to be saluted by a very powerful man that he used to fear, had it’s own little tang of glory.
LDJCS MODULE ACTIVE...COMMUNICATING WITH SUB-NET INTERFACE...
...CONNECTED...
...ESTABLISHING MANUAL DRIVE CONTROL...
Canderous practically jumped out of his new armor at the sound of a loud spark of electricity that shot through the cabin of his newly-received and modified Ares-class interceptor.
“Good Canderous. Manual control of the jump drive has been transferred over to you. Now, we are going to...”hack” into your Ares’s control systems so we can link the gate’s code banks with your own. Just sight tight for a few more minutes...” said Sticatto’s rather giddy voice over the radio. The control circuit capacity of an Ares wasn’t big enough to occupy a jump drive along with other slightly essential modules. So the fitting technicians had to remove several non-essential components from the ship, making the ship not as versatile as it used to be, but still fast enough to outrun and outmaneuver even the most trigger-happy of speed demons, but it wasn’t like he was going to need it anyway where he was going.
*NEW EDEN CONTROL TOWER* CONNECTION ESTABLISHED...
GATE ENTRY CODES RECEIVED FROM *NEW EDEN CONTROL TOWER*...
ALL CODED SYSTEMS NOMINAL. AWAITING FURTHER COMMANDS.
~~~~~
Scope News Network
“We are bringing you live footage from our Scope News observer vessel just outside of the New Eden complex, where within just a few minutes, the New Eden gate will be re-activated for the first time after thousands of years sitting by as a piece of ancient history and mystery.”
The announcer continued, “Former freelance pilot Canderous Nord now christened a forward scout of the Federation Navy, will have the sole honor of taking humankind’s first steps back into the home of our ancestors. Millions of Gallenteans all over New Eden are tuning in as we speak to watch as one of their own people makes history! We encourage you to stay tuned! You really don’t want to miss this!”
~~~~~
“Nord, this is Bendak contacting you from the Iron Giant. Damn Nord...this whole “making history” thing has everyone on the bridge incredibly booze-happy. Even the captain is having a few shots of whiskey to celebrate the occasion. Thane’s here too, but I don’t see-” as Bendak was about to finish his words, the voice of a nearby marine saying something that sounded like ‘Hey baby, you want to head down the barracks for a little marine fun time?’ followed by a loud kick and a high-pitched wail shot through the room in the background. Bendak started laughing hysterically, but lowered his voice once he remembered who he was talking too.
“Err...anyway Nord, everyone is looking at you today. Don’t let us down. Bendak out.”
Canderous ended the comms call from Bendak, who was starting to feel like more of good friend to him instead of some random sergeant he met just a day or two earlier.
Suddenly, the AI voice notified Canderous of a new comms call coming from the Gate’s control tower. After accepting the call, the happy yet rather serious voice of Sticatto came in.
“Canderous, we are nearly finished connecting your control systems with that of the Gate’s systems. I just called to wish you good luck! My colleagues wish you the best of luck as well. Now, if you would excuse me I must return to working on the final pre-jump checks. I do believe that Fleet Admiral Sirian wishes to speak with you. I’ll patch him through to you now...” The comms speakers went to static and fizzled for a few moments before the voice of Sirian slowly started coming in.
“Canderous...” Sirian paused for a few moments before continuing, “...good luck. With that, Sirian out.”
The radio fizzled again, this time Sticatto’s voice came back, “Canderous, prepare to receive the new codes. Your about. To make. History!”
~~~~~
Scope News Network
“And we are back with continuing coverage of the event that has now been officially stated as the New Eden Rebirth! We have just received word that forward scout Canderous Nord is about to re-activate and travel through the New Eden gate. Head researcher of the Federation Navy Sticatto Kreo is the one over-seeing the gate operation. He is currently inside of the Gate’s ancient control tower module within the topmost portion of the gate’s right spire, performing last minute checks before Canderous makes the jump. Further details will be disclosed as they come in. For now, we strongly encourage that you stay glued to your holo-screens!”
~~~~~
Canderous sat still in his cockpit chair, staring at the metal walls or drumming his fingers on top of the jump module control box to pass the time. He finds himself staring at the bottle of special ‘Mortimer’s Prime Gallentean Whiskey’ that Sirian gifted to Canderous as a victory present. He thought about drinking it now, to savor the rich taste of such a fulfilling and expensive brew before a life-changing journey, but he held it off and decided to wait until he hopefully...survived the trip through the gate.
“Canderous, this is New Eden gate control.” said a new voice that came up over the radio, “Listen to me carefully and do exactly as I say. Do not miss anything!”
The rustle of papers moving was heard in the background, and whatever noise that was in the control room died down to a whisper.
“Now, enter these codes into the jump drive’s computer exactly as I say them...”
Canderous focused all of his attention to the radio and computer, hoping that he won’t cause a single mistake to occur less he lose his life.
“R56”
Canderous entered the code, then turned the radio volume up a bit.
“Y21”
“G17”
“B88”
Canderous had entered all the codes exactly, looking at the computer to be absolutely sure.
“And finally, F13. Then, hit the dial button.”
Canderous did so. After hitting the dial button, the jump drive roared to life, giving off several beeps and clicks. Several lights turned on all over the jump drive’s casing. Canderous looked out of the cockpit viewing port to see that the gate had started to perform some actions as well. Dozens of running lights and beacons began to flash all over the gate’s hull, a few spotlights switching on after them. The gigantic, centrifugal disk that has sat dormant for thousands of years slowly regained power and started spinning.
“If you are just now tuning in, we are mere moments away from witnessing forward scout Canderous Nord open and travel through the New Eden gate. As you can see now, the first stage of activation has been achieved with the gate’s full power restored and it’s ancient centrifuge now spinning again...oh?...oh good, that’s great! Thank you! We have just received new information from our informant. Everything is ready to go! This is it everyone. This is the big moment we have all been waiting for!”
~~~~~
“Canderous...” Sticatto paused before continuing, “...if you look to your right, there will be a single switch.” Canderous did as Sticatto said and took notice of the tiny metal switch beside him, yet his eyes, it was like a golden gate key. “With this being and older model of jump drive and the only one that is adaptable with the gate’s system, the jump drive must be activated manually.”
Canderous took in a long, drawn out moment of silence. His nerves were high and his anticipation to open the gate was even higher.
“Whenever you are ready Nord...hit the switch...”
Canderous reached for the tiny switch next to him. He carefully grasped the switch with two of his fingers. “Well...here it goes...” He flicked the switch upward and....
Nothing.
Canderous’s nerves were already at the peak of breaking. After he flicked the switch, his nerves practically skyrocketed to his brain.
“Uhh...New Eden tower control, what’s going on?” asked Canderous, his shaky fingers still holding the switch in a vice grip.
“We...we’re not sure Canderous...try it again please.” Canderous did so, several times, with the same silent outcome.
“Did I do something wrong tower control?” asked Canderous once he carefully released the switch.
“N-nothing at all Canderous, we ran through every check spot to the letter and then some!” Sticatto came on, then continued, “I-it might be a problem with the jump drive Canderous. Guide your ship back to the Endar Spire. We will have a technician-.”
A feircly loud boom shook the cabin of the ship, followed by an equally powerful shockwave that spread throughout the area. With Canderous being the closest to the gate, his ship suffered the full force of the wave. Canderous was mangled around so violently that it sent him flying out of his seat and onto the floor. The shockwave died down after a few seconds. After rubbing out his new headache, Canderous got himself up off the floor, only to be blinded by an intensely bright light. He shielded his eyes with a gloved hand, trying to get back into his seat. The computer and radio exploded with emergency signals and warning messages. The intense light toned down, giving Canderous his sight back. But with his vision now returned to him, he was greeted with a horrifying sight.
~~~~~
Scope News Network
“Oh...oh my god. I..uhh...I don’t even know what to say...” the female announcer was in shock as she stared at the gleaming bright ball that was the New Eden gate control tower. It had exploded with such violent force that it shook the cameras on the observer vessel. “ Just minutes ago, a high tragedy has struck the New Eden gate site, where the gate’s control tower has suffered from what appears to be a major malfunction that has caused it to explode, nearly destroying the entire spire structure. A short veil of silence from the announcer came upon the broadcast before the announcer continued speaking, "This is...I don’t even know what to call...” The announcer was suddenly interrupted by an even more powerful shockwave, the camera’s capturing every second of it.
~~~~~
Even after the sudden shockwave, Canderous was still dizzy from the wave as he slid back down into his cockpit chair. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing as the remnants of the gate’s control tower drifted off in several directions, luckily aiming away from his ship.
Canderous snapped back into reality as he heard the muffled voice of Bendak come up over the radio. He adjusted the radio’s distorted frequencies while Bendak’s voice started to come in more clearly.
“Can-...zzzzzzttt...Get ou-...rrzzztt...hurry-....zzztt. Canderous get out!-...zzztt...Canderous get out of there now!”
Canderous eyes went wide as he realised the sudden danger of a possible second explosion. He attempted to direct his ship to the docking bay of the Iron Giant, but the computer seemed to be offline. He tried several times more, yet the computer did not respond.
He was about to give up until he saw a growing distortion of space through the corner of his eye. He turned his gaze to the view port.
From in-between the centrifugal disk, the space within began to twist and distort much like that of the beginning of a wormhole. Large arcs of electric lightning from within the distortion began lashing out all over the place, threatening to strike any ship that it so chooses. The distortion grew larger and larger, nearly reaching the topmost portion of the gate, until it finally slowed and came to a halt, the arcs of lightning dissipating soon after. From in-between the centrifuge, sat a wormhole of truely colossal porportions. As tall as the gate itself, it’s maw opened out wide to every vessel in sight, with Canderous’s ship smack in the middle out it all. It was a breathtaking sight to see. The way home seemed so close, yet so dangerous. Canderous just wanted to reach out and touch it with his own fingers. He was staring at the wormhole for so long that he didn’t notice the shouting voice of Bendak over the radio. He immediately tore his attention away from the gate, “Canderous! Don’t move! Don’t touch anything! Were are sending a boarding frigate to-” Bendak’s words were interrupted by a massive arc of lightning shooting out of the wormhole. It reached out to an incredible distance and struck the Iron Giant. Muffled screams and static were heard over the radio in fierce content as the lightning expanded and swallowed the vessel whole like a white blood cell devouring a bacterium. Once the suppercarrier was within the bolt’s grasp, the bolt pulled back through the wormhole, taking the massive ship along with it.
Canderous was in shock, his mouth wide open and eyes as big as dinner plates. Dozens of emergency messages and cries of panic came over the radio, but he wasn’t listening. He could only sit there in pure disbelief.
The wormhole began to distort itself feircly in several places, it’s edges in a continuous cycle of growing and shrinking, threatening to collapse. A second arc of lightning shot out of the wormhole’s mouth, and aimed itself directly as Canderous’s tiny ship.
This was it. It was all over for him. These were his last moments. His life flashed before his eyes in the blink of an eye. His family, his brother, his old friends, and several other personal and life-changing events flew by his eyes as the white bolt engulfed his ship and dragged it through the wormhole’s maw.
Everything went black.
~~~~~
“What in the hell...” said a frightened and confused fleet admiral, “Someone get me a status report! What in the hell happened to Canderous and the Iron Giant!?”
A scientist sitting at his flashing-red console screen perked up with a loud voice, “Sir! After the control tower exploded the wormhole managed to open itself! Those arcs of lightning appear to act as guiding devices for the gate on the other side, locking onto the closest vessel with an active jump drive. The Iron Giant had it’s jump drive on standby mode just in case it had to make a quick escape in the face of danger, but due to it’s size, it was the first to be dragged in, Canderous's vessel soon after!”
Sirian’s eyes went wide and his face went hot with frustration and urgency, “Then we best not be the next target! Helmsman, get us out of he-” Sirian was interrupted by a sound ten times greater than the sound of the control tower explosion. The Titan’s bridge shook violently as an stupidly powerful shockwave hammered the Titan’s armor. The scientists on the bridge went into a panic, some of them running away from their posts and trying to get away from the bridge.
One of the scientists stood by and shouted in a panicked tone, “Sir! The wormhole is beginning to collapse, violently! The New Eden gate is going under!” The scientist then abandoned his post and started to run towards the bridge bulkhead doors.
Sirian’s eyes could not have grown any bigger. He mouth fell flat to the floor in shock, yet he stood at his post like his feet were nailed to the floor. Everyone, including the stationary marines bolted out through the bridge doorway, shouting out warnings across the hallway’s to abandon ship. A deep warning siren blared with an automated message of an emergency evacuation accompanying it. Sirian did nothing but stand there, staring at the ground, enjoying his little personal time on the empty bridge deck. He sighed deeply and shut his eyes for a few moments, relishing in any certain memories that he holds dear. After his moment of much-needed silence, he faced his control console and opened the window bulkheads of the observation deck on the bridge. The metal panels slowly slid open, revealing the highly unstable wormhole in the middle of the gate, it’s greyish form pulsating back and forth rapidly like the beating of a black heart.
Then...all hell broke loose...
The wormhole caved in on itself, then exploded outward with un-imaginable force and power. The physical portions of the gate were torn to shreds, and those shreds, disintegrated. Battleships that were still active were desperately moving away from the gate so they could warp out, but the raging supernova of dark-blue energy reached them first, tearing off entire chunks of the ships and flinging them around like ragdolls. Smaller vessels were instantly vaporized. As the speeding rampage of energy neared the Titan’s front bow, time itself seemed to slow down. Sirian experienced several flashbacks of his life flying by his still eyes.
His family, life as a navy man, the day he was promoted to fleet admiral...Sticatto...his long-time friend Sticatto...
"Well Sticatto, old friend...” grunted Sirian as he spread his arms out wide, ready to embrace his fate, "Here I come."
The raging torrent engulfed the Titan like it was nothing more than a tiny rock in a pond, ripping the Titan’s hull apart with incredible force. As the shockwave of energy consumed the entire outpost and everyone in it, Scope News continued to broadcast this horrible tragedy to all of New Eden, live.
~~~~~
Scope News Network
“Panic is spreading throughout the gate compound as the tragedy of the gate control tower and the deaths of those within it spreads throughout the Navy. There is however a fair silver lining. With the destruction of the control tower, the gate managed to open itself, and Canderous Nord, along with the Nyx-supercarrier, the FNS Iron Giant, went through the wormhole-like entrance around two minutes ago. Further details will be disclosed as-.” The announcer was interrupted by a deafening booming sound. The cameras on the observer vessel shook violently, the force of noise threatening to tear them off. After the first shockwave subsided, the cameras immediately went back into focus, then zoomed in on a rapidly outspreading and fast approaching torrent of blue energy.
“My...my god. The gate...the gate is...gone!? This just in, the New Eden gate has collapsed. I repeat! The New Eden gate has collapsed! Samson get us the hell out of here befor-!...
The news feed broke away in a blizzard of static and muffled screams. After a few moments of un-seeable horror, the feed went to colored bars.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would like to thank those who held out for this long without any pony. I know it was a tough ride, but the PROLOGUE of Sins of New Eden is complete. Damn. Writing the prologue felt like writing a whole story in itself! Who knew that you can have this much fun when typing up a good combination of EVE Online and pony-fiction? :3
Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I can’t wait to begin work on the pony side of the story!
Still not having much luck on finding an editor/pre-reader. Will keep looking though.
Sorry for the horrendously long wait. In between school and life I've been goofing off on the SiSi server (for those who play EVE). This chapter makes up for all five (and a half :3) chapters that you guys have gone through without any pony. So with that, have some pony!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Oh my stars!” said Rarity with wide eyes and an unusually large grin spread across her face, “Celestia gave that to you, and as a gift?” Rarity brought her face closer to the gleaming necklace around Twilight’s neck.
“That looks amazing Twilight. How did you get it? If um... that’s ok for um... me to ask...” said Fluttershy as she hid most of her face behind her mane.
“That there looks mighty fine on you Twi’.” said Applejack.
“...meh” said Rainbow Dash, clearly not interested.
“Well...” said Twilight with a sheepish grin, “Yes, she did. But I have had this thing for years.” Twilight’s horn began to glow, a veil of magic wrapping around the necklace and bringing it up into the air. Rarity brought her face even closer to elegant piece of jewelery, her other friends following suite. “Celestia gave it to me as a present for when I graduated from Advanced Astronomy.” Twilight pointed a hoof towards the large purple jewel embedded in the necklace, “This jewel in the necklace was enchanted with magic by Celestia herself. The magic in the jewel allows me to identify and locate the position of any constellation in the sky, day or night.” Twilight levitated the necklace over head and slowly brought it down around her neck, “I haven’t worn this thing in years, since I already know the locations of the constellations and whatnot, but it is still a lovely gift.” Twilight and her friends continued their stroll through the streets of Canterlot, occasionally stopping at different stores to gaze at the many assortments of jewels and fine clothing.
The group stopped by a local cafe to have a quick lunch. After they finished eating, they continued their enjoyable evening. Twilight gazed up at the blue sky, mostly up at Celestia’s sun. She liked it as to how it looked like a yellow, flattened beacon of light, it’s position in the sky determining the usual time...the time?...the time!
Twilight gasped at the sudden realization of the time. It was starting to get late, and they have been in Canterlot for hours, “Ohmygoodness!” her friends turned to her with confused eyes, “We’ve been in Canterlot for much longer than I had thought! The chariot that is supposed to take us back to Ponyville must have been waiting for hours by now!” Her friends took a look at the sky aswell, worried frowns taking hold on their faces.
“C’mon girls, I know the way-” Twilight was cut off when a bright flash of white light flared up in the corner of her eye, followed by a loud pop. Twilight’s eyes grew wide with fear. She looked to her friends for help, only to find that they had their backs arched and their heads to the floor in a bowing position. That could only mean one thing...
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight spun around to greet her royal teacher, “W-w-we were just about t-to head back to the carriage but-” Twilight stammered as she spoke to her teacher, trying to find an excuse for she and her friend’s on-hold departure.
Celestia raised one of her golden-clad hoofs up in the air, making Twilight clamp her mouth shut.
“I have no mind for your excuse Twilight, but the chariot will have to wait...” the princess turned to the other girls, who stood upright at the nod of her head, “I need all of you to come with me to the Canterlot observatory immediately. There is something that I think you all must see. I will answer any questions you may have later.”
“O-oh, ok...I suppose...” said Fluttershy
“Well, we can’t wrong with you princess. I’d be happy to go...to an observatory...yea.” Applejack stated while trying to look amused.
“Great! When do we leave? Do we need to bring anythi-...hey...” Twilight halted her flowing stream of questions when she noticed that a certain blob of pink pony was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Pinkie Pie? She was just here a minute...ago...” Her friends turned their heads left and right in search of the suddenly missing party pony, “Did anypony see her? She was just here a minute or two ag-OH!” Twilight was suddenly tackled from behind. This could mean one of two things. Either a professional wrestler decided to practice for their next match by tackling the nearest pony, or maybe it was...
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, the ever-random pink ball of hyperactivity pinning her to the ground in a playful manner.
“Hey there Twilight! Sorry I’m late, but I just had to try one of these cherry-filled chocolate covered chocolate marshmallows...” Pinkie brought the chocolate-lover’s confection up to her face, “... or maaaybe two.” Pinkie brought out another one of the chocolatey treats, where upon she immediately forced both of them into her mouth and devoured them with a single gulp, letting out a quiet burp afterward. She licked her lips to try and catch any remaining trace of chocolate syrup or cherry filling leftover from the marshmallows. After throughly licking her lips clean, she looked over at her unamused friends.
“Hi girls! Whatcha up to?” said Pinkie while beaming at her friends.
“Uhh Pinkie...” Rainbow Dash to Pinkie while face-hoofing herself.
“Yeeees Dashie?”
Rainbow Dash pointed the hoof she was facehoofing herself with at Princess Celestia, keeping her head low and her eyes closed. Pinkie followed Rainbow’s hoof leading up to princess. Upon her eyes reaching the off-white coat of the princess, Pinkie gasped loudly, her eyes going wide and her ever cheerful mood turning to that of embarrassment.
“Oh... hehe... h-hi princess. Sorry for um... acting weird in front of you... hehe...” said Pinkie while she rubbed the back of her head with one of her front hooves, a hint of blush forming above her nose.
The princess didn’t laugh, but she did crack a smile at Pinkie’s occasional antics, “It is quite alright Pinkie Pie, but I’m afraid that joking around will have to wait.” Celestia turned to face the other elements again, “Now, as I said before, all of you must come with me to the Canterlot Observatory immediately. Everything will be explained soon.”
The prrincess stepped forward and bowed her head, “Now, everypony get close to me. The observatory is a rather long walk away, yet we must get there as soon as possible.”
Twilight and her friends stepped closer to Celestia at her word. “I know that most of you have not experienced the feel of being teleported, but this is by far the fastest way there...” Celestia’s horn began to glow a bright white as her horn musterred up enough energy to perform a teleportation spell large enough to teleport them all to the observatory.
While staring at Celestia’s glowing horn, Applejack began to worry a bit. “I-is this gonna hurt at all?”
“...possibly...”
“Wait hu-?” Applejack couldn’t finish her words as she and her friends were wrapped in a glowing visage of light, disappearing with a flash of white light, a loud pop following afterward.
~~~~~
…*ARES CONTROL SYSTEMS RESTORED*...
*LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS FUNCTIONING*
*STATUS OF ONBOARD CONTROLS: NOMINAL*
*LOCATION OF SPACE CORE: IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-ERROR*
*ION PROPULSION SYSTEMS OFFLINE. REACTIVATING...*
The cockpit of the interceptor shook violently as the ship’s computer attempted to reactivate the crippled propulsion systems. A small steel canister sitting on a nearby exposed shelf compartment was knocked over by the violent shaking of the ship. It slowly rolled over to the near edge of the uncovered shelf, the risk of it falling off coming closer with each second.
“Huh...wha?...” Canderous was starting to come to by the violent shakedown. He lay flat on the cold metal floor of his badly damaged craft, sparks of electricity shooting out of damaged and exposed cables that used to be hidden behind protective metal plates. The air was cold and the lights were out.
“Where...where da hell eesh...?” just as Canderous was about to finish his question to himself, the canister rolled off the edge of the metal shelf and rapidly fell towards the floor, and towards Canderous.
Canderous had heard the canister roll on the shelf for a few seconds and then drop off the edge above his head. “Oh hell, that can’t be good...” Canderous wanted to move away, but he was bruised and badly bloodied. His legs were weak and his arms felt like jelly.
After a few seconds of free fall, the canister landed hard on the back of Canderous’s head, knocking him out cold.
~~~~~
Luna brought her eye closer to the eyepiece of the giant telescope. She gazed out far into the celestial void, trying at her best to piece together the cause of recent events. She buried her thoughts deep in the receses of her mind, keeping the same questionable thoughts tucked away in her royal brain.
‘Where are you?! I know you were there just yesterday! You can’t just disappear like that! There has to be an explanation...’ Luna thought to herself as she continued staring down the spot where the magnetic storm cloud used to be. With a single eye, she scanned every nook and cranny of the area, finding nothing but a single grey dot in the midst of blackness.
‘Could it be magic?... nonono it can’t be magic, it just can’t be magic! The elements, not even Tia could have just removed something of such colossal size and power with magic! Do you know how much energy that would take? It’s mind-boggling just to think about it!’ Luna moved her eye away from the eyepiece, allowing a waiting astronomer to look through it. She turned to walk off the pedestal. She eyed all the anxious and hard-working astronomers on the main floor. Star charts, graphs, and other assorted maps were laid out on several tables scattered around the room. Several astronomers were talking and arguing with one another, some of them pointing out a rather interesting patch of blankness on a star chart while others were angrily shaking their hooves at one another and shouting out indecipherable answers to any questions their colleagues threw at one another.
Luna walked up to the front door and prepared to open it, yet before she could do so, she noticed a bright white flash that shone from underneath the door, followed by a muffled popping noise. Luna backed away from the door, allowing whoever was on the other side to come in. The astronomers stopped their work and ceased their obsessive arguing to turn and look at the door, which slowly began to open. The door continued to open at snail’s pace, until a bright pink ball of hyperactive pony burst through the door. Luna immediately recognized the pink pony as Pinkie Pie from the Nightmare Night she had previously attended. Pinkie did nothing but stare around the room with eyes wide, ooing and awing at everypony in the room, until she spotted the giant silver telescope in the middle of the large room. Like a raccoon spotting a piece of shiny metal, Pinkie jumped up into the air and started to bounce over to the telescope, only to have her tail get caught in the mouth of an annoyed Rainbow Dash, whereupon she was pulled backwards like a rubber band and forced to the floor.
Rainbow Dash slowly dragged Pinkie’s vibrating body back over to Princess Celestia and her friends. Pinkie looked up and smiled at her friendly captor.
“Hi there Dashie!”
“Do I even have to say it Pinkie?” said Rainbow Dash as she facehoofed herself again at Pinkie’s usual antics.
“Idunno. If you want to I guess!” Pinkie said while giggling.
“Sister!” Luna perked up. She trotted over to Celestia and her friends with a smile on her face.
“Princess Luna!” said Twilight while all of her friends bowed before the royal sister.
“Hello there Luna.” Celestia motioned the girls to rise before continuing, “Have you come to any conclusions as to why the storm cloud suddenly decided to vanish in a single day?”
“Wait, what?!” Twilight said with shock.
“No Tia. Me and the astronomers have been working at it for hours now, and we still haven’t found any evidence as to the cloud’s disappearance. All we know is, is that it is definitely not magic.” Luna turned around and began walking back to the telescope, Celestia, an eager Twilight and her friends following close behind. Upon reaching the telescope, an astronomer that currently occupied the podium backed away to allow the princess’s to use it.
“Look for yourself Twilight. Can you think of any plausible explanation to this mystery?” said Celestia while pro-offering the telescope’s eyepiece to her student.
Twilight wasted no time in walking up to the pedestal and looking through the small eyepiece of the giant telescope. She remembered the exact location of the dust cloud, since she has been studying it for so long. Right in between Ursa’s Major and Minor. She used her magic to adjust the focusing power of the eyepiece, being careful as not to apply too much power and break it.
Twilight’s eyes went wide at the sight of the missing dust cloud. ‘I know it was right here! It couldn’t have just gotten up and walked away! Not on it’s own at least...’ Twilight thought to herself while adjusting the eyepiece even further.
‘Wait a minute...what’s tha-?’ Twilight was about to finish her thought before Rainbow Dash perked up.
“Uh girls? Sorry to interrupt... whatever this is, but what do me and everypony else here have to do with some strange cloud in space?”
“I... was just getting to that. Upon further inspection of the location, I have discovered that while the dust cloud that I had been studying for the past few weeks has somehow disappeared, of which I am still trying to figure out why, the object that was hidden inside the cloud has not, making it much more visible. But the object... is not alone...”
Twilight’s horn started to glow as she began to project a smaller version of the same star map hologram she had used the previous day in her presentation to the astronomers, the only noticable difference being the missing dust cloud. She used magic to highlight the object’s location with a ping-pong ball sized bright ball of light. She then used her magic to highlight another spot on the hologram, this spot being much smaller than the one adjacent to it. Luna brought her smiling face closer to the highlighted points, the other girls doing the same.
Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows and scratched the back of her head in confusion. “I... still don’t get it. How do we fit into this again?”
“Ah’ was bout to ask the same thing. I’m not much of an astrology-”
“Astronomy” Twilight corrected her friend.
“Applejack paused for a moment before continuing, “I’m not much of an astronomy girl, but I still don’t know why we had to come here just to look at a bunch of glowing dots...”
“Because that large dot is emitting the same twisted and strange magical energies that the Everfree Forest emits.” Luna rushed out. She clearly wanted to explain it to somepony badly. “Think of the Everfree Forest, but in space, and in astronomical terms, much closer than you think.”
“It is slowly amplifying the energies of the Everfree Forest from within. A simple spell that me and Luna already casted earlier prevented the energy from spreading any further.” Celestia stated.
Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof on the ground while rolling her eyes in doubt. “Ok, I might be able to understand that, but that still doesn’t explain why we’re here.”
“I... was just getting to that also. This second dot next to the big dot, even though they really aren’t dots, was never there when we first observed the insides of the cloud. While this second do-... object... doesn’t emit the same energies as the larger object, we have no idea what it is. But there is more...”
“Mind if I say this next part Twilight? I’ve just been itching to tell!” Said Luna with a giddy smile.
Twilight could only smile at the royal sister’s eagerness, “Sure Princess Luna. Go ahead.”
Luna quietly cleared her throat before speaking, “The second object... moves on it’s own. No magic, wings if there was ever such a thing as wings for space, or any other forms of propulsion that we can think of. Not to mention that within a few hours after the cloud’s disappearance, we have detected small energy spikes coming from the approximate location of the second object.”
“Is there some sort of point to all of this?” Applejack spoke up before Rainbow could.
“Of course Applejack.” said Luna.
…
“Uh... Princess Luna?” said Applejack while the two royal sisters moved their eyes to the ground.
Luna moved her eyes back up to meet the gazes of the ponies. “Aliens.”
Everypony except for Celestia, Luna and Twilight just sat there, looks of doubt and confusion on their faces.
“A-aliens?” said a fearful Fluttershy as she hid her frightened face behind her mane.
“Aliens? Your kiddin’ me right?” said Applejack was her eyebrows furrowed downward in unamusment.
“Aliens? Ooooh! Aliens sound like fun! I wonder if we can meet them and say hi? Maybe if they come to Equestria and don’t attack us, I can throw them a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party!” said a giggling Pinkie Pie.
“I agree with Applejack.” said an equally unamused Rainbow Dash, “I have a pretty big patch of doubt that aliens can just randomly spawn out of some random cloud in space in just a few days...”
“We are not entirely sure as to whether or not it is aliens Rainbow Dash,” Princess Celestia responded to Rainbow’s denial, “but it is much better to be safe than sorry. I have brought you all here for protection. If the object in space is of alien origin and poses any threat to us, the elements of harmony must be kept safe. You all must be kept safe. Not to mention that if the object is of alien origin, and decides to invade or attack Equestria, we can use the magic of the elements to combat it.”
“So why bring us all here now?” said Rarity, “Exactly how far off is this object? For a place as big as space it must be pretty far away right?”
“Well...” Luna started, “In normal terms, it is a few hundred thousand miles away from our moon. It can’t be seen by the naked eye, so we use the telescope to see it. Now that may sound like it’s really far away, but for an object that moves on it’s own and is of possible alien origin, we can’t take any chances.”
“So until the object has either moved further away from the planet or until we have verified that it is of no threat to us, you may stay at Canterlot Castle. It is for your own protection that you remain here under our watch.”
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and all other of Twilight’s friends smiled at the idea of staying at the castle.
“I will arrange for proper accommodations for all of you at the castle. You can all write letters to those you know in Ponyville to tell them of your staying here."
“Oh good. I simply can’t allow Sweetie Bell to stay alone at the store. I’ll tell my parents to come pick her up for the time being.” said Rarity.
“And I have to let Applebloom and Big Mac know that I’ma be outta town for a few days. Hope Big Mac doesn’t mind a few more apple trees to work with.” said Applejack, ending off her last sentence with a giggle.
“There will be a chariot waiting for you outside that will take you to the castle. I will join you there shortly.” said Celestia as she motioned the girls to the door.
Twilight and the rest of girls filed out through the observatory door one by one. As Celestia watched them walk away, she turned to her sister who was currently staring into the eyepiece of the telescope again, keeping one eye shut and keeping the other eye comically focusing into the eyepiece.
“Are you coming with me Luna?” Celestia asked.
“No thank you Tia. I’m going to stay here for another hour or two more and speak with the astronomers, just to see if they have any new data to report or if I have to move around any stars for them.” said Luna while she brought her eyes away from the telescope eyepiece and over to a nearby star chart.
“Ok Luna, just don’t take too long.” Celestia turned and walked out through the observatory. Luna turned back to the telescope with a star chart hovering over her head. She glanced through the telescope’s eyepiece once more, then turned back to the star chart. She levitated a nearby red marker over to the star chart and marked a spot with a circle in between the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
“Well, might as well get some work done...”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Jonsey to you:
Meow
Thanks for reading! Spy any problems with the story? You do?...*arms Doomsday*
“Canderous...Canderous! You still alive in there?”
Canderous awoke to the sound of Bendak’s voice over the radio. His head was throbbing furiously as he slowly picked himself from up off the floor. He moaned in agony as he slowly shuffled his way over to the cockpit’s chair, stumbling back onto the leather face of the chair. He slowly rubbed his forehead, desperately wishing for the pain to go away after all the horrifying ordeals of whatever time has passed still clung to the roof of the memory center of his brain. He turned his head towards the surprisingly undamaged cockpit viewport. He ignored his neck’s pained cries for mercy as he moved his gaze down towards the control console. He took several mental notes of the structural integrity of the console’s control board. A few bits and pieces were missing or damaged here and there. The distress signal node was badly scorched and sparking wildly, making Canderous worry a bit. A few small circuit boards were either clinging to the sides of the console or scattered in pieces all around him. The horrible pain was still there in his head. He soon felt that his head wasn’t the only part of his body that hurt. His legs were weak and his torso was throbbing with pain nearly just as bad as his head. His arms were surprisingly fine, testing them to make they worked by bending his elbows in several directions.
After a few more agonizing minutes of head rubbing and frustration, Canderous couldn’t take it anymore. He bolted upward from the chair, forcefully ignoring the pain that shot up his body like a hit from an overcharged hit from a police stun baton. His face turned red with anger as he turned his head left and right, searching for something to vent his frustration on. His eyes moved to the spot on the floor from where he woke up a few minutes before. He spots a bottle-sized metal canister near a small puddle of blood. Canderous slowly moved his right hand up to the right side of his face and pressed down, forcing his hand back at a slight wince of pain. He looked down at his right hand, which was now covered in a thin layer of the crimson liquid. The mere sight of his own blood only increased his anger further. He quickly reached down to the canister, grabbed it, and brought it up to his face. After staring at the words ‘Quafe Ultra’ printed in big white letters on the side, he chucked the canister away with all of his might. The canister hit the wall with a loud clang and bounced off the metal surface, where it fell to the floor and rolled to short stop without any visible dents on it.
Canderous wanted to run over to the canister and throw it against the wall over and over again until it would be bent and dented beyond use, but due to the now skyrocketing heights of pain that shot up his torso when he threw the canister, he decided to ignore it and walked back to the cockpit chair. After his little fit of painful rage, Canderous could slowly feel the return of his headaches. He was about to lose it again.
But before he could satisfy his desires to break everything in sight, he thought about having a little drink to help ease his mood. Canderous immediately thought of the special bottle of Gallentean whiskey that Sirian gave to him as a celebration present. He looked left and right until he caught a glint of shimmer in the far corner of his right eye. He turned his head towards the shimmer, and lo and behold, there lay the dark blue bottle of whiskey. The label was torn apart and there were a few scuff marks on the sides, but the bottle appeared to be intact. He immediately grabbed the whiskey bottle, uncorked the top and brought the whole bottle up to his lips, desperately awaiting the arrival of the hard, treasured whiskey to grace his lips with it’s touch, yet nothing came. Canderous was confused. He brought the midsection of the bottle up to his face, where he soon realised that those scuff marks, weren’t scuff marks.
As if waiting for it’s special dramatic cue, the middle of the bottle began to crack and split apart, the entire undersection of the bottle then fell to the floor, shattering on impact.
Canderous’s anger swelled up again. ‘So much for celebrating...’ Canderous thought to himself. He chucked the top half of the bottle at the farthest wall, where it shattered upon impact.
“I...bzzzzztt...know. It’s been five minutes. I’m trying again. Canderous, it’s me, Bendak. If you can hear me, speak up on comms.”
Canderous immediately turned to face the computer. It had come online and so did the radio. He wasted no time in rushing over to the control console and pressing the talk button.
“Bendak? That you?” Canderous replied to Bendak’s earlier words.
“Yea it’s me Nord. We made it through the gate. How are you holding up?” Bendak asked.
“Not to good Bendak. My ship is heavily damaged. I got a headache the size of a pontoon and my chest and legs hurt like hell. Simply put, I feel like shit.” Canderous said with a rough laugh, coughing up a spat of blood soon afterword.
“Well you definitely sound like shit. Can you get your ship to the Iron Giant?”
Canderous glanced over to the control console. After getting a bit closer, he could see that the engine status was in the green.
“Yeah, I think I can. Listen, how far off are you guys?”
“Not far, only thirty-five kilometers from our viewpoint. The Iron Giant’s systems are not fully operational yet, but we can still see your ship from here. Just command your ship’s console to dock up with the Iron Giant. We will have a med-vac team here waiting for you. Any other info we need to know?”
“Well, my stomach’s alcohol content is dangerously low. I require a few dozens beers and a few shots of whiskey, ASAP.” Canderous said with a humerous yet painful laugh, Bendak joining in.
“I wouldn’t laugh too hard if I were you. Now get over here.” The radio went dark, ending the transmission.
Canderous hobbled over a step or two back to his pilot’s chair. He slouched over the console and pressed a few miscellaneous buttons, causing the ship to rumble again slightly. As the ship began to turn, Canderous leaned back and peered out of the viewport, gazing out at the passing stars. The ship’s turning started to slow down until the view of a damaged and dark Nyx supercarrier came into view. The Nyx was tilted forward and to the right a bit. All of the spotlights and running lights that used to adorn the surface of the Nyx were dark and void of light, making the supercarrier look more like an abandoned ruin instead of a damaged capital ship. The interceptor started off on it’s docking course, Canderous having forgotten the fast and sudden take-off of which the various versions of interceptor craft are famous for.
Canderous could just sit there and watch as the Nyx came ever closer with each passing second. He took notice to tiny glimmers of light coming from various places on the supercarrier’s hull. Once Canderous was from what he believed to be about ten kilometers from the docking bay, he hunched over in his seat in a slim attempt to get a closer look. The tiny glimmers of light turned out to be to the glimmer of welding torches specially designed to work in space. These welding torches were attached to the plated arms of a strange type of drone that Canderous had never seen before. It was like a cross between an Ogre and a Wasp heavy attack drones, only much bigger. The drone was welding a massive steel plate to one side of the Nyx, stopping occasionally to move to different spot on the plate and continue it’s welding.
‘Couldn’t the Iron Giant have just used some armor repair drones or something?’ thought Canderous, until he remembered the day that the Federation along with every other race halted the support of combat drones for supercarriers, instead only allowing fighters and fighter bombers to do the heavy hitting for the monstrous vessels.
The drone soon disappeared out of sight as the damaged interceptor slowly made it’s way into the vast ship maintenance bay of the Iron Giant. The interceptor then slowly lowered itself to the metal floor, a rather hard landing following soon afterword. Canderous started to get up out of his chair, only to stumble several times and land face-first on the floor. Every nerve in his body screamed in agony at the hard landing. His muscles tensed up and his heart started to beat rapidly as Canderous watched his own vision slowly melt away. Everything became blurry and out of focus. His breathing started to become haggard and rasp. His hearing was reduced to nothing more than simple, unrecognizable mumbling.
Canderous could however though hear the sound of metal banging against metal. He steadily yet painfully lifted and turned his head to the back, where the tiny maintenance door at the back was currently within the process of being beaten inward from the outside.
Canderous laid his head back down on the floor, earning him another wince of pain. He could hear the faint mumbles of people from outside along with the increasing noise of metal on metal.
The last thing he heard before blacking out was the sound of boots pounding on metal flooring nearby. His body went limp, then his vision soon faded to darkness.
~~~~~
“Nord...”
“err...Canderous Nord?...”
“uh...”
“HEY NORD, WAKE THE HELL UP!”
Bendak gave a swift kick to the side of the medical bed, causing Canderous’s barely awake form to jolt upward immediately. Canderous found himself strapped to a white medical bed with a strange apparatus representing an metal breastplate strapped to his chest. Canderous assumed that he was in the Iron Giant’s badly damaged medical facility. Bendak, along with another marine, were looming over the bedside, staring down at Canderous with looks of all seriousness.
“Well there sleeping beauty, looks like you finally decided to wake up.” said Bendak with a grimaced scowl.
“And with few minor injuries!...along with a major injury with one of your two broken ribs stabbing into your inner flesh. But other than that, you’re alive. Thanks to Federation medical science, we have repaired most of the damaged parts of your body, both inside and out.” said the grey marine, Canderous just now taking notice of the red cross insignia patch located on his right shoulder. “I need you to relax your body Nord so I can remove the gel injector safely from your torso.” Canderous didn’t know what a ‘gel injector’ was, or whatever it’s purpose was for in the field of medicine, but he decided to just throw that question onto the steadily-increasing pile of questions that he needed answering. He relaxed the muscles in his arms and legs, then he relaxed his neck and torso, allowing his body to sink into the firm mattress. The grey marine stepped closer to the bed and placed both hands on the top of the chestplate-like device. The marine’s fingers tapped away at a small touchscreen for a few seconds. Canderous felt a wave of relief and good-feeling when the device finally unclipped and came off, allowing him to breath normally again.
“I think it is safe for you to stand up now Nord, but be careful when doing so.” said the marine.
Canderous slowly slid his body to the edge of the bed, allowing his now painless legs to droop downward. With assistance from Bendak, he was able to make it to his feet, only to stumble over once he did. Bendak quickly caught him, then helped him to his feet again.
“So, how’s it feel to have your chest pumped full of RH gel for the first time? Feels heavy right?” Bendak question Canderous.
“RH gel?” questioned Canderous.
The grey marine spoke up, “Rapid healing gel. A fairly new medical product introduced by Federation scientists around twenty years ago that is injected directly into the torso, most commonly used in field stim packs as quick medicade. Works wonders on humans. Works horrors on just about anything else.” The grey marine laughed at his own joke. “That heavy feeling is just the newly reconstructed tissue reforming to fit your body’s old tissue.”
“Kind of like nanite repair paste?” asked Canderous.
“Exactly.”
“Brinesfield, you may return to your post. I have just received orders from captain Aran to escort Canderous up to the bridge. He has also notified me of more injured personnel heading your way, so prepare to receive them.”
“Yes sir.” With a nod of his head, the marine turned and walked back to the bed that Canderous had previously occupied. Bendak and Canderous then turned and walked out of the open door of the medical bay.
~~~~~
“Silence! SILENCE!” the captain shouted over the noise of his bickering officers.
At the captain’s stern command, the room grew quiet. All eyes now fell upon the captain. “I will discuss in private our next course of action with the chief of engineering along with the chief survey officer! I will not tolerate this childish bickering aboard my ship. Officers, marines, return to your posts.”
As if on cue, the bridge door opened inward, revealing both Bendak and Canderous standing at the doorway. No one seemed to hear them come in though as everyone kept their attention focused on the captain.
“That’s an order.” the captain finished. The massed group of marines split up and returned to their respective posts. The receding tide of marines carved a pathway to the captain, who stood at his control podium at the end of the walkway with both hands behind his back and a grim stare on his face. Bendak and Canderous made their way over to him, saluting him upon reaching him. The captain signaled them to be at ease.
“Nord. Bendak. Follow me.” The captain motioned them to follow him. Nord and Bendak followed him to the furthest end of the bridge’s upper level, then walked down a small flight of steps to the communications deck of the bridge. The group turned around once they reached the bottom steps and walked down a very narrow corridor that seemed to go underneath the bridge’s upper level. Standing at the end of the corridor was a marine standing guard in front of a small door, weapon at his shoulder. When the captain ordered the marine to let them past, he followed his order without question or grunt of distaste. Turning around and practically stopping on a dime, the marine opened the door and stepped inside and announced their arrival to three dimly lit silhouettes inside.
Canderous, followed by Bendak and the captain, stepped through the tiny doorway and walked up close to a dimly lit table in the middle of the room. The marine saluted the sergeant and walked out of the room through the door from which they entered, closing and securing the door behind him.
“Well, looks like the gang’s all here.” said a familiar feminine voice, “Mind if I turn up the lights?” A slim silhouette reached under the table and turned a knob underneath, causing the corner lights in the room to flare up with yellow light, washing away the coat of dim shadow that shrouded the silhouettes. It revealed to Canderous three armored figures. Two men and one woman, Thane.
“Thank you miss Thane.” the captain said with a nod of his head.
“Anytime sir.”
“Canderous,” the captain brought up his right hand and gestured towards the two men next to Thane, “I would like to introduce you to...” he gestured towards a scruffy-faced man with grease-spattered armor, “Chief Engineer Titas,” he then gestured towards the second man, who looked no different than any other marine, except for the patch of a globe on his shoulder showcasing his rank, “and Survey Officer Vadik.” Both men gave a nod and a flick of their wrist with each introduction. “And I believe that you already know miss Thane.”
“Wish I never knew him.” said Thane when she pointed to Canderous. ‘Damn recruits...’ she said under her breath.
“That’s enough introduction. We must get down to business.” the captain paused.
“Here is our current situation. While the jump from New Eden to here was possibly a massive failure, we have still managed to arrive at the former home system of our ancestors. Our ship is heavily damaged and around thirty percent of all onboard personnel have sustained minor injuries. We only have enough supplies to last us for a few weeks. Our current location is near what we belive to be the ancient gas giant, Neptune, the eighth planet farthest from the sun. That is all the information that I have to share for now.”
Titas spoke up after the captain, “I got some good news and some bad news.” Titus continued, “The good news is, the hellstorm we just went through did not cripple our warp drive or any of our critical systems...” Titus cleared his throat before treading onto the bad news, “The bad news. Our jump drive is obliterated. Gone. Destroyed. Barely even qualifies as scrap metal. My crews had found that the jump drive was so badly ripped apart by the energy fluctuations that they couldn’t even unbolt the side casings from the main frame, so they had to leave it there. It’s like someone put a grenade inside of a tin can and set it off! Other than that, I have the HCO heavy drones repairing the exterior of the ship with any scattered pieces of debris that was torn off by the wormhole’s energy. From the look of things right now, they should be done within the hour.”
“I also have something to report!” Vadik perked up. “After performing a directional scan of the system, I have discovered that there is a single temperate planet within the system, that of which we already know as Earth, with the rest of the planets being either barren or gas giants, with the exception of one volcanic world. With no base or outpost nearby, I propose that we settle near Earth’s single moon, maybe even establish a forward outpost on the Earth’s surface for study.”
The captain nodded in good will of Vadik’s proposal. “Sounds like a plan. Not much else that we can do here anyway. Once exterior repairs are complete and most of the men have been treated for their injuries, we will warp to Earth’s single moon and sustain a temporary pattern of lunar orbit.”
Everyone nodded in approval at the captain’s plan of action.
“Beats sitting next to a giant ball of off-blue gas any day. I wanna feel the rock and earth underneath my feet.” said Thane.
“Here are you orders.” the captain turned to Titas first, “Titas, send every engineer and mechanic you have to every part of this ship to search for major faults in the ship’s electronics and hull integrity. Before we even touch the warp drive nav computer, I wanna make sure that ship won’t fall apart if we so much as breath in the wrong direction. I will not be taking any risks in where this ship goes or what it does while it is in it’s current state.”
“Yes sir!” said Titas with a salute.
“Vadik, inform the navigational officers of our new heading. Perform final safety checks on the warp drive’s integrity. Prepare and outfit observational drones. Before we can establish an outpost on Earth, I wanna make sure it’s air is safe for breathing and it’s atmospheric composition is nominal.”
“Yes sir!” said Vadik holding his own hand high.
“Thane, Bendak, I need both of you to head down to the hangar bay as well as the barracks. Find out who is injured and who is not and ensure that any uninjured personnel assist in the preparation of ground teams and ship repair. If any marine whines or bitches about it, make them think otherwise.” Bendak chuckled at the thought of watching Thane beating another marine senseless. Thane took notice to Bendak’s chuckling, clearly unamused.
“You have your orders. Now see them out.” the captain sternly commanded.
“Yes sir!” shouted everyone but Canderous. Canderous was starting to leave with the others, but the captain held him back.
“Canderous,” the captain started, “What happened to the whiskey that Sirian gave you?”
“It’s... gone. When I woke up and tried to take a swig of it, the whole bottle shattered in my grip.”
The captain grunted at this. He then turned around, reached from behind the table, and pulled out a small bottle. “Think fast!” he then tossed the bottle to Canderous from behind his back. Canderous caught it in a heartbeat and eyed the bluish bottle. After turning and examining the label, a smile grew wide across his face.
“Might as well treat yourself after all the shit that’s been happening. I will have orders for you once we reach Earth’s moon. Dismissed.”
~~~~~
Five hours later...
Warp Drive activate.
Aligning to Planet: Earth
Commencing warp in five...four...three...two...one...mark.
And like a speeding bullet, the Iron Giant took off for Earth’s moon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As always, Jonsey sends his regards! Another day, another chapter in.
Another crumpled up star map flew across the large room of the observatory, soaring in the air before soon bouncing off the wall and landing in a steadily rising pile of crumbled paper. Luna furiously paced back and forth on the podium. Her face was so red hot with frustration and anger that even in her own nighttime darkness, her face seemed to glow like an angry firefly. She eventually halted her pacing, sighing deeply to try and calm herself. She brought her face down closer to the table, where another star map lay open and flat. Luna used her magic to levitate a red marker over the star map, taking one more peek through the telescope’s eyepiece before putting a big red circle mere millimeters away from the previous circle she had marked over earlier, which was now crossed out by a big, red X. She sighed once again to shew away the heat of her previous burst of anger.
“Please be there...please be there...pleeease be there...” Luna said to herself as she moved her head to look back into the telescope eyepiece and gazed through it’s silvery lens. She fine tuned the telescope’s position, taking an occasional glance to and from the star map to assure that it was positioned just right. It was a tedious process, for often times she would adjust it by to much or to little, forcing her to move back and forth between the map and telescope to make even the most minimal of adjustments. It must have taken around a full fifteen minutes before the telescope was perfectly aligned, it’s slender form pointing directly at the set coordinates that Luna had spent so many painstakingly long minutes to get right. She had a good feeling that this would be it...
Luna double checked and even triple checked her notes in coordination with the telescope’s position. After breathing a heavy sigh of near hopelessness, she moved her head back over to the eyepiece, resisting the urge to look at her notes for a fourth time.
“Ok, here goes. Oh please let it be there this time...” she said to herself as she looked into the eyepiece. She let her eye adjust to whatever light had gathered in the telescope lens before focusing her attention on a single, black patch of seemingly empty space. Using her magic, she adjusted the telescope’s focusing power, the eyepiece magically zooming in. After a few more arduous seconds of patience, Luna could finally see a glimmer of hope in her quest to look upon the other mysterious object that she and the other astronomers had found earlier, this glimmer being in the form of a bright blue, star-like orb. The glow from the orb was incredibly faint at best, but still visible from a certain extent. From an astronomical standpoint, the second object that had been sitting so mysteriously in the back of Luna’s mind, gained luminescence over the past few hours that she had remained in the observatory, while all the other astronomers had gone home for the day. Luna has also detected multiple energy spikes coming from the object’s relative position, which spiked her curiosity to new heights.
Luna’s magnified gaze drew closer to the possible position of the object of her curiosity. Her face went wide with a smile like that of a taut rubber balloon. Luna gasped with excitement, “Could it be?” she said with a ping of joy and relief. Luna could hardly wait. She applied more force to her powerful magic to zoom the telescope’s view even farther. The view drew closer and closer, the bright ball of blue light drawing ever so close to her gaze. Luna pushed her magic to the max, the telescope moaning under the strain of powerful magic that she was forcing upon it. Luna could exert no more. For fear of damaging the telescope’s delicate form, Luna filed out the last few tidbits of her magic she had left to get. She took a step back away from the eyepiece, giving her eye and tired horn a rest before putting her face back to the eyepiece. There was definitely something else there besides the second object that was discovered earlier. The larger object found earlier was visible as a dark shadow, but the smaller object gave off it’s own light. The excitement in Luna’s mind practically soared to the ceiling. She could see it! No matter how big of a strain she had put upon herself, she decided to apply just a tad bit more of magic to the telescope, just enough so she could see that the object of her frustration and terrors was...
A comet.
Nothing more than a simple, blue comet, soaring through space ever so slowly.
Luna’s unoccupied eye started to twitch, yet her joyful, smiling face did not change. Luna slowly backed away from the eyepiece, slowly taking in another failure. Her smiling, yet rather crooked face turned to the star map. She eyed the area on the map that she had marked earlier, then her face took a deep dive into an angry scowl of disgust. Luna’s horn began to glow a violent bright red as she slowly lifted the star map, crumpled it up, and with all of her might, hurled it towards the nearest wall. She watched as the paper wad hit the wall, then calmly fall to the floor.
Luna could only sigh at the sight of another failure in her relentless quest to look upon the second object of her recent astronomical nightmares. She reset the telescope, then magically brought out another star map from below the table, unrolling it on the table next to her centuries-old abacus.
“Ok. One more try, then I’m done for the night.” After she determined a new set of coordinates, which now lead to a new location mere millimeters away from the previously failed location, she began the first steps necessary for the long and tedious telescope alignment. Yet when she looked through the eyepiece, she caught sight of a grey and foggy substance the was starting to cloud up the telescope’s vision.
Luna sighed with impatience, “Oh what now?”
But before she could go around to check the telescope lens, a loud and thunderous boom caught her off guard, causing her to jump high in the air with fright. She felt deeply embarrassed, thanking her secret, lucky stars that nopony had to see that.
She looked to the open roof of the observatory, where dark clouds were started to clump together to form what looked to be a scheduled late-night rain storm.
Luna grunted in frustration, “This storm is soooo inconvienient!” Just as Luna was about to rant again, she noticed a few drops of rain dropping down onto telescope’s delicate form. Fearing that the water would damage the lens, she quickly turned a nearby valve with her magic, causing the open roof to slowly close just as the rain began to fall harder onto the rooftop.
‘Well...no use continuing now.’ Luna thought to herself, ‘Might as well go have some time for myself I suppose...doing something...’ Luna thought with a sulk.
She exited the observatory, her head low and her hopes of finally looking upon the mysterious object of her curiosity brought to a sad low.
~~~~~
“...Nord...”
“NORD!”
Canderous felt the tell-tale signs of deja-vu coming on when Bendak’s grunt voice woke him from his alcohol induced slumber. Just as he had predicted, Bendak kicked his chair with such force that it sent him spinning slightly in the air before falling hard onto the cold floor, whiskey bottle still in hand. Nord’s eyes sprang open from the sudden stinging pain of his chest. He slowly turned himself over and looked up at Bendak’s chuckling face.
“It’s always the damn whiskey...” said Bendak while he chuckled with a hand to his face. He pro-offered his free hand to Canderous, whereupon accepting, Bendak hoisted him up into the air, Canderous still somehow holding a tight grip on the empty bottle.
“Come on Nord, were about to break warp and land at the moon, and the captain wants us both to be present.” said Bendak.
Canderous followed Bendak out through the lounge door, dropping off the empty bottle in a waste bin next to the doorway, right on top of several other discarded bottles.
~~~~~
Canderous and Bendak pushed their way through the crowd of marines, slowly but surely making their way to the front of the crowd. Upon pushing through the last wall of thick armor plates, they found themselves at the head of it all, standing right next to the captain, who was standing near his personal control console near the edge of the railing. The captain was standing very close to the railing with both hands behind his back. An officer clad in a bright-blue overcoat stood over the captain’s console, waiting there patiently as if expecting the captain’s next set of orders.
“Nord, Bendak, glad you made it. We were just about to start without you.” The captain nose twitched, his senses obviously catching the scent of the strong alcohol on Canderous. “I take it that you enjoyed the whiskey Nord?”
“From the way he was slouching over the barside like your average wench I would say that he enjoyed it too much.” said Bendak in his typical grunt voice.
The captain let out a small snicker of laughter. “Powerful stuff that whiskey. Guaranteed to knock you flat on your ass after just a few shots. Brings back some memories...”
“Sir!” The survey officer that the captain had spoken with earlier pushed his way past a lumbering marine. He drew a few quick pants from the strain of having to push through a large crowd of burly soldiers, until he reached the captain’s side, saluting him before he spoke.
“Sir, the atmospheric probes are prepped and ready. They are ready to be launched at your command.”
“Thank you Vadik.” said the captain. He then leaned over to the left, and said three words to the officer at the console that caused the whole room to go into a deep tone of silence.
“Open the deck.”
Everyone on the crowded bridge, officers, engineers, and marines alike all turned their attentions to the captain’s position. The man standing at the control console pressed a few miscellaneous buttons and entered a passcode, causing the whole bridge to shake a bit. Loud clicks and the shrieking noise of grinding metal caused the whole crowd to advance forward by a few inches closer to the railing. Canderous and Bendak now had to endure the pressure of being squeezed by the cold metal of the advancing marine’s armor. The bridge observation deck slowly began to open, the gap between the metal and the thick glass on the other steadily widening. A thin streak of light-blue luminescence poked through the thin slit of the widening observation deck. That thin streak felt like a sign of heaven’s light. The planet was not yet visible, but as the gap widened, the marines started to move and bunch closer to the rail like a group of muscular, stem-injected cows. The captain was the only one spared of the rough-housing, yet he didn’t do anything about it. Maybe he understood the feel of such excitement that he allowed his men to get as close of a look as possible.
The gap widened far enough to reveal a small sliver of the Earth’s surface. This caused the marines to risk stepping even closer to the rail. Canderous thanked some unknown entity that the rail was made from tough Gallente steel, or else everyone would take a quick and painful trip over the edge.
This was obviously taking too long. The captain leaned over to the man at his control console, and ordered him to increase the speed of the opening mechanism. After a few stops and restarts of the system, the doors started moving again, this time at a much faster speed. More sections of Earth began to appear, showing off large oceans and several landmasses, including two large patches of ice at the North and South poles of the planet.
Just before the panels were fully moved inward, the captain raised his hand and gestured towards the planet. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...”
A moment before the panels stopped, he ended off with a single word that sent a wave of mixed emotions soaring through the air.
“Earth.”
Happiness, beauty, thrill and excitement were just some of the words used to describe the blue planet and it’s majesty. It’s oceans spread far and wide, the formations of clouds spreading vast over the water. The polar regions were as white as the fur of a newborn lamb. Mountainous regions and vast plains dotted the continents to the south and east. To say that the planet was of beauty beyond words, would be a complete understatement.
There was only one section on the planet that seemed to have visible cloud cover over it. It was located in the western area of a continent that sat in between a large, snowy region above it, and a large, desert-like area below it. This section was small place, yet covered by dark storm clouds.
“Earth...” Vadik finally broke the awe-inspiring moments of silence, “Mankind’s birthplace. The beginning of humanity. I just can’t believe it...”
“Vadik...” the captain spoke up after Vadik.
“Yes captain?”
“Launch the probes. Let’s see what we got...”
“Yes sir! Of course sir!” said Vadik with a wide smile.
Vadik called out from above to an officer at a forward control console, who was also lost in the spectacle of Earth’s beauty. “Officer Steinman, launch the probes!” The officer did as ordered, pressing a few buttons on his console. The ship began to shake for moment before the voice of the ship’s informative artificial intelligence came around.
Atmospheric Probes loaded into launch tubes. Launching...
Four black specks could be seen shooting out from below the ship. After a few additional seconds, the probes micro-warped towards the planet’s atmosphere.
“We have probe connection over western area of the forward landmass. Starting data cycle now...” said the officer. A few moments passed before he perked up again.
“Atmospheric composition nominal. Breathable oxygen has been detected. Vapor content of the atmosphere, nominal. All seems to fair and well. Yet our own onboard sensors are having trouble with scanning the planet surface...”
“What kind of problems?” asked the captain.
“An unknown form of magnetic and solar interference is covering the entire planet, save that one section of land covered by storm clouds. Those clouds however are very low to the surface. With a rough guess from the probe’s data, they are only a few hundred feet from the surface. They also seem to staying right where they are. No wind or current mass is moving them at all, meaning that some unknown force is holding them in place. Sorry for saying this sir but that one patch of land is our only risk-free option of establishing a forward base on the planet surface.”
“Sir!” Vadik excitedly said to the captain, “With those clouds lying so low to the ground, we can study the strange weather patterns of the planet up close and without risk! This would be a perfect opportunity for us!”
The captain grunted a bit, then moved back to face the giddy survey officer. “Vadik, head to the briefing room and await my arrival. Bendak, Canderous, fetch Thane and Titas and report to the briefing room as well. We will discuss the details there and formulate our next course of action.”
He then moved his head back down below. “Survey officer Steinman, keep those probes in the atmosphere and continue to monitor the data as it comes in. Inform me of any changes in the weather or atmospheric composition as soon as possible.” With those words, the captain started the walk away boasting a happy smile on his face as the marines cleared a path for their leader.
“You heard the captain.” said Bendak to Canderous, “Let’s go round up Thane and Titas then report to the briefing room.” The receding wave of marines stayed clear for Bendak and Canderous to leave and carry out their given orders.
~~~~~
Twilight had her lavender nose buried deep in the pages of a large book in the royal library. The book itself was very large and ancient-looking. It’s title read ‘Orbit: A Pony’s Guide to the Stars’. Twilight knew already that she had read this book several times before when she was a student at the university in Canterlot. After her usual classes, instead of having fun and goofing off like her fellow students, she would come to the library alone to study for upcoming exams. She didn’t mind that her advanced classes were filled with nothing but work and endless lectures. In fact, she enjoyed it sometimes. It made her feel good to unwind at the end of each day with a pot of tea and a good book at her side. The rain outside pattered against the stained glass windows, the occasional roll of thunder accompanying them, setting the perfect, calming mood for reading time.
Twilight set down her book and reached up to grab another before the sound of the library door opening interrupted her. She turned to see who it was, whereupon she caught sight of Fluttershy’s yellow form. A sleeper’s cap was draped over her head and she wore a little white slipper on each hoof.
“Oh, hey there Fluttershy. Is there something you need?” asked Twilight as she turned and stepped down from her chair.
“Oh...um...no thank you Twilight. Me and other girls are about to head to bed, and Princess Celestia thinks that you should to...” said Fluttershy in her usual inside voice.
Twilight thought about it for a minute, taking sleep over knowledge. “Well...” she started, “I guess I can go to bed now. I’ve read all of the books in here anyway, twice I might add. I’ll be up there soon.”
“Oh, ok. I’ll go tell the others.” Fluttershy walked out of the library, each little step just barely making a noise above that of a whisper.
Twilight started re-shelving the books she had already read, making sure of it that each book returns to it’s proper place on the shelf according to the traditional method of the DDS. Once she was finished, she turned and headed for the door, only to stop in her tracks when a faint glimmer of light flashed from the corner of her left eye. She turned around to see what it was before she found herself gazing out of a clear window next to her. She stepped closer to the window, whereupon she saw a blue streak of light careen across the stormy sky. Shooting stars were the product of Princess Luna herself. Twilight knew via trading secrets with her that she sometimes felt like throwing a star or two out of line, just for the fun of it. Twilight smiled warmly at the princess’s rare gesture before turning around and exiting the library, setting off for her nightly chambers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another chapter out and another angry cat to deal with...
This story is still without an editor. I don’t mind editing it myself, but having an editor alongside the story sounds nice. :3
Thanks for reading!
-Jonsey
INTERMISSION: Scope News broadcast of New Eden Gate aftermath
I REALLY wanted to do this. I planned for it earlier but I forgot to start on it once I got Part 6 out.
This short intermission is about when Scope News comes back to the system a few hours after the gate collapsed to discover as to what became of the Federation fleet. Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scope News Network
A small, robotic camera drone fly by a large section of debris from a Thanatos-class carrier in the midst of the blue ionic field, it’s tiny camera arm moving left and right. A tiny, built-in spotlight moved in coordination with the camera, it’s bright light shining down upon the charred and shredded ship wrecks of a once proud and mighty Federation fleet. The drone took an abrupt left turn into the exposed cargo bay of the massive carrier. It moved along slowly as to avoid hitting broken-away pieces of the bay’s interior. After looking around for a few minutes and finding nothing of interest, the drone turned and flew out of a large, gaping hole through the ceiling. It continued to fly upward, being careful as to avoid the passing debris of other ships. It finally slowed to a stop, then turned back to face the Thanatos so that it was viewing the ship from above. The ship’s bow and stern were separated from one another, each piece being only a few meters apart.
The camera arm moved around and zoomed in upon the back half of the ship. It’s zoomed furthered down to show three large, bold white letters inscribed along the far end of the charred hull.
SPE-
The camera then moved to the front half of the ship and zoomed in upon a second set of bold letters.
-CTACLE
“...and as you can see ladies and gentlemen, the devastation here at the site of the New Eden gate collapse is absolutely horrendous. So far, there have been no reports of survivors of the blast, and every ship that was stationed here is either destroyed or missing. Among the wrecks, our Scope News observational drone has discovered the wreckage of the legendary fighter carrier, the GFC Spectacle...”
The camera zoomed out so that’s both halves of the ship were in it’s full field of vision.
“The Spectacle has served within the Federation Navy for over twenty years. She has seen action in numerous, bloody battles across the galaxy. She was even present during the invasion of Solitude, when the Ammarian heir Urian Kaddur led the attack on a Federation-controlled military station. She was scheduled to be decommissioned two weeks from today, yet for the time being, she was ordered to report to the New Eden gate outpost to serve as bulk reinforcement. A sad fate for such a marvelous vessel...”
The drone turned it’s camera away from the hulk, then continued on it’s way through the blue cloud, making occasional stops at the split pieces of battleships and whatever remained of a few battlecruisers. The drone soon found a somewhat-intact half-section of a Talos-class battlecruiser. It took it’s time to squeeze through a small opening above the bridge section, which was surprisingly still attached to the ship. The drone’s spotlight switched on in the midst of near blackness, only to reveal to the camera a rather disturbing sight. The scorched yet hardened-by-ice bodies of the ship’s crew were scattered around the bridge, some of them in more than one piece...
There was little else to see other than the floating bodies and a few sparking wires. The drone exited through the same hole from which it came in, taking extreme caution as not to get it’s camera arm caught in the twisted metalwork, where it soon continued on it’s way, flying by and stopping at any intact wrecks that it may have found ironically interesting. After little luck at finding any other intact hulls, the drone turned around and readied itself to warp out of the field...only to slam into the broadside of a very large piece of ship-steel. After backing away from it’s sudden collision, the camera arm thankfully intact, it saw that what it ran into was a piece of loose ship plating, still firmly attached to an unknown object. The drone backed up even further, to get a more distant view, until it was looking upon the stern section of what appeared to be a massive ship. The engine nozzles were dark, most of them broken away and in pieces. Whatever ship this engine was attached to, had to be absolutely huge, for the plates that surrounded the nozzles were as big as houses. An engine of this size, bigger even than that of a dreadnought, could only mean one thing...
“This just in! Our drone seems to have made contact with the main engine section of an unknown vessel...”
The drone immediately turned and made a short burn away from the engine. Once it’s onboard systems had measured that it was around twenty-five kilometers away from it, the drone stopped and turned to get a full-eyed look of whatever lay behind it.
The vessel it looked upon was in three colossal pieces, only a few meters apart from each other. The engine was at the back, the bow at the front, and the mid section was in between. Each section was dark and void of near-visible light, the only exception being the luminescence of the cyan-colored gas cloud around them. Just by looking at the front section alone, anyone, especially a Gallentean, could easily tell what it was...
“Could...could it be...?” said the announcer with pauses for emotional takeover, “Ladies and gentlemen, this just in! Our observational drone has just discovered the somewhat-intact wreckage of the Gallente fleet admiral’s command ship, the GFT Endar Spire!”
The camera zoomed in on the hulking remains of the Titan, then onto the trace letters that signified the ship’s name.
“The force of the blast seems to have split the Titan into three separate, yet intact sections. From the look of the Titan’s current position, it must have been approximately thirty kilometers away from ground zero...oh...ok, right away sir...” the announcer paused before continuing, “Unfortunately, as much as we love delivering the latest breaking news straight to you all, the vice admiral of the Federation Navy has just informed Scope News to halt the broadcast until proper clearance has been given. We apologize for the inconvenience.” the feed went black after the news station’s generic apology, then it switched over to the Scope News standby logo.
“As always, we thank you for tuning into Scope News Network, your one and only reliable source of news and information!”
“...and the rest of the planet is just white noise. We can’t see a damn thing.”
“Have you tried everything?” asked the captain.
“Scans, re-scans, camera drones, binoculars even! We have exhausted every avenue! As of right now, that single patch of land is the only safe place to establish an outpost!” said Vadik while he gestured at a single undisturbed space in the midst of a big ball of fuzzy distortion.
The captain rubbed his chin while his eyes starred deep into the bright orange fade of the fuzzy holographic map of Earth before him. This went on for several minutes. Everyone in the room could just stand and stare at the captain, eagerly awaiting his response.
Finally, he stopped rubbing his chin and spoke up. “Are you sure...?”
Vadik gestured with both hands to the to the map, “Does this look unsure to you?”
The captain turned to the map, oggled at it for a few moments, then turned back to Vadik. “Fine. No risks will be taken in this operation. We will establish our forward outpost there. As soon as we load up the VTOLS with the necessary supplies and soldiers...”
“Uhh sir...there’s...a slight problem in that plan of yours...” said Titas while he scratched the back of his greasy head.
“Care to tell Titas?” asked the captain.
“S-sure sir.” Titas reached over to the map control console and punched in some unknown commands. The single spot of un-filtered space that Vadik had made such a rant about earlier cut itself away from the globe, turned over so that the surface was pointing upward, and re-sized itself so that it was in everyone's full view. After the section finished sizing itself out, a holographic sheet of what Canderous assumed was probably the planet’s atmosphere started to form a large semicircle that hovered in the air about two feet above the section surface. When the semicircle was complete, a small blip that took on the form of your typical battle-ready VTOL appeared above the atmospheric representation.
“This,” Titas gestured towards the section surface, “is the planet’s surface.”
He then gestured to the atmospheric sheet, “This, is the planet’s atmosphere.”
Finally, he gestured towards the VTOL, “And this, is a VTOL, loaded out with the usual roster of field supplies.”
“Now, watch what happens...” Titas leaned down and tapped a small green button. The holographic VTOL started to descend towards the planet in the usual air to ground process.
As the VTOL starts to enter the atmosphere, it begins to light up and break apart into tiny bits and pieces of hologram. After a few seconds of anticipation, it was clear that the holographic VTOL could not break through the atmospheric sheet. It soon disintegrated in a tiny yet bright ball of what Canderous guessed was supposed to be fire. “If we try to send in supplies from up here, they’d burn in a ball of hellfire.”
Vadik gave Titas an amused yet annoyed stare. “How in the blazes did you figure that out?”
“Engi’s gotta know this stuff.” said Titas with a smug grin.
Vadik huffed and looked toward the captain, who was back to staring at the planet hologram again.
“What do you propose we do sir?” asked Vadik.
The captain stared at the hologram for a few seconds more, then turned his gaze back to Vadik.
“Vadik, how far away are we from Earth?”
“Around three-hundred eighty-five thousand kilometers away, but that is from here to the surface. Why?”
The captain once again turned back to the hologram. He moved his arm directly above the atmospheric sheet, then he guided a single finger downward, his gesture slowly descending towards the planet, only to stop about halfway from the surface. His face drew into a wide grin while his finger stayed in place.
Titas, looked at the captain closely, his eyelids lowered in a suspicious way, while his mind wondered as to what the captain was planning. His eyes moved to his extended arm, then followed it down to his finger, and with an inner Eureka, it finally clicked.
“Oh ho ho, I see what your planning sir...” said Titas while he let out a slight chuckle.
“Planning what?” Vadik moved his own eyes to the captain’s arm, then down in the same manner until his own mind finally understood the captain’s planning.
“Y-your serious. Really?”
“Oh yes Vadik,” the captain continued, “I am most serious.”
The captain reached down and fiddled with the map’s control console, causing the map to vanish. He then tapped away at a few more patterns of buttons until the facial image of a stout officer appeared as a hologram above the console.
“Yes captain?” the officer asked.
“Inform the navigational officer. Tell him to prep for a short-range warp and descend through the planet’s atmosphere. Stop the ship when we reach the middle sections of the fog cloud, approximately three-thousand meters above the planet surface.” commanded the captain.
The officer stood there for a second, dumbstruck at the captain’s awry yet slightly crazy order. “A-aye sir. W-will do.” the officer saluted him lazily before the hologram faded away.
The captain suddenly stamped his foot hard on the floor and turned to everyone in the room. “Vadik, report back to the bridge and make sure of it that the navigations officer gets our new heading right. Warp on my command and my command only. Titas, you are to report to the hangar and prep our VTOLS for surface landing. Also, prep those drones of yours as well to carry deployables to Earth’s surface. Bendak, Thane...” At the captain’s words, the two snapped to attention almost immediately, “Organize several platoons of marines and be sure to assign captains to each. Get them ready for planetside insertion.”
The captain then moved his hands behind his back and made attempts to stand upright even more. “You have your orders, now see them out!”
“Yes sir!” all four of them shouted in unison. They filed out through the door and went off to carry out their respective orders. Canderous, having not spoken a word since the briefing began, started to take his leave, until a now more-calming voice of the captain ordered him to stay.
The captain started to slowly walk over to Canderous’s side, taking each slight step in stride with his near-concealed hands swaying behind him. “Canderous, I need you to descend to the planet’s surface and look for us a sizable position to set up the outpost. Head to the armory and grab a small firearm to protect you from whatever harmful creatures there may be on Earth, along with anything else that you may need for explorational tasks. When we reach the fog cloud midsection, you will be taken down to the surface in a VTOL, just you, and you alone. We may be alone in this part of the universe, but you are still our forward scout.”
‘Great, just great’ Canderous said under his breath.
“Well, you have your orders Nord, report to the armory and get fitted out. Dismissed.”
~~~~~
The Nyx’s walls shook violently as it’s humongous form slowly descended through the rough torrent of Earth’s atmosphere. Canderous, along with several other marines hung on tightly to the edges of the metal benches, their faces expressionless in some strange hope that the ship wouldn’t split in half from the violent tussel with gravity. An empty bottle rolled along the floor like a dry tumbleweed on a dusty plain, causing everyone to turn their heads in shock to the floor. Their wide eyes followed the bottle’s slow-paced path across the armory floor, where it soon clanked to a stop on the adjacent wall. Canderous and the other marines kept their eyes glued to the bottle’s surface as if they were expecting it to reveal a set of sharp teeth and lash out at the nearest unsuspecting man.
“I swear if Benji’ crashes this thing...” said a nearby marine.
“Benji’s been flying this thing for years now Hank. I’m...pretty sure he has it down by now...” said another marine.
Suddenly, the ship began to slow itself. The heavy feeling of downward gravity eased up on Canderous’s back.
Canderous Nord, report to the hangar bay. I repeat. Canderous Nord to the hangar bay.
Every pair of marine eyes in the room turned to Canderous, who calmly stood up and walked out of the armory, pretending that the sudden overflow of relying gazes didn’t exist.
The hangar bay wasn’t too far away from the armory, so Canderous found it in less than a minute or two. Upon entering, he discovered that it was completely empty of all life save the non-living objects that usually occupied the hangar of your average supercarrier. The fighters and fighter bombers were buckled down to their holding places in the ceiling and several cases of field supplies and ammunition were chained to the walls several times over. The truck-sized drones that repaired the Iron Giant’s hull earlier were folded up in a strange way and lined up against the wall.
“Canderous, over here!” shouted a nearby voice. Canderous turned to see where the voice originated from. He saw Titas leaning on the side of an awaiting VTOL, it’s passenger door wide open and waiting. He walked over to the Titas, nodding him in acknowledgement upon reaching him.
“Well, here’s your ride. Shuttle captain’s waiting inside to take you down.” said Titas as he walked over to a nearby metal crate with a small box resting on top of it.
“Uhh, Titas?” said Canderous as he stared at the passing grey fog through the clear yet shielded hangar bay opening.
“Ya Nord?”
“Have you noticed that the ship is still...”
“Moving? Course I have, but we broke through the atmosphere upon entry a while ago and are currently descending to our target resting position above the surface at what many can already consider snail’s pace.” Titas unlocked the hatches of the small box and slowly lifted the lid. “Seeing as to how the atmosphere is no longer a problem to us, the captain decided to speed things up a bit. So he ordered me to get a VTOL ready for your scouting operation. Speaking of which...”
Titas tossed the box lid aside and reached inside. He pulled out a small, steel rod with an orange glowing light coming from near the top. He handed it to Canderous, who looked upon the strange device with curious eyes, occasionally turning the device over and under several times.
“That is a sensory node homing beacon, capable of projecting a wide sensory field that can be picked up by the Iron Giant’s systems. Once you find a suitable location to for an outpost, plant the beacon and sit tight until we transmit our callback signal.”
Titas reached further down into the box and pulled out a long belt with several yellow tubes attached to it. The belt also held a flashlight, two flares, and a small knife in a black sheath with the Gallente Federation symbol stamped in bold white on the black leather. Canderous brought out the pistol he obtained from the armory per captain’s orders and attached it to an empty space on the belt. He then took the belt from Titas’s grip and wrapped it around his waist, securing it tightly with buckles on the side.
“Your typical field utility belt. Those yellow tubes you see there, are RH stimpacks. There’s only three so use them sparingly.” Titas waved a finger at Canderous to emphasize his words of caution.
“Titas, I have the VTOL prepped and waiting. Whenever your ready Nord...” the shuttle captain shouted out from his seat in the cockpit.
“Good luck Canderous.” Titas said with a wave while backing away from the VTOL’s engines. “Bridge control, deactivate hangar bay shielding. Lower drive cores to ten percent and level out until VTOL has left mid-sensor zone.”
Canderous climbed onto the VTOL’s edge and hoisted himself inside. The doors slid closed as the VTOL’s engines roared to life and the craft slowly lifted off the floor. The VTOL already began to shake a bit, so Canderous reached up and firmly grasped a leather strap hanging from the roof just as the ship began to turn and start to move towards the hangar exit. After a bit of indecipherable radio chatter, the VTOL rocketed out of the hangar bay and dove into the thick fog.
Canderous felt the transport dip downwards and gain speed as it sped towards the planet surface. He shook off the sudden burst of dizziness he had experience from the fast take-off.
“Check check, Iron Giant to Canderous Nord, how copy?”
Canderous turned up the volume on his radio and fitted the earpiece snugly to his right ear. “This is Canderous Nord copy back. What do you need Iron Giant?”
“Nothing much Nord, just a simple comms test and short briefing. Switch to channel four and copy back with the captain.”
“Aye, will do.” Canderous turned the nob from the one position to the four position and copied back in the usual communications officer style of dialogue. “Check check, Canderous Nord to Iron Giant captain, how copy?”
“Copy back Nord. Your objectives are simple. Scout the forest area below, search for a suitable outpost location, plant the beacon, and radio back. Afterward, just sit tight and wait for the heavies to arrive. The stationary platoons will arrive shortly after to secure the perimeter and assist in the outpost’s establishment. Should you encounter any dangerous obstacles or unknown creatures, you are authorized to take any necessary action to protect yourself. Captain out.”
Canderous switched back to channel one once the captain clipped out of comms. Suddenly, he felt the forces of gravity slam down on him when the ship took a sudden dip upward, yet still continued it’s descent.
“I can’t find a place to land this thing Canderous. I’ll get as low to the ground as possible but you’re gonna have to jump out from there.” the shuttle captain shouted over his shoulder.
The shuttle slowed down even further, until it came to a still hover. The right side door slid open, revealing a jungle-like forest area that spread out for miles. The fog wasn’t existent this low to surface, so the strange but beautiful views of tree-laden mountain ranges far and wide occupied his vision. Typical forest ambiance of croaks and whistles filled his already straining ears as the combination of exposed engine noise and indecipherable words coming in loudly through his radio invaded his eardrum. He turned away from the marvelous view and pressed the talk button on his earpiece.
“Say again? I didn’t catch you that time.”
“I said, you have to jump out now. It’s not that high up. You’ll be fine.”
Canderous crept over the edge of the open doorway and looked down. He was only about a meter or two from the ground. Plenty of space to jump and land unharmed. He backed away from the edge for a moment, then stepped forward and lept from the doorway’s edge. He landed on his knees and tumbled over a few times.
“You alright Nord?” asked the shuttle captain over the radio.
Canderous gave a thumbs up as he started to lift himself to his feet.
“Alright, good luck.”
Canderous watched as the VTOL climbed high into the air, turned around, and sped towards the sky, where it soon disappeared into the mass of grey fog above. Canderous, was now all alone. He took in the exotic sounds of humanity’s old homeworld. If the forests of Earth sounded this beautiful, then Canderous couldn’t wait to see the rest of the planet.
‘Speaking of seeing the rest of the planet...’ Canderous's thoughts were lost deep in the sounds of the forest. He looked around and found a nearby branch on the ground that would make a perfect hiking stick. He also found a small, pathetic yellow flower growing next to a tree stump. He picked the flower and placed it in the front pocket of his jacket. He knew that he wasn’t out on Earth for a sightseeing tour, but something told him that a little flower in the midst of all the crooked trees and muck would bring him a ray of good fortune. After making sure that the flower was safely tucked away in his front pocket, he picked up his nature-made hiking stick, chose a direction out of blind decision, and started to trudge his way through the dimly lit forest undergrowth,
~~~~~
“Pleeease Rainbow?”
“Twilight, do I really have to repeat myself over and over? I can’t get rid of the fog!”
“But why? Your one of the most talented fliers in all of Equestria and one of the most experienced members of the weather team!”
“The weather team in Ponyville Twilight! We never had to deal with fog in Ponyville before. We just worked with rain and snow clouds, that’s it!”
“But-”
“Twi’, just because she’s a pegasus doesn’t mean that every pegasus in Equestria knows how to clear foggy weather away. I’m pretty sure that it’l go away soon.”
“Besides; why would you want to stare at a bunch of stars in the daytime? Stars are for nighttime silly! After all, we get to stay in the castle until this “danger” or whatever goes away! I wonder where the kitchen is? *gasp* I could finally try to make a cherrychanga with all the nice stuff in that kitchen! Be right back!” Pinkie Pie zipped away from her friends, leaving a pony-shaped cloud of dust in her wake. Her friends giggled at their hyperactive friend’s usual antics.
“I apologize if the weather is keeping you unoccupied Twilight. I also must thank both you and your friends for complying with my decision to bring you here. It is all for your own safety, of which I cannot risk.” Twilight and her friends turned to meet Princess Celestia’s voice. They attempted to bow, but Celestia gestured at them with one of her hooves to prevent this.
“It’s alright princess. It actually does feel a bit nice to get out of the library every once in a while.”
“Glad to hear it. I must return to my duties now. Feel free to explore the castle however you wish.” The princess turned and continued her walk down the hallway.
“So...um...what should we do now girls?” Fluttershy asked in a barely audible tone.
“I must agree with Fluttershy here. It can get rather dull and drab to just stand in the middle of a corridor for the entire day.” Rarity commented.
“Well...we could pay a visit to the castle’s indoor pool.” Twilight suggested with a sheepish grin.
“Oooh, a pool? That sounds nice.” Fluttershy agreed with a smile.
“I never did get much time to visit the pool when I was studying with the princess back in the academy, so I figured, ‘Why not now’? The pool is usually meant for recreational purposes, but I doubt that they would mind.” said Twilight.
“Ah’ reckon’ a dip in the pool sounds purty’ good to me.” Applejack agreed along with Fluttershy. Soon enough, Rainbow Dash gave in to her friend’s desires for relaxation, and soon found herself walking alongside them on their way to afternoon enjoyment.
Canderous eyed the skeletal remains of an unknown creature on the ground. Small bits of rotting flesh still clung to the diseased, yellow ribcage. The skull however seemed to be missing, but by looking at the three-toed bony feet of the remains, he assumed that the animal killed must have been a large herbivore of some kind.
“Iron Giant to Canderous Nord, I repeat Iron Giant to Canderous Nord...”
His radio earpiece came in with slight static at first, but the voice on the other end came in clear after a few seconds. The message repeated a second time before Canderous responded.
“This is Nord. I read you clear now Iron Giant.”
“Nord this is Iron Giant bridge control. We have called to test comms and inform you that we are now within the midsection of the fog-cloud.”
Canderous could hear a few other voices in the background of the ongoing transmission. The voices only came in as hushed whispers to him, albeit he had to listen through the continuous sound of croaking frogs and chirping crickets. Once the whispers went away, the voice of the speaker came back.
“Nord, the captain has requested that you be put on ship-wide intercom to give everyone up here a thought as to what we are going to see down there. Will you comply?”
“Ya’, I comply.”
“One moment.” the radio went to static then went silent after a few moments. In the moment of silence, Canderous’s ears took in the many vivid sounds of the forest around him. The sounds were plentiful yet mixed in every variety. Crickets chirped, frogs croaked, flies buzzed all over the place, and even the occasional rustling of the thorny bushes brought his senses to shock, causing him to freeze up and search in every direction to discover where the noise came from. If his eyes found nothing, his hands would find the grip of his pistol, his fingers poised and ready to draw out his weapon and strike at a moment’s notice.
After staring at a snake clinging to a tree branch for a minute or so, the voice returned.
“Canderous, your radio will be configured to voice your words over the Iron Giant’s intercom. Your words will be heard throughout the ship so make your intel count.”
The voice went away for a few moments, only to be replaced by the quiet whispers of several hundred others. “Your live Canderous. Await the captain’s order to speak.”
The background noises through the radio soon faded to nothingness. Canderous somehow felt the pressure of several hundred pairs of ears on his brain, each one of them awaiting his words of wisdom.
“Canderous,” the captain of the standstill supercarrier now spoke loudly and clearly through the forest noise behind him, “What does the surface look like? What are we dealing with?”
Canderous cleared his throat before speaking, “I haven’t ventured that deep in the forest area yet, but the layout of the place is very strange. I have found the corpses of several different animals, some fresh and some old, yet there appears to be no carnivores in sight. It’s like they kill the animal, take a bit or two out of it’s flesh, then move on. Strange if you ask me. Every tree, rock, and puddle of mud just seems to mix and match with the environment. Sometimes I find a tall, leafy tree growing strong in one place, and in another I find the dead and rotting forms of several twisted and crooked trees. I have even found some of those stinking trees as sapplings.”
There was silence on the radio for a few moments. “Any other unusual sightings to report?”
“Just one other thing...” Canderous was about to explain before he heard a loud boom from above his head. He saw a cluster of dark rainclouds forming and immediately ran for cover underneath an exposed side of a large boulder.
“Canderous, we are reading a light thunderstorm approaching your location. Is everything alright?”
“That’s just what I was gonna get to sir. The weather patterns, oh dear god the weather patterns! It’s like Mother Nature took up drinking while riding on an endless roller coaster. Sometimes, you see rain. Other times, you see snow or hail. It’s mixed to hell and then some.”
The sky grew into a much darker shade of grey, and the rain started to come down in heavy torrents. Canderous scrunched his body to get as close to the boulder’s covered face as possible. He heard nothing over the radio during the storm. After a full minute of heavy rainfall, the storm clouds dispersed, leaving everything around him damp with water.
“The storm should be clearing up now Canderous. Strange as to how it only lasted about a minute...”
Canderous slowly stepped away from his rocky shelter, taking a quick glance in each direction before acknowledging the captain, “That’s just it sir! The weather in this forest is so ass-backwards that you never know what your gonna get! Like a box of wet chocolates am I right?” Canderous heard a few snickers of laughter through his earpiece.
“Thank you for the intel Canderous. You may continue with your mission. We await your beacon signal.”
“Roger that Iron Giant. Continuing mission.” The connection went to static and broke away. Canderous was finally all alone with the forest and it’s luscious sounds. He took a few moments of silence to himself, then continued his cautious stroll through the dark wood.
~~~~~
Canderous must have walked for at least half an hour, passing tree after tree, rock after rock, carcass after carcass. The strange pattern of nature here seemed endless.
It put strain on his eyes just to count out the number of objects in the drab landscape. He continued walking until he spotted a break in the forest tree line. A long strand of light was spread out before his eyes. He started to quicken his pace in the direction of the light. He looked down at his feet and saw that instead of the usual mud and wet grass that occupied the soles of his boots, there was smooth dirt, laid out in a straight line before his eyes. He took no notice in the straight line and instead furthered his speed, determined to reach the clear area ahead of him.
After a minute or two of fast-walking, he pushed past the last line of crooked trees and fell onto his knees. After gathering his wits, he looked up to find that he had made it to a very large, very wide clearing of land. The land made a near-perfect circle in the midst of the surrounding trees, with few imperfections in the shape. It was like this one patch of land was specifically designed to house a large camp with excellent precision. He walked to the center of the clearing and looked around in all directions, feeling proud of himself for having accomplished his mission.
‘Finally...finally.’ Canderous fell to his knees again, his torso remaining upright this time. His breaths became heavy and drawn out as his chest heaved with exhaustion. He moved an arm to his belt, where he unhooked the beacon from it’s holding place and raised it high into the air. With a smile wide on his face, he drove the beacon into the ground. Once he released his grip, the beacon began to transform. A small hatch opened on top of the beacon and the orange light within started to move upward until it poked out through the tiny hatch. The tiny diode used to create the orange hue of color was attached to a small radar dish, whereupon once it moved completely out of it’s shell, it began to spin around rapidly. The orange light began to flash brightly with each full revolution of the radar dish, a quiet beep accompanying the light with each passing second.
“Iron Giant, this is Canderous Nord. I am calling to report task completion. The beacon is planted and transmitting.”
“We read you Canderous. The beacon is successfully transmitting to us with the coordinates for the base sight.” The radio went silent for a few moments, the same background voices that Canderous had heard before returned for a few moments, then the officer’s voice came back once again.
“Alright Nord, we have the beacon’s coordinates marked and are prepping VTOLs for troop deployment. Estimated time to arrival, ten minutes.”
“Roger that Iron Giant. Nord out.” Canderous switched the radio off.
Once his transmission ended, he looked up to the sky, seeing as to how he had to stare into nothing but near-darkness for the last hour and a half. The sky was still blanketed by a thick cloud of fog, making the light of the sun all but impossible to see. He could make out a few tell-tale signs of the fog’s impending breakup. The lower levels of the fog were slowly drifting away from the upper levels via the help of the wind. Within a few hours, the fog would be gone, and Canderous can finally look up at the sun in the same way his ancestors once did.
~~~~~
“At least the fog is starting to clear up!” said a cheerful Twilight as she looked up at the sky with her friends in the castle gardens area. Fluttershy was playing with a tiny squirrel, Applejack was napping underneath the shade of a tree with her hat lowered over her eyes, Rarity was admiring her mane, and Rainbow Dash was sitting on a nearby bench, cross armed and grouchy. To no surprise, Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen.
“Twilight!” said a smooth, happy voice from somewhere unknown.
Twilight turned her head to meet the call of her name. She saw Princess Luna, smiling wide as she walked over. The princess bounced in the air a little bit with each step, clearly excited about something.
“Oh, hello Luna. Is there anything I can do for you?” asked Twilight.
“Well...no not really. But have you noticed that the fog is starting to clear up?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, I managed to get a look through the observatory telescope again. The view is a bit crude at best, but manageable, and I was wondering if you wanted to join me in a bit of star-gazing?”
Twilight thought about for a moment, taking note of how she hadn’t really planned anything for today. She looked to her friends, who were clearly occupied with their own doings.
“Alright Luna. I’m in.”
Twilight quietly stood up and walked alongside the princess, but before they could get too far, Twilight turned and yelled out to her friends, telling them that she would see them at dinner.
Twilight and Luna entered the castle and turned right down a corridor. She admired the numerous portraits of galaxies and constellations that adorned the walls next to a random assortment of doors.
“So princess, did you find anything ne-OH!” before Twilight could finish her question, Luna grabbed Twilight by the neck and pulled her through an open door, which soon slammed shut. She found herself in a dark, cramped room. The back of her head was pushed against the brick wall, and her legs found very little room to stand up in. A small, yellow light eminated from Luna’s horn, illuminating the tiny room.
“P-princess? Why the sudden stop? And why are we in a broom closet?” Twilight questioned Luna as she looked around.
“Twilight! You have to help me! I’m exhausted and I’m running out of options!” Luna said with worry in her eyes while she furiously shook Twilight’s head, causing her eyeballs to go loopy.
“H-help you with what princess? Is something wrong?”
“Is something wrong? Is something wrong!?” Luna was shaking Twilight’s head again, this time with more force. Once she noticed her rude behavior, she slowly released her hooves from Twilight’s temples.
“Hehe...my apologies...” Luna said with a weak giggle.
“Luna, what’s going on? Why are you acting so distressed all of a sudden?” Twilight sternly asked the worried royal sister.
Luna calmed herself by taking in slow breaths and exhaling them. This went on for a few seconds before she spoke.
“Do you remember the object that both you and I were studying a few days ago?”
“Of course. I wanted to look into it even further, but the fog has been making things rather difficult. Why?”
Luna’s next word were plain and simply put. “It’s gone.”
Twilight only stared at the princess with confusion in her eyes. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“As in gone! The object left it’s place! Just like that! Not a single trace of it’s existence was left behind. But there is more to this...”
“More?”
“Oh yes, more.” Luna’s horn began to glow a faint green, producing a little green cube in the air which slowly expanded outward. Grid-lines formed from within the cube, shaping out a three-dimensional grid-map. A red dot appeared near the roof of the grid, followed by a large blue dot at the very bottom. Soon afterward, a tiny white dot formed above the blue dot.
“Hey... that looks like the same style of visual star map that I used in my demonstration to the high astronomers a few days ago...” Twilight exclaimed.
“Correct, but with a few added details.” Luna’s hoof pointed towards the red dot at the top of the cube. “This is the object that we found around five weeks ago, with you arriving in Canterlot one week later.”
The red dot started to lower itself towards the blue dot at the bottom, but it’s movement halted about halfway. “The object then moved from it’s previous position to right...here. If anypony tried to take a look at the object now, they would only find the blackness of space.”
“How is this possible?” Twilight asked with wide eyes.
“I don’t know! But look at this...” The red dot lowered itself even further towards the blue dot, yet it stopped once again, this time at the tiny white dot just above the blue one.
“This is now the object’s current position! And get this! It went from the mid-point, down to the point of the moon in less than a day!”
“That’s impossible! Are you sure that you’re not just delirious from not getting enough sleep?”
“I am absolutely sure Twilight. I tried several times more to get a look at the object, but the fog made things difficult.”
“So...what did you want me for exactly?”
“You’re the only person who is as intellectually gifted with the studies of astronomy as I am! Once this fog clears away completely, you and I are going to find out what this object really is! It might be aliens, it might be an asteroid, it might even a giant flying spaghetti monster, who knows!”
“A giant what?” Twilight asked with raised eyebrows.
“N-nevermind. Simply put, I need you in the observatory for when the moment comes. With all of this excitement I’ve worn myself to near-exhaustion. I would truly appreciate your help.”
“Of course princess! But you know, instead of dragging me into this cramped broom closet, we could have just discussed this in the observatory...”
Luna’s cheeks blushed a bright red once she realised her silly error.
“Oh...uh...right. Let’s go before someone finds us...like this...”
Twilight giggled at Luna when she blushed with embarrassment. After peeking outside through a crack in the door to make sure that nopony was around, she and Luna cautiously walked out of the closet and hurried down the corridor to the observatory.
~~~~~
“Canderous, you there?” Bendak’s voice came on over the radio.
Canderous could clearly hear Bendak’s voice, but decided to deliberately ignore it for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure as to why he did this, but maybe his eyes wanted to get another taste of the eyecandy that was the clouded sky above him. When Bendak repeated his message, Canderous reached up to his earpiece and responded back.
“Ya’ Bendak? What do you need?”
“Are you at the beacon sight?”
“Course I am. Been sitting here for some time now. Why?”
Canderous started to hear the wind whistle through the trees. With each passing moment, the whistling grew louder and louder, eventually become loud enough that Canderous had to cover his exposed ear with this other hand to muffle out the noise.
“Ya...you might wanna cover your ears...” Canderous just barely heard him as the whistles grew to deafening shrieks of the wind.
“Why?” He yelled through the radio.
At that moment, a massive gust of wind from behind forced him to the ground. He turned his head to the sky. His eyes met with the running lights of a massive utility drone. It was hovering high off of the ground. The nozzles of the drone’s twin ion engines were pointed down, scorching the dirt and grass beneath it. Clamped onto the drone’s belly, was a large, steel-plate construct with a single wide opening on one face, with two port-holes adjacent to the opening. The drone began to lower itself to the ground until the object underneath it was about one foot above the ground, then, in a single kickback motion, the clamps were released. The whole construct slammed into the ground with a strong, earth-shaking thud.
“Whoa...” said Canderous with eyes wide and mouth agape.
“Nord!”
Canderous turned around to meet the voice that called his name. A VTOL was slowly descending towards the ground, turning and stopping just a few inches short from the surface. The passenger door of the VTOL was wide open, and there stood Bendak from within, one hand gripped a metal bar to his right, while his other hand gripped the stock of an automatic rifle at his left side.
“Bendak?” Canderous yelled out to the sergeant over the combined engine noise of both drone and VTOL.
“Nord! Get in here! Rest of the drone’s about to arrive to place the rest of the camp structures, and you don’t wanna get stuck underneath ten tons of solid steel do ya’?”
Canderous took a quick look above him and saw several large shadows through the thinning fog speeding towards him.
“Right!” Canderous yelled back. He sprinted towards the awaiting VTOL and leaped inside just as soon as more drones started to arrive.
“We’re clear! Take us up!” Bendak yelled to the shuttle captain. The VTOL rose high into the air and started circling the clearing, giving both Canderous and Bendak a clear view of the events unfolding before them. Drone after drone shot out from within the fog and descended towards the surface, each drone carrying a different payload underneath them. Some were carrying large cargo containers filled with supplies. Others carried planetside habilitation modules or large stacks of interlocking metal plates. In the midst of the drone invasion, two slightly larger drones came down at the same time. They were both carrying the opposite ends of a very large structure structure. In unison, they turned and descended towards the surface, unclamped their load, and sped off back into the sky.
Finally, after all the buildings and cargo containers were released and the drones retreated back to the Iron Giant, Canderous could look down at the newly constructed outpost with pride. He took special notice to the roof of the biggest structure on the outpost site located in the middle of the clearing. The Gallente Federation logo was inscribed in a bold, grey color. The shield portion of the logo covered most of the roof, while the eagle spread it’s wings out wide, the star above it topping off the shining symbol of free will and liberty.
“Hey Nord, watch the sky above us.” Bendak commanded.
“Why?”
Instead of replying, Bendak started a countdown with his fingers.
“Three...two...one...aaaaand bring on the cavalry!”
On Bendak’s exact cue, an entire armada of VTOL transports emerged from the foggy subspace above. They came down by the dozens, carrying equipment and marines to the planet’s surface. They came close to the ground and hovered above it. Their passenger doors slid open, and marines began to pour out of the belly of the transports. From Canderous’s position, they looked like tiny, gray marching ants, some lined up in assorted formations while others scattered in random directions. Organized chaos was probably the best word to describe the outpost activity right then.
“Bendak! This is Titas! Respond!” Titas’s voice came up over Bendak’s radio.
“Ya’ Titas? What do you want?”
“Captain’s arrived on the planet. He wants to speak with Canderous as soon as possible. Stop sight seeing and get down here!”
The radio went silent. Bendak yelled over his shoulder to the shuttle captain, ordering him to land the VTOL near the outpost. The captain complied immediately and started to lower the ship to the ground.
Before the beautiful views from high above went away, Canderous looked up to the chain of mountain ranges to the north. He smiled as the mountains bid farewell to him by giving off a small twinkle of light near their peaks.
When the VTOL touched down, Bendak leaped out and proudly strolled over to a large group of marines that had gathered near the edge of a the middle building of the outpost. When the marines noticed Bendak’s form walking towards them, they immediately stood to attention and saluted him with their heads held high. Bendak motioned them to be at ease. He breathed in deeply before speaking with a calm, proud tone.
“I haven’t been planetside in years. Feels good to finally feel some earth beneath my feet. Literally!”
Canderous smiled widely as he walked alongside Bendak through the outpost. He looked upon the many faces of amazement and wonder on the marine’s faces as he passed them by from building to building. Some were using binoculars to gaze at the many mountain ranges that surrounded the land. Others were picking up rocks and wildflowers and observing them with hungry eyes. Strangely, there was a small group of marines using the old leg bones from a nearby bone pile as swords. He was annoyed for a moment at the marine’s barbaric, slightly childish behavior. But after all that those aboard the Iron Giant have been through, it was easily excusable.
“Nord!”
Canderous looked to see the captain’s hand waving him over from a nearby field terminal. There was a small arrangement of chairs around the terminal. Thane stood next to the captain, while Titas and Vadik sat in the chairs. Bendak and Canderous made their way over to the captain and gave a salute upon reaching him.
“Nord! A fine if not superb job of finding a location for base deployment. You did in hours what would have taken the Iron Giant’s disheveled scanning system to do in a day or so. I thank you for your service to the Federation.”
Canderous chuckled a little before replying, “Thank you sir. Always a pleasure to help.”
“Good. Have a seat Nord. Unfortunately, resting will have to wait a bit. We have another task for you.”
Sighing with discontent, Canderous did as he was told.
“Titas, if you would...” The captain gestured to the husky engineer.
“Yes sir.” Titas reached forward from his seat and pressed a series of buttons on the console. A grid-line map started to form as a hologram in the air. Some of the grid’s square spaces were malformed and jagged, meant to simulate the far away mountains and valleys. Then, a small red blip formed in the middle of a white circle. Around the white circle, was a large mass of green light, probably used to simulate the surrounding forest.
“Now...” the captain pointed to the red dot, “This is where we are right now, and the white circle around it simulates the boundaries of the outpost. This green area around the boundary, is the forest that surrounds us. It stretches for miles on end...except in one direction.”
The captain pressed a series of buttons on the console, causing the whole grid map to shift forward. The green mass steadily disappeared as the map moved, until it came to a stop where there was no tree cover at all, save for a few very tiny patches.
“Using a few tidbits of information we have gathered and pieced together from both our atmospheric probes and the Iron Giant’s sensors, we have discovered a breakage in the treeline approximately one mile due North from the outpost.”
“Sounds exciting!” Vadik stood up from his chair and yelled. Everyone, including the marines standing guard near the captain, shot a stern and confused look at the giddy surveyer, who slowly and quietly sat back down.
“Really Vadik?” Titas unamusingly said to the embarrassed officer.
“Shut it Titas.” Vadik growled under his breath.
“If I may continue...” the captain said while he turned back to the grid map, “But continuing would be useless, seeing as to how that is all we know about the surrounding area.” He pressed a red button on the console, causing the grid map to fizzle then fade away. “Bendak, you and Canderous will make up a two-man team to venture into the forest areas north of the outpost. Titas and Vadik, you two will oversee the construction of the outpost’s perimeter defenses. And Thane...” The captain turned to give Thane her orders, but stopped when he saw that her head was turned away, her eyes staring at the ground and her eyes filled with concern. “...as you were.”
Thane acknowledged the captain’s command with a simple nod of her head, then she turned and walked away from the group.
“Anyway. You have your orders, now see them out. If the planetary rotational data from our atmospheric probes is accurate, it will be dark soon. So get there, get a good look around, then report back.”
Canderous, along with Bendak, Titas, and Vadik, rose up and saluted their captain, who then motioned them to be at ease.
“C’mon Nord, let’s get moving. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can come back for some camp chow.” Bendak had already started walking away, Canderous soon joining him.
~~~~~
“Aw hell, night’s comin’ on fast.”
The sky above Bendak was nearly pitch-black with the night’s veil. Only a tiny sliver of sunlight remained as the moon continued to rise high into the sky, it’s unusually bright beams of silver light casting down onto the forest floor. The moon may have been bright on this night, but not even it’s seemingly helpful guidance could aid the two as they trudged through the forest undergrowth.
“Just how in the hell did the sun sink so fast? And how in the hell did the moon rise so quickly? And I know that hasn’t been two hours!” said Bendak with multiple confused gestures towards the sky.
“Just shut the hell up Bendak! You’ve been going on and off about the damn sky ever since we started walking. Now, do you wanna find this break in the treeline, or not?” Canderous argued to the sergeant.
Bendak only responded with a grunt in annoyance. The pair continued on through the forest, avoiding any puddles of what they assumed to be mud, until they stopped at the edge of a naturally formed dirt road. They continued their journey down the road, not paying any mind to the forest noises around them. The moon now dominated the night sky, while the sun was left to slowly sink into descendance. There were no clouds out tonight, so the moon’s full force of bright light shone upon the treetops. The moon’s starlight companions dotted the blackness with individual specks of twinkling shimmers. Hundreds, if not thousands of them blanketed the sky above them.
“Hey uhh...Nord? Doesn’t it seem a little...odd to see the moon so close to the planet?” Bendak asked as he gazed up into the stars.
“Humanity hasn’t set foot on this planet in thousands of years. How the hell should I know?”
“Yea...guess your right. Hey wait a second. Look!” Bendak pointed a meaty finger towards a wide spot ahead. With assistance from the moon’s light, the two found themselves staring at the forest’s exit, the moonlight on the other side beckoning them to come out from underneath the dark and damp flora.
“Well it’s about damn time.” Canderous chuckled at Bendak’s gruff voice speaking these words. Slowly but surely, they stepped through the exit, and found themselves standing in a field in the midst of a large plain, with several rows of near-identical trees spreading out in all directions as far as the eye could see. The rows of timber seemed endless. They went over hills, dived through small valleys, and somehow managed to grow in perfect alignment on the side of a small mountain.
“Ok, cool. First, big, dark, and dangerous as hell forest. Now, a bunch of trees somehow arranged in perfect lines through even the most seemingly impossible places. Isn’t life on the homeworld just great?”
“Hey Canderous! Get a load of this!” While he was busy tallying up the strange events up to now, Canderous had not noticed that Bendak had wandered towards the nearest tree. He walked over to Bendak, while at the same time keeping an eye on the mysterious rows around him. As he got closer, he noticed that a large group of round and almost spherical objects were attached to the branches.
“It’s fruit man! It’s goddamn fruit!” Bendak yelled out to him, his voice trailing off into a loud echo in the distance.
“Fruit? Here?” Canderous cautiously approached the base of the tree as is he thought that the leafy branches would grab him by the shoulders and tear him apart if he did so much as look at them the wrong way.
“Not just any fruit, it’s apples! Real apples!” Bendak reached up and plucked an apple from it’s gripping stem. He turned the apple and moved it around, inspecting it for signs of bugs or rotten spots. “This is a flawless apple! No signs of bruises, bad marks, or even bugs! And just look at all of em’!” Bendak sweeped his free arm over the hundreds of trees in the distance before continuing, “You could feed an entire ground militia and then some on this field alone! Speaking of feed...” Bendak was about to take a bit out of the apple, but Canderous swooped in and yanked it out of his hand. Bendak turned to the apple snatcher with annoyed eyes, his immense hunger getting to the best of him.
“I know you rank higher than me, but I think it would be best to let the white-coats back at the outpost have a look at it first. Sure, it might look ripe and ready to eat, but for all we know it could be filled with poison instead of juice.” Canderous pocketed the apple and turned his head towards the sky. “Hey Bendak, you’re gonna want to see this...”
“See wha-? Oh...”
Canderous gestured towards the sky above them. The dual-pronged ECM projection system, otherwise known as the bow of a Nyx-class supercarrier, loomed high above them, it’s running lights making it look like something out of an alien invasion style holo-reel.
“Who knew that one of the most powerful capital ships in the Gallente Federation Navy looked so god damn sexy...” Bendak commented while rubbing his chin.
“Wait, what?” Canderous gave the sergeant a confused and somewhat disgusted look. He was about to say something against Bendak’s last remark, until he took a second look at the ship. Strangely, his mind had to agree with Bendak. “Yea, I...guess you’re right...”
Just then, a low growl from behind interrupted their moment of silence. Bendak and Canderous froze still in fear.
“Did...did you just hear that?” Canderous whispered.
“What the hell...?” Bendak turned around to meet the intruder, Canderous slowly doing the same. Their eyes meet with the territorial gaze of a small dog with a red band around it’s neck. It’s teeth were bared and it’s brow was furrowed over it’s eyes.
“Hehe, it’s just a damn do-”
Before Bendak could finish, the dog began to bark loudly, it’s yelps echoing off of the trees and carried off into the distance.
“Aw’ hell, just great...” Bendak said while crossing his arms.
“Damnit, this is bad. We were supposed to be back at the outpost a long time ago. We can’t head back there now with this dog’s barking attracting who-knows-what.”
“So what do you suppose that we should do? I’m in the mood for some dog jerky if your interested...”
“Your shitting me right?”
“Maybe.”
“Hang on Big Mac! Sounds like Winona ran off and found somethin' again...” said a squeaky voice off in the distance. Canderous and Bendak both turned their heads in the direction of the voice and saw a tiny yellow light slowly creeping up over the hillside.
“Aw’ shit, who could that be?” Canderous started to panic as the light drew ever closer to the hilltop.
“Humans maybe? Maybe some humans other than us still exist on the planet.”
The dog was still barking loudly, drawing the attention of whatever far off master there may be.
“Should we kill it?” asked Bendak who already had his hand on his pistol grip.
“Nonono! We don’t know what would happen if we tried that!”
“You have a better plan?”
“What in tarnation?!”
Canderous and Bendak both froze once more. The dog paused and looked back, then it continued it’s barking. They were staring into the face of an short, unknown creature with a tan coat and a long, red mane running down the back of it’s neck. The two parties just stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, after much waiting, the creature spoke up.
“Who or what in the hay are you?” It asked with a mild tone of shock.
Bendak leaned over to your ear and whispered a single word of wisdom.
“Run.”
Like two olympic sprinters, Canderous and Bendak turned and sped off toward the forest entrance. The dog saw their attempt to escape and would have none of it. After taking a moment to muster up it’s strength, the dog gave chase.
~~~~~
“Winona! Come back! It’s dangerous to go in there!” But it was too late. Winona ran after the two unknown intruders and started to chase them back into the Everfree forest.
“Oooooh no! This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!” Winona was nearly out of sight. Applebloom had to act fast before she lost sight of her beloved pet. She had to go after her, but she was afraid to step into the dark forest, especially at night when all the monsters of the forest were out to hunt.
“No!” she yelled to herself, stamping a hoof on the ground in protest. “I’m a big pony! I’m brave enough, and no stinking forest is gonna stop me from saving my Winona!” Appleboom’s sudden burst of bravery and confidence made her charge to the edge of the entrance, and before she knew it, she was charging through the forest undergrowth on a daring mission to save her beloved dog.
“I’m comin’ for ya’ Winona!”
~~~~~
“What in the hell was that thing?” said Canderous while he gasped for air.
“Just shut up and keep running!” Bendak commanded, his lungs also desiring oxygen. “This path will lead us back to the outpost!”
The dog had been chasing the two for about ten minutes after their encounter with the unknown creature. It’s barks still resounded around the forest, but neither Canderous nor Bendak dared to glance behind them to see if it was still chasing them.
“Winona! Come back!” echoed the same voice of the unknown lifeform that they had encountered not too long ago.
“Shit, now that other thing is following us?” said Canderous through his gasping breaths.
“What in the hell is a Winona? Aw’ shit just forget it and keep moving!” Bendak shouted.
Bendak and Canderous kept running for what felt like hours, never stopping for anything. They leaped high over tree roots and ditches, yet somehow, the dog, and the other creature, were still following them.
“There! The outpost!” Bendak pointed and shouted. Brightly-lit spotlights shone from within the outpost. The streaks of light were carved into thin slices that shone through small nooks and crannies in the treeline.
Suddenly, a loud siren started up from out of nowhere, startling Canderous and Bendak and almost making them trip and fall.
“Perimeter!” the voice of a far-off marine shouted.
“Go go go! Perimeter!” cried the voice of another marine.
“Perimeter? Shit we must have tripped one of the hidden field sensors!” said Bendak.
Bendak reached down to his belt, pulled out his radio, and held it high into the air.
“Do not shoot! Do not shoot! That is an order!” Bendak shouted his command.
“Huh?” In the distance, one of the marines leaned his head over the cover of the outpost’s walls. “Guys! Lower your weapons! It’s Bendak and Nord! Lower the gate!”
At the marine’s command, a large, steel gate that identified the entrance to the outpost dropped to the ground, landing with a loud thud. Canderous and Bendak sprinted through the open gate. When they were safely inside, Bendak turned and shouted to the marines up high on the walls.
“Raise the gate! Now!”
The gate instantly raised upward and locked in place. The marine’s rested the muzzles of their weapons on the edge of the walls, ready to engage anything that should ever dare do the Federation any harm.
~~~~~
“Winona! Please come back! We have to go back now! It’s to dangerous...in...here?” Applebloom skidded to a stop when she looked upon a long row of giant metal walls, with a large gate planted in the middle. Two tall guard towers occupied a space close to the gate from inside the walls. She could see the near-identical faces of several creatures. They looked just like the two intruders that she found trespassing on the family farm. Every one of them was holding what looked like a long, metal pipe. The pipes were resting on the farthest edges of the walls, their front ends pointing downward at something in front of her.
Winona.
She gasped and ran towards her standstill pet. Winona’s eyes were full of fear and her legs were wobbling back and forth. Applebloom grabbed onto her pet and held her close.
“Don’t worry Winona! I’ll get you back home!”
Just then, two large spotlights attached to the sides of the guard towers switched on and pointed at her, shining their bright beams of light directly into her face. She shut her eyes to shield them from the light’s painful intensity.
“Do not shoot! Do not shoot!”
“What is that thing?”
“Do not shoot!”
The gruff shouts of the creatures came in wave after wave, coupled with the shrill alarm and the marching of boots on the ground. Applebloom was absolutely terrified. Her very soul was struck with fear and her face was drizzling with tears of distress. She had to escape. She had to get safe.
Winona finally snapped out of her fear-induced trance. She wrestled herself out of Applebloom’s grip and took off down the road from which she came from, yelping all the way. The loud shouting continued to fill her ears. She just wanted to go home.
Just then, a large burst of green gas exploded in front of her, blocking out the spotlight’s beam and allowing her to see again. She turned her head left and right to try and see what was happening. But before she knew it, something grabbed her by the back of her neck and started running. She was screaming in horror as she was being carried off. She shut her eyes and tried to convince herself that this was all just a dream, but to no working avail. She watched the crooked trees of the forest fly by her eyes. She could faintly hear the sound of hooves on hard ground behind her. She had no strength left to turn her head and find out who it was that was carrying her. Completely out of energy, her vision faded into nothingness, and then, she passed out.
~~~~~
“Just what in the hell happened out there Nord?” the captain said while handing Canderous a metal flask of water. Canderous slowly accepted the flask and drank heavily from it. After a long, drawn out gulp of the precious liquid, Canderous passed the flask back to the captain and began to explain. He told them about the strange rows of fruit-bearing apple trees and the mysterious perfection of every apple on the branches. He described in deep detail about how each fruit had no bruises, rotten spots, or bugs on any part of them. Canderous even showed him the apple he had brought back and asked the captain to see if Vadik and his researchers can analyze it for any strange properties.
“Hmm...yes...and what about those two creatures following you?” This question caused Vadik to rise out of his seat and move slightly closer to Canderous, holding a holo-tablet in his hand, ready to jot down notes.
“Well...I’m assuming you all saw the dog right?” The captain nodded in acknowledgement.
“Yes. And what about the other creature? With those spotlights being much brighter than they should have been our marines could not get a clear view of it. You and Bendak both saw it right? What were it’s features?”
Canderous tried his hardest to remember it all. The recent excitement of the chase blotted out most of his memory. “Well...it had four legs... when we first saw it, it held a lamp in it’s...teeth I think?...”
“Anything else?”
“Yea...well...”
“It could speak!” Bendak barged in on the conversation, earning him a look of disapproval from the captain, but a look of amazement and wonder from Vadik.
“Are you serious?” said Vadik while he typed out various notes on his holo-tablet.
“Damn right I’m serious. Me and Nord heard that thing talk with our own ears.”
“Really? What did it say?”
“How should I know? I couldn’t hear or even think over that damn dog’s barking.”
The captain turned and nodded to Vadik. Vadik nodded back and ran off towards a building with a radar dish on it’s roof. The captain then turned back to Canderous and Bendak.
“Is that all you have to report?” Both of them nodded.
“Good. I thank you both your assistance and support of undertaking this dangerous task. Your actions will be remembered. Now, with all that has transpired today I’m sure that the two of you are feeling hungry.” The captain turned and pointed towards the building in the middle of the outpost, “Head over to the central barracks and make your way to mess tent. We have plenty of meatsteaks there. Now head on. Vadik will analyze the apple that you brought back and send the results once he is finished. Additional orders will be issued tomorrow.” The captain saluted both of them, and they saluted back.
Canderous and Bendak sluggishly made their way to the barracks, their stomachs growling and their minds full of the day’s events.
~~~~~
Luna and Twilight walked through the elegant doorway that lead into the dining hall. Princess Celestia and Twilight’s friends were already seated. Twilight sat near her friends, while Luna took her seat next to her sister. Celestia looked at Luna’s face, then at Twilight’s,both of them showing a look of disappointment.
“How did everything go Luna?” Celestia asked.
“Uneventful. The object wasn’t near the moon at all. We searched everywhere for it and it left no trace of where it may have went.”
“I’m not sure as to how long we can keep up this up.” Twilight started, “If we don’t find anything soon, we may just have to give up.” Twilight said while she sulked down in her seat.
“Absolutely not!” Luna raised her voice to Twilight, “We are not going to let this thing elude so easily. We will find it! It will come to us! We just have to be patient, and keep watching.”
“Uhh...sorry to ask this, but the two of you have been looking for this thing for days now, nonstop!” Rainbow Dash added to the conversation.
“And we won’t stop until Luna and I solve this pesterous mystery!” said an exuberant Twilight.
“I’m sure that the two of you will find it due time. I still find it rather strange that I have stopped detecting it’s presence...” Celestia said with reassurance.
“I am just as baffled as you are dear sister...”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THIS IS NOT OFFICIALLY FIRST CONTACT THIS IS NOT OFFICIALLY FIRST CONTACT THIS IS NOT OFFICIALLY FIRST CONTACT THIS IS NOT OFFICIALLY FIRST CONTACT
Special thanks to Jonsey for helping me brainstorm for this chapter after I have already rewritten this same chapter several, several times. When I say that “THIS IS NOT OFFICIALLY FIRST CONTACT” I mean that this was more of a passing glance of a pony/human encounter between the two species.
Special thanks to, my brain, for not forcing to me to snap with frustration when I was writing this chapter and smash my computer against the wall...
This is how Applebloom felt when she finally awoke from her horrible nightmares. It felt so real, so lifelike. It was frightening to say the least, but it was all over now. She pulled her comforter off of her tired body and yawned loudly. For reasons unknown, her legs felt weak as if she had just ran a full marathon.
Wait a minute...her room smelled a bit...different than the usual scent of apples and hoof paint. And what was that bubbling sound? And why did her mattress feel all funny?
“Whaza...huh?” Applebloom’s vision was usually blurry in the early mornings, so she rubbed her eyes to clear her view. She found herself staring at Zecora, who was tossing in a dash powder or two into her bubbling cauldron. She stirred the mixture with a very large wooden paddle. After a few seconds of stirring, she picked up an empty bowl off of a nearby shelf and dipped it into the cauldron, filling it up to the brim with a thick, purple liquid.
“Z-Zecora?” Applebloom said weakly. Zecora looked up from her black pot and turned to face the awakened filly. Applebloom started to climb out of the bed, but Zecora ran to her side and forced her back on, recovering her body with the blanket.
“Nonono, dear Applebloom! You must not rise to quickly, to soon!” Zecora spoke within her usual if somewhat taboo form of rhyming. “You are too weak, from the newcomer’s bright light. It drained your energy like a fright in the high night. You must get your rest, it is only for the best.” Applebloom tried to argue back, but her body was simply to tired for any sort of action. She said nothing and sighed heavily, accepting Zecora’s advice, and before she knew it, she was fast asleep.
Zecora dipped one of her front hooves into the bowl of freshly made brew, covering it with the sparkly mixture. She lightly dabbed the mixture onto Applebloom’s forehead in several spots, which started to glow with a soft light after a few seconds. “That should assist her with her fears...” Zecora walked to the front door of her tree-home and opened it, allowing the sounds of the nighttime forest to flood the room. She could faintly hear what sounded like boots on hard ground. Loud shouts echoed through the thick trees and the faint glow of the intensely bright lights she had encountered before peeked out through the crevices. The creatures were only a half-mile trot away from her deep forest home, a dangerous factor for her to be leaving a helpless young filly out here by herself, but she had it covered.
“No creature I know, would ever dare come this close...” Zecora silently shut the door and pulled down a small string next to the the doorpost, causing a giant blanket of multicolored tree leaves to drop onto the front of her home, covering it like a suit of camouflage. “...and with this veil on my home, eight or nine feet, at the most.”
Zecora quietly stalked through the thicket of trees like a panther stalking up to it’s prey. The boot-stomping and fierce shouting drew closer as she silently crept up towards the entrance of the outpost.
‘It’s a mystery to one such as I, as to why that alarm has not rang up it’s shrill-’
Zecora stopped dead in her tracks, one hoof hanging up in the air, directly above a small metal pole with a blue light glowing on top of it. Very slowly, she lowered her leg to the ground and backed away, keeping a sharp eye on the pole in front of her. Needing to take a more cautionary approach, she started to lurk in circles around the walls, trying at her best to find the entrance to the newcomer’s home. This went on for quite some time. The walls seemed to stretch on forever, the possible end in sight only leading to another rounded corner.
“Could there at least be a window, a front door perhaps?” Zecora quietly pondered to herself.
Suddenly, just as she was about to move in closer to the wall, the snapping of twigs caught her off guard. She froze, eyes wide, with her body shaking in fear. More twigs snapped, bringing her into a panic. The dead tree branches rustled in the nightly wind, their sways only adding to the fear already building up inside of her.
*crunch*
*crunch*
*crunch*
The footsteps came closer and closer, each new crack of the leaves and twigs setting off another alarm in her head. Her conscience was screaming at her to get to safety, but she didn’t budge. A thin sliver of light appeared through the trees. It’s beam swayed back and forth in conjunction with each new sound.
‘Get safe! Get safe, or only pure death will you taste!’
Zecora gave in to her conscious warnings and ran as fast as she could and dove into the nearest pile of bushes. She tried her best so slow down her breathing as to not give away her position to whatever was coming her way.
*stomp*
*stomp*
*stomp*
The third and final stomp practically made her heart stop. The beam of light shone above the bush, above her head. Her legs were frozen to the sides her body, locking themselves in a tight vice to her waist. She moved her eyes downward to get a look at the creature’s lower body, but instead of seeing the usual four legs of other dangerous beings she had encountered before, she saw only two legs, garnered in a long pair of black leggings with thick boots strapped on to it’s feet. Without moving her head, she looked up through one of the many tiny cutaways in the leaves of the thick bush.
The creature before her eyes had two very long, thick plated arms. It’s arms, torso, neck, and shoulders were fully-clad in the segments of black armor made from a material that she had not seen before. In one hand, it held what appeared to be a tiny section of a metal pipe. In the other, it held another section of pipe, but on one end, there shone a narrow length of white light, it’s auroral glow shining out onto the dark trees. It was like a magical torch, only much brighter.
*gasp*
Zecora’s eyes went wide. She had held her breath in for to long, causing her lungs to give in and take in a small whisp of air. The torch within the creature’s hand immediately turned to the bushes that she was hiding in. Zecora squeezed herself inward to get as far away from the light as possible, being careful as not to give away her position in the process. Suddenly, she saw the creature’s other hand move down towards the bush, the other small length of pipe in it’s grip. The end of the pipe was pointed at her face. Her levels of panic increased to even further heights. She felt like this was it. This was her end. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable as she began to silently beg Celestia to save her soul.
“GAH!” the creature yelped.
A loud ringing noise interrupted her prayers. The glowing pipe immediately jerked upward and away from the bush. The creature turned away, still holding on to the pipe with a vice grip. The creature uttered something to himself, then transferred the glowing pipe to it’s second hand, whereupon it then reached up to it’s head and fitted a small, metallic piece of jewelery over it’s left ear.
Zecora did not want to waste this single open moment. This was probably her only chance of escape. After silently thanking Celestia, with her own rhythmic verse of course, she leaped from the bushes, not caring at all as to whether or not the creature had heard her. She kept running through the forest until she reached the familiar dirt path that she normally used to get back to her forest home. She took in a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived, for she feared that the creature may be following her. Looking both ways before making her move, she leapt from behind the thicket of trees and sped down the road, her senses of caution and terror higher than ever before.
~~~~~
“Son of a...” said Canderous as he slowly lowered his pistol back to his side. His radio continued to blare it’s signal, but he ignored it as he continued to scan the forest in front of him, eyes wide and his senses charged.
“Canderous, this is Bendak calling to you from outpost lookout point number three. Can you hear me?”
Bendak’s voice came up over the radio. Canderous could hear the sergeant perfectly well, but he didn’t want to take any chances in answering him at the time out of fear that whatever sort of creature was stalking him in the nearby bushes a few minutes ago was still out there, watching his every move. Slowly, he transferred his flashlight from his left hand to his right hand, being careful as to not drop his weapon in the process. He reached down to his belt and unclipped his radio earpiece, which he then fitted over his left ear with his empty hand. After making sure that the radio was tuned in properly, he began to speak.
“Yeah Bendak, was is it?” Canderous asked.
“You were starting to drift a bit close to the outpost’s borders. Had you set off the alarms...hooboy that would taken a while to explain to the captain...” Bendak dryly chuckled before clearing his throat to speak again. “Anyway, your patrol shift is over. Captain’s ordered you to report back. Head for the front gate to relinquish your flashlight and sidearm to the marine that’s takin’ your place.”
“Roger that Bendak, heading back now.” Canderous unclipped his earpiece and reattached it to his belt. Before Canderous turned to start walking in the direction of the base, he looked behind him, then left and right, making sure of it that nothing big and nasty could be watching him at that very second. After carefully observing the many, many lengths of trees around his alert person, he slowly trudged towards the silently beckoning spotlights of the federation outpost.
Canderous arrived at the open maw of the outpost front gate. A single marine, clad in the usual fashion of light blue armor plates, stood nearby, both hands behind in his back in a patient manner. Canderous strolled up and saluted the awaiting soldier, who then saluted him back. He passed the torchlight and firearm to the marine’s open hands. After watching the marine head off in the direction of the forest, Canderous stepped into the outpost. He shielded his eyes from the intensity of a nearby spotlight. He started to walk away in an attempt to get out of the spotlight’s field of intensity, but after walking for a good ten feet and slamming his face into the hard metal side of a guard tower that he hadn’t noticed before, he got the feeling that someone was intentionally screwing around with him.
“Oh, my bad *hic* Nooooooooord!” said the slurred and groggy voice of a nearby person.
“Guess we *hic* should have had...mmmbrrr- someone *hic* watchin’ our backs!” came the slurred insult of another obviously drunken man. The two crapulous men burst out laughing, the sound of hard, gritty chuckles coupled with the slapping of knees on armor plates drowned out the nighttime forest noises around him.
Canderous could faintly make out the sound of boots stomping on the hard surface of the wall’s walkways next to him. They were fast and quick-paced, almost like a woman’s. The pair of drunken sods continued to hoot and holler, laughing their heads off, completely decimating any sort of respectable military dignity and pride.
But suddenly, the laughing stopped.
“Who in the dev-augh!” the man yelped before his voiced died down completely as the sound of cracking bones touched the air.
“Ay’! Who’s tha-” another crack of bone hit the air, silencing the man’s drowsy slurs.
The spotlight’s eye-burning gaze was lifted off of Canderous’s already painful retinas. He blinked a few times to regain his vision. When his eyesight finally returned to him, he immediately noticed a twin set of bodies hanging over the inward edge of the outpost walls. One of the bodies held a bottle in it’s right hand, a blue bottle to be precise.
“Much obliged miss Thane.” Bendak’s voice rang up as the sergeant walked over and stopped at Canderous’s side.
“Sure Bendak...” Thane lept down off of the walls and walked away, not even giving a passing glance to act as a farewell.
“Is it just me, or has Thane been a little on the...quiet side?” Bendak asked.
“What, you haven’t noticed? She barely utters more than a few words to anybody lately.” Canderous replied. Bendak just shrugged and walked over to the wall and grabbed the necks of both unconscious marines, pulling them down while they snored loudly in a drunken stooper. He threw both of them over his shoulders.
“Well, that won’t matter much I guess. Anyway, you’re bunking with Titas in habilitation module seven. Rest of the camp’s already out like a light, save for the night guards and the outer area patrolmen.” Bendak started walking away from Canderous. “I gotta get these two drunken bastards placed in a holding cell to await judgement from the captain. These two fuckers are in a whole heap of trouble...” As Bendak walked on, the blue bottle dropped from the lazy hand of one of the unconscious marines. Out of curiosity, Canderous stepped forward to take a look at it. He smiled and chuckled for a moment when he saw a familiar label stamped on the bottle.
“Private stores, eh’? Captain’s gonna be pissed...”
~~~~~
*knock knock knock*
Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed at what amounted to snail’s pace, her mind still groggy and slow from going to bed late that night. She looked at the grandfather clock next to her bed. Six in the morning. There was no reason for her to be up this early in the day.
*knock knock knock*
“Mmm...huh?” said Twilight as she started to rub her eyes to rid them of any mid-morning moisture. She slowly turned her aching body towards the bedside, letting her limp legs hang off the edge. She pushed off from the bed and successfully landed on all four of her legs, although she had some trouble keeping her balance while walking. The recession of knocks came around a third time. They were starting to irritate her, but she did not want to be rude.
“Just one moment!” Twilight cheerfully said to try and hide her true senses. She took a quick look in the mirror. After hastily brushing her mane to make herself look somewhat presentable, she strolled to the door and used her magic to open it, but what she saw put her in a bit of both surprise and confusion.
“P-Princess Celestia?” Twilight stared back at her mentor. She took a quick glance behind the royal figure to find that all of her friends, except for Pinkie Pie, were crowded behind Celestia, staring back at Twilight. “Girls?”
“Heyya’ Twi’...” said Applejack. Rarity scanned Twilight from top to bottom, inspecting her like she was a piece of a rare and elegant fabric.
“Hmm...rushed mane job, slightly unkempt coat, and a very deep look of weariness suggests that you haven’t been getting much sleep Twilight.”
Twilight felt embarrassed when she took a second glance at her coat and mane. “Hehe...yeah, I suppose...” Rarity just rolled her eyes.
“If I may girls...” Celestia started, “Twilight, I need you to gather any personal items as fast as you can and come with us...”
Twilight cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “Why princess?”
“Your highness...” said the voice of a pegasus guard at the end of the top of a nearby staircase. Everyone turned to look at the bowing royal protector. “Your carriage is prepped and ready for departure. Proper transportation has also been arranged for the elements, as ordered.”
“Thank you Tasadar. What of my sister?” Celestia asked. The guard rose up from his kneeling position.
“Princess Luna is within the observatory, prepping the science and observational teams for departure. I have also been informed that the astronomical team has already departed, much earlier than anypony else.”
“Thank you Tasadar. You may report back to your assigned duties.” Celestia shooed the guard away with one of her pearly white hooves.
“As you wish your highness.” The guard gave a quick salute to Celestia before taking off down the stairs, his armored hoofsteps echoing around the hallway walls.
“Err...what’s going on princess?” Twilight was starting to get a tad bit nervous.
“Do not fret my dear Twilight. I will explain everything to both you and your friends along the way.” Twilight stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind her.
“I’m ready when you are princess. I didn’t bring anything personal with me.” Twilight obliged.
Celestia nodded and turned towards the opposite end of the hallway.
“Very well. Follow me...”
~~~~~
The foyer of the castle was in absolute chaos as Celestia and Twilight, along with her friends, slowly stepped down the grand staircase. Dozens of guard ponies were running to and from their commanders and giving instructions to other royal officials. Screams and shouts resounded across the room. Papers, boxes, and saddlebags filled with all kinds of things lay strewn out onto the floor in a sea of white parchment and cardboard.. A large troop of guard ponies ran up to Celestia, saluting her royal highness upon arrival.
“Your highness, we are here to escort you and the elements to your awaiting chariots. Princess Luna and her team of scientists and astronomers have already departed for the edge of the Everfree.”
The mention of the Everfree forest made Twilight’s spine tingle. Why in Equestria would one of the royal sisters go to the Everfree forest, and for what reason?
“Thank you Jolee.” The legion of guardponies turned around and started marching. Celestia motioned to Twilight and her friends behind her to follow. They were lead through several panic-stricken and messy corridors of rushing guards and frightful royal servants.
As the group of guards and ponies walked through a long hallway with clear glass dawning high on the sides, Twilight caught a faint glimpse of a black, oddly shaped object off in the distance sitting still next to the rocky mountains of the far north. She tried to move closer to the glass to get a better look, but was interrupted by Celestia’s voice. Twilight turned to see that they have stopped at the end of a large hallway with a massive wooden door that reached up all the way up to the ceiling.
“Now girls...” Celestia paused before continuing, “Something...has happened. Something of which not even I nor Luna know much too much about...” Celestia motioned the guards towards the front door. Some of the guards took opposite positions at both sides of the door, while the other guards formed a wedge around Celestia and the others.
“So...what happened? Did a meteor hit Equestria or something?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“N’other giant dragon come around to terrorize everypony?” Applejack asked with one eyebrow cocked upward.
“D-Dragon?!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Is it aaaaaaaaliens?” Pinkie Pie said when she suddenly jumped out of a nearby potted plant and shook the dirt off of her pink coat.
“Precisely...” Celestia uttered quietly.
“Pinkie, how did you...wait, what?!” said Rainbow Dash.
Celestia’s horn flarred up with a deep, purple aura of power. She unlocked the mechanisms that held the giant door in place, then flung it open with ease.
Everypony’s jaw dropped to the floor.
Out on the horizon, floated a massive black monolith over the mountains of the Everfree forest. It was clearly visible from their standing point. It’s dark color and twisted design glared back at them from afar. Pinkie’s knees started to quiver, Fluttershy hid behind Celestia’s tail, and Applejack had her legs locked to the sides of her body. Even Rainbow Dash started to become frightened.
Twilight hesitantly turned away from the floating monolith of pure evil to glance a look down at the castle ground before her. Several chariots, along with several mobs of running and shouting guards occupied most of the cobblestone carriageway. Celestia’s special chariot along with two other chariots stood waiting nearby, their pilot’s already strapped in and prepped for takeoff.
“I know that this frightens you my little ponies, and I know that I haven’t explained much of anything so far, but I promise that my sister and I will explain what has happened so far once we reach the lookout outpost that is being set up at the edge of the Everfree forest near Ponyville, far enough away from the monolith you see before you. Even though I may have confirmed the term ‘Aliens’, I cannot say as to whether or not it is true. I would prefer the term, “extra-terrestial”, or not of this world. Even as I speak, Canterlot’s top scientists at the outpost are working as hard as they can to fully decipher the mysteries behind this ordeal.”
“Your highness, your chariot awaits, along with those prepared for the element-holders.” a nearby guard states to the princess.
“We are going to fly by chariot to the outpost, which, strangely enough, happens to be situated near Applejack’s apple orchard.” Celestia said with a small hint of ‘look on the bright side’ hidden in her voice.
“Hooboy, this should be fun...” Applejack said unassumingly with a sigh. Celestia directed each of the girls to their assigned carriages in groups of two. After making sure of it that the girls were safe and secure, Celestia climbed aboard her own carriage and signaled the pilots to take. Celestia’s carriage rose high into the air, with the three other carriages trailing alongside it.
Twilight looked out through a tiny window in the carriage at the behemoth of an object that they were fast approaching. She thought about her fears of the object for moment, taking in the factors of whether or not the object was alien, yet strangely enough, she managed to find a bright side to all of this.
‘Could this be the object that Luna and I were searching for all this time?’
~~~~~
“Nord!...” the voice of a shouting marine echoed in Canderous’s drowsy mind.
“Nord!” the voice came once again, this time with a much louder force than before.
“NORD!”
Canderous’s eyes shot open when the voice of Bendak screamed into his ear. Canderous shook his head to regain his senses. All around the habilitation module, red lights flashed, sirens were blaring, and marines scrambled all over the place, strapping on a pair of thick military boots or strapping extra weapon clips onto their combat vests. The gun-ho commanding officers shouted a different command to each soldier as they vacated the building and ran out onto the open dirt field. Bendak grabbed Canderous’s arm and hoisted him out of the chair he fell asleep in. Bendak walked away and opened a nearby locker. He withdrew a small pistol and passed it to Canderous.
“Hey Bendak, mind telling me what’s going on?” Canderous asked as he stared at the surging torrent of vacating marines.
“Captain’s called us out for extra outpost defense. Something outside of the walls keeps tripping the perimeter alarms.” Bendak led Canderous through the door and out into the early morning sun. Canderous was relieved to notice that every last patch of fog around the Iron Giant was gone, revealing the ship’s entire form to the world. As the two snaked around other assorted buildings in the complex, all around, sirens and warning bells of all kinds rang up in every direction, causing mass confusion for every man and marine running about.
After much walking, Canderous and Bendak finally made it to the front gate, where the captain was issuing orders to a group of engineers around him. After ordering the engineers to take position in a nearby guard tower, the captain paced over to the awaiting men, where the two gave him a salute upon arriving.
“At ease.” the captain ordered. The men did as they were told.
“So sir,” Bendak crossed his arms before speaking again, “how many times have the sirens gone off? Like what, err...a couple hundred dozen?”
“I think we lost count.” The captain motioned both men over to a nearby field tent set up near the gate. Titas and Vadik were working with two survey officers over a single control console with a holographic map of the surrounding area floating above it. Everytime the alarm went off, a tiny red blip would appear in an area relative to the direction of a white blip on the map, which signified the outpost and it’s boundaries.
“This is just bullshit...” Titas growled under his breath.
“Vadik sir, we can’t get a lock on the creature.” one of the survey officers explained.
“Well keep trying! After last night’s encounter, I’ve been dieing to my hands on one of those things!” Vadik shouted.
“Vadik, anything interesting happen yet?” the captain asked the frustrated scientist.
“Not much, but one of our stationary officers managed to get a visual on the creature...once. The officer’s description matches the creature that we have encountered last night. As you may have noticed from all of the marines running around, we are trying to get a second look to confirm it, but it’s giving us one hell of a hard time.”
“Anything else?”
“Not at the moment sir.”
“Thank you Vadik.” Vadik saluted the captain then turned back to Titas at the control console.
Canderous was scratching his head at all of this. Nothing has been explained to him ever since his rude-awakening. “Sir, if may ask, just...what is going on exactly? Why all the sirens and legions of marines running around?” Canderous asked.
“Some sort of beast has been circling our base for the past hour or so now, tripping every perimeter sensor that it passes by, but it’s a quick little bastard. With the treeline being so thick, it makes it next to nigh impossible for our ground sensory array to get a lock on it, so we have to rely on visual sightings for now.” the captain explained.
“So that’s why we have what amounts to a bunch of rampant ants running around?”
“Pretty much. We just have to wait till someone get’s luc-” the captain’s words were cut short by the shouting of a marine high up in a nearby guard tower.
“It’s moving away! Down the northern front gate path! It’s fleeing!”
“Just the opportunity we need! Canderous!” the captain shouted back.
“Nice.” said Bendak.
“Canderous!” the captain grabbed Canderous by the shoulders and forced a signalling device into his hands. “I want you to go after that thing and find out what it is! Keep that signal tracker on so we can keep track of where you and where the creature goes!” The captain shoved Canderous out of the tent.
“Lower the gate!” the captain shouted. The front gate fell to the ground with a loud thud. Marines started to line the walkways of the guard towers and inward walls, keeping their weapons poised and ready at their sides.
“Canderous! This is our only shot at this! Now go, GO!” The captain aggressively pointed in the direction of the lowered gate. Canderous did not waste a single moment. He scrounged up from off the ground and sprinted through the open gap. He continued in a straight line down a dirt pathway that was formed between the treeline directly in front of the gate. He could faintly hear the sound of an extra set of feet running along the hard ground in front of him. A short time later, he could faintly see the running form of the creature in front of him. He noticed how the creature had four legs and a tail, just like the creature that he and Bendak encountered last night, only slightly bigger.
“Alright. Let’s just see what you’re made of...” Canderous vowed to himself in between haggard pants for air.
~~~~~
“Ok, day one, journal of Stylish Pics. Discovered an alien species, took a few pictures, now running for my life!”
“Get over here you little bastard!” shouted the voice of the far away creature that was currently chasing her.
“Argh! Can’t a photojournalist get a break once in a while?!”
~~~~~
Celestia’s carriage was the first to touchdown in the middle of the sea of guards, tents, and dozens upon dozens of eager researchers and astronomers. As Twilight slowly stepped out onto the sunny field, she found that she could not take her worried eyes off of the floating giant ahead of her that practically radiated pure evil. Her friends seemed to have the same disturbed feelings. A few journalists had arrived and started taking pictures of Celestia and forest, wanting to spread the news of royalty’s concern for the alien-like object in the sky. Celestia walked up to Twilight and her friends and motioned them to follow her while the legions of royal guards kept the desperate news writers at bay.
“Tia! Over here!”
Celestia and the others turned to see Luna smiling and happily waving them over from a nearby round table. Luna was gathered there with a group of very old, bearded astronomers. Celestia and the others made their way to the table, where everypony but Celestia and Twilight bowed before the princess of the night.
Luna giggled. “It’s alright girls, you don’t bow for a friend like Twilight, so why bow for a friend like me?” Luna said with a smile. The girls smiled along with her, then rose from the ground.
“So Luna, what is the current situation so far?” Celestia asked.
Luna’s cheerful expression dipped down to the floor, along with her head. “Well...” Luna started, “Not to good. At all. Everypony in Ponyville is horrified, most of them having already fled to Canterlot to seek shelter.” Celestia did not looked surprised.
“But there is another set of bad news...” Everypony looked worried.
“And what would it be?” Celestia asked.
“Two ponies have gone missing from the town. One of them was a journalist from Manehatten. The other...was Applejack’s little sister.”
Applejack’s eyes went wide and she gasped with sudden shock. “Missin’?! Ma’ sister’s missin’?!” she shouted.
“Your brother, Big Macintosh I believe it was, came by not too long ago, wanting to speak to me. The guards would not let him through at first, but I advised them to let him in. He told me about how Applebloom ventured near the furthest edges of your apple orchard. He also told me that he heard voices along with some faint screaming. He searched all night throughout the orchard to find her, but to no avail.”
Applejack looked horrified but angry nontheless. “If I find out whoever took ma’ little sister I’m gonna...”
“Do you think that it has something to do with...” Twilight swallowed a hard lump in her throat before continuing, “...that?” She pointed a hoof at the floating monolith, which still managed to send a few extra chills down her spine.
“Possibly.”
“Oh dear...” Fluttershy quietly uttered.
“Your majesty! Something approaches from within the forest!” A nearby guard shouted out while masses of guards lined up to create a barrier wall of gold-plated steel and muscle, ready to intercept and detain any possible threat to the royal sisters.
~~~~~
“How’s he doing? Where is he?” The captain asked Titas.
“How far?” Bendak asked while leaning in closer to the console monitor.
“He’s nearing the breakage in the treeline that the two of you visited last night...but something isn’t right...” Titas explained while he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin.
“How so?” The captain asked.
“Well, through the magnetic interference higher up, we can’t see much of anything, but earlier this morning, we detected several heat signatures clumping together at the treeline breakage. The heat signature grew larger as the hours passed, not in intensity, but in size.”
Bendak thought for a few moments. His brow furrowed downward in a suspicious way. “Can we see what the heat signature looks like now?”
Titas shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”
“Bring it up. Quickly.” Bendak hastily commanded.
The holographic map above the console expanded outward and started to shift forward, passing over the sea of green signatures and mountain grid maps until it slowed to a stop at the treeline breakage, where a massive red blob covered up most of the hologram’s visible area.
Titas whistled. “Damn. That doesn’t to good.”
Bendak retracted his head away from the console screen. He started to pace around the tent, thinking. “Now why would a little creature like that want to flee in that particular direction towards the heat sig? Unless...” Bendak’s eyes shot open and his mouth hung open below his chin.
“Shit, aw’ shit, aw’ shit, Captain!” The captain turned his head to meet Bendak’s wild gaze.
“Yes Bendak?” The captain replied.
“I think Nord is about to walk into a trap.” The captain’s wondering expression grew into one of surprise.
“Are you sure Bendak?”
“Does that look unsure to you, sir?” Bendak replied as he pointed at the hologram where a green dot was about to run head on into a red blob.
“Right. Gather a defender squad, assist Canderous! Go go go! Hurry!” The captain urgently commanded while furiously gesturing towards the front gate.
“Yes sir!” Bendak charged out from underneath the tent and started off towards the gate. “Jackson! Picses! Garvish! You two, you three, and you there as well! Follow me! Nord’s in trouble! Adacus, lower the gate!”
At Bendak’s resounding words, the entire outpost went into a frenzy. Vadik could be seen working furiously at the sensor array building, the captain ordered around several groups of medics and marines via shouts and cursing, and Titas was angrily chugging down another hardy swig of whiskey from a metal flask he held in his hand.
Once every man in Bendak’s defender squadron was assembled, the gate was released, and Bendak and his squad charged out through the opening.
“Let’s hustle men! No stopping! Move move move!”
“Yes sir!”
~~~~~
“This thing...this thing’s fast...” Canderous wheezed in between tired breaths, “but...not as fast...not as fast as me!”
Canderous was closing in fast on the creature that had been eluding him for quite some time. His chest burned from lack of oxygen and his forehead was dripping with sweat, but he dared not give in to the suffering he was inflicting upon himself. He pushed himself even harder. As he got closer he could clearly make out the similar features on the creature’s body, the legs, the tail, the head and whatnot. The only thing out of the ordinary was the awry coat colors. This one had a blue coat, while the one he had encountered the other night had a tan coat.
The forest exit was coming up fast, and so was his chance of catching the creature. He was glad that he was not wearing the big and heavy armor that the marines wore. The creature’s head turned to look back, but it soon snapped forward once it caught a glimpse of how close he was. The exit was only a mere few feet away. In a last ditch effort to elude it’s pursuer, the creature lunged forward towards the light of the exit.
“Oh no you don’t!” Canderous shouted. With one last shot at victory, he bent his knees and held his arms out, palms open.
He pounced.
~~~~~
“Here it comes...” said Luna as she poised herself.
“Get behind me everypony, quickly!” Fluttershy was already cowering behind Celestia’s tail. Twilight and her other friends soon joined her. Frightened screams could be heard through the excited air.
“Help! Somepony save me!” A blue-coated mare with a tan mane lunged out from the blackness and dropped to the ground, where she then buried her face within the fur of her shaking legs. About half a second later, another creature, something much bigger and much more frightening lunged out from the dark hole, teeth bared, front legs outstretched and face red-hot. It landed hard on the ground mere inches away from the frightened mare, who then screamed and ran towards the wall of guards, which scooted to the side to let the frightened pony pass, then reformed back in line, their defensive scowls making them look even tougher.
“W-w-what is...that?” Fluttershy squeaked.
~~~~~
“Fuck...” Canderous grunted as his chest continued to heave from exhaustion. He lay on his stomach, his face to the ground and his temper flaring up knowing that he could not catch the creature that had just eluded him.
“Damnit, damnit, damnit...” He clenched his fists, uprooting a few blades of grass beneath him and holding them tightly in his sealed palm. He raised and pounded his fist on the ground, angry at himself. Seeing no other reason to stay facedown on the ground, he slowly got up to his knees, pausing for a moment to allow his lungs to take in fresh air. His breathing started to normalize. After taking a minute to rest he rose to his feet and dusted the dirt and debris off of his jacket sleeves.
“Well...that was uneventful...” He said to himself.
“You there! Halt!”
Canderous’s heart stopped cold. His breathing became rapid once again. He started to question himself. Who could have shouted at him? Bendak? Titas? The captain? No, he did not recognize this voice.
“In the name of her royal highness, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we order you to drop to the ground and surrender! Any aggressive actions will be meet with defensive force!”
No, this couldn’t have been happening. No way, just no way. There were no other humans on this planet other than himself and an average sized landing force of the Federation Navy. Wanting to confront those who were ordering him to surrender, he slowly rose his head in the direction of the angry voices.
What he saw, could never have been unseen.
“Woohoo! Aliens! Anypony up for a welcoming party?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After two weeks and several frustrating rewrites later, me and Jonsey have finally finished the prequel to first contact. The NEXT chapter will contain First Contact itself, along with an epic diplomatic meeting of the two species for the first time.
Enjoy it you smarmy grass-eating, fiction reading pony...things...or whatever the hell you are...
“This is your final warning! Drop to the ground or we will resort to aggressive force!”
The armor-clad horses that formed a phalanx base line at the bottom of the hill shouted thrice their warning to Canderous from afar. He felt as if he had no pulse, no signal of distress, but only pure fear for what he saw. An entire army of the four-legged beings had established a camp at the edge of the forest. They had the whole setup. Legions of guards, militaristic field tents, a medical center, and even what appeared to be a mess hall. He quickly scanned the crowd for any signs of a leader-like figure. After a few rushed seconds went by, he found the two most obvious out of the bunch. A pearly white coated horse with wings and a horn, along with its opposite, the only difference being the color of the coat and the strange transfigural mane that they both seemed to share. Both horses poised themselves in the same way that the armored ones had done, heads low to the ground and back arched as if they were about to pounce.
“That’s it! You’ve had your warning!” At those words, the guards slowly started moving towards him, one leg in front of the other. Canderous had to act fast. As quick as a flash, he swept his hand down to his belt and reached for the gun in his holster.
He felt nothing.
He patted his side pockets. Still nothing. Fearing the worst, he frantically searched the area in front of him for any sign of his only method of protection. He looked down to the ground and rejoiced when he found his weapon...ten feet in front of him and buried in the dirt.
He could try running back the way he came, but that would only lead him to a dangerous and inevitable capture, for the armored guards boasted wings on their sides that poked out through sizable openings in the armor plates.
“Well, I can either fight or die trying. And since I’m running out of options here...”
The guards were steadily closing in on him, their necks craned downward and their brows furrowed, ready to subdue Canderous at a moment’s notice. They were only a few meters away from his weapon, but they seemed to have not noticed it yet, giving him a small ray of hope in his survival.
Slowly but surely, he and stopped and positioned his legs and feet accordingly as he readied himself for his next move. The guards had not noticed and made no effort in trying to stop him. He bent his back downward and prepared to pounce onto his weapon, which, with some luck, he could then use to put a few non-lethal shots in the guard’s legs, buying him some time to escape through the forest thicket behind him.
“Nord!” shouted a familiar voice from behind.
“Bendak?!” Canderous shouted in reply.
The guards halted their advance and looked on with shock at the treeline. Canderous turned and saw Bendak running toward up to his backside, followed by a large squadron of heavily armed and armored foot soldiers.
“Nord! We-” Bendak ceased his hardened, raspy words through his breath when he looked on with awe at the surprisingly familiar mass of creatures ahead of him. The guards suddenly snapped back to attention and restarted their approach.
Bendak put on a look of seriousness as he stood firm in place and huffed aggressively through his nose. He then raised his right arm high into the air and motioned his hand towards the advancing wall of hoof and golden steel. The marines immediately moved in front of Canderous and placed one leg behind the other, keeping their backs straight. Some of the marines crouched onto their knees and put the stock of their loaded rifles up to their shoulders. The other soldiers stood behind them, creating a two-ply wall of heavy carbide armor and marine bulk.
Canderous was shocked at Bendak’s sudden willingness to fire upon the only other sentient species on the planet. He looked back over to the encampment of horses. The white and dark leader figures looked shaken, but they held their ground. The guards looked even more shaken, but even through their quivers of fear, they managed to hold their ground as well. Every other horse in the camp had either ran for cover, or stood still with shock.
“Bendak! What in the hell are you doing?!” Canderous shouted to the sergeant at this side.
“Saving your scouting ass.” Bendak replied.
“How would we know if these things are hostile? They may be the only other sentient species on the planet! If we kill them, all that we’ve worked for will have been for nothing!”
“Do you see their faces Nord? Look at them! They may not have any weapons, none that we know of at least, but they sure as hell don’t look to happy to see us!”
“Do you really want to kill what may be our only hope of surviving on this planet?!”
Bendak ignored Canderous’s last remark. Instead, he raised his right arm back up into the air, keeping a thick scowl of determination on his face. The marines aimed down the iron sights of their rifles, taking aim and prepping to fire on Bendak’s command.
“Or...” Canderous started, “Maybe you’re scared!”
Bendak immediately lowered his arm and angrily gleamed at Canderous, his levels of anger rising to new heights.
“Wanna run that by me again Nord?” Bendak growled.
“You heard me.” Canderous growled back.
Both men continued to stare each other down. Canderous wanted to punch the sergeant square in the jaw. Bendak clenched his fists, giving off a clear sign of his fierce anger.
‘Things are about to get ugly...’
~~~~~
“P-p-princess!” Fluttershy squeaked out from behind the royal equines tail along with the other girls. “W-w-what are those things?”
Princess Celestia glanced over her shoulder to find that Fluttershy, along with her other friends were huddled together in a small circle, fearing for their lives. She took great pity on them and did what she could to calm their nerves.
“Stay calm girls, just stay calm and everything will be ok. We have no idea as to what sort of species that those two creatures are, nor do we know as to what their intentions are, or why they were chasing that reporter, but rest assured that Luna and I will do everything in our power to protect you all from harm.”
“Do you think they came from...up there?” Twilight asked while pointing towards the metal monolith hovering above them, its front face still emitting the eerie feeling of fear and evil.
“I...I don’t know Twilight. I don’t know...” Celestia replied.
The two alien-like creatures continued to argue amongst themselves, shouting out verbal swears and threats between each other. One of them even raised an arm in an attempt to hit the other, and from the look of the thick, strange armor plates that it wore, it would have been painful.
Nopony in the camp dared to move a muscle, not even the guards. It was both awkward and frightening to have to stand there, shaking in your hooves while you watched two possibly-hostile alien creatures argue amongst each other.
“-Oh screw this! Lower your weapons! Now!” shouted the smaller alien.
“Keep your weapons high!” screamed the larger alien.
“Bendak!”
“Nord!”
“BOTH OF YOU! SHUT THE HELL UP!”
Suddenly, like a banshee’s wail, a third voice rose up from the alien’s thicket of anger. It was not gruff and scared like the voices of the first two. This voice sounded more shrill and high pitched.
A third alien stepped out into the sunlight from the forest exit. This alien’s body was slender and well-formed, much thinner than the other two. It had a long black mane drooping downward from its head, and its face only bore a scowl of anger and annoyance. It looked to its left, then looked to its right. It then turned and looked out towards the camp, observing it with eyes squinted.
“Tia?” Luna whispered.
Celestia turned her head to meet Luna’s slightly frightened eyes. She was scared, and worried. Celestia had similar feelings of fear and worry.
“What should we do Tia?” Luna asked.
“Stay calm Luna.” Celestia turned her gaze back to the third alien figure, who was still scrutinizing the camp grounds from afar. “We will get through this. We just have to keep watching to see what their next move will be.”
Luna perked up and nodded her head in acknowledgment. “Right.” She then returned to her original stance.
~~~~~
“Thane?” Canderous quietly asked.
“Thane? How did you-” Bendak was cut off when Thane raised her right arm in the air, sealing Bendak’s lips. After lowering it back down, she turned to the marines and motioned to them.
“Lower your weapons.” she ordered.
The marines looked confused at first, giving each other a raised eyebrow while shrugging their shoulders.
“I said, lower your weapons! That is an order!”
This time the marines did as they were told, mostly out of fear. They lowered their weapons and stood upright. Thane huffed through her nose and sneered at the marines. She then turned to Canderous and grabbed his jacket collar, pulling him towards her face. Her facial expression immediately softened.
“Nord...” she started softly, “You are the forward scout. The first to dive into any action...” Thane then released Canderous and instead grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him towards the camp. She then leaned in close to his ear and calmly whispered. “Make peace with this race. We are the Federation. It’s what we do.”
Thane gave Canderous a light shove towards the camp. Canderous gulped down a large lump in his throat. He then raised both arms high into the air, palms open, to show that he had nothing to hide. After taking a deep breath, he started walking forward.
~~~~~
“What is it doing?” Luna hastily asked. “Is it giving up? Can we apprehend it, maybe send the royal guards to detain it?”
“No Luna. The others are backing off, but that one is...moving towards us, both arms raised as if it is surrendering...”
“Good!” Luna exclaimed, “This will be the perfect opportunity to find out what they want and why they are here!”
“I said, halt!” The guards were getting restless and hostile. They lowered their heads and prepared to attack the approaching alien. Celestia had feared this. If the guards attack the alien, then their actions may lead to the start of a war, and by the looks of the tough armor and strangely figured armaments in the hands of its comrades -not to mention the black monolith floating high above the ground, in which Celestia presumed that it belonged to them- it would not be a pretty one.
“Stop!” Celestia yelled with a sweeping hoof through the air. The guards turned back to acknowledge her call. The alien also stopped moving, but it kept it’s surprised gaze pointed towards Celestia.
“Get back.” she commanded. The guards did as they were told. Celestia then took a step forward and formed her face into one of seriousness. “Stay back. I shall deal with this creature, myself.” Celestia turned her head behind her back and bade away the still-shaking mares.
“Girls, get behind Luna. I shall meet in the middle with this being, and provide my best attempts as to discover what it is and why it is here.” Celestia explained.
Twilight looked as if she was about to protest, but instead decided to keep her mouth shut and instead joined the other girls behind Luna’s flowing tail.
Celestia poised herself upright, preparing herself for the first contact scenario between herself and the strange species of which she could only describe as sentient, aggressive apes. Once she gathered her senses, she took a step forward, then another until she started off on a slow pace towards the middle of the research camp, thoughts high and both positive and negative outcomes racing through her head. One bad outcome made her quiver for a moment. She made a mental note to keep close to the guards nearby should anything go wrong.
~~~~~
‘Keep calm Nord, keep calm. You have an entire defender squadron backing you up...far away from you. Nice work Bendak.’
Canderous and the white horse were only a few meters away from each other, both advancing towards each other at a safe and steady snail’s pace. Canderous stumbled at one point, causing the nearby guards to flinch and ready themselves for a charge, but the white horse reached a leg out to them and they returned to their normal position.
Finally, after much anticipation, the two indifferent figures met in the middle with one another. Canderous slowly lowered his arms to his sides and bowed to the white figure before him, whom also bowed at the same time that Canderous did.
The white horse lifted a single front leg and reached out to Canderous and spoke.
“I am Princess Celestia. High ruler of the land of Equestria and equine of the sun.”
Canderous’s eyes went wide when he heard the mysterious creature speak words, and in galactic basic no less. Slowly and steadily, he too raised his hand and, with utmost care, he gripped the horse’s soft cloven hoof, causing it to shudder for a moment. The hoof was warm and had a feel like that of a child’s plush toy. Seeing as to how the white one introduced itself at first contact, Canderous only thought of it right to introduce himself as well. He cleared his throat and began to speak.
“I am Canderous Nord. Forward scout of the Gallente Federation Navy, ensigned to the Iron Giant, under the command of captain Markus Aran.
He swallowed hard after he spilled the beans about who he was to a completely unknown alien species of sentient horses. He was starting to regret his decision.
“Well met Canderous, that of the Iron Giant.”
The white horse retracted its hoof and lowered its haunches to the ground to sit down. It was nearly as tall as he, only a few inches or so below nominal height for an average human.
“Canderous, the arrival of your species on the planet has disturbed me greatly. I must know why you are here and what your intentions are. Please, you must understand that this must be done. I fear for the lives of the citizens of Equestria, and they fear for their own lives as well.”
Canderous nodded in acknowledgement and began to ponder for a moment. When it came to discovering a new species, first impressions are everything. Peaceful diplomacy had to be made with this strange species. They have a government, for the being known as Celestia referred herself as a princess. They clearly have some motive of defence, however pathetic it may have looked compared to the highly advanced and very dangerous technologies of the Federation, but they had the advantage of numbers.
For security reasons, the Iron Giant needed a certain number of personnel onboard to keep it in the sky, so only a few platoons of soldiers were sent to act as guard detail for the outpost. The Iron Giant itself could house up to twenty-five thousand crew members and military personnel, but the outpost could only house and contain up to eight hundred, not all of which were marines.
“I cannot give you what you request here. However, you, along with your legionaries, may come to our outpost location within the forest thicket behind us. We will provide safety and security for both you and whoever else you may bring along.”
“I don’t think-”
“You have my sole word as a proud member of the Federation that absolutely no harm will come to you or any of your people. You saw what I was trying to prevent just a few minutes ago right? I would rather die than watch a recently discovered species get slaughtered. My friend there, Bendak, was only trying to protect the Federation and its assets, standard protocol.” Canderous chuckled for a moment at his last remark.
The white horse now known as Celestia turned away to think for a moment. Celestia rose from the ground and nodded at Canderous.
“Where is this outpost?”
Canderous turned around and pointed in the direction of the linear dirt pathway. “Straight down that road. No twists or turns, just a single file pathway.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
The white one took in a deep breath through the nose and exhaled before speaking. “Two hours, if you know how long that is. I will travel down that path with my personal guard, along with my sister and my personal proteges, to this outpost of yours and formally meet with this captain Aran of yours to ensure that we, along with your species, come to a peaceful, non-violent conclusion as to where we stand.”
“Of course...Princess Celestia it was?”
“Yes.”
“Then with those words in mind, I shall deliver your response to my captain. I look forward to your arrival.”
Canderous and Celestia shook hands and hooves and bowed to one another before each returned their respective original positions.
As soon as Canderous got close to Bendak, Thane jumped in front of him and put a fist to his chest.
“What did it say? I heard it talking!” she angrily said while shaking Canderous by his shirt collar.
“I gotta hear this...” said Bendak.
“Two hours...” Canderous started, “it will arrive at the outpost in two hours to discuss diplomatic relations between us and they. She will bring along the legions of guards that you see behind me, along with her sister and a few special guests.”
Thane furrowed her brow suspiciously. She released her grip on Canderous’s neck and stepped back, arms crossed. “Is that all?”
“Pretty much. We have to get back and prep the outpost for their arrival, make sure that the marine boys don’t go apeshit when they see an entire legion of armored horses walk right up to our front door.”
“I agree.” Bendak grunted.
“Then what are we waiting for? Who knows how long this is gonna take to explain to the captain?” Thane added in.
Bendak nodded in acknowledgment, “Right.” He then turned sharply and planted both arms at his sides, feet pointing straight ahead. He then raised his right arm and formed it into an ‘L’ shape.
“High team!” The defender squadron snapped to attention at Bendak’s rough, vigorously commanding words. “Form up, out!” The entire squadron turned around on a dime and held their heads high. Bendak motioned a hand towards the forest path, whereupon every marine began to stomp forward in an orderly, symmetrical pattern, their metallic boots slamming into the ground with such force that each step sounded like that of a far off crack of thunder. Thane turned and walked alongside Bendak, eventually disappearing into the treeline. Before Canderous took off to follow them. He turned back and saw that the armored guards were still holding their positions, eyes glared forward, determined not to leave until Canderous had done so first.
Suddenly, something grabbed his arm and pulled him away.
“C’mon Nord.” It was Thane, who sounded much more calm than before, “Captain’s gonna wanna hear about what you found.” She tightened her grip on his collar and eventually released it. She pulled her hand back slowly and clasped her other hand to it, holding both to her chest, not even bothering to keep one hand on the pistol at her side like she usually did when she was angry. Canderous decided to ignore and pressed onward towards the camp.
~~~~~
As soon as the returning party reached the open gap of the front gate, Canderous was given a hero’s welcome. Marines and officers patted him on the back and even offered him their flasks of whiskey, which he passed.
“Nord! Bendak! Thane?”
Titas and Vadik ran up to the much-praised triumvirate of soldiers and fist-bumped each one of them, except for Thane, who just stood there silently and gave both Titas and Vadik a mean stare. They backed away immediately.
“What’d you see Nord?”
“Was it exciting?!”
“What did it look like?”
“Enough!” Canderous raised his voice while the two men bantered on with questions. “I must speak with the captain first.”
“And speak with me you shall.”
The captain walked up from behind Canderous and patted him on the back. He then went around to his front and stood as straight and as erect as he could.
“Canderous, Bendak has told me that you have encountered some...interesting things out there. Care to tell?” The captain asked.
“Uh...here, sir?” Canderous replied.
“Why not here? You’re gonna be battered with eager questions for the rest of the day anyway.” The captain took a moment to raise his head and look out onto the sea of marines in shining armor that gleamed in the mid-day sun.
“So, what did you find?” he asked again.
Canderous poised himself and drew in a few long breaths before exhaling. He began to speak.
“There was a new species. A species of...well, horses, that could not only talk, but could defend themselves -even though their methods of defense are meager at best-.”
The captain raised an eyebrow and a few marines in the crowd began to utter skeptical words amongst each other. Titas was scratching his chin in confusion and Titas was furiously jotting down notes on a holo-tablet.
“It’s true sir.” Thane spoke up. “Saw everything with my own two eyes. This species also seems to know about complex construction as well as government matters, which was a huge surprise. They definitely know about tactical planning, on account of the stupidly massive number of armored guards they possessed.”
“Armored guards?” The captain asked.
“Don’t worry sir. These things looked like that they just slapped a few golden metal plates onto their shoulders, and without any weapons, I don’t see how they could ever hope to defend themselves from anything, much less pose a threat to us.” Thane explained.
“Anything else Nord?” The captain asked.
“Yes. Their leader, a female -or so I believe- known as Celestia, has requested that she, along with her sister and proteges, set up diplomatic relations with us. She fears that we may be a hostile race, on account of the Iron Giant’s sudden appearance in their eyes once the fog cleared away earlier this morning. She worries for the lives of her subjects and she wants to put nothing at risk. So I had to do something to...make sure that peace is established.”
The captain raised his eyebrow again and leaned in closer to Canderous, who took a few steps back he felt that most of his personal space was being wasted.
“And what would that be Canderous?” the captain asked.
“They’re coming to our outpost, in approximately one hour.” The captain’s eyes went wide and a fierce wave of talk and gossip spread among the gathered crowd of soldiers. “I invited Celestia to speak with you. She will arrive with however many armored guards she wishes to bring, along with her sister and proteges of course as mentioned earlier.”
At those words, the crowd exploded into a thunderstorm of rapid debates and furious conversations. Some marines swore, while others cursed.
The captain quickly raised his right and swept it across the face of the crowd. “Silence! All of you!” he yelled. The crowd instantly became quiet and the captain turned back to Canderous.
“Canderous, this was entirely unexpected, as we are nowhere near prepared to deal with a first contact situation with another species, a sentient species no less!” The captain yelled. He closed his eyes and drew out a short breath through his nose, exhaling slowly.
“However though, you did manage to establish peaceful starter relations with this species, and without aggressive conflict. You are the first ever human being to successfully negotiate a peaceful accord on your own, and for that, the Federation thanks you.” The captain’s words drew out a few agreeable words of notion from the now calmed crowd. The captain then reached out his palm and gripped Canderous’s own. They both shook hands before the captain pulled away and placed on hand on Canderous’s left shoulder.
“So, it is with great pleasure, that I, Markus Aran, captain of one of the finest and most powerful ships in the Federation Navy, honor you with the prestigious title of...ambassador. Ambassador of humanity!” The captain’s loud and powerful words threw the crowd into a cheering frenzy, clapping hands and fierce roars of pride and celebration echoing off the walls of the outpost.
“Silence all!” The crowd fell quiet at the captain’s next words. He then shifted his arm and pointed at Bendak. “All defender and standby squads, you will report to Bendak directly from now until diplomacy has been resolved between us and they. Engineers with Titas, survey officers with Vadik. Canderous, Thane, you’re with me. We have a few things to discuss...”
~~~~~
“Girls, are you alright? How are you feeling?” Celestia asked the girls as they trailed behind her through the forest, dozens of armored guards at both sides as well as the front and the rear.
“F-fine...I suppose.” said Twilight as she continued to stick close to her shaking friends while keeping her eyes glued to the dim sky above, staring at the monstrous object hovering above them. The other girls said nothing.
Suddenly, the advancing movement of the armored legion came to a halt. The north wall of guards began to step back, getting closer to both Celestia and Luna.
“Your majesties. We have arrived.” whispered the voice of the closest guard pony.
Celestia, Luna and the others turned their heads skyward to gawk at the awe-inspiring defensive perimeter of solid steel walls. They looked to the left. The wall curved into a circular form. They looked to the right. Same circular bend. They took special notice to the strategically placed metal towers positioned close to the front gate, which was also formed from thick steel. The walls were so high in fact, that it was nearly impossible to tell whether or not there were alien personnel behind the thick panels.
The awkward silence was broken when the sounds of boots stomping on metal hit the air. Everypony looked to the front to see that a very large creature, clad in armor and in similar form to the one that Celestia spoke to some time ago, came over the side railing of the wall. Its arms were behind its back and the head and face were covered with a thick red helmet that looked similar to a common gas mask.. It raised its right arm and balled its fists. On that signal, a small line up of armed and armored guards rose up from behind the cover of the wall railing. Each of them held a long, studded pipe-like object that gleamed with a silvery light from the sun’s reflection whenever they moved.
“Legion! Stand!”
On the words of the creature with its arm held high, the entire line up of soldiers stood to attention with heads held high, snapping their arms into position while keeping the pipes they held at their sides, ready to be drawn out at a moment’s notice. Celestia and Luna cringed. Fluttershy yelped silently.
The original alien lowered its arm and brought its hands up to head and gripped the red helmet tightly. With a quick snap to the left, the helmet came off, revealing the questionable look of a dirty and violent figure.
“I am Sergeant Bendak, forward ensign of the Federation Navy supercarrier, the Iron Giant. State your business here.” proclaimed the creature.
Celestia and Luna turned to each other and nodded their heads in acknowledgment, then Celestia turned back to the walls before them. She opened her mouth to speak, but a nearby guard pony clad in shining white armor stepped forward and slammed his hoof into the ground to state his authority in the royal meeting.
"Her royal highness, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, have arrived to negotiate peace with your species. We go where we please!" The guard stamped his hoof again to exert his words with greater force. The unmasked alien high on the walls lowered its hand and sneered at the guard, who then sneered back. Fearing brutal conflict, Celestia moved a leg out in front of the guard and silently ordered him to stand back.
"My captain of the guard speaks the truth. I have spoken with the one called Canderous earlier. He stated that we come here to form ties with the leader of your race. We are here for peace, not for violence."
The alien turned to a nearby soldier and nodded his head. He then raised his arm and lightly swept it to his right, then his left, causing all of the soldiers to reform into a standby position, keeping the pipes they held at their shoulders.
Suddenly, the front gate to the outpost fell to the ground and out walked a small escort of very heavily armored soldiers. These soldiers looked as if they wore entire train engines for body armor and their black and grey helmets resembled a painted bucket with elaborate tattoo designs etched onto the sides. They stomped forward within a fixed distance from one another and stood still and erect once they reached a spot within ten feet of the princesses. They poised their thickly plated arms at their sides and turned around on a dime to face the vacant entryway of the front gate.
"You will be escorted inside by my heavy troopers. Bring only those who you think you may need to make this negotiation a simple and nonviolent joint meeting. Keep in mind that you are entering a Federation controlled base of operations. Any aggressive actions taken against any personnel within will be met with equal or greater responsive force."
"Ready when you are." Spoke the gruff and somewhat annoyed voice of one of the hunkering bulks of steel nearest Celestia.
"Ready." Celestia replied.
"Good." The soldier turned and jerked his head off to the right, signalling his fellow soldiers to begin their march.
Twilight peeked out from behind the cover of her mentor's tail and cautiously glanced at walls as the group passed by them, into the alien camp. A nearby foot soldier turned its head and followed the group's forward movement with its own eyes. No living creature in the camp spoke. No noise could be heard anywhere, save the occasional chirp of a forest crickets. She could feel the cold stare of alien eyes all around her, and by the way that her friends began to bunch together, she could tell that they felt the same. The soldiers lined the inner walls, each one posed in an exact position relative to the opposite from across the dirt yard, legs close together and shielded heads held high.
Not wanting to look at the daunting figures anymore, she leaned her head out to the left and looked ahead. She spotted a very large covered tent, similar to the tents reserved for royalty often used at mass gatherings, the only difference being that this tent boasted only a grey and brown color mix instead of the vibrant hues and tapestries of the norm. She took special notice to the three near-identical alien beings standing at the tent’s entrance.
One of the aliens wore nothing more than a simple coat and dark pants, with a pair of dark grey boots to match the jacket.
Another one of the aliens bore a suit of pitch black plated armor with a dark green outline. It wore no helmet, so it was easy to take note of the creatures defining features that separated it from the other two. Its hair was long and black and its body was slim and well-formed. The long hair and slender form made Twilight place a guess on it as to say that this alien was a female.
Last but not least, was the third and final being. This one stood in between the other two and boasted a suit of leisure of the highest quality. Gold and silver medals hung from small pins on the front pocket of its long and dark overcoat. A short brim hat adorned with gold trim was positioned towards the back of its head, and it to gleamed with a silver medal pinned to the right side.
"Hold!" shouted the memorable voice of Bendak, who had somehow appeared off to the side without Celestia noticing. On his command, the advancing heavy troopers came to halt only a few feet away from the tent. Bendak nodded and motioned with his hand for the troops to follow him.
Celestia, Luna, and the elements were now staring face to face with the three alien figures. The one known as Canderous was among them. A drawn out thread of silence expanded between the two sides.
The middle figure looked to Celestia, then to Luna, bowing slightly to each of them.
"Two of you are here..." the alien started, "but where are your proteges?"
Twilight and the other girls knew that this moment was going to come. One by one, they each moved out into view from behind Celestia's tail. Fluttershy squealed and ran for cover behind Rainbow Dash.
"Good, very good." The middle figure stepped forward and reached out to Celestia with its hand. Celestia lifted one of her front hooves and shook hands and hooves just like she did with Canderous earlier that day. They each pulled back from the shake and bowed to each other.
The middle figure swung its left hand off to its left side and spoke calmly. “Celestia, I would like to introduce you to Thane...” The figure retracted its left hand and swung its right hand out to its right side, “and Canderous Nord. Forward scout of the Federation Navy and currently the ambassador of humanity. A rank worthy for the one who managed to establish peaceful first contact relations with an unknown lifeform.”
“Hello again, Princess Celestia.” said Canderous as he reached out his arm and shook hands and hooves with the white mare.
“Hello again to you as well, Canderous.” said Celestia as she retracted her leg back and brought it down to her side.
“So...” Canderous started, “Here we are. Man and...horse?”
“Pony, actually.” Luna corrected Canderous.
“Excuse me. Man and pony. Two completely different, sentient species brought to meeting. As ambassador -even though I would prefer to use that title lightly-, I believe that it is important that we start off by formally introducing our species to each other.”
“I agree.” said Thane, “To an extent of course. Like hell I’m telling these things anything about me.” said Thane with a huff in her voice.
“A formal introduction sounds fine.” said Celestia, who then turned her head and lowered her neck to meet the girl’s faces. She uttered a few words to each of them. One by one, they filed out from behind Celestia’s tail, heads low to ground in an attempt to avoid eye contact.
“Oh, your proteges. I have forgotten, my apologies.” said Canderous.
“Girls, there is nothing to be afraid of...as far I know, right?” Celestia turned back to face Canderous in hopes for a nerve-calming answer.
“I can assure you Celestia. No harm will come to your species. As I have done so before, I give you my solemn word as a Federation official.” said Canderous.
Celestia and Luna released a short, pent up sigh. “Thank you Canderous.” said Celestia, who then turned and looked at the girls.
“Girls...” Celestia started, “There is nothing to be afraid of. Please, introduce yourselves.”
Twilight Sparkle, even with her strange fear of a new and interesting species, was the first to step forward, her purple hooves dragging behind her. She slowly lifted her head and composed herself to speak. She made her introduction brief and simple.
“Twilight Sparkle,” her name caused the eyebrows of all three alien leaders to raise in confusion, “Personnel student of Princess Celestia, high ruler of Equestria.” She stepped back into line once she was finished, but she did not lower her head. Instead, she kept it up once she saw the smiling, proud expression on her mentor’s face, which completely wiped the thoughts of her fears from memory. This made the other girls raise their heads from the low ground and smile when they too got a look at the encouraging expression. It looked as if the girls were eager to introduce themselves to the somewhat friendly ape-like beings. Rainbow Dash was the next pony to step forward.
“Rainbow Dash!” she loudly proclaimed with her hooves poised at her sides, “Fastest young flier in all of Equestria!”
Rainbow Dash’s introduction made Canderous and Thane chuckle. Even the captain decided to join in. Applejack was next.
“Applejack.” she said her name with a swift tip of her Stetson hat, “Proud co-owner of Sweet Apple Acres alongside mah’ granny, mah’ brother, and mah’...sister...”
Applejack’s furrowed her brow and bared her teeth. The thought of her still lost little sister crept back into mind like an angry cat about to pounce onto its owner.
“Mah’...sister! What’d ya’ll do with her! Answer me this instant!” She yelled.
The sudden outburst made Canderous step back a few inches. Even some of the nearby marines brought their weapons down to their plated chests. Immediately spying the danger, Celestia placed a cloven hoof onto Applejack’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, which failed when she pushed her away and moved a few steps forward. The ready and waiting marines mirrored her every move with high caution.
“Ah’ said, answer me!” She yelled again. Canderous choked down a lump of forced bravery and stepped forward.
“What do you mean Applejack?” Canderous stepped forward and calmly asked the angry mare.
“Don’ chu’ play dumb with me now!” Applejack yelled, “Ah’ was told that mah’ little sis went into this particular part of the forest and never came out! Seein’ as to how you’re the only other things brave enough to get this close to the forest edge, the disappearance of mah’ little sister is weighed down pretty hard on you.”
Thane looked off to the side and pondered for a moment. Before long, her eyes went wide and her jaw hung outward by a small length. “Ooooh! I think I know who you’re talking about.” She started, “Last night, a small creature, well two small creatures, penetrated our outpost perimeter alarm grid. The first to come through, was a small, furry hound, about ye’ high.” Thane lowered herself to the ground to simulate the dog’s height. “The second thing to come through was...well, a pony, a very small pony in fact. Red bow in the top mane, tan coat, eyes as big as saucers, crying like a leaky faucet. Sound familiar?”
“Exactly like that!” Applejack fiercely replied, “Where is she!?”
Thane raised herself from off of the ground and stood up straight, arms crossed. “The Federation takes no prisoners, nonviolent ones that is. Anyway, we tried to scare it off, but it didn’t work. We were prepared to head outside and try and coax it away with floodlights, but then, a green smoke just came out of nowhere, and before we knew it, both the hound, and the...pony, were gone. We found dog tracks soon after that, but those only led back down the path from which it came from. We have no idea where your sister went.”
“With this knowledge in mind, we can search the borders of the forest for Applejack’s sister. I can’t imagine a little filly venturing out to far into the forest. Thank you Thane.” said Celestia.
“No problem.” Thane replied.
Applejack slowly fell back into line, head down low in a sulk for fear of her sister’s whereabouts. Fluttershy comforted her friend by patting her on the back while Rarity and Pinkie Pie introduced themselves. Fluttershy, not surprisingly enough, was the last to introduce herself. She did so in a mellow, nearly inaudible tone of voice as usual. When she finished, she stepped back into line.
“Thank you girls.” Celestia whispered to her right side. The girls nodded back in reply.
“So...” Luna perked up, “Ambassador Nord-”
“Please...” Canderous interrupted, “Call me Canderous.” The captain raised an eyebrow in his direction. “I don’t mean to denounce the grand title of ambassador sir, but since we’re the only other humans on this planet-”
“Humans?” Celestia suddenly inserted herself into the conversation, “Is that the name of...what you are? Humans?”
“We call ourselves Federation officials, but if you are referring to the name of our species, then you would be correct, humans.” Canderous gestured off to his side with his hand to emphasize.
“...right. Canderous,” Luna started again, “Why has your species come to our planet?”
“E-excuse me, but mind if we take this conversation elsewhere?” said the captain while gestured one of his hands behind him. “Explaining ourselves is going to take some time.”
Luna nervously looked at her sister, as did Twilight and her friends. Celestia reassured them with a smile and a single nod of her head.
“Are you sure about that?” Celestia asked. The captain nodded his head.
“As both I, and Canderous have stated to you before, no harm will come to you, or your species. In fact, just to ease your nerves, you may bring anyone of your subjects along with you while my men stay away.” Celestia and Luna smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Glad to hear that we’re upholding the peaceful traits of the Federation. Please, through here...” Canderous commented as he lead Celestia, Luna, and the other girls through the open tent flaps with Thane and the captain in tow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh. My. God.
This chapter. This chapter right here has got to have been the hardest chapter that I have ever had to write. Took me forever to formally plan every day of my life from March 5th up to now, just to find time to write. It was agonizing, but well worth it.
Of course, this chapter would have come out much later if it weren’t for Jonsey, my right hand man and favorite editor. You never cease to amaze me.
