After fleeing from bandits who were attacking her home, Rain found herself adrift in the vastness of space, and her only hope is an ancient legend.
Rain had a difficult but good life, with her mother and brother, her future at the colonial station Selene promise to improve, but when some space pirates managed to invade the station, the evacuation ship she was in was hit just before Entering slipspace, drifting along with a part of the ship, armed with only an escape pod and a story, Rain sets out to fight for her life and return to her family.
The story is inspired by "Tuf Voyaging", in addition to being in the Harmony multiverse.
Catalog: 24 Article Number: 37433-320222-126525 Camelot Research Center for the study of alien structures. Xenoanthropological Department.
Item Description: vocally encoded crystal Article found in: St´a Brana (co / rds SWEKV7564,852) Approximate date: recorded about 250 normal years before today. Classify in: Legends and myths, alien weapons, battle of the republic, CGU, abandoned research facilities.
Testing?, I think it works, that's good, I need someone at least to know what the hell happened in this place away from the light of Celestia.
I am the head of security of the research center in the Selene system, on the planet St´a Brana, initially, the research body was made up of more than 5,000 brave citizens of the UEG, all from the central planets, almost one of all species, to be honest, it was an honor to have been part of this.
Even Princess Twilight herself told us about the mission in person
We were sent to this place with the mission of discovering the origin of strange signals that came from this sector, possibly an alien civilization.
Each of us was selected for our strong connection to harmony, in case we made contact, was to be with the best we had to offer, 5 colonial class ships, and 15 Shining class combat ships, in case of problems, but more for security by pirates.
We managed to get safely to the sector, at first it did not seem promising, 4 planets in orbit around an Equus-like sun, lifeless, desert.
The 4 planets are Aers, Marian, Core, and St´a Brana.
But the best was by far St'a Brana, named after the daughter of the commander-in-chief of the operation, quite awful if you ask me.
The planet always had two parts, one in an eternal day and the other part in an eternal night, a terrible place for life, that's why we left it at the end, and boy was it surprising.
There was a huge ship, parked in perfect sync over the planet's atmosphere, 200 kilometers long and 40 kilometers in diameter, it looked like a huge cone of ice cream in space.
As a precaution I ordered the fleet to remain on the dark side of the planet, something of that size was terrifying, and even more so if it was hostile, so I sent patrollers to explore the surroundings.
The reports detailed its structure, clearly alien, of a super-dense pure metal material, if we tried to scan with the equipment, the ship will attack with an electromagnetic pulse that can left the ship adrift, we almost lost one equip, but thanks to the others ships that were nearby were saved.
But while the crew was terrified, a unicorn had the idea to scan with a spell, which surprisingly worked.
The other raids started using the magic equipment.
It took several days, but at last, we had managed to find a place to enter, close to the half of the ship, I was the captain of the expedition, and what I saw still amazes me.
Using teleportation, we entered through what we thought was the hangar door, since a door the size of a 5km colonial ship left nothing more to the imagination, and we were not mistaken.
Ships similar in design to the huge titan, but in different shapes and sizes, everything was well lit and clean, frankly, we were expecting dark and dusty corridors.
The inactivity of the ship towards us in the previous days made us suspect that the ship was abandoned, but something kept it operational, we do not know how long this ship has been in this state, but at least 125 years, since it was the first time that the signal had been detected.
We managed to explore for a few hours, until we found what we identified as caretakers, at first we thought they were the crew, perhaps a robotic civilization, but they never paid attention to us, and always fulfilled a specific function, about all maintenance, also defense, that we discovered accidentally by a malfunction battery.
These caretakers have a certain intelligence, and if they can, they avoid any conflict, they do not attack if you do not attack, and they never do it with the intention of killing, only to stun or disable, or so we thought.
We managed to put a colonial research city in the dark part of the planet, while we found a way to study the ship, if we could unravel its secrets, we could do much for the life of everyone, even our scientists discovered that the ship was adapting to us. , creating our atmosphere to be able to breathe inside, since before it didn't even have it.
So 5 long years passed, we never managed to explore the entire ship, but we managed to get to the huge dome, and it was like coming home, it had trees similar to those of home, water, rivers, even lakes and waterfalls, a few mountains, it was like seeing a of a planet, even a day and night cycle.
But then we got the news of the colonial war, we don't know what happened, but what caused it.
Colonial systems were divided from the UEG, they wanted independence, all diplomatic channels failed when the ambassadors' ships were shot down, beheaded embassers, entire families of the nobility massacred in their homes.
Some planets could have more population of pegasus, unicorns or earth ponies, even other species.
I had never imagined that this could cause a separation.
With barbarism that had not been seen since unification, the UEG was fighting 4 new powers at once.
When the information came, no one could believe it, we thought we were safe, even the princess promised that she would erase the data about us, although the mission was classified, to which very few had information, they could still wish for the power of this huge ship for their purposes.
We thought that the horror would not reach us, the images we received of pegasi with wings cut on planets like Aegis, or decapitated earth ponies floating in the lakes of the planet Aquarius, even unicorns with their horns plucked and stabbed with them, it was just too much.
I prohibited the circulation of this information, but as it was always filtered, it started with bad faces, slight cases of insults, we did not last a month.
I swear by Luna that I tried, stop them, make them see that is useless.
Then a damn pegasus killed an earth pony by dropping it from the sky, just above the communal dome.
The madness started then, supposedly they were a couple, and the mare had tricked him, I never knew if it was true.
Everyone wanted to take control of the colony and the ship, we couldn't let that happen, I don't think that even the combined power of the princesses and the entire defense fleet could be enough to destroy the ship, we still don't know how to control the ship, but the little technology we managed to decipher was enough to make a difference.
I, along with 950 brave creatures who were still on the side of harmony can't let them share the position of the research center.
About two hours ago, they launched a large-scale assault to take control of the last colonial ship in orbit that had not been dismantled, in taking the communication towers.
My team managed to detonate the colonial ship before it could drop the hands of the new "Pegasus empire", but it would not be enough.
There are several rules in this place, that even at this moment nobody would dare to break, do not attack the ship.
That thing is harmless, but it defends itself with the same intensity with which you attack.
I sent a missile with a megaspell straight to it, undetectable to the ship, but it would cause response from some devastating.
That will gives me nightmares for the rest of my life, that warhead was given to us in case of a preemptive strike in case of the worst-case scenario, but even that thing wasn't enough to damage the ship, or at least I don't think so.
Blue light rain bombarded the facilities, I thank to the harmony that we did not have children or pregnants, the devastation that was immense, the bunkers were barely able to bear, all the colonial cities on the planet were destroyed, I barely managed to save a few entering in the bunker.
I managed just before the fire destroyed the station, just to send a small message to the UEG.
DO NOT COME FOR US
Along with some images of the situation and a slight panoramic photo of a satellite in orbit just before being destroyed by the spacecraft.
At least I hope this is enough.
I have to work, the metallic taste tells me that we have radiation leaks, without the communication antennas I do not know if this message is even being transmitted, but I hope you are not as stupid as we are, that it will serve as a lesson.
The ship seems to have entered combat mode, now it shoots at everything, so if you don't want to die, don't come to this place, you will only find death.
"Leaving aside the political repercussions of the great schism, the social crisis that was experienced at that time was a point and apart in the history of all races of Equus" - said Mandarin kang, his face, although tough, had an aura that transmitted tranquility and respect, since he is one of the oldest in the station, he was one of the few kirins that were still alive, his color contrasted his attitude, with brown fur and red mane with black, but slight white locks could be seen.
"From the fragmentation of the central colonies and the great war, were they born?" - asked the professor cryptically.
"I, professor! First came the Pegasus empire, followed by the Terrestrial Conglomerate, The Silver Planetary Systems, and more small factions of other species" - replied Smile Pink, her bubbly attitude contagious even the largest, her pink color and Fluffy mane was classified as a symbol of beauty for some, since its resemblance to one of the elements of harmony stole occasional glances, but its cutie mark of an open gift helped not to confuse it with the legendary mare, in addition to being a unicorn.
"Very well, at that time many factions were born, they were very chaotic times and several were destroyed by the weight of the others, although the UEG managed to prevail, it lost a lot of power outside the Equus and Eridan system, although it is still a power, its influence is only limited to its territory "
"And what are we linked to?" - asked Green Amat, a member of one of the few remaining Griffin families, sometimes he was confused with an adult due to his height.
"We are not linked to anything, we are an independent colony, initially our ancestors were a group of colonizers from the UEG, our space station, Selene V, was part of the exploration fleet, a resting and refueling point"
"Why are we no longer linked to the UEG?" - asked Rain Sparkle, her tricolor and tousled mane, added to her spirit of adventure, helped her to repeat the same course of world history several times, the professor being the only one who endured that same question every time she could ask it.
"We were one of the few who survived the great schism, but the lack of preparation of the UEG, left us abandoned for decades, a provisional government was established and over time it stayed that way, at first we thought that the UEG could to be mad with that, but they let us live like that, we even received some recognition from other factions, such as the SPS and the UEG, that gave us some freedom, since our station is the only one in this sector "
The professor said while using a hologram to show the commercial and transport routes, showing the Selene V station as the only refueling site, since it was right on the borders of the exclusion zone
"If someone wants to travel from unknown areas to the outer colonies, especially the SPS merchants and the conglomerate, the fastest area is through this place, and that is the reason why they left us alone, even though we are a strategic point importantly, no one wants this place to be controlled by any faction, so they leave us alone. "
"And why not use the exclusion zone ?, with that route they could save a lot of time and fuel" - said Rain, gaining deathly glances by opening that topic again, since it was something of common knowledge.
"Well, that place contains a very rare strong gravitational pull. About 70 years ago, a large group of ships from the empire came to the station to prepare to explore that area, many of yours may remember it as the incursion, it was terrifying, ships with several kilometers, cruise carriers, thunderous Class V, a whole fleet, for a moment we even thought that another war was coming, but days after they left, confirmation came from the empire, as well as from the UEG and the other factions, the first pact signed by all the powers, to name that place a prohibited zone. "
"But what about the legend of Selene?" - Rain asked, with a hopeful look and her voice full of emotion, but her companions did not share her, even Smile was already sleeping in her place.
"That is a legend, it is true that within the exclusion zone there is a solar system called Selene, our home is named after her, but a ghost ship from colonial times that destroys anyone it encounters is unlikely, many Universities blame gravitational irregularities at that location and for the destruction of the ships, the instruments do not work and the wreckage of the destroyed ships, the instruments and engines is also useless by magical radiation. Those who enter cannot leave unless they want to travel a few hundred years using normal engines "- said Mandarin as he turned off the screens.
"Remember to do your homework, I want a 5 page essay on the farm crisis on my desk first thing on Monday, enjoy your weekend" - he said as he left the room.
"You know, if you weren't my friend, I'd make a lot of fun of you, do you still think that story is true?" - asked Amat, leaning back in Rain's chair and taking out his lunch, a juicy steak of synthetic meat.
"And if you weren't my friend, I would take that thing from you and throw it in the waste processor" - Rain said as her face wrinkled in disgust.
"Unlike you, I need this to live, knowing about ancient legends is nothing more than a pretext and you know it" - Amat said as he ate, sitting next to Rain.
"It is part of our story, not just a legend, damn chicken, I just want to know if the stories are true, look at this" - Rain said while projecting a very blurred image.
"I took this from an exploration satellite a few months ago, it was abandoned and I managed to get it out of the junkyard"
"Do you have an illegal satellite ?!" - Amad shouted while choking on the meat.
"Firstly, it is not illegal, it is still in service, they just did not claim it and according to the rules of international space, I can claim it, it is private property, and second, I have it in orbit about 2 years-light from the exclusion area "- Rain said while smiling smugly.
"You know, I don't know whether to feel intimidated or grateful, you are the perfect image of a waste of talent" - Amad said as he took out a drink to help him with his food.
"As I was saying, take a good look at the image" - Rain said while pointing to a specific point and ignoring his comment.
Among all the static in the image, you could see it was an asteroid cloud, but by enlarging a specific part, there was clearly something very strange.
"You recycled a surveillance satellite, worked a lot of don't know how long, to take a photo of an asteroid in the shape of an ice cream cone?" - Amad said, just before receiving a hit from Rain, sending him flying a few meters.
"I don't know why I bother, but I'll explain it to you, that ice cream cone, according to my calculations, is almost forty times the size of the station, and it moves cyclically around the edges of the Selene system, I can't get the satellite any closer without being destroyed by the influence of magical radiation "- said Rain as she sat down and took out a few papers with calculations.
"And how the hell did you do it? I thought it was not possible to send signals there" - Amad asked as he got up to finish eating.
"It is possible to send the signals, the problem is what can receive it, lots, if not all the teams use magic as a power source, some parts like the communication matrix are also magic, I only replaced the magic part in the satellite "- Rain said while he showed Amad his diagrams, which for him were only very elaborate drawings.
"It took all my money and pieces from the ship's junkyard, as well as hours without sleep, but each piece on that satellite doesn't have a speck of magic, emits almost no radiation whatsoever and is undetectable thanks to an optical camouflage system what I developed to prevent it from being stolen, unless they are within 4 meters, they will not be able to detect it "- she said happily.
"Ok, and the huge space ice cream cone?, It must be an asteroid with a strange shape, no spacecraft or space station is that size" - he said as he continued eating and looking at Rain's drawings.
"true, but do you remember the stories ?, the legend says of a ship as old as the colonial era of the UEG, the first and last of its kind, abandoned in the times of the great schism, its crew went crazy and now they travel by the entire Selene system, capturing delusions, but I don't believe in that story "- said Rain, managing to surprise Amad.
"Don't you believe that? Then why do you keep teasing the teachers about that story?"- he asked with genuine curiosity.
"Because I think something is in that place, maybe a research center, or something like that, maybe even the cause of the madness of the great schism!" - Rain shouted with emotion.
"Ok, but for now, you can only look, I do not think the commander will lend you a ship, especially if it is to go to that area" - Amad said, as he gathered his things, helping Rain as well.
"In that, I hate to give that you're right" - she said with disappointment in her voice.
"In addition, things are quite gloomy at the station, the water generator is damaged and many crops have died, if this continues, they may have to cut the city's supply to compensate" - he said as they left the room, walking by the bright hallways.
"Another water rationing, with this is now 7 times in 6 months, how much would they do it?" - asked Rain.
"Two weeks, at least, or so my uncle said, by the way, he thanks you for helping him with the new generator model, if they manage to get all the parts, we would no longer have to ration the water"
"I'm glad, now we're going home, I'll see you on Monday" - Rain said as she said goodbye and ran home.
The enormous corridors of the station were quite long, although each part has a function, from the power port to the communication antennas.
Some parts had exterior windows, and one, in particular, was a favorite of many, giving a complete view of the central part of the station.
(The Selene V)
Thanks to contingency plans and the abandonment of quite a few personnel in the first years of the station, there were only just over 3,000 left in that moment, 5 kilometers long and two kilometers wide, the station had become the first self-sustaining station from across the galaxy, that and being the sole survivor of Selene-class stations.
Similar to a colonial class ship, Selene stations were designed to be a city in space, with a capacity of 6,000 crew.
Thanks to the abandonment of half the crew, several sections were adapted as farms, transferring the necessary organic matter from nearby planets, a work that they say lasted decades.
But the result was beautiful and satisfying.
But there was a very serious problem, and it was the age of the station, more and more life support systems were breaking down, since they did not have a complete infrastructure, and the loss of technology to replace certain components, the station was in the risk of become scrap metal in a few more decades.
Even Princess Flurry, who come once a few years ago, helped with a problem on the farms, saving a season's crop and avoiding a famine.
In addition, they did not have enough personnel to maintain the entire station, it simply broke down faster than they could repair it, and that left them with only one option, and that was to hire independent engineers.
"Today the first ones arrive" - Rain whispered as she went to her home, near the engineering headquarters, she was the youngest in the station with that position, and one of the few more than 200 that were in the station.
Entering the barracks, she went to her house, site E-101, where her family was waiting for her, the only thing that was most important to her.
"I'm at home mom, dad, ball of feathers!" he whirled as he tossed his backpack aside.
Each family was placed in a place according to how many members they had, and their home was relatively comfortable, three bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and living room.
"Your brother went out with your father to see the arrival of the engineers, only I am dear" - said his mother as she sat in her chair watching a broadcast of the arrival of the engineers.
"You could have gone with them if you wanted to see their arrival" - she said, as she sat next to her.
"no, I wanted to wait for you, besides I don't like going out to those places, it's suffocating"
"I think you had a nickname, the motor mouse, since you spent it in the engine room all day, and that place hardly fits an adult stud, and that is suffocating for you?" - Rain said with a smile.
"Right, but thanks to that I met your father on motors, you know even you two owe their existence to days full of ..."
"I don't want to hear that, mom, we better see the arrival" - Rain said while looking at the screen.
There were not many in the reception, many had work to do, but there were a few guards, the station, although it was not prepared for battle, had a defense corps, never suffered attacks more than some bandits, who managed to be repelled by the escort ships.
"Look, that ship is very rare, I thought they would arrive in a gargantia-class transport ship, but that ship is a loader type" - Rain said, receiving confirmation from her mother.
Her brother and father still didn't see each other, maybe they still hadn't arrived.
The ship 10 meters long and 5 wide, quite ugly but with a reliable structure, landed in the cargo bay, they would be the first new settlers in more than 250 years, it was something very rare and expected.
"Look, he's a kirin, now that old man will have someone to talk to" - she said.
It seemed to be going well, but something was moving at the bottom of the ship, just when the others hardly noticed it, the kirin transformed into fire and burned the guards, and more soldiers with weapons emerged from the ship, finishing off the remaining.
"Shit, it's a bandit attack!" - just as Rain got up, the alarm went off throughout the station, they didn't have many guards, maybe 300, and more than half of them were on patrol in the ships.
"This is not a drill, the station is under attack, everyone, leave the station"
"Mama !!, we have to go!" - Rain shouted as he pushed her to the door, they still had time, since the entire station was prepared to leave her in case of an emergency, in addition to the loading bay being quite far from them .
"I'm coming, I just want one thing!" - she yelled as she grabbed a photo where the whole family was.
"The escape pods are at the end of the corridor, if we can get to it, the evacuation ship should pick us up at the back of the farms!" - Rain said as they both ran.
Everyone already knew what to do in the event of an invasion, although they never expected something like this to happen, they could withstand an attack with the escort fleet, but if they boarded they did not have many defenses, so they would abandon the station and request support from the station's control to retake the station in case of invasion.
They still had a chance, but something didn't add up
"How the hell did they manage to get in?!" - shouted her mother.
The engineers they hired were verified and approved by the commander, and several were land ponies, with the exception of the kirin who came out first.
"The invaders are heading to the residential areas, they have passed the cargo blocks, every creature, evacuate now!"
"How the hell are they doing it so fast ?! Aren't they supposed that place has been seal?!" -Rain yelled.
Arriving at the evacuation capsules, several had already been boarded, only another 50 were missing in this section.
They started to fasten in the small capsule as fast as they can.
"Your father and brother should have already left, their evacuation signal is already registered on the ship"
"Thanks to Luna who they agreed to implement this thing or we would not know who already left" - said Rain while pressing the launch button.
Shooting into space, they watched with fear as various parts of the station were on fire, many escape pods were already a few hundred meters on the way to the evacuation ship, a huge cargo ship hidden under the armor plates. from the farm, quite large, several kilometers long and a few hundred meters wide.
"Attention, a total of 80% of the crew on board, the escort ships have arrived and are giving us coverage, we just have to wait for the others" - said the voice of the commander.
From their capsule, they could see how various parts of the station exploded, Rain wondered if they would return to their home, so she saw how several hundred more capsules reached the freighter.
"Honey ?, are you there?" - rang on the communicator of the capsule, lifting a huge weight from the shoulders of Rain and her mother
"Yes darling, we are on board, are you alright?" - Green asked.
"We are fine, we managed to climb almost immediately into the capsules when they attacked."
"Prepared to depart, all personnel is on board" - said the commander, cutting off the communication.
Then, the plates that concealed the freighter exploded, freeing the ship.
Then, several more ships emerged from slipspace, right in the cargo bay, the escort ships began fighting the ships to give the freighter time to escape.
But just before the jump-started, a shadow missile hit the side of the freighter, causing several capsules to explode cus the corrupted magic, ripping the capsule of Rain and her mother.
The last thing they saw was the tunnel of blue light that swallowed them, and a feeling of fear of never seeing again their family again.
The sound of the atmospheric alarm sounded in the distance, Rain could barely hold her consciousness.
The scent of ozone forced her to stay awake, managing to open her eyes, she saw red lights blinking around her.
"Mom? ..." - she whispered.
Recovering a little more, she managed to move a little more, her mother was unconscious, but apparently well, the capsule managed by some miracle to abruptly come out of slipspace.
Managing to move to the control panel, she turned off the alarm and checked the status of the capsule.
Apparently they had suffered damage to the life support, a few more hours and would have been suffocated, but the fact of staying alive was perhaps a good sign that it was possible to repair the damage using the capsule's emergency tools and suits.
"Mom?, wake up, I need your help" - Rain said as she struggled with the headache and shook her mother.
After a few seconds trying to wake her up, a moan escaped her mouth and she slowly opened her eyes.
"Rain?, are you alright?"- she asked as she straightened up in the seat.
"Yes, it's just Trixie's symptom, we shot out of slipspace, but we have other problems" - Rain said as she floated and maneuvered to check the other systems.
"By the princesses, how did we survive that?!" - she said stunned.
Anything that was not protected by a slipspace engine shield is automatically disintegrated, that they managed, to not only survive but to get out of slipspace, it was a miracle.
"Well, a few moments ago I was just like you, but look where we are" - Rain said as she showed her coordinates to her mother on her holopad.
"co/rds SWEKV7564,865 ?, but this part is in...."
"yep, inside the restricted area, right in the center, Selene system, or rather on the edge" - Rain said while she prepared the welding and repair tools- "maybe the anomalies in the area pulled us to this part "
"But that makes it very dangerous, nothing has come out of this place" - said her mother, uneasy.
"For now we have to repair the capsule or we will not last long, I will go out, let me know if the atmospheric readings are better" - she said as she handed the suit to her mother.
After putting on the suit, they opened the capsule and Rain could only see the stars, looking where the red light of the sun came from, she marveled at what she saw, but was also terrified.
A belt of shattered spaceships was orbiting a planet near it, they were on a collision course.
Increasing the work rate, she managed to discover the fault, the power system had been destroyed and was only working at half capacity, the problem was that she could not repair the magic matrix, but she had the lithium batteries in the spacesuit.
"Mom, I'm going to use one of the batteries in my suit, it seems that the magic part of the capsule was destroyed" - Rain said as she finished installing the battery.
"Sigh, well, I suppose that your insistence to recycle the pieces of the junkyard of ships paid off, who would say that she would be a pioneer in non-magical engineering?" - Said her mother with a touch of pride and concern.
"system ready, try to restart the capsule"
".....everything seems fine, the engine was not damaged, but we do not have much fuel, we only have half the capacity"
"That is more than enough" - Rain said as she returned to the interior of the escape pod- "we have several problems, but I think I can solve our problem if we use the planet's gravity and use what we find there"
"Planet?, Why do you say it?" - asked her mother.
"A ship debris field orbits the planet we are going to, I think I can find several useful things"
"If rubble does not kill us first"
"Thank God my mother is the best pilot in the station's corps of engineers without counting the guards" - Rain said with a smile.
"Okay, get ready"
Adjusting the speed and trajectory to enter the planet's debris field was quite complicated, especially due to the spikes in magic radiation from the scattered magic power cells.
"UEG ships, SES, the empire, several privately designed and pirate ships, this place has a little bit of everything" - Rain whispered.
"But look well at the largest of the UEG, that one over there is a heavy carrier of the UEG" - said her mother, pointing to a specific place with her wing.
The heavy carriers were one of the largest ships in the galaxy, about 8 km long and about 250 meters diameter, shaped like a cylinder.
The one in front of them were almost unrecognizable remains.
Although the ship had somehow managed to keep its shape, countless traces of explosions covered its exterior, in some places it looked like a giant knife had stabbed and cut it.
"What kind of weapon could do that?" - said Rain.
"Some few have that destructive capacity, but all the ships are like this, this place must have been a battlefield"
"But I thought they had said it was due to the anomalies in gravity that were tearing the ships, look at this" - Rain said while showing some calculations.
"Since we arrived, except for the magic radiation, the instruments have not detected anything else, the area is perfectly passable if the area is cleaned" - Rain said with something similar to emotion- "Besides, look at this" - she said while showing the image that she had taught Amad.
"I knew they were hiding something, I have suspicions that this place was before some kind of research facility or new colony" - Rain said while raising her voice.
"Just think about it mom, our home was a colonial station heading somewhere, this place was quarantined for a few years after the end of the great schism, and only after the crisis of the fleet did all the factions agree not to come to this place "- she already said with a scream.
"Ok, calm down first, I'm not going to ask you where you got all this information from, but where do you want to go with this?" - said her mother as she hit her daughter with her wing.
"Ouch!, that hurts even with the suit, mom" -said Rain while calming down a little- "sigh, well, I suspect that this place was a research center for new technology, maybe artificial intelligence or something similar"
Putting something back on the screen, a list of various historical events.
"First, after the great schism, much data on the station was erased or disappeared, like the original mission"
"Second, the last order of the UEG for the station was not to approach the Selene system"
"Finally, and most importantly, it is something I found in one of the pieces of information discarded in the old memory banks" - said Rain while opening the file.
There, there was a very damaged text sample, almost nothing could be understood, but there were only a few words, Camelot Research Center.
"I do not recognize that place" - said his mother.
"Me neither, nowhere is it found, or at least in the station's database, I think that this place was a research center, maybe when the great schism everyone evacuated and left the defenses activated, maybe even we can find ships that can help us to go home "- said Rain.
Although it sounded very crazy, at least some sense made all this information, from decades ago it was rumored that the forbidden zone had treasures to loot, technology developed by the old UEG lost by chaos.
"I suppose we could try, but you have to admit that if a whole fleet and god knows what else tried the same thing and failed, what chance do we have?"
"We seek to survive, nothing more" - said Rain.
There were ships less than 200 years old, such as Shining-class escort cruisers, or even Type 8 carriers, also other more modern ships, such as an Empire star hunter, and others that neither of them recognized.
Fortunately, they managed to find quite useful pieces to fix the capsule, exploring a few hours, they also managed to find a generator of water and protein, quite intact, but with a horrible meat flavor that at least knew between a mixture of fish and earth.
Inside a supercarrier from the Pegasus Empire, they found an intact scout ship, although there were many bodies of Pegasus soldiers inside in their suits, Rain managed to overcome that they could be next.
A fast, reliable, short-range Fenix-class ship does not have a slipspace engine, and its magical components were destroyed.
"I think I can fix it if we use the parts of the pod and the fighter, the only thing that works is the life support system" - said Rain.
"This place is a treasure, if we can get out of here we could collect what we need, this baby may be enough to even repair the station!" - said her mother with emotion, completely forgetting the situation and leaving her emotion for new parts and technology will overwhelm her.
"Do you think my dad and my brother are okay?" - asked Rain.
"Yes, I'm sure, your father and brother had already disembarked when we arrived, that missile hit the hangar, only a few capsules left in that moment, the emergency system had to seal the gap just after we were out"
After a few more hours, Rain managed to access the ship and prepare to leave, although his fuel reserves were acceptable, they would have to steal what they found.
In addition, they had two fully loaded mana cells, enough to bring the magic shields online and withstand a few hits.
Rain, meanwhile, was analyzing the few data that she found in her exploration, apparently, the last information entry was about 70 years ago, their mission was to find the lost technology found in the research station.
In addition to capturing, or if not possible, destroying, a very large ship, and when comparing the attached image, it was the same one that she saw with her satellite.
Maybe that ship was only attacking for a defense command, frankly, it would be a gamble, but that thing was the only one in the entire system with a slipspace engine.
"I think we have enough fuel to run even a few laps through the system, first let the debris field out and put the shields in line" - said her mother.
'I don't like something about this, all these destroyed ships arrived relatively well, but then that ship attacked them, also we haven't seen it yet, it may be somewhere else now'
'But if that's the case, why were all the magic parts destroyed?'
"Mom, you better not do it, let me try something first" - Rain said while going to the airlock
"Rain?, we need that mana to maintain the shields"
"I know, but I want to confirm a suspicion" - she replied as she poured some of the mana into a long-range magic drone
"stay away from a little and let's see what happens" - Rain said while launching the drone into space
Returning to the cockpit, Rain turned the ship to where the drone was located, a few hundred kilometers away, then activated it.
"What's wrong?" - asked his mother
"I think this area is a minefield for magic, that fleet had its magical equipment totally destroyed, perhaps when they activated" - said Rain, then a few blue light spots appeared in the distance.
A swarm of somewhat robot-like blue lights appeared and destroyed the drone, it was so fast that Rain barely had time to see an image on the drone screen.
In a very rare way, they resembled an empire escape ship, somewhat akin to a rhomboid.
"They detected the magic of the drone, that's what they are looking to destroy, I think we should throw all the magic tech out the ship" - said Rain, still disturbed by what she saw.
"Well, at least your suspicion of new technology is true, I never saw anything like this, it seems that they use some type of plasma-based weaponry, but they were very fast and small to be fighters"
Flying a little further towards the center of the Selene system, which according to records, on the planet closest to the sun, stayed the research center.
"Rain, wake up, you must see this"
With difficulty, Rain opened her eyes, the journey had taken hours, enough to rest and take control of the ship.
Looking through the window, she saw the huge planet.
"Apparently a face is always on the side of the sun, so I think we could go around to explore orbit and see if there is a space bridge or something like that, maybe even a remnant of the researchers" - said her mother.
"I also detect something in the communication channel, a kind of background noise" - said Rain while inserting some commands in the console.
Just as they reached the bright side of the planet, they barely managed to hold their breath from what they saw, although Rain was more than scared, she was excited.
A huge spaceship titan, or perhaps a station, was simply too big to be a ship.
"For Celestia and Luna, what is that thing?!" - said her mother.
"I think it could be the research center!" - Rain said very excitedly, she even thought about scrubbing a photo of that thing on Amad's face.
Slowly approaching, the ship suddenly went out and an orange light ran through the entire ship, light coming from the huge titan.
So before they could react, a text screen appeared on the screen, a simple message of what they suppose comes from the huge titan.
What do you want?
And a countdown.
10
"What do you think ?, maybe they are the surviving members" - said Rain.
"I do not think so, if they were, we should know, you saw this system, nothing is alive in this place" - answered her mother, nervous about the regressive account
7
"Or maybe an AI, but what do we answer? That thing could tear us apart just by going aside"
4
"Just answer!" - her mother yelled at her.
2
go home
...........................
And for a moment, there was silence, the countdown stop just a second left.
Then, a huge streak of blue light enveloped them, slowly pulling the ship toward the huge titan.
Neither of them could formulate words, that thing was clearly something new.
As they got closer, Rain was able to observe the planet's surface.
Huge craters in certain areas of the planet did not help calm her nerves, in addition to many debris in low orbit, she even managed to see the old emblem of the UEG.
"Rain, look at that!" - shouted her mother, pointing to a huge door, even from the cabin they couldn't see the full size.
Then it began to open, swallowing them inside.
What they saw took their breath away, the hangar was so large that it would perhaps be able to house the Selene V.
Ships with the same style in different shapes and sizes were stationed across the hangar.
Everything was well lit, clean, almost terrifyingly perfect.
Then they felt that they were teleporting, and they disappeared from the ship.
Compounding themselves, they saw that they were in what appeared to be a huge camera, filled with strange controls and gadgets, plus a huge window the size of a building overlooking the space.
Then a hologram appeared on the window.
"Welcome to the super fortress class colonial ship" - said the voice, feminine and somewhat soft.
"Who are you? Is this a UEG ship?" - asked Rain.
"No, this ship is part of the Forerunner exploration fleet, I am an early response emergency AI, designed to optimize response to potential threats."
"My name is Rain Sparkle, and she is my mother Rocio Sparkle, we are members of the Selene V station crew" - replied Rain
"and what or who are the forerunners ?, I've never heard of them before, I don't think you're part of any faction, this ship is very advanced" - said Rocio, emphasizing the blue light interfaces and to the robots what had destroyed the drone a few hours ago, floating around the room.
Dividing the window into various parts, various images were displayed.
"This ship is, in your terms, an alien ship, the database was damaged, so not much more is known than the original mission, about 25 thousand years ago, the ship was teleported to this solar system and crashed on the planet known as St´a Brana.
After 125.5 years, according to its information banks, the spacecraft stayed on hold until 250 years, 4 months, 20 days, 4 hours and 24 seconds ago when a UEG fleet arrived at the system to investigate.
When the disaster known to their society as the Great Schism occurred, a revolt caused the ship to activate its defense systems after being attacked with a bomb of an unknown nature, destroying much of the hangar, so I entered service.
After removing all sources of threat, repairs began.
Sporadically several exploration fleets appeared in the system, according to the protection and defense protocols, every anomaly known as magic, was treated as an enemy and destroyed "- said the voice while showing very frightening images of ships being destroyed in battle, some managed to do quite a bit damage to the ship, such seemed to be quite vulnerable to magical attacks.
Rain thought perhaps that was why the ship reacted so violently to magic.
"Wait, you said that this ship is a colonial class, is it an invasion plan?" - asked Rocio, quite nervous.
"no, the directive is to find and assist any civilization found within the system, the ship does not have a monitor, so without anything to guide it, the ship could not help but wait, only when I woke up was the situation changed.
I cannot change the defense protocols, so anything with magic was destroyed, only by correctly answering a request for authorization is that I was able to bring you here"- said the voice, further confusing the two pegasi.
"Why didn't the others get to this place?" - asked Rain.
"The protocols prohibit the theft of forerunner technology, all the answers asked for surrender or/and summission of the ship, your response was a cry for help, for what I suppose is a desperate situation.
25 hours ago, a breakdown of slipspace was detected at the edge of the Selene system, its behavior was clearly to preserve their lives from disaster "
"Wait, were you watching us the whole time ?!" - Rocio yelled.
"If they had not awakened, they would have been transported to the ship to preserve their lives, and they would have been asked the same question, if they had answered greedily they would have been treated as enemies" - answered the voice.
Trying not to flinch at the fact that their lives were so easily disposable, and failing, Rocio spoke first.
"Why didn't us bring here?" - the million-dollar question, Rocio also wondered why they had been brought here when many more tried.
"The ship has as a priority to safeguard the life, without an assigned guide, the ship has no purpose here, and I can't move it, you two have been selected to fulfill that role" - said the voice, leaving Rain and Rocio totally speechless.
"bu..but you are driving it now, aren't you?" - asked Rain.
"Yes, but I am only a provisional response unit, I lack all freedom of action outside the original parameters" -answered the voice.
Then a beam of blue light immobilized them.
Before Rain could scream, the voice spoke once more.
"I cannot accept a negative answer, I have already spent my operational time, take care of the mantle of responsibility" - said the voice before everything went dark.
Rain didn't slowly open her eyes, the first thing she saw was an interface similar to special suits EVA of the UEG.
Seeing her reflection on the floor, she saw a metal helmet, shaped like her head but very different from normal helmets, where her eyes were there were two slits of blue light, alarmed, she turned to her back.
Her wings were still there, but now they were metallic parts, joined only by some kind of light.
Scared that she was a robot, she tried to remove her helmet, only to have the entire suit fall apart on metal plates and contract on her back, right between her wings, as if it were some kind of not-too-large metal box.
"What the hell was that !?"-Rain yelled for an answer, but nothing came.
Remembering her mother, she found her unconscious on the floor next to her, in the same suit, but with a few aesthetic differences, the most notorious were her eyes, where her helmet had a slit of light for each one, her mother's I only had one very large one.
"Mom !!, are you alright?!" - Rain shouted as she shook her mother.
After managing to wake her up and calm her that she was not a robot, I help her take off her suit as well.
"Where is she ?!, I'm going to give her a taste of my thoughts that not even Celestia herself will be able to help her!" - she yelled as she turned around in search of the hologram.
"I do not think she is here, ma, if what he said is true, she may not even be in the ship anymore" - said Rain as she approached one of the terminals.
The interface, the language, everything was different, but for some reason, she could understand it, she was disturbed that they played with her mind, she had heard stories of mind control from some unicorns.
In the console, she managed to confirm her suspicions, the voice that received them was an emergency IA, since the ship did not have any type of guide when it was attacked, "she" was an "automatic response".
Rocio, feeling better, approached the other console next to her daughter.
Then they reviewed what appeared to be their new ship, somewhat disturbing by the way they were forced, but they couldn't complain much, since at least they weren't going to die and could return to their families.
The colonial class super fortress, its characteristics were terrifying.
With a length of 200 kilometers long and 40 wide, it was capable of planetary transport, with a total capacity of 3.6 million, with 2.4 million in hibernation and 1.6 million active, it can cover all the basic needs, in addition to not needing a crew, even a single pony would be able to command the ship.
In the upper part, just below them, was a 100% habitable habitat, the images almost made them believe that they were seeing a planet, with mountains, forests and lakes.
The internal parts can be adapted to whatever was needed, from housing units and recreation areas, a whole city.
The power source was something about "vacuum generators", the only thing they managed to understand was that it was inexhaustible.
The engines were capable of subluminic speed, even for its sheer size, it was easily one of the fastest spacecraft in the galaxy.
Their slipspace engines were something similar to what they already know, but more efficient and precise.
On top of that, it was a fortress, and it had defenses that would be able to withstand large amounts of damage before entering a state of emergency.
Energy shields capable of withstanding an immense amount of damage, a structure harder than titanium and magic crystal, enough turrets of light energy multipurpose all the length and breadth of the ship and an energy cannon that depending on the characteristics, was able to destroy a planet in its maximum capacity, Rain and Rocio quickly disabled it.
And that was only the ship, since it also had a defense fleet.
25 Picket Cruisers, 250 Phalanges of Armed Ships, 25 Transport Ships.
With the exception of the transport ships, each and every one of these ships was very powerful, according to records, the Pegasus Empire sent a fleet to capture the ship.
They only managed to destroy 4 cruisers out of the 10 that defended the ship, 10 simple cruisers managed to decimate a fleet made up of 5 cruise carriers, 20 thunderous Class V, and 40 Thunder class frigates.
Maybe if all the factions came together they could manage to damage the ship, even the princesses couldn't damage the ship very much, it was simply too big.
It also had a kind of robot guards, called sentinels, they were a multipurpose platform, from defense to maintenance, construction and repair.
The overwhelming information aside, they both decided to view the ship's few records.
What they saw was what was perhaps the answer to the doubt about what happened in the darkest time of their society.
In an attempt by the ship to attract the attention of any civilization, it sent signals in all directions, the former UEG responded with an investigative corps, of which Selene Station was the second group, they never reached its destination.
Apparently it was a disaster and in an attempt to stop the madness, the security chief blew up the remaining ship and made this ship do the job of eliminating enemies using a very powerful bomb as a reason to attack.
The hangar was destroyed along with a large part of the defense fleet, which was without shields, so that voice woke up and a prevention attack began, destroying everything related to the magic radiation signals, leaving the survivors of the research center stranded. The last one died 230 years ago after the bunker they were in suffered an earthquake and allowed radiation to pass through.
Many more attempts to take over the ship over the years have triggered AI to be so aggressive.
The last attempt was 9 months ago by the Terrestrial Conglomerate.
A small group of fairly fast ships even managed to outwit the cruisers and the ship deployed all its forces, but even so, only one ship managed to escape for the first time.
"Mom, I would like to test the motors, I want to see what it is capable of" - Rain said, trying to forget the death she saw on screens.
"Okay honey, I also want to know what this is capable of, we can go to the .....planet Aers, it is just where we collected the pieces when we arrived" - said Rocio.
Using commands on the interface, only the planet's movement gave them a clue that they were moving away.
Just after about 15 minutes admiring the view, they had reached their destination.
"By Luna, it is fast!" - said Rocio.
Trying to contain her excitement, Rain put on her suit once again.
The process was hypnotic for her mother who saw her, it was like saw a puzzle assembling itself.
"According to the characteristics of the suit, it is capable of maneuvering in extreme climates, the ship also has a personal teleportation system, let's go outside!" - Rain said with emotion.
"Very well, but only for a moment, we still have to go back to your father and brother, by this time they should already be arriving at UEG stations for help" - said Rocio while her suit was assembling.
They quickly understood that their suits were a symbol as status as commanders of the ship, they both had the same authority, and apparently were capable of many interesting things.
From a type of telekinesis, to an almost divine enhancement of their physical abilities, putting them on par with an alicorn perhaps, they could maneuver in space with their wings as if flying.
Returning to the control room, they took off their suits and began to devise a plan.
"Will it be a problem if we move the entire ship to the UEG station, maybe if we use one of the hangar ships?" - asked Rain.
"They would realize that this ship is not normal and would be just as problematic, there are no more ships left than these" - said Rocio.
"But what if we better get in touch with them first? They should give us up for dead, if we could get the commander to respond we could let him know about this place and get our home back, maybe even just make this our new home!" - said Rain .
"Let's call your father first, this ship must be able to communicate with him without raising suspicions, its frequency is unique" - said Rocio.
Searching on the communication frequencies, and calling her father's holopad, in a few minutes they finally managed to locate his signal and call him.
"Rocio?!, Rain ?!, Are you alright?!" - she heard his father's voice, never in Rain's life had she heard him so happy.
"Yes darling we are fine" - said Rocio with tears in her eyes.
"Everything is okay, Dad, how are you?" - Rain said, also very happy to listen to her father.
"Thank God you are fine, for now, we are fine, but we suffering casualties" - said her father in a more serious and calm voice.
"What happened?" - asked Rain.
"The commander died, you were not the only ones hit by one of those missiles, one hit the bridge, almost all of the council died, the only ones that were saved were the ones that were arriving."
That was very bad, the council was practically the entire government of the station, the commander was well known and respected among the trade routes and various factions.
"And Amad?!, Are he alright?" - Rain shouted.
"Yes, darling, he and his family were on the inside coordinating the evacuation, when he knew that you had disappeared he almost went off in one of the ships to look for you" - said her father with some amusement, while her mother looked at her with a face happy and making her blush a lot.
"Where are you now? Did you manage to get to the UEG station?" - asked Rocio, leaving her daughter rest.
"Yes, we are here, but I do not think they will help us, at least not now, apparently the conglomerate has declared war on the UEG, this attack was prepared to cut the supply lines of this station, as well as its communications, without the Selene V as a springboard, this station is the next target"
"Wait, why did they want to attack that station?" - asked Rain.
"A princess is here, Flurry Heart" - said her father.
"Oh, that explains it, when they expect the conglomerate to attack?" - asked Rain.
"In a few hours, they are now repairing the evacuation ship to escape, they will give us cover as we take as many as we can to a neutral fuel station in the Rogel system"
"That is more than two weeks of trip in the slipspace !!" - Rain said.
"I know, but even if the princess fights, many will die first" - said her father.
Rain and Rocio knew he was right, the collateral damage would be immense, escaping was the best option.
"By the way, where are you? How did you two survive?" - asked her father.
"Sigh, we are in the Selene system, in a ship that ... we found" - Rain said wearily.
"What?!, But how ...."
"We do not have time to explain, if we want to fix this, you have the princess listen to you! Tell her to call the Camelot research center from your holopad" - Rain insisted, interrupting her father.
Rocio, suspecting her daughter's intentions, could not help but agree, at least if they wanted to save those from the Selene V station.
"Please darling, it is important, if you do not succeed, convince the council to come here, it is safe, now it is" - said Rocio, being one of the few times that she asked her husband for a favor.
".... well, I trust you, I will call you in a few hours" - said his father, cutting off the communication.
"Do you think that's a good idea?" - asked Rain.
"No, but it is very dangerous if we leave them like this, with this ship we could save them, but we have always remained neutral, we could simply go for those of our station and go to an unexplored area" - said Rocio.
"But it wouldn't be the right thing, would it?"
"No, it wouldn't be, but for now, we could just help that station, those damn conglomerates killed some of us, even though we are neutral, we could defend ourselves now, at least get our home back"
"That sounds good, but this ship has no name, how about we name it?" - Rain asked with a smile.
"Okay, what do you suggest?"
"Maybe, Selene VI?" - Rain asked timidly.
"Selene VI ?, why?" - her mother said confused.
"well, the other stations fell into the great schism, and ours was the last of its kind, we are descendants of the group that was sent here, so it seemed symbolic to me that this ship, which was its mission, is called as the last colony of the Selene line "
"You know what? I like it, and I think the others will like it too" - Rocio said while hugging her daughter with her wing.
Then a communication signal appeared, accepting the call, a soft voice spoke.
"Princess Flurry speaking from UEG surveillance station 45 to the Camelot research center, do you receive me?" - although the voice sounded normal, it had an incredulous tone in its tone.
"Shit is the princess" - Rain whispered to her mother
"I'm sorry princess, but the research station was destroyed in the great schism, I speak from the Selene VI station, orbiting the Selene system, about the remains of the research center" - said Rocio, helping her daughter.
"Sure, sorry, it's been a while since I heard about that place, but I remember there were only five Selene-class stations" - said the princess.
"Yes, but thanks to certain things, we managed to gain control of a ship, I think you know it as Titan" - said Rocio.
An awkward silence spread across the room, so Rain decided to continue.
"We heard that in a few hours the conglomerate was going to attack the station, we requested permission to help defend the station, our families and friends from the Selene V station are still there"
"... of course, afterward we can talk about how they accomplished that feat, they have permission to come, but I don't know if can made it before the conglomerate arrives" - said Flurry.
"I think we will make it, just give us the coordinates and we will get there" - said Rain, receiving a confirmation from the princess and some coordinates from slipspace.
"We have it, princess, we will arrive as quickly as possible" - said Rocio.
"Thanks for the help" - Flurry said, while the communication was cut.
"I think it turned out better than I expected, well, raising coordinates for the jump, starting at 3, 2, 1" - Rain said as they entered slipspace
"Let's see, estimated time .... 20 seconds?!" - Rocio yelled, incredulous at the information
With barely time to react, they emerged from slipspace, just a few kilometers from the station.
From the control room, they managed to see the station, but compared to the newly named Selene VI, the station was a miniature.
"Here Selene VI, permission to board the station" - Rain said on the communicator.
It took a few moments for the princess's voice to be heard, but now it sounded incredulous.
"Premise granted, you can land in hangar 6c, I hope you have a smaller ship, I don't think space is enough" - said the princess sarcastically.
"Don't worry princess, we'll be there" - Rain said with a smile, satisfied to leave a princess speechless.
"Well, the scan is complete, we can teleport to the hangar, we should put on our suits" - said Rocio, as she was covered by the blue metal, followed by her daughter.
Then hoops of golden light enveloped them and disappeared.
