The Einstein-Rosen Incident

[Earth]

The day was more than uncomfortable, with no clouds to offer any resistance and the sun shining as hot as anyone remembered. The dry runway was shimmering from the heat of the day, yet hundreds of soldiers and civilians alike were standing on it.

The procession watched as Taiidan Dropship lowered its front loading ramp with a slow mechanical whine, revealing a dark cave to those outside. A column of six soldiers broke off from the rest, solitarily marching into the gloom. Everyone watched as the group reappeared, carrying a casket draped in the American flag.

They began the walk to a waiting hearse, trailing families. The fact that there were several cars lined up struck a cold spike into everyone’s hearts, as if to remind what happened. The crisp commands and stiff marching were the only things that broke the silence that had draped itself over the runway, as the soldiers in ceremonial wear honored the fallen.

Everyone only watched as this repeated itself twenty-four times, each time with a different casket and a different flag. The flags were folded and presented to the family members, something to remember the service the fallen family member achieved. Nothing compared to what was traded.

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“Spike, I seriously cannot believe this! Is everyone busy today? How are we supposed to collect samples from the impact zone if we’re doing other stuff?” Twilight was being more obsessive than usual about her studies, and Spike raised an eyebrow.

“Why can’t you just check it tomorrow?” asked Spike as he picked a loaf of bread off of the shelf and put it on the table. “It’s not like it’s going to disappear or anyth—”

“That’s the thing, Spike! Magical residue tends to fade in days, even a few hours! It may even—”

“Twilight! What about your picnic today? Are you just going to cancel it for a space rock?” Spike said as he placed some daisies on a slice of bread. “You can’t just do that!”

“You’re... right,”Twilight said as she bent her head. “What was I thinking? I can’t just leave my friends, not when I agreed to make the meal.”

“Exactly,” confirmed Spike, pointing a fork at her. “Now help me make these sandwiches, or you aren’t exactly making the meal.”

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Andrew woke up, not sure where he was. Man, this will be occurring quite often, won’t it? I wasn’t until he peeked outside the tent he was in that he finally remembered that he didn’t know where he was.

He slowly propped himself up with an elbow, and glanced around the tent. It had been secured from one of the drop pods the night before as well as some other supplies, and everyone was thankful for the shelter even if it could barely fit a few men and their gear. He looked at his armor beside him, and examined the mud that had caked onto it. I’ll need to clean it, don’t I.

Stepping out of the tent revealed a torrent of bustling movement; everyone preparing for the new day. Andrew sighed and began to do the same.

After cleaning himself up, he stepped back into the tent and assessed the condition the armor was in. It seemed like everything was functional, other than a thick coat of dried mud around the legs. He grabbed one of the heavy boots and began to brush it off outside. Looking at it, the armor was relatively complicated; it required another person to assist in putting on the armor or removing it, and it required special tools unless you wanted to damage the joints.

Once he had brushed off the caked mud he began to actually see the scuffed grey paint. He systematically cleaned all the pieces of armor, disassembling some of the joints where needed to ensure that the machinery of the powered armor was in good condition. He activated his helmet as he put it  on, checking to make sure everything was functioning and nothing was damaged in his fall. The gentle glow of the helmet confirmed that it and the rest of the armor was functioning normally, and Andrew took it off and laid it to the side.

The armor that they wore was one of the most crucial components of a modern shock trooper; keep it in good shape and it’ll do the same for you. It was unbelievably how often this was stressed to them as soldiers. For good reason, as well. Countless stories have been told of the armor preventing a piece of would-be-lethal shrapnel from piecing the person’s torso, or of the armor cushioning the blast of an insurgent's grenade that found its way to the room of a soldier. The technology was incredible as well, able to make use of a vast array of sensors and cameras to keep the soldier at peak performance. Well, not that the sensors would help a dead soldier.

Something that was also very curious about the suit of armor was a program installed called Vindico. Vindico essentially allowed the armor to be automated by the squad leader to bring the soldier to safety if the soldier was wounded. Or in a darker sense, if the soldier was dead and completely unable to be revived by any sort of medical treatment, the commander of the squad could use the armor to fight using it’s own artificial intelligence, effectively keeping a man in the fight. Thinking about it, Andrew wasn’t sure if the program had been decommissioned or not due to it’s inhumane treatment to the body. There was also an incident where the program misread a soldier’s life signals and became rampant aboard the Aurora Dawn, the soldier hadn’t harmed anyone due to the IR sender everyone wore, but the incident had spooked the military enough to reconsider.

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A young boy, no older than twelve knelt before a dark granite wall and placed a flower. His mother watched as he stood up and stared at the spot his father’s name was. He lightly touched the first letter of the name and slowly brushed it to the last. His name was among hundreds, the wall stretched to either sides. It had been dedicated to all the men and women whom had had their lives taken away in the harsh environment of space. Dedicated to those who had began to blaze our way to mankind's next step, the step that would help secure our place in the universe.

As time would pass, humanity would no longer question it’s own fragility in the universe. It would rise to the occasion, becoming more than a simple blip in the timeline. Oh, we would ensure we would not go quietly into the night to be discovered as some long lost civilization, a precursor that could not escape their own bodily limitations. We would be remembered, they told themselves.

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After field stripping his rifle and making a thorough investigation, Andrew made his way outside once again. Teams were busy preparing for the long haul, savaging drop pods and bring them back to the camp for supplies. Other than the drop pods, there was no sign that they had dropped from the sky, as everything else had been burned away in the atmosphere. Andrew suddenly realized how thankful he was that the planet even had an atmosphere, and a breathable one at that. Man, temperature is perfect as well. Maybe—

“Andrew!” His thoughts were interrupted by Charlie Squad Commander beckoning him over. “Are you free right now? We need a group to retrieve a drop pod, yours actually.”

“Of course, Sir. Where to?”

“Follow Thomas,” said the Commander as he absentmindedly pointed towards an assembled group as he began to reference his papers again. Drop protocol in unknown territory and environment, if eyesight serves correctly.

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As I made my way to the group of people lounging around, one whom I recognized Thomas met me as he made his way to me.

“G’morning, Andrew. I see you’re with us today. I think you’re the last one we need,” he said as he turned back and started making his way back with me. “We have the pods marked on our display, so we should have no problem finding them.”

Looking at the assembled group, I saw that it was my squad. It was unsurprising, as it would easily take eight people to move one of the large drop pods. That left a surprisingly small number of people left in the clearing, nothing except themselves to protect against anything that the forest may have.

As we made our way into the forest, we noticed that it was like any normal forest that would be on Earth, but a bit darker. It seemed to have a smothering darkness that found a way to make you claustrophobic, with low canopies and close trees. If we didn’t have waypoints set up, we would probably be lost in an instant. And then we would probably die. Well, better not to think about that for now.

Ferns whipped at our armor, marking areas of it with dark green streaks of cytoplasm. The trek itself was almost nothing compared to what they’ve been through, effortless now due to the assistance of powered joints. As everyone made their way through the dense forest, I couldn’t help but admire the serenity of it all; aside from the occasional bird call, everything was in a steady trickle of sound. The occasional stream of water was hypnotic, and the lull of the leaves rustling was almost enough to send a person to sleep. This took a toll, and we found ourselves walking through the forest as if we were enjoying our weekend with a hiking trip. As if we never left Earth.

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The assembled group of mares were in hysterics, laughing at Pinkie Pie’s latest story. Despite Twilight’s earlier concerns, she felt better than ever. She had pretty much forgotten the event that she had witnessed last night, and now she was sitting with her friends enjoying her day.

“—And then she said that the CWC’s Factory doesn’t exist!” Pinkie laughed as she rolled back, “As if! How would rainbows be made?”

Everyone laughed, unsure of what Pinkie was going on about but just happy to see such joy in a face.

“Twilight, I must say, these sandwiches are simply marvelous,” exclaimed Rarity as she took a polite bite from hers.

“Oh, I agree.” Fluttershy said, allowing Angel to sample a bite. The bunny seemed less appreciative, and turned away, leaving Fluttershy with a worried frown.

Twilight only nodded in return, chewing her own meal thoughtfully. She swallowed, and stood up to face the mares. “Girls, I have a proposal: I suggest we explore the Everfree Forest.”

Just saying this sparked a variety of reactions, from Rainbow Dash’s questioning look, to Fluttershy falling backwards.

Twilight ignored the other ponies, instead choosing to continue on. “I think it would be highly beneficial if we retrieve some samples. After all, there are very few accounted reports of space debris landing in Equestria, and we shouldn't let this opportunity go to waste.” Twilight ended her suggestion with a nervous grin, met with the silence of ponies the mulling it over and what seemed to sound like people using hammers in the town.

“I’m in.” Rainbow was the first one to speak up, naturally.

Next was Pinkie in her usual manner, “Sounds fun! I’ll be Daring Do!”

“Hey! I’m Daring Do!”

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“Contact!”

Shots of semi-automatic fire were put into the beast as fast as the squad could pull the trigger, and yet it was still making it’s way to them. As it got closer Andrew realized it was the size of a rhino, and was moving at speeds at which they couldn’t hope to escape.

He watched as it took an easy leap over a fallen tree and begin it’s assault on the squad.

He watched as several of them switched to automatic fire, and unleash a magazine into the head of the wolf-like beast with no avail. The thing began to randomly select them and fling them away with it’s muzzle. As it grabbed someone and tossed them away as if they were a rag doll, it made its way to another member of the squad and lunged at their waist. The person was unable to move back in time and was locked in the beast’s jaws.

Andrew watched in horror as it pulled away and started to disappear into the forest, outrunning anyone. He could hear the grunts as Thomas struggled to break free, until he moved out of range in an astonishing speed.

We continued to follow its trail crushed ferns and broken branches, unable to do much else. We had no idea where we would find Thomas, or if we would even find him at all.

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“Alright, how about best of three hundred and thirty-one,” asked Rainbow Dash as she continued to play rock-paper-scissors with her hooves somehow.

The mares had been sitting there for half an hour now, upon Rainbow’s insistence that they do so until she won. Unsurprisingly, Pinkie had won every game so far. Twilight was reading some of the scrolls she had brought along, and Fluttershy was mingling with some of the animals that were brave enough to stray from their dens. Everyone else appeared to be trying to take a nap.

______________________________________________

“There’s another one!”

That was the last thing I heard before I was unceremoniously taken by the leg and hung upside down. As much as I could tell I was being dragged by one of the animals that seemed to be abducting us. Not dying was very high on my list, but unloading a rifle magazine did nothing to help me with that.

Other than being hit by the occasional sapling, I was lucky enough to remain uninterrupted as I was mercilessly dragged through the forest by the leg. The occasional jump over a barrier could have me slammed into it, and I almost dropped my rifle. Using a knife to stab it’s underside proved to be useless, it was like the thing was a tree trunk.

I watched as it took a sharp turn and inertia as it flung my body to the side. I could only watch as the rock wall rushed to meet the side of my head.