FTL: Faster Than Luna

Upon accepting the mission, one of the computerized screens in the Kestrel’s cockpit lit up with life. The monitor began overflowing with information at a boggling rate that left the skipper princess scrambling to try and read what she could before it disappeared off screen.

“Captain, central command just radioed in. According to them the drone is an unshielded scout belonging to the Rebel fleet. If possible, they would like you to disable it and bring it in for scrap, over.”

Capture a hostile ship? Is that even possible? Luna thought to herself. Even the thought of reaching her hooves out to take control of her vessel for the first time made her nervous.

Another monitor in her cockpit turned itself on, from what she assumed was information being fed from the command room of Luna XI. The offending scout drone resembled a large metallic moth, with two large metal wings at its side that folded out like the wings of an insect or bird. But in size it was nothing like the smaller automated drones that could be launched from a regular vessel’s drone bay. This auto-piloted ship was as big as any other frigate or even a destroyer in the Federation navy, and could be armed just as heavily.

“This seems very suspicious,” she muttered. She then picked up the radio transceiver in her cockpit once more. “Control, how far is this drone from the base? Over.”

A small bit of static followed, and the data she wanted soon appeared on the same computer monitor that displayed the base’s laser scope image osculator. Judging by the numbers displayed, the drone was out of reach of the base’s automatic defenses and hiding around a small cluster of asteroids like she had been told.

“Control, is this the first drone you've spotting spying on Luna XI? Over.” Luna asked. The rank of skipper alone did not entitle her to more sensitive information about how Federation military facilities operated, yet, this would be a good test to see how much control she had over her dream world.

“About two and a half years, Captain,” came the response. She wondered what standing ranks existed in the Federation navy, but the overly formal response she was receiving brought up more questions than answers. “As far as command knows, Rebel scout drones have been flying through sectors of Federation space harassing supply ships and smaller outposts for nearly a decade. Over.”

Decades!? thought Luna skeptically. She knew little of the lore of the world she had modeled her dream after, but something or someone had decided that the conflict between the Federation and Rebels was a long drawn out one. “Are there any reports of other Rebel forces in the vicinity?”

“No, Captain. The only activity in the region is a small unit under the Ministry of Mining from the local Unicorn Collective. This is all according to the information we received two months ago from the eighth Patrol Force of the Civil Orbit Command, over.”

Two months ago!? By the Gods, that’s already ancient information. Federation intelligence must really be shorthoofed to think such old reconnaissance is acceptable.

Luna decided to take a pause from her thoughts to properly process this new information. The dream world around her was taking her own limited knowledge of her game’s universe and expanding on it considerably. She remembered how different clusters of planets and settlements in sectors were often labeled after the densest populations in them. The term “Civil” came from sectors populated by larger and more often peaceful farming colonies, filled with a mixture of ponies and ape-like humans. It was only natural that Federation command would organize their fleets in accordance with their organization hierarchy for different systems. Maybe the asteroid base where she was currently was one such location in a larger “Civil” system.

This first mission will be a good test of our own competence. We will take our time after to research more into the world we are in.

Reaching underneath her pilot’s seat, she pulled up on a lever that allowed her to slide forward and reach all of the ship’s controls with ease. Taking one last calming breath for good luck, she toggled the switches she had played with earlier to start sending power to the primary engines.

“This is Captain Luna of the Kestrel, launching from the fourth space dock!”

“Understood, Skipper. Your mission is to destroy or retrieve the hostile Rebel scout drone hiding in the asteroids around the D-field defensive perimeter. Best of luck to you!”

Luna gripped the steering wheel of her ship.

The time had come to demonstrate what sort of stuff she was made of.

Flipping and toggling other levels and buttons, she began managing her ship’s energy output from its reactor to power the various stations. Weapons, engines, oxygen, and shields were a must have. Since she was the only crewmember of the ship, there would be no need to power up the medical bay since she would constantly be at the helm. The power to the ship’s doors was automatically siphoned from the reactor, but cost so little that it did not register with the automated program to aid the pilot in managing the ship’s subsystems.

Checking her controls over one last time, she watched as a larger electronic screen attached to a crane outside of her ship displayed a countdown ticker signalling when she could leave. It was important for larger facilities like an asteroid fortress not use up valuable resources by letting the artificial atmosphere fly out into space every time a ship entered and left one of its ports. By weakening the shielding that stretched over every entrance, it could allow larger ships like the Kestrel to come and go with minimal loss of oxygen.

The multi-layered shielding peeled around the Kestrel as Luna nudged it forward with her controls. After a few tense seconds it finally broke free, and began sailing forth from the port into vastness of space. She looked around in awe, seeing for the first time suns illuminating the orb of a massive ocean planet Luna XI was in orbit around. The stars around her were brilliant, but overwhelmed by the unknown mother planet.

With no time for sight-seeing, she checked the monitor to her right again out of the corner of her eyes. It was still locked onto the shadow of the automatic drone hiding in the asteroid cluster. It seemed that the information from Luna XI would continue to be fed into her ship, so long as she managed to stay within a suitable range.

Pressing down on one of the hoof-pedals harder, she felt the thrust of the Kestrel subtly increase propelling her faster toward her destination.

Ship-to-ship combat in her game was similar to a real-time combat simulator, but with no actual dogfighting in space. Both sides would wait for their weapons to come online, before trying to target selective regions of the enemy ship in hopes of making the fight easier. Different upgrades to subsystems like shields and different weapons with different abilities often made battles more complicated than simply exchanging lasers and dodging missiles. Would she have to dogfight in space against the enemy attack drone? Was it even possible to do such a thing with a ship like the Kestrel that lacked weapons with the ability to pivot in three dimensions?

Luna glanced over at the electronic display which showed that her “Burst Laser II” was charged, and ready to release its triple burst of super pressurized electromagnetic energy pulled from the ship’s reactor. The “Artemis” launcher was loaded as well, with an unguided one-hundred and twenty millimeter missile that could blast a hole in the toughest armor.

Pushing aside the horrible, sinking feeling of the unknown, she decided to test her theory again and start recording a third entry into her travel log.

“Captain’s log number three. We are on our first assignment, to try and capture a hostile Rebel drone that has been caught spying on our home base. We are hesitant in tackling this challenge, but we feel that the Kestrel is more than strong enough to handle this basic task. It is my hope that this will be the first of many successful missions to come.”

Hanging up the recording transceiver, Luna sighed in relief. Some company on dangerous missions like these would be nice. Her dreams were supposed to be bringing adventure and excitement to her world, and not more worries and fears about the unknown. As if Equestria didn't have enough problems during the day and night that needed to be addressed.

Without warning, the red light color of the “Artemis” launcher changed from red to green on her main screen. She was in range of her target!

Luna snapped awake, eyes wide as she hovered her hoof over the button on her control panel wired to the second hardpoint slot of her ship. Letting up on the propulsion peddle, she allowed the ship to continue to glide toward its target. The active mass balance auto-control (AMBAC) systems spit out small bursts of propulsion from different angles, adjusting the trajectory of the entire ship so that it stayed on target. She glanced back at the second screen to her right, which showed that the attack drone was still unmoving and unreactive to her approaching presence from behind its asteroid cover.

Strange. It should have noticed us as well. Is it malfunctioning? she wondered tensely.

The display showing the enemy drone had updated, with what Luna assumed was the computer’s capability to analyze new data now that she was much closer to her target.

The readout of the machine gave her even more mixed thoughts about her mission. By the readings of the computer the enemy drone did not have a shield system installed, and there were dents in the hull around the engine compartment and central computer that could have damaged critical systems to its operation.

But what hadn't been touched were the twin “Leto” class missile launchers mounted on its front hardpoints. And judging by the further readouts of the analysis computer, the drone seemed to packed with munitions to keep a steady volley of missiles coming at any target its robot brain decided to bore down on. The same computation brain that could have been damaged, rendering it inert or uncontrollable.

Even in our dreams nothing is ever easy Luna lamented with a sigh.

Her choices were clear: either bring the ship in closer to try and capture the drone, or scrap it from a distance and bring back the remains to Luna XI.

Soon she would have to make a decision. One that would decide her fate.