Chapter 1: Space Cruise (Part 1)
It worked.
A week of obsessive research, skipping meals, and even dodging her duties as a princess hadn’t been in vain.
Up, down, and all around the stars glistened and shined. The universe around her was something of her own creation, and with help from additional magic spells it could be randomly generated into something different every time she slept.
Countless fauna and flora lived in this dream universe, all products of her imagination and countless hours of reading novels in the royal library. Even the hollowed out asteroid fortress her ship was docked at, named Luna XI, was something woven together by her mastery of dream magic. What had been a small idea one afternoon was quickly becoming a second reality all unto itself.
Soon, her dreams would be an endless adventure that would last as long as her will to continue them.
Engines? Check. Door control? Check.
Reaching out with a hoof, Luna toggled a switch and saw the lights on her command display change.
Shields? Check. Weapons? Check.
She continued to rapidly push buttons and pull levers, with expert knowledge gained from hours of experience. Lights toggled on and off, as she diverted power from the ship's supply all around to different stations. Behind her she could hear the wonderful mechanical hymns of her different subsystems powering on and off.
Oxygen generator? Check. Medical bay? Check.
Finalizing her checklist, she clapped her hooves together with glee. Soon, an adventure of beyond epic proportions would begin! But what would she do first? Fight pirates? Discover a new world? Navigate through an asteroid field? There were so many possibilities! But first, was there something she had to do where she was docked? Maybe she was already in the middle of some incredibly top secret mission!
Hesitantly, Luna picked up the radio communicator attached to her pilot's seat. Adjusting some dials with her magic, she tuned the transmitter to match the base's receiver frequency.
“Command? This is Captain Luna of the Kestrel. Requesting permission to launch?”
She resisted the urge to power up her ship's engines and simply fly out into the vacuum of space right in front of her. The bays of the asteroid fortress glowed with an unusual aura, forming an air tight seal with magic or some technology foreign to her. She could barely contain her excitement, waiting for somepony to pick up on the other end and answer her.
“Negative, Captain. Port Authority is still inspecting a crystal pony frigate in the fourth dock. We'll radio you when they're ready for you, over.”
“...Understood, over.” Luna slumped back into her seat dejectedly, feeling her enthusiasm draining from her. Even if her dreams, there was bureaucratic processes stalling her work! It was no different from her night court, where hours were burnt every single night delegating responsibilities to the civil service that her older sister had created.
Refusing to be let down by a minor setback, she scanned the interior of her ship's cockpit. Finding nothing of interest other than the controls of her own ships, she crossed her forelegs and huffed with an adorable pout.
How utterly frustrating. Here we are, docked in an asteroid base in space! There must be something for us to do!
Looking outside her ship at the loading bay filled with activity, she could see all kinds of creatures unknown to her running about working to maintain the small fleet the asteroid base could house. From her cockpit she could see large diamond dogs in uniforms hauling even larger boxes on their shoulders, while unicorns performed delicate work on the hulls of ships. Trolleys stacked high with cargo zipped back and forth on futuristic hover propulsion, with no end in sight. Watching everything going on around her, she wondered curiously if the world around her was still centered around her.
No. How ridiculous of us. This world is ours to play in! We should enjoy ourselves, not rush in haste.
Continuing to look around, her eyes drifted to a group of ponies in uniform standing out of the way of the docks. They were lined up together in matching uniforms, and were being lectured by another pony in a uniform of a different ranking.
“The instrument panel is practically a decoration to let you know whether you're vaguely on target. The only thing you can really count on is your eyes! And they're useless unless you use your brains! Understand!? God help you space cadets if you ever get into real combat!”
Spittle flew from the Federation officer's mouth as he thundered at the five pony cadets standing at attention in front of him. Luna watched with a dull interest, silently guessing that their inattentive looks were from empty stomachs making as much noise as their trainer.
Note to thy self: test the weapon targeting system at first chance. We must test what the limits of this dream are.
The idea of being able to manipulate a dream with magic to replicate the story world of one of her favorite games had been only a vague interest two weeks ago. In her enthusiasm to test her results, she hadn't bothered with any more elaborate research into replicating the physical laws of the real world too. Dreams were powerful realms unto themselves, and often they reflected the dreamer's own beliefs and understandings. Did that mean that it would be possible to meet a fate worse than imprisonment out in space? Or would she simply wake up, as if she were having a nightmare?
Luna sat back in her seat, finding the combination of padding and cushions to be to her liking. It unnerved her a little, to think that she could be on a dangerous threshold without realizing it. Many studies in magic pertaining to her particular talents had been discontinued over centuries by her older sister, out of a mixture of respect and regret over her banishment a millennia ago. Was it possible that she was on the edge of a major development? Or could it become a spiraling chain of disasters?
Our magical prowess is indeed powerful. Perhaps we should see if we can mold this world from within.
Searching around on her command console once more, her eyes scanned over the multiple utility features the onboard computer to her ship held. Spotting one that looked like it would suit her needs, she picked up the recording transceiver and spoke as if she were narrating a story.
"Captain's log number one. When a inservice vessel enters a garrisoned spaceport, Federation cadets are required to stand at the dock and observe the warship as it takes off and lands. Mainly because there isn't much else to do on a Federation outpost located so far away from any major civilization. But more importantly, it could give them a chance to familiarize themselves with what vessels are still in service with the Federation navy. That service list is a very long roster of different ships, engineered and crewed by an equal number of different races that make up the core of the intergalactic Federation space forces."
Luna watched the group of cadets follow their instructor to another ship, and as if guided by her statement the instructor begin pointing out the different aspects of the new ship to them. Pleased by the results, she stopped the recording device and started it again to leave another entry.
"Captain's log number two. The cozy base where my Kestrel had been docked was nicer than some outpost in the middle of a changeling nebula, but it was so far from the fighting that weapon supplies have stopped entirely. With so many problems in the galaxy, tis hard for any red-blooded skipper to sit idle and accept waiting for orders that may never come. We have heard rumors of the power of Rebel Fleet ships, but we think that they are mostly empty boasts. Nothing in the galaxy can't be sorted out by a few volleys of missiles and burst lasers, especially from a ship as fine as our own."
“But in our humble opinion, the Federation doth worry too much,” Luna said and laughed, ending the recording by putting the transceiver back down on its resting place. Standing up on her hind legs, she spread her wings gracefully and held a foreleg raised in the air. “Enemies of peace in the galaxy have no place to run or hide! We, the brave soldiers of the Federation, shall never give into--”
“Captain!”
Luna nearly fell out of her chair when somepony on her ship's intercom system interrupted her monologue. Picking herself up off of the floor in a disheveled mess of feathers and fur, she adjusted her tiara on her head before picking up the transceiver once more.
"...This is Captain Luna of the Kestrel, over."
“Port authority just radioed back, ma'am. They said that they'll start loading your issued supplies as soon as they've off loaded your cargo, over.”
“Understood. We would like to request a map of the local star systems to plan our return trip out ahead of time, over.”
“Yes ma'am. I'll ask again when they come back with the parts to install your new scrap arm into the ship's hull, over.”
Scrap arm? Luna grunted in acknowledgement and hummed to herself in thought. A special augment to her ship for no cost? She could certainly stand waiting a little longer for that. In her game there were many special augments and devices her ship could be outfitted with. But there was always a cost in the end, which had to be divided between other things to keep the ship running smoothly.
Looking out the cockpit window and through the glowing forcefields that kept the artificial environment of the asteroid base sealed tight, she tried to observe the panorama of stars outside. Perhaps she should have requested that her map be unlabeled, so as to allow her to craft each world individually. Maybe some inspiration could be found for her own night sky in the real world, after a little further exploration.
“Magic scope!”
At her voice command, one of the monitors on her pilot's console displayed an image from the central computer system of the asteroid station. It showed the space around the Kestrel, identifying and displaying information about everything incoming and outgoing its detection range. She knew that the image itself was not a true depiction of reality, but a series of inference and extrapolation techniques by a computer somewhere to output a detailed graphic image for her to view.
Since the computer system was limited by what specific information was loaded into it, it could only display a silhouette of what unidentified objects looked like. In this case, there were several objects similar to asteroids hurdling at high speeds toward the asteroid spaceport. Knowing that the fortress' shields would absorb the impact without a problem, she shut off the link to the laser oscillation tower with a sigh.
Tis an unexpectedly slow start. Where is the action we crave? The adventure! The excitement!
Luna paused, as if waiting for a sign or signal to show that her thoughts were being answered. Suddenly without warning, the radio in her cockpit crackled and buzzed on its own.
"Captain Luna? We may have a problem. Can your ship launch ahead of schedule, over?"
"That depends. What's seems to be the problem, over?" she asked, trying to hide her joy at the thought of doing anything but waiting around in the safe shelter of the asteroid base.
"We're still trying to confirm that. We believe there is a hostile automated attack drone surveying this base, where the incoming asteroids have originated from. Command is requesting you launch the Kestrel and take it out, over."
An attack drone? Luna thought, remembering the wraith-like machines from her game notable for their equipment of cloaking devices to make themselves invisible and impossible to attack. They were not a foe to be taken lightly, and could harass and terrorize smaller facilities by avoiding the automated defenses of the base.
"Do we have a readout of the drone? What it is armed with, over?" she asked, trying to judge her own chances of success and failure from so many different factors unknown to her. The drones she had encountered had varied in difficulty depending on her advances in the game world. Would it be the same for her dream? Disregarding her foe, could her ship be entirely controlled from her cockpit? Or did it need more crew members like the video game her dream world was mimicking? There were too many open factors to take in all at once!
"Negative, captain. It's possible that it was damaged by the asteroids it was hiding around, but we can't confirm that at this time. Over."
Luna crossed her forelegs again, weighing the options in her mind. On one hoof the adventure she had sought out from the start had just caught up to her, but it was before she had gotten a chance to experiment with more controlled variables. Even if she was known as the Mistress of Dreams for her mastery over the dream world, would she be able to call on her experience and knowledge to help herself?
No! Fortune favors the bold! We have lived far too long to cower in the face of adversity!
"Alright! The Kestrel will launch, with its target being the hostile automated drone ship outside of this base's perimeter defenses!"
Chapter 2: Space Cruise (Part 2)
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.