Strange New World

Chapters

EPISODE 1: There's Nothing Wrong With Stowing Away...
EPISODE 2: My Little Pony Can't Possibly Be This Cute
EPISODE 2.5: Getting Things Where They Need to Be

EPISODE 1: There's Nothing Wrong With Stowing Away...

I – David Matheson, Science-Kid

David winced as the full-to-the-brim teacup struck the metal flooring and shattered into tiny pieces. The brown tea dribbled between the grates, coating the cables below. He looked up at the captain with a half-smile, trying to disarm the situation.

Captain Bates backhanded David, sending the boy sprawling to the ground. “Yeoman, I expect better of you.” His harsh voice rung in David’s ears, along with just plain ringing. “We’re hardly out of drydock. There’s no excuse.”

David stood up, rubbing where Bates had hit him. “Yes sir,” he muttered.

“What was that?”

“Yes, sir,” he repeated, louder.

Bates nodded. “I thought so. Walk with me, Matheson.”

He started down the hallway, and David followed. Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. Soon the crew would fill the halls, once they left their safe cabins after the FTL jump. But for now, they stuck to their gel-seats to avoid the pressure caused by faster-than-light movement.

But not David, or Captain Leonard Bates. No sir. They were big fishes in the little pond of the Starship Yamato, a Science-Kid and a Confederation soldier respectively.

To his credit, David went through the paces of Science-Kid well. A Science-Kid’s job was to learn about running a ship properly, and he had been doing that ever since Yamato was under construction. Now that it was going on its maiden exploratory voyage, he could learn even more under the wing of Captain Bates.

David was optimistic about his apprenticeship until he met Bates. After the initial meeting, those hopes plummeted like a sub-orbital parachutist. In the short time they had when they first met, Bates had proven himself to be a bigoted, opinionated man with little thought for his fellow man. He had spent more time complaining about the small shuttle he had to live on for a few weeks as he travelled from Earth to the Alpha Centauri shipyards where Yamato had been built.

The Science-Kid paused at a porthole to gaze out at Alpha Centauri, which was rapidly shrinking. The planet’s surface still burned from the Androsi sneak attack on it fifty years ago. Despite his title, David actually knew very little about science. It was beyond him how the fires on the planet still raged, but he guessed it had to do with Androsi plasma weapons, which were extremely temperamental. David suppressed a shudder as he remembered an old teacher of his burning to death after a captured Androsi plasma pistol misfired.

“Three minutes to FTL jump. All non-essential personnel please strap yourselves in. All essential personnel please refrain from strapping yourselves in, as most chairs in your designated work zones lack safety straps.” That was the voice of Adria, an android who was directly linked to the computer and handled the automated portions of the ship. David had yet to meet her, but her voice was kind and beautiful-sounding. He’d heard it a lot over the last few days, and truth be told… he had developed something of a crush on her because of it. He hoped she was as pretty as her voice.

“That reminds me,” Bates said as David caught up to him. “Adria is a generation five humanoid frame. Never refer to a Mercury sunrise in her presence in anyway. That’s her killswitch.”

David nodded. A killswitch was built into all androids – or humanoid frames, as the military called them – so they could be shut down in case they went berserk.

A faint shout made David’s ears prick up, and Bates increased his speed, forcing David to run to catch up to him.

As the two rounded a corner, David saw a tanned human male wearing a royal blue cape struggling with two blue-clad security guards. Bates stopped, and adjusted his hat as he watched the man, who stopped struggling at the sight of the captain.

“And what do we have here?” Bates asked.

“Sir, we found him stuck in a crate while performing a security sweep of cargo bay epsilon.”

“Epsilon?” Bates’ voice sharpened. “You, what’s your name?”

With a quick shrug and a keen smile, the man slid out of the security guards’ grip, and took a step forward. David noted that the man was barely taller than he was. “I am Mafune Katagiri, space samurai, and I am here to take the fight to the bastard Androsi on this fine warship of yours!” He whipped his cloak, revealing a sheathed sword hanging from his back.

The security guards reached for their stun guns as Bates took a few steps back, bumping into David. “You do realise you’re in violation of about twenty stellar laws? I could have you spaced for sneaking onboard an Enterprise-class cruiser. Not to mention this is an exploratory vessel – we won’t be running into Androsi, not if I have anything to do with it.”

Mafune frowned. “You mean I got on the wrong ship? Going to the Roddenberry Frontier? Travelling the Asimov Cluster?”

“You’re damn right you got the wrong ship – you’re on mine. Men, restrain this ass and take him to the brig.”

Before the self-proclaimed “space-samurai” could do anything, one of the guards rammed the point of his stun gun into Mafune’s neck. An arc of electricity shot through his body, and he fell backwards into the guard’s waiting arms.

“Jesus, what an idiot,” Bates muttered.

“Thirty seconds to FTL jump.”

“And we can’t just turn around and drop him back off.” The captain took off his cap and ran his hand on his bare scalp. “What a mess. How the hell did he get past security?”

“Well, there must be a flaw somewhere in the grid,” suggested David. “Maybe if you were to give Adria a command to investigate we could find out where.”

Bates nodded, and pointed a finger at David as he started to walk again. “Good idea, kid. You’re in charge of that.”

David mentally pumped his fist. Now he had an excuse to meet Adria.

He glanced back at Mafune, whose senseless body was being dragged away by the two security guards. There was something oddly magnetic about the wannabe samurai. He had felt completely earnest in his quest to fight the Androsi. David personally couldn’t understand the hate for the Androsi, having not been born during the war against them. Now, the Androsi were little more than a boogeyman. They hadn’t been seen for fifteen years – exactly the timeframe David had been alive.

As they entered the lift, Adria’s silky voice rang out in the speaker above them: “Brace for FTL jump.”

Bates grabbed onto a handhold on the side of the lift, and nodded at David, who followed lead. It felt like his stomach dropped for a moment, like he was on a roller coaster back home about to go down a hill. Bates seemed to separate into threes – one Bates for each primary colour. And then they all coalesced together into one mega-Bates. With a flash, the vision was over, and David’s stomach came roaring back up. He choked back some stomach juices with a cough.

“The thrill of an FTL jump never gets old,” Bates said to himself with a smile.

David, still feeling a little ill, took a quick glance at himself in the mirror that was on the side opposite the door. He was about five and a half feet. Shaggy black hair – Science-Kids had very few guidelines about hair, unlike the military – blue eyes, and nothing else too memorable about him with the exception of the goggles that were cutting into his mane. He used to use them while doing experiments on plasma weapons, but he kept them always in memory of that one teacher who died on her job.

The lift slid smoothly to a halt and the door opened, breaking David’s reverie. He turned and followed Bates into the CIC, or Combat Information Centre, an outdated name that the military still clung to.

The CIC was bustling with business. Cadets and officers milled about, exchanging memo chips and discussing things amongst themselves. They all fell silent and looked up of one accord as Bates stepped inside.

“Captain on deck!” A tall man stood up from his slouched position in front of a holographic map of the known Milky Way. His right arm was an obvious replacement – you could see the metal and wires. He obviously didn’t care about what people thought of his synthetics.

“At ease. Commander.” Bates walked over to the commander and the two started talking. David turned away from them, scanning for Adria.

There. That had to be her. She was sitting at a station far away from everyone else, clad in a black jumpsuit. Her movements were slightly off, to put it simply. They all bore the hallmarks of a current-gen android.

David walked up to her, balling his hand up in a fist to control its shaking. What would he say to her when he got up there? “I’ve masturbated to your voice”? No, that would give off the wrong impression. “I’m a fan of your work”? Yeah, right. Her work was occasionally making an announcement. Maybe he would just be himself.

Lost in thought, he bumped straight into her chair, rocking it. Adria looked up, and swiveled the chair. David was in full flop sweat mode, and he offered a feeble smile and wave at Adria.

“Is there a reason for this behaviour?” she asked, voice slightly stilted. It was still pretty, though. She was pretty. Her skin was pale, almost white, and her hair was cut in a bob and was a pleasant shade of copper. “You appear to be having an adrenalin spike. Should I call the medic?”

“N-no, no, I’m fine. It’s fine. Uh, Captain Bates sent me over. We have a stowaway onboard, he snuck in aboard a, uh, crate. He wants you to run a diagnostic of the cargo scanner to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Adria blinked, black eyes flicking to Bates, then back to David. “I understand. I will carry this out immediately.” She turned back to her station.

David spun on his feet. Well, that couldhave gone way worse. Way, way worse.

“Excuse me.” David stopped and turned back towards Adria. She was looking over her shoulder, still bearing the poker face exclusive to androids. “What is your name?”

“David. David Matheson. I’m a Science-Kid working under the Captain.”

“David Matheson. That is a nice name.” Adria looked like she had the slightest of smiles. “I hope to work with you more.”

“ Y-you too,” David said, instantly regretting not saying something wittier or memorable. “I mean, yeah, so do I. You seem like a nice robot…lady…thing. Sorry.”

“There is nothing you can say to upset me.” Now she definitely looked like she was smiling. “I am an android.” With that, she returned to her duty.

II – Mafune Katagiri, Space Samurai

Mafune Katagiri sat in the brig, nursing both a headache and his wounded pride. He rubbed the back of his neck where the stun gun had zapped him. It still hurt a little. He could have sworn those things didn’t use to hurt as much. Then again, he’d never had many encounters with military police. Maybe their stun guns were tuned to a higher setting.

Looking up, he saw a girl standing outside his cell with her hands on her hips. Her long strawberry-blonde hair was done up in a ponytail, and her green eyes glared at him disapprovingly. Her arms were bare, as she wore a simple black tank top and military issue pants.

“What an idiot,” she said. “I’m almost ashamed to call you a fellow Centauri.”

“Good thing I’m not a Centauri,” Katagiri said. “I’m from the Astarte colony of Jupiter. Or at least, I was.”

The girl’s face fell a little, look of disapproval fading to one of sympathy. “I’m sorry then.”

Katagiri made a noncommittal noise, and ran his eyes down her body. She was tall, close to six feet, and had a willowy build. “You’re from the low-grav cities on the orbital colonies, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “I was born there. Never went to the surface, though. I was too young when they glassed it.”

“Too young? How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

Katagiri could only emit a low whistle at that. “They poach ’em young, don’t they. Well I’m only a year older than you, so I know how it is. I was just almost too young to remember when Astarte was destroyed.”

He opened his mouth to continue when a beeping interrupted his thoughts. The girl looked down to her waist, at a blinking red light.

“They must want me down in the armoury,” she said. “You seem like an interesting guy, even if you are an idiot.”

She started towards the door. As it slid open, Katagiri called out, “Hey, wait!” She paused. “What’s your name?”

The girl turned back to him with a smile. “Mercedes. Mercedes Hemsworth.” With that, she slipped through the door and out of sight.

Katagiri nodded to himself. She was cute.

Any thoughts he had about her were broken when the door slid open again, and two new people entered. One was a tall man, serious-looking, with a pointed beard. His dark eyes glittered in the pale light of the brig, and his right arm was synthetic. The other was a kid hardly into the teens, with goggles perched on his head for no apparent reason. He looked a little pale and sick. The kid also held a cloth or something in his hands.

“So this is the stowaway,” the man with the bionic arm said, his voice faintly accented. “I thought you’d be taller.”

“Lots’a people say that.” Katagiri stood to his full, imposing 5’6” height. “I am Mafune Katagiri, space samurai and dogged butcher of the Androsi.”

“So I’ve heard,” the man said, clipping off the word “Androsi”. “According to records you were two years old when your home colony was destroyed and you’ve never left the Confederacy of Humanity to actually butcher any Androsi.”

“That doesn’t change my dreams,” Katagiri replied. “If I believe, I can accomplish anything!”

“Why don’t you accomplish your way down to the mess hall with science officer Matheson here, and believe some food into existence. Since you stowed away, we’re putting you to work. From now on you’ll be moving cargo and scrubbing toilets.” The man shoved the boy forward.

Katagiri could only blink in reply. He thought for sure they were going to space him, but now they were going to let him stay? The military was a confusing entity. “Thank you, captain sir! You won’t regret it. My toilet-cleaning skills are second to no–”

“I’m Commander Stein, not Captain Bates, idiot. You ran into him earlier.” With that the man – Commander Stein, one could suppose – left the room, leaving Katagiri and the boy alone. The boy tapped a few buttons, and the crackling force field separating the two fizzled out of existence.

He handed Katagiri the cloth, and the man unfolded it to find it was an argyle sweater.

“It’s cold here and you don’t have a shirt, so…”

“Thanks, kid,” Katagiri said, putting the sweater on. “What’s your name?”

“David Matheson. I’m a Science-Kid.” The kid adjusted his goggles.

“I’ll pretend I know what that means. I’m Mafune Kata- oh, right; you were there the first time, weren’t you? You know that. Eh, just call me Kat. Most people do. Lead me to the food.”

***

They walked most of the way in silence. Kat would pause occasionally to look out at the shifting colours of the warp. Each time, he would make a grunt and then continue walking. It’s not that he wasn’t impressed by the beauty of FTL travel, it was just that he couldn’t exactly see it. He was colourblind.

David slowed to a halt, and Kat did likewise. The kid turned, walking through a door into the mess hall. Kat followed him inside, glancing around at the room. It was a very wide room, filled with silver tables and benches. Lining the walls were receptacles to get food from, painted a garish orange that hurt to look at.

The kid walked over to one, and opened it. Turning, he said, “There’s fake spaghetti and meatballs, reconstituted chicken and fake steak. What do you want?”

Kat mulled this choice over. He wasn’t a big fan of Italian food, and the idea of fake steak didn’t sit well. That left the chicken.

David nodded, and pulled the chicken out after Kat had made his decision. He handed it over and said, “Just set it on the table and tap the right bottom corner twice. It’ll cook pretty quickly.”

Once it cooked, Kat sat down and ripped the cover off. The chicken looked slimy. He poked at it with the provided fork and picked up a piece. It looked like shiny rubber. Putting into his mouth, he confirmed it. It tasted like rubber. In fact, it smelled like rubber too.

Sitting down across from him, David spoke up again. “What’s your deal with being the ‘butcher of Androsi’?”

“My dad fought the Androsi during the war,” Kat said in-between bites of the not-chicken. “Then he and my mom had me, and shortly after that Astarte was destroyed. We went to the orbital colonies back on Alpha Centauri. Then, he just left one day on a ship he bought with a loan he couldn’t afford and set out for who-knows-where. He said to me before he left, ‘Kat, never stop believing in yourself. You can do anything if you put your mind to it.’ Then he gave me that cloak and sword.

“I was too young to understand at the time, but I figured out now what he was doing. He couldn’t take not fighting the guys who took our home anymore. So he left to do it. I dunno if I’ll ever find him again, alive or dead.”

David was silent for a bit, watching Kat choke down the vile food. “I never knew my parents. I was left at the orphanage on Mars. After a while, I decided to join the military after I learned about what the Androsi had done. I was too weak for anything else other than Science-Kid. Man, I really hate that name.”

“What about frame pilot?” Kat spat out a piece of chicken that vaguely resembled a bone. He poked at it with his fork.

“Minimum age,” David mumbled. “I have to be at least 25 before I can even take the test for it. I don’t think I’d pass anyway.”

“Hey, bro, don’t give up that easy. Remember what I just said – Never stop believing in yourself. I bet you could do it.”

“Maybe…” David looked away for a moment, gaze following a girl with long, strawberry-blonde hair walking towards them.

“Hey, it’s the idiot,” the girl said, stopping behind Kat, a steaming hot meal of fake spaghetti on her tray. “They let you out because you’re so dense?”

“I am dense in body only,” Kat said, stabbing the air with his fork. “My mind is a steel vise, full of knowledge and also terror.”

“Oh yeah? Terror at what?” Mercedes asked.

“Terror that I’ll never be good in the eyes of sharpshooter Mercedes Hemsworth.”

Mercedes narrowed her eyes. “How do you know I’m a sharpshooter?”

Kat jabbed the fork at a tattoo on her upper arm of a crosshair.

“Oh. Guess I’m the idiot right now.” Flashing a smile at David, she added, “And you’re the Science-Kid right? Nice to meet ya. I can’t say I’m happy about your company, but hey. We’re all kids someday.”

Kat made a pfft sound and Mercedes jabbed her sharp elbow into his neck where the stun gun had hit him, turning the pfft into a whimper of pain. She trotted off with a bounce in her step. David’s eyes flickered to her rather nice rump, which sashayed as she walked.

Kat’s gaze was fixated on that too, and it took a stab of the fork in his cheek to realise he wasn’t paying attention to his food. He snapped his gaze away from the tantalizing up-and-down motion of girl ass and started eating again.

“Man, girls out here sure are cute, aren’t they?” he asked. “Way better than back at Saturn or Uranus.”

“Yeah,” David said idly, looking like he was thinking of something else.

Kat pushed away the food, having had his fill of rubber and wimpy green stalks that really could have been anything. “I guess I have to go back to the cell, huh?”

The kid only nodded.

With a sigh, Kat stood up. “I guess we better get going then.”

III – Mercedes Hemsworth, Hot Shot

Mercedes closed one eye, focusing on her target. Centering the crosshairs on the midsection of a feral-looking Androsi male, she took in a breath. Releasing it, she proceeded to take in another half-breath, and lightly pressed the trigger.

The Androsi exploded in half, cardboard shrapnel flying everywhere. With a smug smile, she set her rifle down and stood up, looking over at Sergeant Ames to see his reaction.

“Good shooting, Hemsworth. You forgot one thing though,” he said through a mouthful of lukewarm spaghetti.

Mercedes frowned, her pretty face creasing.

Ames tapped the rifle with his pointer. “You didn’t eject.”

Her face flushed as embarrassment swept over her, and she leaned over to eject the empty casing from the gun. She caught it as it ejected, producing it to Ames. He nodded with a slight smile. “Good job, Hemsworth. Just remember to do that in the field.”

She nodded, still blushing a little. The door behind her hissed open, and she swiveled to see who was entering. Puzzled, she frowned as Commander Stein entered the room, hands clasped behind his back. His hawkish nose extended almost to the tip of his low cap.

“Commander! To what do we owe the pleasure?” Ames asked.

“I heard the prisoner’s effects were sent here after his capture. I wanted to inspect them in the captain’s stead.”

Ames nodded, and walked over to a steel locker set in the wall of the armoury. He tapped in a code. Mercedes snuck a peek at the number pad. She could make out a four, an eight and a one, but nothing beyond that. There was still one number left unaccounted for. It wouldn’t hurt to know the code, she thought.

The sergeant withdrew two articles – a dark blue cloth and a sheathed sword of some kind. He handed them to Stein, who set the sword down and flung the cloth out. It opened to its full size with a whoosh.

“A thermal cape,” Stein murmured. “This isn’t cheap.” He rolled the cape up, and handed it back to Ames. Bending down, he picked up the sword.

Examining it, Stein ran a metallic finger down its curved sheath. His other hand found something on the handle. “A trigger. He modified it to be able to be fired out into his hand.”

Drawing the sword from its sheath, Stein twirled it in the air a few times. Mercedes heard a distinct humming sound as it swung. “And it’s a high frequency blade. Pretty expensive. Probably an heirloom, or he stole it.”

Returning the sword to Ames, Stein looked over at Mercedes. “You’ve met the prisoner, haven’t you?” Before she could respond, he continued. “Odd sort, isn’t he?”

“Certainly. He wants everyone to be friends with him it seems.”

“Any other thoughts, cadet?” Stein’s gaze was making her uncomfortable. It lingered in all the wrong places.

“He’s an idiot.”

That made Stein crack a smile, and more importantly, it made his gaze snap back up to her face. “Just as I thought too, cadet. We seem to have many of the same opinions.” He nodded at Ames, and left the armoury.

Mercedes blew a sigh of relief after he was gone. Ames glanced over at her. “You alright, cadet?”

“No,” she said. “The commander’s a creep.”

“He got kicked off the last ship he served on for unseemly conduct towards another cadet around your age. He really is. I don’t know who we offended to get him assigned here.” Ames sounded disgusted. He shook his head. “Listen, if he ever tries anything, just call me. I’ll kick his ass for you. I don’t care if I get court-martialed. You’re the best damn sniper I’ve seen and I don’t want you hurt in anyway.”

Mercedes smiled at that. “Thanks, sarge.”

Ames started towards the door, and motioned for her to follow. “Walk with me, cadet. Unless you want to miss seeing us come out of warp for the first time.”

Mercedes hurried after him. This was her first time on a ship of any kind, much less an FTL-capable vessel. Her stomach hadn’t agreed with the start of the jump, but she heard that the end of a jump was a breathtaking sight that was less taxing on the human body.

It took only a few minutes for the two to reach the nearest observation pit. By that time, there had been several announcements over the loudspeakers about imminent deceleration by Adria, and the thrum of the engines beneath their feet had slowed.

The pit was almost one solid bubble of transparency. The exact materials involved went over Mercedes’ head, so she would be unable to accurately say what the windows were made of. Or window, in this case.

Right now, all they could see was the blinding whitish vortex of warped space around them. Ames leaned against a guardrail and pointed at the warp.

“The first time I saw the warp, I threw up. It’s not very pleasant at first but you warm up to it eventually. Or maybe you don’t. I’ve seen soldiers on the last year of a three-year battle mission like this one still get green at the sight of the warp.”

“But we aren’t on a battle mission,” Mercedes pointed out. “This is an exploratory mission.”

Ames nodded. “True. I’m just so used to war that it’s hard for me to think of anything else. Young people have no idea what it was like to live with the threat of an Androsi invasion hanging over your head. You’ve only known peace. And… well, I’m jealous of that.”

“Ninety seconds to deceleration.”

“I wouldn’t know about only knowing peace,” Mercedes said, still gazing upon the intricate, otherworldly beauty of the warp. “I grew up in the slums of Capricorn Station. It… wasn’t the greatest.”

“It at least explains how you’re such a good shot,” Ames said with a laugh. When Mercedes didn’t reply, he stopped laughing and turned back to the viewport.

“Brace for deceleration.”

The warp just seemed to stop, in exchange for stars with a hazy film over them. Within a few seconds, the film disappeared, leaving the stars. They did not twinkle, and neither did Mercedes expect them to twinkle. She had been born and raised in space after all. The sound of the engines stopped, a purr replacing the sound of their steady thrum.

Mercedes saw a planet underneath her feet. Its colours were vibrant – a shade of blue for the oceans she thought was impossible, the lands were greener than any pictures she had seen of Earth. The clouds too seemed strange, like they were made out of cotton candy.

“That’s a pretty world,” she said.

“It sure is.” Ames walked over and knelt to look at the planet better. “It doesn’t look like it’s inhabited – or if it is, we’re talking low-tech. Look at the dividing line between light and dark.”

Mercedes bent down to peer closer. There were no lights on the dark side of the planet. At least none that she could see.

“Do you think we’ll be stopping off here to explore?”

“We wouldn’t have stopped unless the captain found this system interesting. Right now I’m more worried about that.”

Mercedes followed his pointing finger to a speck of light that had appeared on the horizon of the planet. It was moving rapidly and growing larger every second. “It looks like it could be a ship. Is there a way to zoom in?”

“It’s transparent flexisteel, not a monitor,” Ames said, standing up and rushing over to the door. Thumbing the intercom, he began speaking into it. “This is Sergeant Ames. I’m down in Observation Pit – oh, Three-Ten. There’s a UFO approaching from the dark side of the planet.”

“Noted,” came Adria’s voice. “We are scanning it currently. Please standby.”

Ames swore violently as he released the intercom button. Running over to where Mercedes stood, he knelt again and looked at the rapidly approaching ship. “Hell’s bells. I’d recognise that silhouette anywhere. It’s an Androsi light cruiser.”

IV –To Battle Stations!

As the door to the brig swished shut, the klaxon began to go off, and the lights dimmed from their standard fluorescent white to emergency red. Kat looked around with a confused look on his face and David’s eyes widened.

“Enemy cruiser approaching from stellar below. All hands to battle stations. Repeat, enemy cruiser approaching from stellar below. All hands to battle stations.”

David bolted out the door. Kat followed, not wanting to be left behind. The Science-Kid kept good pace, but he couldn’t outrun Mafune Katagiri! At least not over short distances. Kat was great at sprinting, terrible at long distances.

“Hey, bro, what’s goin’ on?” Kat asked.

“What do you think? We’re under attack!”

Kat ran faster, and grabbed David by the shoulders, both of them skidding to a stop. “By the Androsi?”

“Who else?!”

Kat squeezed David’s shoulders tightly and the boy winced. “Get me to a turret. I don’t care what you have to do. Just get me somewhere where I can hurt them.”

David wiggled his way out of Kat’s grip. “Alright. I think there’s a control port by the armoury.”

The ship rocked, and the klaxons were thrown off-balance for a moment, skipping a few beats. The Androsi had opened fire! David stumbled as the ship rocked again. The Androsi ship flew by the porthole silently, its guns flashing with green lights of death. With each barrage, Yamato shook more.

“Come on, Dave! To the guns!” yelled Kat, running down the corridors at full speed.

***

“They have launched a small skiff,” reported Adria, turning towards Captain Bates.

Bates swore. “Shoot it out of the sky. Surely we can do that?”

“Negative. Their first strike damaged the autoturret subsystems. I am unable to access them. Our guns are effectively silent until crewmembers can reach gun control ports.”

Another swear from Bates. He slammed his fist onto the galaxy map, which had transformed into a sketchy impression of the star system. “Can we at least scramble the goddamn stellar frames?”

“Again, negative,” Adria said, remaining in her seat despite the shaking of the ship. “Their second attack was pinpointed directly on the hangar. Currently it is on fire, and the operators have no way of reaching their frames.”

“Show me a damage report.” The system map shimmered, giving way to a detailed schematic of Yamato. Glowing red spots on the ship designated where it had been hit by enemy fire, and orange spots denoted where fires had broken out. Bates sketched a line in the ship with his finger. “Those bastards knew exactly where to hit us.”

“Impossible!” Commander Stein leaned over the command desk, soaking in the details of the schematics. “This ship is of a brand-new line. There’s no way the Androsi could have details on its operation.”

“Obviously they do.” Bates straightened his back, turning quickly towards Adria. He jabbed a shaky finger at her, and his voice was strangled. “Order all gunners to make sure they don’t hit any of the cargo bays.”

“You wish to ignore the skiff?”Adria sounded confused for the first time. She was used to those in command making logical decisions.

“What did I just say? Keep them away from the frakking cargo bays.”

A frown crossed the normally placid face of the android. She turned back to her post and mentally thumbed the switch to broadcast her voice to the entire ship. “Gunnery crews please take note: Avoid enemy from firing on cargo bays. Repeat, provide covering fire for cargo bays.”

“Stein, we need to jettison the cargo bays, make sure they land on the planet’s surface.” Bates sounded panicky. Adria took this too as a sign that her commander was behaving in an erratic fashion. There was no reason to obsess over the cargo bays. They were only full of supplies to aid colonies far out on the galactic rim.

“I have my key,” said Stein, holding up a small key that hung from his neck. “Where’s yours, captain?”

Bates fumbled in his pockets, finally producing a key of his own right as the ship rocked from another barrage of enemy fire. The key went bouncing out of his hands. The captain let out a strangled swear and ducked under the table, trying to find it.

He emerged a few seconds later, key triumphantly held in one hand. “Prepare for emergency jettison.”

***

“Enemies have boarded. Repeat, enemy boarding party has landed. Deck Three-ten.”

“That’s us,” panted Ames as he ran down the hall to the armoury. Mercedes was just ahead of him, her lesser weight and longer legs giving her the edge in the dash. “We gotta hurry. If those furballs reach the armoury first–”

“I know, idiot!” snapped Mercedes. “That’s why we’re running!”

Since her head turned towards Ames, she didn’t notice the figures running down the same corridor. She slammed into someone, sending both of them sprawling to the floor. Shoving the guy off her, Mercedes saw to her disgust that it was Mafune and the Science-Kid.

“The idiot and the kid? What are you two doing?”

“Getting to a turret control panel,” Mafune said. “What are you doing?”

“Getting to the armoury. Didn’t you hear the broadcast? The Androsi have boarded.”

“Androsi?” Mafune seemed to prick up at that. “Armoury? Is my stuff there?”

“Damn right it’s there, along with the weapons for a third of the ship. We’ve gotta defend it.” Ames brushed past the motley gang and stamped over to the door to the armoury. Finding the door stuck in a half-open state, he started shoving it open. “Hey, argyle. Help me get this thing open.”

“Argyle? Oh, the sweater.” Mafune picked himself up, and helped shove the door open.

The gang piled into the armoury. At Mafune’s behest, Ames opened the security locker, and returned his stuff. Mafune flung the cloak over his shoulder, and hung the samurai sword on his hip. He looked like a parody of a space samurai instead of the real thing.

“What?” he asked, seeing Mercedes fighting off laughter.

“That sweater and cape look ridiculous on you.” Mercedes took the rifle that Ames offered her. Slinging it over her shoulder, she also accepted the several magazines he handed her as well.

A loud boom nearby caused everyone to spin around. The sound of guttural screaming followed the explosion – the sound of Androsi speech. Mercedes scampered out of the room, shouldering the rifle into a firing position. As soon as the first white-armoured Androsi rounded the corner, she fired. The noise of the rifle discharge was deafening. The Androsi she shot at didn’t think so, but then again he would have had trouble hearing with no head.

She smirked to herself as the other Androsi leapt back around the corner, one of them staying behind to lay suppressing fire. She ducked to the side and took quick aim at its midsection. She feathered the trigger.

Nothing happened. Swearing, she ejected the casing and tried again. The shot went through the wall and missed the Androsi completely. As she ejected the next casing, the Androsi leapt towards her, his short sword coming out of its sheath. She had no time to react; it was going to kill her–

–And then Mafune came out of nowhere, his samurai sword neatly severing the Androsi in two. With a loud cackle, he sprinted off for the rest of the Androsi, who had already ran off in search of easier prey. He skidded to a stop when he saw they had escaped him, and turned back to Mercedes.

“What do you think?” he shouted.

“You’re good with a sword,” Ames said, tossing him a sidearm. “But how’s your aim?”

Mafune caught the gun with his free hand. “Good enough. Let’s kill some Androsi!”

***

“Ready for ejection,” said Adria tonelessly.

“Jettison the pods,” Bates said, his voice unsteady. He caught the eye of Stein, who nodded in approval.

“Jettisoning cargo pods.” Adria sent the command, and the ship rocked as they launched into space towards the planet below. She felt a strange emotion, as though she had lost a part of herself. It was silly, though. Her emotions were not programmed to include loss. She could only feel certain happy emotions and occasional sadness. Perhaps it was a strange type of sadness. After this was over, she would have to consult her digest.

The ship shook more violently than before as the Androsi got a lucky shot off. Adria confirmed it with a quick chat with the computer brain. “They have struck the engine room hard enough to damage a reactor strut. I recommend immediate evacuation.”

Bates slammed his fist into the ops table hard enough to crack the glass. “Dammit! Sound the evacuation alarms, Adria. It shouldn’t have had to come to this.”

As the crew began to flee the bridge, Adria saw that the captain was remaining behind. She took a few steps toward him. “Captain, will you not evacuate the ship?”

He laughed. “I may be the galaxy’s premier asshole, but I’m a captain first and foremost. I’m staying behind with my ship. You’re more important than I am – you’ve got the whole computer in your head. Get out of here!”

Adria complied.

***

A shriller klaxon replaced the earlier one, and the flashing red lights stopped flashing, remaining motionless.

“What’s going on?” Mafune asked, looking around in puzzlement.

“They’ve sounded the evacuation alarms,” Ames said. “They must’ve hurt us harder than we thought.”

The sound of gunfire down the hall started to drown out the klaxons. Ames took out the assault rifle he had procured from the armoury. “I’ll stay here and make sure the magnetic seals on the armoury activate. You guys go to the escape pods. I’ll meet you on the planet!”

As the first Androsi soldier rounded the corner, Ames let out a spray of bullets. It ducked back behind the corner with a yep while the rest of the human gang ran down the opposite way.

“There should be an escape pod nearby,” Mercedes said in-between pants. “Hopefully no-one’s launched it yet.”

The featureless corridors, broken only by occasional portholes, went by quickly as they ran. After a scant few minutes, they came across the first escape pod, and an unexpected guest.

An Androsi soldier stood over it, his plasma rifle aimed at the occupant. He was ordering whoever was in the pod to exit, speaking in his own language. The translator nanites made some sense of his garble.

“That’s right. Hands up.” The Androsi took a step back to allow the occupant to exit.

It was a girl with short red hair in a black jumpsuit.

“Adria!” said David under his breath. Mercedes shot him a glare. There was no point to being sneaky if the Androsi heard that little outburst.

“You are an Androsi shocktrooper,” Adria said tonelessly. “Your armour can typically take up to five bullets, depending on calibre. However, there is a fatal flaw in its structure. Please take note.”

Lightning-quick, she grabbed the Androsi by the shoulder and suplexed him into the wall. Turning faster than Mercedes though possible, she then began to slam the Androsi into the wall repeatedly. After about ten slams, she let the Androsi drop to the floor, pieces of his armour clattering to the floor.

“As you can see, repeated blunt force trauma shatters the ceramic-steel inlays, rendering it useless.” Adria looked over at the gang. “David Matheson. Cadet Mercedes Hemsworth. I do not recognise you, though. It is no matter though. Reactor strut six has been damaged. We must evacuate the ship in an orderly fashion. Please follow me into the escape pod.”

They piled into the escape pod in a very disorderly fashion, all trying to enter at the same time. Mercedes managed to shove David and Mafune out of the way and she slid in after Adria did. The two guys soon followed, tumbling inside. She shook her head. They were such idiots.

“Please strap yourselves in. I will launch this pod and guide it to a safe landing zone on the planet below.” Adria had already seated herself at the “pilot” chair, and was tapping out commands already.

Mercedes clipped on the straps, leaning out to see outside the pod. “We can’t leave without Sergeant Ames!”

“There is no room, Cadet. We must launch immediately or risk being discovered by more Androsi.”

The door shut, and after only a few seconds, there was the sound of jets, and the pod began to tumble. They had launched.

***

Captain Leonard Bates held his pistol in one hand, waiting for the Androsi to come. The gun trembled in his grip, and he moved his other hand to hold it as well. The shaking went down, and he smiled grimly.

Looking across the mess that had once been the CIC, Bates sighed. Then, a blinking light caught his attention. Lowering his gun, he walked over to it. The blinking light was connected to a very simple screen that had six words flashing on it.

“MISSILE TUBE 5 READY FOR LAUNCH”

Bates laughed. The computer had repaired part of itself already. He tapped a button, and the text vanished from the screen for a moment, replaced by “LOCKED ON TARGET”. He flicked a switch, and he heard a low boom from deep within the ship.

“MISSILE LAUNCHED.”

At that exact moment, the doors to the CIC blew open, and Androsi swarmed in. Bates spun and fired at them, bullets striking the shocktroopers’ armour to no avail. As the troopers got closer, Bates flipped the gun over and started swinging at any shocktrooper who got too close.

One shocktrooper that was taller than the rest raised his hand, brushing aside his red scarf with an arm. The others backed away as he removed his helmet.

The face beneath the helmet was surprisingly human. The eyes were off, more cat-like than anything else, and there was the faint fuzz of fur on his cheeks. With a sharp smile, he dropped the helmet and took a step forward.

“I am Vulpes. And you are dead.” Vulpes drew a sword from a sheath on his back. It was thin and pointed. Bates, having little experience with swords, could not identify it.

The Androsi lunged forward, point of the sword piercing Bates’ chest. Vulpes drove the sword in deeper, bringing his body close to Bates’. Bates gagged on his own blood, dimly seeing a holstered gun near his left hand. With a swift gesture that surprised even him, he ripped it out of the holster and fired it at Vulpes’ head. The Androsi stumbled backwards, hands leaving his sword as he batted the flames on his face out.

Bates slumped to the ground, vision fading.

V – Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle moved her head away from the telescope, a frown crossing her face. Over the last hour, she’d been seeing strange green lights in the night sky. And now there were meteors on the horizon. Her wings fluttered in distress as one very bright meteor flashed by. She heard a low boom in the distance, and smoke rose from beyond the Everfree Forest.

“Spike! Spike! Spiiiiiiiiike!” she called out, trying to rouse the dragon from his increasingly deep slumber.

After a few rather annoying minutes, Spike dragged himself into Twilight’s bedroom. “What is it, Twilight?” he asked with a yawn.

“I need you to prepare for a trip,” she said quickly. “A meteor crashed down beyond the Everfree and I want to investigate.”

“A meteor shower?” Spike’s face bore the same frown as Twilight. “I don’t remember there being a scheduled one for tonight.”

“That’s exactly it, Spike. Something is going on and I want to find out what.” Twilight gasped as an idea floated up in her mind. “What if we’re dealing with extraterrestrial visitors?”

“Wait,” Spike said. “You believe in aliens?”

“It’s impossible not to. There are countless stars, who’s to say one of them doesn’t have sentient or even sapient life?”

Spike flung his hands up in the air and backed out of the room slowly. Twilight sighed and shook her head. Spike sometimes…

Twilight looked back at the rising smoke on the horizon. The sun was starting to come up, which meant the animals of the Everfree would be sleeping now. It was the perfect time to go investigate!

Or at least, it would be if Spike would get back out of bed and help her pack.

EPISODE 2: My Little Pony Can't Possibly Be This Cute

I – Of All the Places to Crash…

Kat rubbed his head with a groan. Looking around, he saw that everyone else was slowly recovering from the crash. David was doing the same, unclipping his safety webbing. Mercedes had already unclipped herself, and was currently stretching. Adria sat still as a stone in her pilot seat.

“That was a bumpy ride,” he said, fumbling for the clip. “Everybody okay?”

“My systems are at 95% efficiency.” Adria swiveled to face him. “We have landed in a swamp,” she added, answering Kat’s next question. “Fortunately, there is enough solid ground that we will not have to, as the phrase goes, ‘get our feet wet’.”

“Great. I hate the water.” Kat stood up, having freed himself from the tangled webbing, and immediately hit his head on the ceiling. “Ow.”

He managed to walk carefully over to the exit, a mean feat given the chaos in the escape pod. Stuff from the armoury was scattered throughout the pod, making it a gamble on whether you’d find metal flooring or pieces of a weapon underneath you. Grabbing onto a handrail, Kat punched the “OPEN” button. With a hiss, the door to the pod slid open.

Kat stepped outside, and shielded his eyes against the glare of the rising sun. He surveyed the landscape, turning his head slowly. It was less of a swamp and more of a bog. Stagnant water surrounded them, and dirt paths ran along the water’s edge. Glancing back, he noticed that they had landed in a pool of water. Luckily, it was shallow and they had struck bottom quickly. The water had boiled away from the heat of the impact, leaving only the melting coolant the pod had sprayed over itself.

“It looks like it’s safe, guys,” he called out.

Within a few minutes, everyone had exited the pod. They set all the equipment down on the ground.

“We need to do a quick inventory,” Mercedes said. “There’s no point in going off without knowing what we have.”

Nodding, Kat sat down Indian-style by the stuff and started picking up random pieces of it.

“Well, we’ve got about… sixteen clips of ammunition for the pistols,” he said.

“They’re called magazines,” Mercedes said with an expression that read “What a plebian”.

Kat stuck his tongue out at her, and pocketed four magazines for himself. Looking back down at the pile, he picked up a nice-looking assault rifle. “There’s an assault rifle here,” he said, stating the obvious. “I don’t see any clips for it though.”

She shot him an irritated look, and snatched the rifle out of his hands. “That’s because I have the magazines. What about food?”

“There are eight packs of MRE’s,” Adria said, collecting them in a pile away from the rest of the equipment.

“MRE’s?” Kat frowned, mulling the acronym over in his head.

“Meals Ready to eat, but they’re more like MRR’s,” Mercedes said. “Meals Ready to Regurgitate.”

“There’s a couple mineral scanners and a general scanner over here.” David held up the scanners.

“That’ll be good for when I pan for gold. Is there anything useful?” Kat asked.

“The general scanner, yeah. It can pick up almost anything. Energy sources, lifeforms. The mineral scanners might be useful for spare parts.”

“I have removed the communications equipment from the pod and assembled a portable version,” Adria added.

“And I’ve got a couple charging platforms and four rechargeable power packs in case we need to switch functions on our pistols,” Mercedes finished. “I think we’re about set here. David, can you find–”

“Woah, sister,” Kat said, standing up. “Who decided you could give orders?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m the only person with military experience. The rest of you are either moronic stowaways, science officers, or androids.”

“I’m moronic now. I think she likes me,” he said with a wink at David. “But you’re wrong. I should be giving the orders. There’s an old saying, ‘He who was the sword gives orders’.”

“Oh yeah? Well here’s an older saying: ‘Fu–’”

“Hey!” David snapped. Both of them stopped arguing and turned towards him, eyes wide at his outburst. “Look, just let Kat be the leader if he’s so bent on it. If he screws things up too bad, then you can take command. Does that seem okay?”

Kat nodded, and so did Mercedes.

“Now then,” Kat said. “My first command as leader of this group is this: Stay here cause I gotta take a mean pee break.”

“Oh, god,” muttered Mercedes, covering her face with a hand. “Just shoot me now.”

“Shooting you now would only cause harm to you.” Adria tilted her head like a confused puppy. “I don’t understand why you would want us to shoot you.”

***

A forest began only a couple hundred yards away, so Kat made a beeline for it. Stopping at its edge, he looked around to make sure he was clear out of sight. The others still stood by the smoking wreckage of the pod. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Mercedes was saying something, judging from the movements of her arms.

Wonder why girls always move their arms a lot when they talk.

He unzipped himself, and started peeing. Whistling a tune, he looked deep into the forest. He’d never seen a forest before. Also, he’d never seen a swamp either, but the forest was more impressive.

Irritated, he looked down. There was still a steady stream of urine. “Geez, what did I drink?”

Something moved in the underbrush. Kat’s gaze shot up. Something was coming closer.

His hand automatically went to his side. He winced as he remembered he had left his sword and his pistol at the crash site.

The thing crashed out of the forest, dangerously close to Kat’s favourite part of his body.

He did the only natural thing that came to mind.

He screamed at the top of his lungs.

II – Base-Four

The sound of Kat screaming made everyone perk up. Leaving their stuff behind, they ran at full speed to where he had disappeared.

David wasn’t doing too well at the running thing. On the ship, he was fine. Its artificial gravity was close to Mars-standard. But here the gravity was closer to Earth-standard, making it hard on his small frame. He was winded only by the time they reached Kat.

He noticed that Mercedes wasn’t doing too hot either. She was also panting and tired from the brief run.

Looking back at Kat, he saw that the wannabe samurai had his mouth slack open as he stared at something in the underbrush.

David peeked around Kat and saw probably the strangest thing ever. There was a small, purple horse-like creature with a horn and wings standing with wide eyes in the brush. On its back was a purple-and-green lizard-like creature. Saddlebags hung from the horse’s side, and they had a stylized star printed on them.

“I thought it’d be bigger,” said Mercedes with a sly grin.

Kat whipped his head towards her and zipped up his pants in one swift motion. “Hey! It – I – hey!”

She winked at him and turned towards the horse. “What is that? And what’s with the cute little lizard on its back?”

“Isn’t that a unicorn?” Kat asked. “I thought there was something about them and virgins.”

“Yeah. And it came to you.” Mercedes’ grin just grew bigger.

“Hey! I – you – hey!”

David rolled his eyes and shot a glance at Adria, who just shrugged.

The horse – or unicorn, or whatever you wanted to call it – looked at Kat and Mercedes and neighed loudly.

“That is legitimately terrifying coming out of that little thing,” Kat said.

The unicorn took a step forward, grabbed Kat’s hand with its front hooves, and began to investigate it. It whinnied a few times to itself, and the lizard on its back yawned.

“Maybe they’re, like, symbiotic, or something.”

“What was that?” Mercedes asked, looking at David with a bemused expression.

“The, uh, unicorn and the lizard. He’s perched on her back. Maybe to compensate for lesser eyesight, the unicorn allows it to sit on her back and scout for danger in return for letting it eat the parasites in her fur.”

Adria chimed in. “This seems likely. However, it must be assumed that one of them is more sapient than the other. From my observations, the unicorn – for lack of a better name – is, being that it is currently investigating Mister Mafune’s hands. The lizard being is very passive, and is likely a pet of some kind.”

“It could just be dumb,” Kat said. “Like, maybe it heard the crash and was so dumb it waltzed up to see what was going on instead of running away.”

“That is not likely. It is very closely examining your hands. It would not be doing that without reason. It can therefore be inferred that there is some degree of intelligence.”

Kat just rolled his eyes.

“Well there’s one way to find out,” David said. “We can try math. It’s the universal language, or so they say.”

“Indeed,” Adria agreed. “However, we should note that there is a high probability that they do not use base ten.”

“Base ten?” Kat asked.

“Humans use base ten for math. We have ten fingers,” said David, waggling his fingers. “They don’t have fingers at all, except the lizard. I think they’d probably use base four because they have four legs.”

The unicorn let go of Kat’s hand and set its front hooves on the ground. It tilted its head back and neighed. The lizard said something in a strange language back to it. Adria cocked her head like a puppy as the unicorn responded.

“There is a language underneath the typical sounds of a horse,” she said. “The lizard being spoke, and when I fully applied of my translator cortices I could hear the same language.”

“So then we can translate their languages with our implants?” Mercedes asked, rubbing her throat where it had been implanted.

“I can. You cannot. We would require a permanent link to the ship brain to do so. I have a connection, but can only receive signals, not transmit. There is too much interference from the strange energy readings on the planet’s surface.”

“Hang on,” Kat said, holding his hands up. “Energy readings? What energy readings? When were you planning on springing this on us?”

“Apologies.” Adria sounded genuinely sorry, which was strange for an android. “It is easy for me to forget that not all of us are privy to the same information. Captain Bates ordered us to stop at this planet because of unusual energy spikes from the planet’s surface. It resembles the energy from Archonite used for powering both starships and battle frames. Shall I pause to inform you of Archonite ore?”

They all shook their heads. They knew about the strange ore found on Mars and other planets in the solar system. It was missing from Earth, which was deemed one of the biggest scientific mysteries of the Twenty-Sixth Century.

“Captain Bates believed that there was a rich vein of Archonite below the planet’s surface and was going to establish a small base camp to discover if we could safely mine for it. However, given the presence of possible sentience or sapient life, there will likely be no mining unless granted permission by the inhabitants.”

“Well that explains the mining gear in that cargo bay I got dragged out of,” Kat said, lowering his hands. “So this whole thing was a smokescreen to find alternate sources of Archonite?”

Adria inclined her head. “Indeed. Captain Bates and Commander Stein hoped to keep it a secret from the crew.”

“Wouldn’t people get suspicious that every planet we stumble across happen to have Archonite?” David asked.

“Possibly.” Adria turned towards him. “The goal would have been to indoctrinate the crew into believing that Archonite is more common than we think. However, reports from deep space probes have revealed that Archonite is one of the rarest minerals. Any planet on our path that harboured even the slightest hint of Archonite would have been planned stops for Yamato. Our sister ships, Enterprise and Defiant had the same orders.”

Mercedes let out a low swear, causing the unicorn to cock her head slightly and take a few steps towards her. “We all got suckered, didn’t we?”

“That would appear to be the case,” Adria replied, lowering her head even further. She didn’t appear very pleased with the situation. “I apologise for keeping this from you. I had orders from Captain Bates. However, with his death and the election of Mister Mafune as leader, I feel those orders are void.”

“So if Archonite is so rare, why does our solar system have so much of it? Are we just winners of a galactic lottery?” Kat crossed his arms.

“I cannot say. The odds for sapience evolving in a star system with extremely large amounts of Archonite are astronomically small. The odds for sapience evolving in two separate star systems with large amounts of Archonite are even smaller. And the odds of three sapient species evolving in star systems with large amounts of Archonite are infinitesimally small.”

“So we, the Androsi, and possibly these horses are all winners of the cosmic jackpot?” Kat again.

“Yes. Though, if they are sapient, the ‘horses’ are by far the jackpot winners. Ship brain identified as much Archonite on this planet as there is in the entire human solar system.”

Kat whistled, and David’s eyes widened in surprise. If that was true, they could be standing over Archonite right now! The very concept made him a little light-headed. The closest he’d been to Archonite was watching teachers perform experiments on Archonite deemed to impure to power even small tugboats.

“We’re getting way off track,” interrupted Mercedes. “Translating and getting signals to Yamato. How do we get both done?”

“Translating is easy. I will simply need the aid of the lizard-being. It speaks the pure language, untouched by any of the sounds created by equine physiology. After I have spent enough time with it, I will be able to communicate however roughly with the unicorn.

“Signals are harder. I will require a very high mountain in a high-energy area. Depending on the state of the ship, I will need to get a direct line to the ship brain. Anything else might be picked up by the Androsi, if they are still aboard. I doubt this last part, but it is still possible. I did not see suitable peaks when we crash-landed.”

“Back up. Why don’t you think there are Androsi aboard the Yamato?” Kat asked.

“When we launched, the last thing I heard from ship brain was that it had launched a warhead at the Androsi light cruiser we had engaged. Due to their arrogance, they had not activated any type of defences. The damage done by a class-three warhead would cripple them, and they would call back any shocktroopers still aboard Yamato to assist with repairs.”

David was trying his best to ignore this. During Adria’s explanation of what she needed to do, he had broken off a stick from a nearby tree and was sketching out a mathematical equation in the mud. The unicorn noticed what he was doing and trotted over.

It stared at the equation for a moment before extending its hoof. David frowned, trying to figure out what it wanted. He couldn’t tell, but he decided to take a stab at it. He extended his hand and shook the hoof. The unicorn frowned in return, and shook its head, jabbing its hoof in the direction of the stick.

David offered it the stick, and a strange violet aura wrapped around both the stick and the horse’s horn. He stumbled back with a loud swear, causing his companions to spin towards him and the lizard fell off the horse’s back into the mud.

“Is… is it lifting that stick without hands?” Kat asked, rubbing his forehead in complete confusion.

“It appears to have psychic powers.” Adria leaned in to look closer at the horn.

“I hope it can’t read my mind.”

“I hope nothing can read your mind,” Mercedes quipped. “Who knows what horrors lurk there?”

The unicorn scrawled a number in the mud, and looked up at David with a proud grin. David crouched down to peer at the solution. He blinked in surprise. It was right! The unicorn had solved the speed-of-light equation in only a few seconds.

Time to try something harder, he thought. This time he sketched out the equation for judging the power of a shard of Archonite.

Once again, the unicorn solved it in only a few seconds. David whistled. It had taken him hours to solve the Archonite equation when he had been given it in the academy. And even then, he had been the quickest to solve. The fact that the unicorn had solved it so quickly was staggering.

“Impressive,” Adria said, crossing her arms. “But perhaps due to Archonite’s commonality here, they devised that formula earlier than we did.”

“I guess,” David said. “Any ideas on how to learn the language?”

“As I stated earlier, I will require the aid of the lizard-being. Speaking of this…” Adria took a few steps over to the horse, and extended her arms towards the lizard. It shrugged in a very human way.

Adria waggled her fingers in a way that reminded David of when he would try to convince the academy cat to hop in his arms. The lizard seemed to get the hint, allowing himself to be picked up. Adria held him at arm’s length away from her face.

“Speak,” she commanded.

The lizard said something, taking a wary glance back at the unicorn. It just waved him on with a hoof. David was surprised at how… human the aliens seemed. Sure, Androsi were more human-looking, but they still had a strange, feral nature to them that changed how they moved, how they acted. But not with these creatures.

With a very high chirp, the lizard wiggled its way out of Adria’s grip and went plummeting down to the ground, splattering mud all over her.

“That is not beneficial to either of us,” she said, picking the lizard back up. “I require more examples of your language. While I understand you cannot understand me, I hope you will provide more samples.”

The lizard squeaked something out at the unicorn, who brayed in response. A low rumble cut through the two’s talking. Everyone looked up of one accord, seeing thunderclouds sweeping in.

The unicorn neighed, and gestured at the gang of humans. When they just stared blankly at it, it stamped its hooves and gestured at a path into the forest.

“I believe it wants us to follow it,” Adria said, placing the lizard on her shoulders. It put up a little bit of resistance, but once she set it down, it said something and relaxed. “There is an eighty-five percent chance it wants to lead us to shelter from the rain.”

“What about the other fifteen?” Kat asked.

“Fourteen point five percent is relegated to possible inability to understand its motives entirely. Point five percent is that it might be leading us into the forest to kill us.”

“Oh, joy.”

III – Ponyville

Twilight looked back at the creatures. They were following her; Spike perched on the pale one’s shoulders. They were strange things, tall and gangly like a diamond dog. They seemed smarter and infinitely nicer than diamond dogs, however.

She had been wary of them at first, but once they had proven to be nonthreatening, she had warmed up to them. The pale one grabbing Spike had set off some alarm bells, but since it had acted like it was trying to communicate had made her relax again. Twilight still had some doubts, but given her status as a princess, she had decided to give them a shot.

After all, if she didn’t give these aliens a chance, who would?

The incident with the math still made Twilight confused. The first equation, the speed of light had puzzled her for a few moments before she remembered the solution. But the second they had acted like it was much harder, when in fact it was easier. Starswirl’s Law of Magic Levels was taught in Magic Kindergarten, for goodness’s sake!

She shook her head with a laugh. What kind of backwards aliens thought that was a hard math problem?

***

It took a few hours to reach Ponyville, during which time the rain started. Twilight kept her head ducked, as did the aliens. At times, they would murmur to themselves in their strange babble. Twilight tried to make sense of it but so far she could understand nothing.

Spike kept up a steady stream of talk at her prompting, telling the aliens all about Ponyville and how much they’d like it there. The pale one seemed very interested and would occasionally interject in its own tongue. Despite the language barrier, it paid quite a lot of attention to Spike. Twilight could only figure that it found Spike cute, or just scientifically curious.

When they did reach Ponyville, it was practically deserted due to the storm. Twilight made sure they were following her, and ran to the library, holding the door open for them. Once they had all stumbled in, she shut it and began pacing.

“Think, Twilight, think. How can you communicate with them? There must be a spell to bridge this language gap…”

She ran over to a shelf, and started digging through the books, searching for a spellbook.

“No need,” came a thickly accented, flat voice. “I learn language. Rough. Can speak bit.”

Twilight turned, mouth agape. The pale one had set Spike down, and was speaking. “Am Adria.” She gestured to each of the aliens in turn. “Katagiri. David. Mercedes.”

Twilight repeated the names, rolling the unfamiliar syllables on her tongue. “I am Twilight Sparkle. Pleased to meet you.”

Adria turned to the others and said something quickly. The short one in the sweater – Katagiri? – replied.

“We too pleased,” Adria said, turning back to face her. “We… we have… no, we have error.” She pointed upwards. “Come from far star. Bad attacks. We land here, escape. Need go back. Need high place.”

Twilight frowned. From what she could understand, the aliens had encountered some kind of trouble in space and had crash-landed. They wanted to go home, but they needed to go somewhere high for whatever reason.

“Why do you need a high place?”

“Magic hurt talk-machine. Talk-machine better high place. No –” she said something that Twilight couldn’t quite understand, but it sounded vaguely like leylines.

Some sort of machine was damaged and needed a higher place? “A talk-machine… Like a telegraph?”

Adria’s mouth curled down at the corners. A frown? “Telegraph. Yes. Very much so.”

So, they needed a high place to use their telegraph so they could find a way out of Equestria. Interesting. They didn’t seem too curious about her anymore. They just wanted to go home. Twilight could understand that. Many times during her studies in Canterlot had she wanted to go home, and even those first few days in Ponyville she’d dreamt of home.

But where could she find a high mountain that was above the leylines?

“I’m going to ask my teacher about your dilemma. Hopefully she’ll respond in a timely manner.”

Adria nodded, and turned to speak to her friends. While this was going on, Twilight quickly narrated a letter to Spike. Spike jotted everything down, quicker than Twilight had ever seen. Hopefully it wasn’t full of errors like the last quick letter he had to write, back when the hydra laid eggs in the mayor’s garden.

The door swung open with a jingle of the bell, and Twilight turned towards it. All five of her close friends were piling in, and rarity was in the middle of saying something.

“-oh, there you are, dear. Cloudkicker came by earlier, saying you ran off to the forest with Spike. And then she came back and said you had these… strange creatures in tow…” Rarity’s voice trailed off as she caught sight of the aliens. “What are they?”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but she realised that she didn’t know what they were. She hadn’t thought to ask, being too busy trying to help them. She was about to say “I don’t know” when Adria interrupted.

“They are hew-mons,” she said with a gesture towards the others. “I am android.” Then she reintroduced her and the rest to the ponies.

“Hew-mon,” Twilight repeated, running her tongue along the name. A strange name for strange beings.

For the first time, she noticed the black objects that hung from the hips of each of the hew-mons. Not to mention the one in the sweater – Katagiri, she reminded herself – had a sword as well. It made her uncomfortable, ears pinning back. She kicked herself for not noticing the weapons before. What kind of hew-mons were they that they needed weapons? Twilight hoped her friends wouldn’t notice.

“Oh, it’s pointing at me! Why ever would it do that?” Rarity asked, pointing back at Katagiri. “And it’s got awful clothing on. Just look at that ratty old sweater.”

Rainbow Dash flew up to Katagiri, and placed a hoof on his chest. “Look here, bozo, why are you pointing at my friend like that?”

Katagiri just looked over at Mercedes and said something before raising his sword. Twilight felt her breath catch. Then, very slowly, he poked Dash with the sheathed tip and shoved her out of reach.

“Look, girls,” Twilight interjected before Dash could attempt to try something else dumb. “They’re just looking for a way home. I told them we – I could help.” She then proceeded to give the short version of Adria’s story, leaving out the part about them being from space. She ended with, “I just sent a letter to Princess Celestia asking for help. I’m going to help them unless she has a good reason not to.”

“Well,” said Applejack, “I guess if’n you trust ‘’em, so should we. They don’t seem all that dangerous anyway.”

Twilight nodded, thinking of the weapons they carried. But they hadn’t used them yet, and they’d had many opportunities so far. “I think the rain’s stopped,” she said. “Girls, you should head home and wait for Princess Celestia’s letter to arrive. Then we can get back together and draw up a plan.”

“Hold on a sec, Twi!” Rainbow Dash landed nearby and her face bore an unpleasant expression. “We can’t just leave you here alone with them. Sure, they might look nice, but who knows?”

“I think she’s right,” added Fluttershy. “When I was taking care of that poor, hurt ocelot, I made sure to have somepony else with me whenever I was near him just to be safe.”

“Good point, Fluttershy. Alright, Rainbow Dash, you can stay here with me for a while. They shouldn’t be too much trouble. And Pinkie Pie – no welcoming party. If the townsfolk didn’t take well to Zecora, they definitely won’t take well to hew-mons.” Twilight added.

Dash nodded, and the others left with farewells.

At least, I hope they won’t be too much trouble.

IV – Never Have I Ever

“How about a game?” Kat asked, leaning back in his chair.

Mercedes looked at him, disbelief flooding in. He seemed completely unflappable. “A game? Right now? You’ve gotta be joking. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a weird horse-library in a tree.”

“Nah, bro, nah. I noticed. Straight from the horse’s mouth: they gotta wait for Princess whatever to get back to them. While we’re waiting, we should do something. Like get to know each other better.” Kat shrugged. “Just a suggestion, babe.”

“Alright, I’m game for a game. Though it depends on what kind. This isn’t the ‘slowly get naked’ kind, is it?” Mercedes leaned forward.

“Alas, it is not. It’s called ‘Never Have I Ever.’ ”

“I’ve heard of that one. We don’t have drinks though.”

Kat held up his field thermos of water and shook it. “This thing has plenty of water, and if I recall, it can sterilise too.”

Mercedes shrugged, and set her bag on the table, rummaging through it for her own thermos.

“Five fingers of water,” Kat ordered, popping the cup-slash-lid off his thermos. “Which means five questions. If you’ve done something, you drink. If you haven’t, you don’t drink. If you ask a question and the other person doesn’t drink, you have to drink.”

“Alright,” Mercedes said, pouring out the proper amount. “Who starts?”

“I will.” Kat held up his cup and clinked it together with Mercedes’. “Never have I ever… hmm, let’s go with this. Never have I ever had an embarrassing musical obsession.”

Mercedes took a drink. “I used to be into trash-stomp. Those were dark days.”

“I stick to classical stuff myself,” Kat said, a little flushed. “I, uh, listen to what they used to call cowboy music.”

Mercedes arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Folksy songs about riding the open plains and stuff. Nowadays it’s about lone freighter pilots shipping stuff. I like the old, old stuff better.”

“It’s my turn right? Alright, never have I ever kissed someone.”

Kat smiled and sat there. Mercedes sighed, and took a swig of water.

“How very sad.”

“Says the also kissless man.”

“Touché. Never have I ever killed another human being.” Kat fingered his drink. “So obviously Androsi don’t count.”

Mercedes took another sip of water.

This time it was Kat’s turn to arch an eyebrow. “Really?”

She nodded. “It was back on Capricorn Station. I grew up on the bad side of town – as if there were any other sides. It was going into night cycle, and my younger sister and I were on our way home from… God, I don’t even remember what.

“Since it was getting dark, I decided to take a shortcut down a few alleyways. I was used to it, but she wasn’t. Then somebody hit me from behind. I saw him when I got back up just a few seconds later. He was fat, and he sorta smelled like onions.

“He was trying to pin Lacey down. I did the only thing that came to mind. There was a broken pipe nearby. He dropped it after hitting me with it. So, I picked it up, snuck up behind the bastard, and started hitting him. I just kept hitting him, and hitting him, and hitting him. His head was caved in by the time I finished.

“We ran after that. A few hours later, the police showed up. When they heard our side of the story, they gave me an offer – either I’d have my juvenile record sealed at the cost of a few months of community service or I could join the military until I was twenty-one and have my records wiped. The first was pretty much a death sentence, and the second was just a way to get me off-world. See, on Capricorn, anyone whose records are sealed are pretty much ignored. God only knows what they’ve done, y’know?

“So I took the military offer. That was four years ago.”

Kat had nothing to say to that. He simply downed the rest of his water. “I think we’re done with that game,” he said in a quiet tone.

Mercedes glanced over at Adria and David. The two had stopped in their examination of the horse’s books to listen. When they saw her looking their way, they snapped back to their work.

A low rumble echoed from outside. Mercedes perked up. It didn’t sound like thunder, not exactly. For one, it sounded lighter. And secondly, it continued instead of trailing off like thunder. It sounded almost like a ship.

“Do you hear that?” she asked.

Adria paused and looked up from her readings. “An engine. Fairly close. The harmonics are unfamiliar to me. Definitely not a ship from Yamato.”

“Do you think it’s the Androsi?” David asked.

“Who else could it be? The only other aliens aside from them and the horses we know of are the Ylen, and they don’t usually come around this part of the galactic rim.” Mercedes looked over at Kat. “We need to get out there and set up for if they are Androsi. We’ll need high ground to start. I’ll get on the balcony of the tree – it seems like there’s plenty of coverage there for the rest of the town.

“Kat, you should set up by the fountain in the centre of town. Figure out what angle they’ll approach from and get on the other side and start shooting when you see them.

“David, Adria, you two stick to the back alleys. Try to flank them when they show up.”

“Hold on, lady. I’m in command here, not you,” said Kat. He put his hands on his hips dramatically. “Okay guys, here’s the plan.

“Do exactly what she said.”

Mercedes smiled, and inclined her head. The next moment, she was running up the stairs, unslinging her sniper rifle.

“Oh wait, Kat. You’ll need this!” She tossed the assault rifle down to him, along with a couple magazines. He caught the rifle, but missed the magazines. She laughed, and continued on her way up.

Flinging open the doors to the balcony at the top of the tree, she climbed up and rolled into a prone position, pulling the final piece of the folding rifle out to its full position.

The town’s streets were empty, and lights from within the houses shone on the slick cobblestone. She saw her three companions exit the library. Kat slipped on the stone, but recovered into a nice-looking slide over to the fountain.

A gentle wind rocked her from side-to-side. She was up higher than she initially thought. Licking her lips, she turned her gaze to the sky. There, in the clouds, was a violet glow. The clouds soon parted to reveal what looked like two upswept wings covering the top of a bicycle seat. An Androsi air-to-surface shuttle.

Taking out a magazine of high-power Archonite-tipped rounds, Mercedes snapped it into place. Her aim drifted towards the shuttle’s engines. There – just above the exhaust port! Her tongue sticking out of her mouth in extreme concentration, Mercedes feathered the trigger and ejected the casing. Quickly taking aim again, she fired at the support strut connecting the wing to the “bicycle seat”. Ejecting the next casing, she took another shot at the strut.

All in all, two out of three shots connected. Her last strut shot had missed entirely. The Archonite tipped bullets did their job though – there were large holes where they had struck. Smoke began to pour out of the engine. With luck, the damage was high enough to where they wouldn’t be able to land. Instead, they’d just drop a few troops off and return to their mothership for repairs.

Sure enough, her plan was working. Instead of landing, the shuttle just hovered over a street, and began to drop soldiers off. She counted six – no, a seventh was descending. Peeking at them with her scope, she saw the seventh was clad in red armour, with a similarly red scarf wrapped around his neck. He had to be the leader.

Taking careful aim, she feathered the trigger. There was a dry click.

Swearing, Mercedes pulled out the magazine. She had forgotten that Archonite-tips came in sets of three due to their weight. She fumbled a bit, but managed to get a new magazine of armour-piercers snapped in place.

She swung her rifle back into a shooting position. To her chagrin, the leader had moved behind a couple soldiers, rendering her shot worthless. To let her anger out, she beaded in on a random troop and squeezed the trigger.

Unfortunately, she had squeezed too hard, and the shot went off-target. Instead of a clean headshot, it struck the trooper in his shoulder, sending him sprawling. The leader’s head snapped up, and he drew his plasma pistol, squeezing off a few shots at Mercedes. The shots went wild, one striking the leaves, setting them on fire, and the other struck a nearby telescope, melting it.

Position revealed, Mercedes kicked open the trapdoor to the library and jumped down. She landed hard, startling Purplesmart, or whatever the horse’s name was. Running to the other balcony she had scouted out, she wondered how the others were doing.

***

Kat crouched behind the fountain, peeking around the corner. He cradled the assault rifle awkwardly. He’d never used one before, just a pistol at the range whenever he could. And, of course, his samurai sword.

He heard a loud crack, similar to the three that had preceded the landing of the shocktroopers. Again peering around the corner, he saw a shocktrooper hitting the pavement, gout of blood spewing from his shoulder. The red trooper was shooting at Mercedes, high up in her perch.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Kat dove out of cover, spraying gunfire at the troopers. Most of his shots went wild, but he saw a few ping off their armour. The shocktroopers ducked into whatever cover they could find – mostly shop stalls – and started returning fire. Their plasma beams ate into the cobblestone, and a few turned the fountain’s water into steam.

Once more taking advantage of his surroundings, Kat returned to behind the fountain, using the steam as cover. He could hear the Androsi leader shouting orders to his men. This was followed by the staccato report of a pistol.

Leaning out of cover, Kat saw that Adria had rolled out of one of the alleyways, pumping rounds into shocktroopers. She was firing three-taps – two to the chest and one to the head – with unerring accuracy. After about ten shots, she was out of ammo, and she ran back into the alley, legs a blur as she put her mobility to good use.

The wounded shocktrooper dropped his rifle and started to drag the other wounded soldier back behind a stall that had a big apple painted on it. Quickly checking the LED ammo count on the assault rifle, Kat grimaced. He leaned out of cover again, and took careful aim at the soldier who could still walk.

Kat squeezed the trigger. This time, the bullets tore through the Androsi’s armour, blood steaming out as the superhot bullets pierced his skin. He collapsed on top of the trooper Mercedes had downed.

***

David slipped out of the market stall he was using as cover. The Androsi were in front of him, backs turned. The red one with the scarf was bellowing orders.

Then something happened that surprised David. A horse, cream-coloured with a two-tone blue and purple mane poked her head out of a house to see what was going on. An Androsi shocktrooper snapped towards her, and as he was taking aim at her, the leader shot him in the head.

“We have orders,” he shouted. “Do not kill the ponies! We need them alive!”

The pony had already ducked back into her house, and the remaining Androsi forces were huddled around each other. Except there were only two at the other stalls now, including the leader. Where had the other one gone?

David’s answer was quickly answered. He felt the warm muzzle of a gun press into his neck.

“Drop the pistol, small earthling.”

David did as the Androsi commanded.

“Now raise your hands,” he ordered, putting his boot on David’s back.

A gunshot rang out and David felt something warm spatter on the back of his head. The weight on his back shifted, and he heard a clatter.

Then someone grabbed him under his arms, and they started moving backwards faster than any human could move. Looking up, David saw that Adria had grabbed him.

“Thanks,” he said once she had dropped him.

“There is no need to thank me. I only do what is necessary to aid my companions.”

The crack of a sniper rifle reached their ears.

“It would seem Miss Hemsworth has claimed another life,” Adria said.

“She seems good at that,” David panted. For some reason he couldn’t catch his breath. His heart was pounding like a jackhammer.

“It is almost disconcerting how easily she seems to take a life.”

The rumble of the shuttle cut their conversation short. It sped in from the north, and did a sweeping turn. Gun turrets popped out of the once-smooth bottom and began to lay down fire.

“What’s going on?” David asked.

“It would appear they are recovering their leader. Leaders have an almost deific place in Androsi culture, and according to the few history books of theirs we’ve recovered, they would frequently call a temporary cease-fire if one side’s leader was in danger of death. It would seem they are attempting a more hostile version of a cease-fire.”

“So a ‘fire everything’ instead of a cease-fire.”

Adria smiled slightly at that. “You have wit about you, David Matheson.”

V – The Response

The few fires left by the mysterious white creatures were dying by the time Twilight made her way out of the library. The mess left by the battle wasn’t too bad. The stalls were easily replaced, and the fountain could easily be repaired.

She was more concerned about the deaths that had happened. She was right about those strange black things being messengers of death. It deeply concerned her to have such violent things in Ponyville. Who knows what else could happen with them here?

Twilight clutched the letter from Celestia in her wing closer, to protect it from the drizzling rain that begun to fall.

The bodies of the fallen aliens were gone, swept up in the strange tempest that had taken the red one. Blood still remained where they had been, thick, mercury-coloured pools. She knew there would be more outrage at the blood than the destroyed shops.

“What in the mane of Starswirl the Bearded happened?” she asked. “Who were those aliens?”

Adria, standing by David in the centre of town, took a few steps closer to her. “They are called Androsi. They have a severe distaste for humans to the point of outright hatred. Their one desire is to wipe out humanity.”

“Strange how much hate can be in one– Hey, you’re speaking better Equestrian!”

Adria inclined her head. “Indeed. I processed your language further in my translator cortices during the battle. I require very little brainpower in combat. I have a question for you. Why would the Androsi be interested in you as a species?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “Ponies have several forms – unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, and alicorn. I’m the latter, but I used to be a unicorn. I ascended after making a magic spell.”

Adria cocked her head. “Magic… spell? Oh, you must refer to creating something to channel the energies of a shard of Archonite.” She shook her head. “Differing cultures are strange.”

Twilight frowned as the others came up. She was still confused as to how two cultures could hate each other so much as to spill each other’s blood. Ponies were peaceful, and never engaged in combat, except in very rare occasions like the changeling invasion of Canterlot. The very concept of war was foreign to her, and made her head spin in a very bad way.

“Well, I got a reply from Princess Celestia,” she said. “I was waiting for the violence to… to stop before I read it.”

The others had come up to her to hear the letter. Behind them, Twilight could see ponies peeking out of their houses. She knew they wouldn’t like the humans at all. She had to get them back in the library.

“I think we should go back to the library. Much, uh, warmer and also dry in there. Yes. Very dry,” she said through a big, false smile.

Twilight headed for the library as fast as her little legs could carry her, and the humans followed. Once they were inside, she ripped the letter open. She started to read it, and Adria kept up a consistent pace translating it into human speech.

“My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,

“I would be lying if I said I had heard of these humans before. My advice to you is to get them what they need quickly and quietly, as not to upset the current balance of things. I believe the place you need that is high and free of leylines is, unfortunately, right in the heart of the strongest magical power in the world: the mountain Frostbite in the Crystal Kingdom.

“I recommend you take them to the Crystal Kingdom as soon as possible. I have arranged for a private train to the farthest station in the north, the city of Bastion.”

Twilight’s blood ran cold. Mount Frostbite had claimed many an adventurer’s life. And now Princess Celestia expected her to take these humans there?

Suddenly Twilight wasn’t feeling so excited about this new alien race of hers.

VI – Fox’s Rage

Vulpes entered his room aboard the cruiser Mighty Fist, ripping his scarf off. Anger was bubbling inside him, and his soft layer of fur was bristling. He had been routed by humans. Again.

He rubbed the left side of his face. The bandages were rough on his hand. The doktor had said it would take several weeks for the burn wounds to heal, and that Vulpes might have to get a replacement eye.

The Androsi hated the sound of that. Eyes that were grown in clone vats were abhorrent to him, much less eyes that were artificial in nature. He gritted his sharp teeth and growled lowly.

“Something the matter, dear?” came a soft, sultry voice. His bride came out of the showers, wrapped in a soft robe made of the finest summer-silk. Her long ears flopped on her white hair, and she rubbed her chocolate skin all over Vulpes’s red suit.

He shoved her away with a grunt. “It’s hose nah’chi paraaks of humans, Lilith! They killed my entire squad except for me and one other. I’ll probably kill him myself.”

She draped herself on Vulpes, soft hands rubbing his shoulders. “You’re tight, my love. Perhaps you need some relaxing.” Her fingers dug into his flesh, kneading it like dough.

“I need to fulfill the Warmonger’s directives,” he growled. “I need to secure the Archonite on this planet.” He brushed her hands away, though he had to admit it felt good

“Oh, Vulpes, you aren’t the captain of this vessel. You’re not but the Lord Marshal. And what do Lord Marshals do when they don’t get their way?”

“They find a way to get their way,” Vulpes said, turning to face her. “We take the lives of those who oppose us.”

His bride rubbed her chin with a hand. “I was thinking that they ravage their wives and consider vengeance later.”

He shoved her away. “If you’re so intent on being ravaged, do it yourself. I will not rest until this world is mine, and mine alone. They promised me that much.”

She sighed, and plopped down on the bed, brushing her rabbit-like ears out of her eyes. “What then will you do, dearest? Hop in your battle frame and crush those who oppose you?”

Vulpes straightened out and turned to face her again. “That, my love, is not a bad idea.” He smiled broadly. “Perhaps… perhaps I was too hasty with my thoughts on ravaging.”

“Oh good,” Lilith purred, holding her arms up. “Come to me, darling. Show me the power of the Tantex family.”

Vulpes embraced her, and she let out a moan. However, his mind was elsewhere. Tomorrow, he thought, he would take his battle frame Foxfang, and her sister frame Sekhmet and return to the planet’s surface. Then he would wipe out the humans.

He smiled as he ran his fingers through his lover’s hair. Yes, it was the perfect plan.

EPISODE 2.5: Getting Things Where They Need to Be

I – Chatty Chattye

Commander Patrick Stein stared at the mapping table. It was the centre of the CIC, and it usually displayed a holographic map of the surrounding areas. Right now, however, it was nonoperational, like many things aboard Yamato.

Besides, even if it had been operational, the blood that had congealed all over the top would have blocked the holo-emitters. Stein frowned, eyes tracing the trail of blood. It was Leonard Bates’ blood, spilt when the Androsi had butchered him.

Bates had been a good friend to Stein, even when those trumped-up charges had been laid against him back on Ulysses. Bates’ family pull was the main reason Stein was still in the service, much less aboard Yamato and not scrubbing toilets on a mining facility in the Kuiper Belt.

And now Bates was dead, killed by the Androsi. Stein had never met an Androsi in person before, only through the computer screen. He had no doubt that if an Androsi were to come into the room right now, he would beat it to death.

He softly rapped a fist on the tabletop, looking up at the expectant face of a female cadet. She was nervously playing with the hat she held. Why she wasn’t wearing it was beyond Stein.

“What’s the status report on the ship brain?” he asked.

The cadet shook her head. “Still acting up. When we do get a response from it, it’s either gibberish or asking where Adria went. Doctor Amir thinks it’s developed a dependency on her.”

Stein nodded. A computer dependency was a bad thing out in the boondocks of space. It was supposed to be only theory – that a supercomputer on the level of Yamato’s would gain a rudimentary sentience and develop an attachment to its android operator. The theory stated that such an attachment would drive the ship brain mad if separated from its operator for too long.

“Does the doctor have any suggestions about what to do?” Stein tapped his fingers on the console, a nervous habit of his.

“Yes, sir. He said to get Adria back.”

Stein nodded, and gestured the cadet away. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear. For all he knew, Adria was dead, killed by whatever lived on the planet below, and discarded for not tasting good. What he needed was a foolproof way to find Adria and bring her back relatively unharmed.

And then they could recover the jettisoned cargo pods with her help and jumpstart the mining process. After that, it would only be a matter of time before humanity had the edge on the Androsi and a new era of peace would reign over the galaxy. And maybe then they could deal with the Ylen…

Right now, he needed someone who could find Adria before the ship brain completely lost it.

He needed Chattye Dravidian.

***

Chattye Dravidian, a subcommander in the galactic marines, stared at the sheet-covered body. Dark stains marked the sheet where blood had dried. She wiped a tear from her eye and took a slow step forward, towards the covered head.

Her hand lingered for a moment above the cloth as she wondered if it was worth it. With a swift motion, she tore the sheet from the body, and saw the face beneath.

It was Richard Ames. Her heart broke as she saw the extent of the damage the Androsi had done. Were it not for the Androsi’s aversion to facial injuries, he would’ve been unrecognisable. It was a miracle he was still in one piece.

How can I be so cold? Chattye thought, covering his body again. Because I have to be, she answered herself. I have to be strong. For both our sakes.

“I’m sorry, Subcommander Dravidian,” Doctor McClain said, stepping up behind her. “If it’s any consolation, most of the wounds were post-mortem. He didn’t suffer.”

It was comforting, in a strange way. It was still sick, that the Androsi would desecrate a corpse in such a way.

Chattye opened her mouth to say something in response, but the boatswain whistle cut her off.

“Subcommander Dravidian, please report to the CIC immediately. Repeat, Subcommander Dravidian, report to CIC ASAP.”

She sighed. “Another time, doc.”

Chattye dashed out the door, jogging for the elevator to the CIC. Entering it, she caught a glimpse of herself in the cracked mirror. She brushed her short, dark hair out of her eyes, fingers brushing her light brown skin as she did so. Her eyes were a shade of brown so light they were practically yellow.

Within a few seconds, the doors swooshed open, dispelling any thoughts she had about her appearance. Taking a quick stride out of the elevator, she saw that the CIC was in a state of disrepair. Cadets were busy cleaning up broken lights and other things that had detached from the walls and ceiling during the enemy assault.

Commander Stein stood near the mapping table, leaning on it. He was practically slumped over. She doubted he had gotten much sleep, if any, since the attack.

“Subcommander Dravidian reporting in,” she said, snapping off a quick salute.

Stein turned just in time to catch the end of the salute. He nodded to her and gave a quick two-finger salute in response. “Subcommander. Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”

“No, sir, you didn’t,” she lied. “Always glad to be of service. What’s going on?”

Stein clasped his hands behind his back. “As you know, ship brain cancelled the evacuation order. However, one escape pod launched before the order was rescinded. Adria, the android partner to ship brain was on-board. Now ship brain’s going haywire. We need to get Adria back.”

She nodded. “You want me to lead a team to the planet’s surface and find her then?”

“Negative on that, subcommander. It’s too dangerous down there. Two frames just launched from the enemy ship. We can’t afford more deaths on our hands. What I need is for you to take a frame down to the planet’s surface and find her before they do.”

Chattye frowned. She had a dislike for Stein already, given what she’d heard of his past, but this almost dismissive order was increasing that dislike. “Sir? I can’t pilot a frame. I don’t have the training.”

Stein leaned in, so close she could smell the bourbon on his breath. “Here’s a secret, subcommander: Anyone can pilot a frame.”

She took a step back, both in surprise and to get away from the stench of alcohol. “Bull,” she said. “You have to take piloting classes and everything.”

“It’s true though,” Stein said. “It’s very intuitive. I used to pilot frames, years ago. It’s like riding a bike. You know what that is, right?”

Chattye nodded. Having come from earth, she had the good fortune to be able to ride a bike. She was terrible at it – the number of skinned knees and bruises she’d had were proof of that.

“The sensor suite in the standard Gunman-class frame should be more than enough to detect Adria’s life signs. You’d better hurry, though. I don’t want the Androsi to find her first.”

Chattye snapped off another salute, and rushed into the elevator. If she was going to pilot a frame, she might as well do it right. Put on the tight little jumpsuit and everything.

As the doors shut, her face fell into a frown. She couldn’t help but feel this was a strategy by Stein to get rid of her. Since Richard and Commander Cody were dead, she was now de facto leader of the marines. If something bad were to happen to her on the planet’s surface, Stein could choose who to place in charge, and he’d probably choose someone with his best interests in mind.

Well, I’m not gonna die, she thought. I’ll come back, even if Stein doesn’t want me to.

II – Day of Twilight

Twilight shut the door behind her, turning to face the humans. What was she going to do? The humans had revealed themselves as being violent, and she wasn’t used to violence, especially not on the scale they were used to. Taming an ursa major or Cerberus or even fighting the changelings was nothing compared to what the humans had done.

Her mind spun as she stared at them, eyes flickering from one to the other. Of the four, the youngest hadn’t actually done anything, at least that she had seen. For whatever reason, that made her want to trust him more than the others.

A loud, frantic knocking on the door interrupted her thoughts. She glanced back at the door, heart skipping a beat. Somepony was already panicking about the incident in the streets and wanted reassurance from the resident princess. To be honest, that was the one thing Twilight didn’t like about being a princess – constant interruptions for one reason or antoher.

Opening the door back up, Twilight came face to face with a mint-green mare. Lyra.

“Hello, Lyra. What’s going on?” Twilight asked, shooting the best grin she could.

“Bonbon said she heard a bunch of weird noises and yells. I could ask you the same thin–” Lyra peeked over Twilight’s shoulders and saw the humans. She let out a shriek and ducked out of sight.

After a few moments, Lyra’s head peeked around the corner. “They’re still there,” she said.

“That’s right,” Twilight replied.

“What are they? They look creepy.”

“They’re called humans, and… well, is everypony around? I guess it’s better if I tell them all.”

Lyra nodded. “They’re in the town square. They sent me to get you.” She looked up at Twilight, big golden eyes watery. “They’re not bad, are they? The hew-mons?”

Twilight opened her mouth and then shut it. She didn’t know. They seemed nice, but… “I don’t know.”

***

The crowd that had gathered in the town square was essentially all of Ponyville. Rainbow and the Apples were conspicuously absent, but they didn’t live in town so they likely hadn’t heard the commotion.

Mayor Mare stood at the forefront of the crowd, her grey mane fringed with pink. The battle must have interrupted her mane dying routine.

“What exactly is going on?” she asked. “And is this blood all over the fountain?”

Twilight shut her eyes and sighed. Opening them, she spoke. “Yes. I went on an expedition to the Everfree and found four humans. They are friendly and seemed harmless. But apparently, they have enemies, who attacked us to get to them. They retaliated.”

“So you let people that you only just met into Ponyville without even asking them simple questions?” The mayor looked very angry. Twilight didn’t blame her.

“It was difficult to talk to them; they speak a different language. And yes, I did. They were in need of help, and I helped them. It’s common decency.” Twilight stamped her hoof. “Besides, there was no way of knowing we’d be attacked. Not to mention you should be thankful they fought back! Who knows what they would’ve done to us if the humans hadn’t been here!”

“When are they leaving?” Mayor Mare’s voice was hard as stone.

Twilight closed her eyes again. “Princess Celestia has ordered me to help them return to their homeland. When the next train comes in, we’ll be leaving.”

“Well, the next train is going to be here in a few hours. You’d better get them out of here as soon as it arrives.”

Twilight could only nod. This was the first time the people of Ponyville had disagreed with her since she’d become a princess. It was better to agree to whatever they said right now. Again, it wasn’t like she couldn’t blame them. If she were in their horseshoes, she’d be angry and lost right now too.

Of course, she already was angry and lost, so she could really empathise with them.

Slowly, she trotted back to the library. There was no point in arguing with them further. The only thing left to do was to get the humans, and get them out of Ponyville fast.