Chapter 25: The Council

"Sir! There's something you should know!" Lucy said loudly through the intercom, getting my attention. "I'm picking up the signal of the Starstreaker, It's much closer to earth than we thought..." She began, pausing. "Sir... it's going to be there within the day." She said getting my heart to drop.

'Today? TODAY?! WE CAN'T RALLY A FORCE BIG ENOUGH IN ONE DAY'

"How can you pick up it's signal? No doubt they are trying to cloak it from us." I said hoping she had been wrong as Luna watched our exchange with worried eyes.

"I'm sorry sir but... since this ship came from the Starstreaker, it's beacon homing frequency is identical, and I'm doubtful they know how to shut that off. But it does make it hard to get their current whereabouts however I can get a rough estimation."

I paused for a few moments, looking out at the stars blazing past us as I looked up to the time to arrival.

'Two minutes...'

Sighing I slouched back in my chair as I thought about this new information and what could be done about this.

'I should have left earlier... I shouldn't of wasted so much time.. GOD DAMMIT!' I thought as I clenched my fists around the wheel.

A minute of silence passed before I felt a small weight on my shoulder as Luna gave me a caring look.

"It will be alright. Everything will work out fine. Just focus on our current objective." She said with a smile.

She was right. Moping over this won't get us anywhere but dead in the ground. We needed to take action and hope we can pull through these terrifying odds. Blinking and clearing my mind I shut off the FTL drive, quickly slowing our speed so we could easily see ahead of us. Just outside the window stood Earth in all it's glory. You could see the billions of lights and the hundreds of super cities dotting the landscape as the planet slowly spun on it's axis. Luna was in awe as she watched the planet below, unable to form a sentence... until my radio came to life.

"Unknown vessel, you are in a no fly zone, please identify." Said the monotone voice of a machine.

Inching closer to the microphone I cleared my throat. "Jake Carson, ID number 901425, ranking of first lieutenant, Space Marines branch."

A few seconds of silence followed before a beep and reply was heard. "Voice match confirmed, welcome back Jake."

"I'm requesting permission to speak with the council, this is of utmost importance." I said letting worry sink into my voice.

"All meetings with the council must be booked ahead of time by at least two weeks-" The voice rung out as I rapped my fingers against my leg impatiently.

'We don't have time for this...'

"Alright I want to request permission to land then. As soon as possible." I asked getting another series of beeps from the intercom.

"Request pending... please identify other person aboard your ship." The voice asked getting my breath to hitch.

"Uh... it's just me here." I said hoping the AI would just let it go.

"Negative, my scans indicate at least one other life form... please identify."

A few seconds of silence later I spoke up. "Alright Luna... your not in their banks so just... make a new account I guess?" I asked getting out of my seat where she sat down.

"Okay... how do I-" She began before being cut off.

"Please state your full name, age, and your planet of birth." The voice rung out as I looked at Luna and shrugged.

Shrugging back, she did just that.

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"I haven't spoken my full name in... well I don't even remember the last time..." Luna said as I smiled at her.

"Alright Luna... I need you to stay in the ship as I... ease them into what they are about to see. The last time we found an alien race we almost died off. So... just wait here, alright?" I asked getting her to nod understandingly.

The ship touched down as I waited at the door, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly as I looked to Luna. She stood beside me, out of viewing range of anyone outside when the door opens, giving me a confident smile.

"Here goes nothin'." I said as I opened the door.

And was immediately grabbed by my shirt collar and pulled from my ship by a very angry looking man.

"Soldier! Do you think this is some kind of joke?!" He yelled right in my face, a bit of spittle going as he did.

I immediately snapped into a straight stance and saluted. "Sir no sir!"

"Then what the hell is THIS?!" He asked pulling out a sheet of paper and read it aloud, as I noticed the many other soldiers in full armor standing around the runway.

Their armor was nothing as advanced as the Spartan armor I had in the ship, more along the line of standard ballistics armor.

"First Lieutenant Jake Carson on board with, Princess Lunaris "Artemis" Eclipse the 1st... keeper of the moon?" He asked looking up at me in anger before going back down to the sheet and running his finger through all the lines. "Also known as 'Princess Luna', she is currently 2375 years old, was born on planet Equis, and lives on the continent of Equestria? DO YOU TAKE ME FOR SOME SORT OF MORON?" He yelled back to me before pushing me out of the way and walking to the door of the ship. "Out of my way! I'm gonna teach this little prankster a lesson!" He finished as some of the soldiers standing around snickered a bit.

I turned and reached out to stop him, but it was too late. He stepped inside and took a look around before no doubt seeing what he'd been looking for. He stood stock still for a few moments before clearing his throat, and walking out of the ship. He grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"Soldier... did I just see... what I think I just saw?" He said seriously to where I nodded.

"It had a horn..." He said awestruck.

"Yup."

"A-And wings..."

"I know."

"It's hair looks... like space?!" He said desperately trying to make sense of the situation.

"Yeah... yeah I know." I said smiling.

"I..." He said lost for words. "I wasn't trained on how to handle this..." He said in a whisper as the soldiers around the area exchanged confused looks.

Seeing as the cat was out of the bag, I called out to Luna. "Alright Luna I guess now's a good a time as any."

A few seconds of silence followed before Luna showed her face from the ship, looking around nervously. She hesitantly took a step outside the ship and immediately was aimed at by all present soldiers, except me and the stunned General next to me.

"ALIEN SPECIES ON DECK!" Cried out an alarm as a siren began wailing and all the soldiers started shouting things like 'GET DOWN' and 'HANDS WHERE I- oh...'.

As quick as I could I ran in front of Luna and put my arms up. "Don't shoot! She's a friendly!" I yelled out but to no avail. "I SAID STAND DOWN! I AM YOUR SUPERIOR AND YOU WILL FOLLOW MY ORDERS!" I yelled out to all the soldiers, getting them to flinch.

"But sir-" One of them began before getting cut off.

"I said stand DOWN!" I yelled out again, getting them all to look between each other and slowly lower their weapons. "And someone turn off that god damn alarm."

A few moments later the alarm stopped and I breathed out a sigh of relief and turned to Luna as she spoke.

"All according to plan right?" She said smiling as all of the present soldiers, including the generals, jaw dropped.

I turned back to the general and spoke quickly. "Sir! We need you to bring us to the council! This is of utmost importance regarding the protection of Earth!" I finished getting him to raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?! This is our first contact with a friendly life form that's not human!" He said with a smile as he walked forward and offered his hand, which Luna took quickly. "A pleasure to meet you ma'am! I'm general Chase and I'm the leading authority here. Please, come with me to the council as I'm sure they'd really want to meet you!" He finished as he began taking a few steps back, urging the Princess to follow.

"I think there are more pressing matters to discuss general." Luna said as she motioned to me.

Sighing, the general turned to me and motioned for me to speak.

"Sir, have you gotten any reports from the Starstreaker recently?" I asked getting him to roll his eyes.

"No, I have not. That dammed signal relay of theirs was always a little on the delicate side." He said as he paused for a few seconds and a look of worry adorned his face. "...why?"

Me and Luna looked between each other, then back to the general, making his face pale.

"Oh no..." He said as he signaled us to follow. "Come on! Run and talk let's go!" He said as he began a brisk pace, with us both following along.

"Sir, how could you tell something was wrong?" I asked as he looked back at me.

"Kid, when you've been fighting as long as I have you pick up on these things just from the looks on your soldiers faces. Now tell me... WHAT HAPPENED?!" He said as I picked up my pace to get beside him.

Many many soldiers watched Luna as we ran past, some with confused looks, and others with looks of awe. I even saw a few get scared or flinch at seeing her.

"Sir, about a week ago the Starstreaker was hit by some kind of ambush attack! I'm not sure how the Verix managed to keep us from sending out a distress signal but regardless things didn't turn out so well!" I shouted as we ran.

"DAMMIT!" He yelled out angrily. "What happened to you? How did you escape?"

"Well, I was recovering from some medical procedures and when I woke up the fight was over. I ended up getting wounded as I left on one of the ship's emergency shuttles but I didn't plot a course. Lucy donwloaded herself onto my ship and-" I was cut off as the general stopped and turned to me, bringing up a finger.

"Wait... did you just say our greatest AI is being kept in an emergency ship?" He said suspiciously.

"Sir, with all due respect she did it herself, and I was just a vessel to protect any information she had from the enemy." I said as he slowly nodded and started running again.

"Alright, but the next chance we get we're taking Lucy off that ship and into safe hands. Continue." He said as we were running at full speed towards a very big building.

"I'll explain the rest when we get inside, so you can hear it along with the council." I said getting him to nod.

We ran up to a set of doors guarded by two guards wearing full battle armor. These guys were serious business. Even though the Spartan armor is a one of a kind, due to it being a prototype being tested on the Starstreaker, these armors were only a tier below it. They had the same basic design, but were less power efficient and lacked power shielding. But besides that, they were just as deadly.

"HALT! Under what terms must you speak to the council?!" The right guard yelled back at us.

Luna walked around from behind the two of us and spoke up, causing the two guards to flinch a bit.

"Stand aside young guards! We have matters to discuss with thy leaders!" She spoke out in a voice that seemed much too loud.

The two guards just stared for a few seconds before looking between each other.

"Do we let them in... she sounds legit."

"We were told to not let anyone in unless it's an emergency..."

"Dude... if a blue unicorn with wings and a sparkling, floating haircut just said it was an emergency... it's probably pretty bad!"

A few seconds of silence went by before they took a few steps to the sides. "Alright move along!" Yelled out the guard on the right.

All three of us ran through the doors and down the main hall, ending up at a set of beautifully crafted silver doors. I took a deep breath as I grabbed onto the handle and slowly opened it.

"And that is why I believe more money should be put towards the strip clubs in new vega-" I heard as I took a step into the room, immediately catching the attention of every single pair of eyes present, while I heard Luna whisper behind me.

"Whats a strip club..."

"Ahem!" I cleared my throat as I looked around at all of the faces watching me.

In this room sat the leader of every major colony on earth, where they governed the world. After world peace was finally declared in 2642, everyone agreed to have their leaders be situated in the heart of Canada and run the planet's government... where people can come and speak with them on changes they think would help the world the most.

The whole "Voting for your leader" was still practiced, they just all were under one roof now.

"Uh... sorry to interrupt... but we have something really important we need to talk about." I said looking at the un-moving looks. "Like... now."

The Russian leader stood up and pointed down at me. "Why have you come to this place? We are busy!" He said as Luna slowly opened the other door. "Now leave while we-" He stopped dead as Luna became visible, causing the rest of the council, and the person who was here before me, to gasp. "Боже мой!" He shouted out as he fell into his seat. "It's a unicorn!"

The man who was here before me slowly backed away from the podium. "I'm... gonna go. I can see you have some issues to discuss..." He said as he quickly left the room, pausing to look at Luna on the way out.

"Mister..." Canada's leader began, motioning to me.

"Jake, Jake Carson."

"Mr. Jake... is this some kind of... joke? Because I really do hope so. That looks... quite real." He said as he squinted his eyes at Luna, trying to get a better look.

"No sir, this isn't a joke, this is Princess Luna and she-" I began before being cut off by America.

"I'm sorry but... did you say Princess?" He said with a crooked smile.

"I'm sorry but... you're going to have to leave now. Guards please escort this man out!" Called out China as two guards came out of no-where and right at me.

Before I could speak up there was a flash of blue, causing me to close my eyes... then nothing. I opened my eyes to see the two men who were walking towards me floating above us in a blue aura.

Every council member in the room stood up immediately, staring at what had just happened, while the general behind me gasped.

"Do I not get a say in this?!" Shouted Luna as she walked forward. "And my say is... let Jake speak!" She said as she set the two slightly shaking guards down, a few feet away.

A few moments of awed silence passed as the council all looked between each other, before Canada motioned forward.

"We're listening."

Author's Note

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