Fate Of The Sith

The main hangar was abuzz with activity, several winged engineers were putting on modified armor that allowed them to hold tools and weapons and start loading pre-made walls, lights and other useful pieces of equipment onto the few dropships that were in a serviceable state. They were going to make landfall in the ruins the scanners had found in the forrest.

“I recommend you send a few of my children to scout out the town closeby Captain.” I turned to the so called queen, the Chiss-Equine had shown massive change in their personality and behavior. They had not, as the Doctor had first thought, became a hive mind like race, but they did show behavioural traits similar to hive society races. The less said on the green slime that coated the insides of the cargo hold the chiss had commandeered the better.

“That sounds like a good idea, Send three or four.”

“Thank you Captain.” she smiled, a normal looking equine with soft white fur. I reminded myself that hard black chitten covered her under her disguise.

Then the Mandalorian entered the hangar, she had two side arms that I could see strapped to her armor and a rifle on her back that looked bigger than me.

I could only guess what damage that weapon could cause.

“Hey there Des, I am going to head planetside. Sorry but you are going to have to keep the bed warm alone.” with that she winked and caused half of the crew in the hanger to turn to me with surprised looks no doubt happy to have grease for the rumor mill for the next week.

“Thats CAPTAIN Desyanti!” my face burnt red, undoubtedly this would cause problems in the future and I had more of them then I knew what to do with now.

“Awww you say the sweetest things.” she grinned and sauntered off to one of the dropships.

“You!” I pointed at a Non Commissioned Officer with a hoof at random “You are to oversee the preparations for planetfall in my stead.” he quickly nodded and rushed to do some ‘overseeing’ as I stomped off the deck to the bridge.

I was in a bad mood and the fact that the sith lord was looking out at the planet on my bridge did not make it any better.

“My Lord?” I bowed my head to the Sith and glanced at the bridge crew, they were cowering as expected.

“Ah, Captain Desyanti, I hear we will be landing on the planet soon?” I nodded moving over to the master terminal.

“Yes, setting up a beachhead and gathering much needed supplies.” Looking on the computer I sifted through many of the requests for reassignment off the ship, primarily from crewmembers who had become winged equines, I turned to the sith lord “I assume that you wish to go to the surface?”

“No, I have to meditate on the power of this world, and there is not a better place to do so then this ship.”

Nodding, mostly because I did not understand the force, I sent the order for the first wave of soldiers and engineers to depart the ship and land on the planet, turning I looked out at the ships descending towards the planets.

“But I fully expect you to oversee some of the important issues in the surface.” I turned, shocked.

“But what of this ship? My ship? I cannot leave her!” I blinked.

“The ship will not fall apart without you when you are in such close proximity, you are to oversee events on the planet in my stead.” Bowing my head I nodded.

“Of course I will inspect the sight when the engineers have created a perimeter.”

And with that I was left alone on the bridge.

The drop ship was crowded with the sith special forces and Path squeezed in amongst boxes and other building equipment. The lack of ships would make the next fifty rides to and from the surface uncomfortable.

“So, mandalorian, why are you heading down?” I looked up to the sniper sporting green armor to blend into the environment, he probably had some sort of stealth systems built into his armor like I did.

“Going to have a look at the local town, I have been feeling a bit cramped on the ship.” I ran a razor sharp talon over the three grooves in my armor that ran along the breastplate.

“Yeah I can imagine, I am just wondering if the new wings I got here actually work.” I smiled under my mask at the pleasant conversation, most people would be fearful of mandalorians and never talk to them as equals, but someone who walked always in the shadow of death? no the people around me understood.

“DROP IN FIVE!!” I paused and looked at my clock, only to blink at how useless it would be here, when deciding units of time computers would look for a systems speed at orbiting a planet, but that would not work here, so that probably meant they were using dromund kaas time.

Bracing myself for the landing I felt the ship lurch under me as the landing struts hit the ground. The the door to the ship opened, and light flooded in.

The area around the ship was a courtyard, a huge one, with long pillars that all the time and dead plants clinging to them had done nothing to make them look any less impressive. A huge stone castle rose from the ground with art that had stood for thousands of years without fail, banners that had to have been left here by the original inhabitants still shone a world of colour in a dark world of gray cracked rock.

Turning I felt the air ripple with anticipation, other ships landed close by, the people around my moving from the ships to make a perimeter. I felt the need to move, to push myself so I opened my wings and flew.

The air rushed past my new wings, the only part of my body exposed besides the tips of my talons, the cold air pushing me higher and higher, my wings moved on autopilot feeling the air guide me, the ground moved past a blur and the automapping systems of my armor were doing there best to work out where I was and how fast I was going.

But it was obvious to me, I was free!

Turning into a spin I called out in joy, spinning and twisting in the air with nothing to stop me! Flying faster and better than anything else! I could have done this forever.

Then a rainbow crashed into me.

Trotting quickly to the hanger I made my way to the passenger ship. It was transporting a few medical personnel and some of the science team, a perfect time for me to head to the ground.

Trotting to one of the seats and strapping myself awkwardly inside I looked at the people around me.

“Captan? You are heading down?” I turned to look at the crew, a winged equine looked back at me with a labcoat and the name ‘Kates’ on the front of his jacket.

“Yes, the ship will be fine without me for a short time and I intend to inspect the new outpost.” There was some nods and muttered words of understanding and agreement before the ship began to hum softly lifting off.

Nurse Redheart was having a bad day.

It seemed that Miss Dash was in her ward every other day but when a armored griffin pushed her way in with a unconscious Rainbow Dash on her back and a helmet with a dent in it under her wing things got silly.

Redheart fully intended to tell Rainbow Dash that next time she crashed into something she would hurt herself badly, something that was true regardless of the mares habits.

“So you were flying at high speeds without looking where you where going?”

“What does it matter? Whoever she is she looks fine to me!” the griffin paced back and forth as the Nurse questioned her.

“Well she should be, and she looks to be just as much in the wrong as you are... are you new in town?” the overworked mare glanced up changing the subject to find out why a griffin with more armor than she had ever seen before in her life was flying around ponyville.

“Okay look, I need to go.” she moved to pick up her useless helmet that had been dented by the aerial collision with the Rainbow maned menace.

“Well first I need to know your name for the records an-”

“Umm iron?” Redheart looked at the metal.

“No, this is beskar, its one of the strongest materials known to my people, the creation of this helmet was done thousands of years ago and has been passed down my clan since then, it has withstood some of the strongest weapons and most powerful warriors in history and that has only scratched the paint, That mare hits me and dents it! Yes, yes tell her my name, tell her Mandalore wishes to meet her once she has recovered.” with that the griffin who called herself Mandalore left, a perplexed Nurse who jotted down the strange name.

It was with little effort that the engineers under my command created the outpost. Most of the walls for the castle proper were still intact, even some artifacts and a library was still there, however the books where old and while they were well preserved most were too damaged to read without protection, that and they were written in another language, one that curved and flowed across the page and made translating the words seem impossible.

But then that had just made one of the scientists, a short normal equine with a peppy voice happy, she could work on something challenging, so I had left her with her passion and went to the room prepared for me.

It was a nice room by any standards, the bed had been checked and while some of the sheets around the castle had rotted away there was a store that contained sheets that made the quarters on the ship seem mandalorian in comparison.

So not wishing to make the crew who had rushed to make the place presentable upset over my lack of appreciation, I layed on the bed and closed my eyes unaware of the darkness that descended over the room.

Report Start:

Castle reported large enough to support around four hundred men er- ponies? Once our force is down on the ground the place might look a little crowded, but it will not be bad. The castle is attached to a large ruin on an isolated plateau, how this place formed is unknown as there is little seismic activity in the area.

We have began work on a durasteel bridge to replace the rope bridge that was the only way off the plateau and a cleanup crew is collecting fallen rubble to repurpose into stone bricks. A generator is being set up in what looks like a wine cellar, no wine left unfortunately, and power lines are being drawn along most of the castle halls and rooms, expect lighting by tomorrow.

One of the side halls that look like some form of religious structure not attached to the castle itself has had one of the walls removed and is being repurposed as a workshop. Barack and mess facilities are already in place and have been converted to meet our needs with little trouble.

A large clearing that looks to have once been a garden dominates the east side of the plateau, the land is being cleared for crops to grow but some of the workers want to reinforce the sides of the cliff as well as put railings down, I think its a choice between safety and resources something I leave up to you.

End Report.

Report Start:

There has been continued change displayed in the behavior of the crew that go well beyond their physical changes, for ten years black squad have had a feud with Scorpion squad. I once had to deal with fights between the two groups daily, that has stopped since we have entered this system.

The fighting has stopped completely, not in the pretend way that it does under wraps with sith administration either, there are ZERO fights.

As you can clearly understand this is a major change in the mentality of the crew. There are little to no arguments and there are even signs of depression lifting from some of the affected crew. I will continue to monitor this change and inform you of how it affects the ship and its crew.

There are also concerns with language, new sayings and words are becoming commonplace, I observed an officer calling her subordinate ‘Buddy’ and giving him advice on his marksmanship skills with his new body. The same officer who punched fifty raw recruits for slowing down in fitness evaluations, the word ‘Pony’ seems to be becoming commonplace as a replacement word for ‘Equine’ but there is no definition of the word in the databanks.

As always I will report more once I look into it, I just hope the changes will be positive.

End Report.