Chapter 1:
Dock 201
Havoc nervously fiddled on her saddlebags. This was her first mission on a federation space ship. The Equestrian- federation had to struggle to keep their position as the government of the galaxy because rebels, pirates, slavers and opposing alien forces and guerrilla army’s tried to claim the galaxy for their own. Everything had changed in not even a year. After the rebels had declared war to the federation, almost all sectors had become unsafe to travel through. And that was the point where Havoc decided to change her life. She decided to do the right things and finally get on the right track again. She enlisted for the federation military corps and became a mechanic. The Stallions faces in her class were really priceless when she was honored with the best exam of the whole academy.
Right after she got her degree as an FTL- mechanic, two officers from the federation came up to her and offered her a job on a ship right away. She didn't even knew her voice could sound that high when she accepted the job.
When she arrived at the UEF- outpost, the only thing the porter told her, was to wait at dock 201 to meet her captain and crew-mates. And she waited there for three full hours, but despite the waiting time, her excitement hadn't abated over the whole time.
She could feel small drops of sweat rolling down her face, as she finally saw a dark green mare trotting in her direction. Her deep blue eyes focused right at her. As she drew closer, Havoc could hear her own heartbeat.
“Ohh, I freaking hate meeting new Ponies,” she thought by herself .
The green Mare trotted up to her and asked her with a smile:
“Hey there, are you one of the the crew members enlisted for dock 201?”
“I, uhm, I- sorry, I mean yes. Yes I am. My name is Havoc, nice to meet you.”
she stuttered sounding a bit like a filly trying to introduce herself to a new class.
"Pleased to meet'cha Havoc!,”
the other mare beamed offering a hoof, “My name is Whitelight.”
After hesitating for a second she shook the other mares hoof and tried returning the smile.
“Hey, Havoc,” Whitelight asked with a thoughtful expression on her face,
“Did you hear the storys about our new captain? Quite a guy. His name is Kaliba if I remember correctly. Got fired from a class D destroyer because his crew members didn't trust him anymore. I don't know what he did that he lost his crews trust, but it must have been something really bad.”
“What?!” Havoc asked obviously shocked, “He was captain of a class D destroyer?”
“Geez, Havoc, you seem to be new at the rebel defenders fleet.”, Whitelight smirked, “Almost everypony has heard about this incident though the involved are all forbidden to talk about the incident. And we all know that we won't get any information from our superior officers.”
Suddenly Havoc interrupted hastily
“Hey wait, is he that? Is that Kaliba?” she asked pointing at a white stallion with a black-red mane trotting their way.
“Nope, but I think he belongs to our crew as well.” Whitelight pointed out.
The stallion stopped in front of the two mares, gave them a look, then smirked and began to talk.
“Well hello there, ladies, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sonic Shadow and I'm in charge of the weapon and defense systems on our ship. Now that we´re going to work together, I think it would be the best thing to get along well.”
Havoc was shocked from the whole aura that surrounded the Stallion. Despite his good manners something seemed somehow off about him.
“Soooooo, it's nice to meet you Shadow,” Whitelight replied coolly “My name is Whitelight and this lovely little mare here is Havoc.”
Havoc instantly blushed and managed to get out only a mangled “Eeeep”.
Shadow had to laugh at Havocs reaction.
'How dare she calling me lovely in front of such a handsome stallion!?!' Havoc thought.
After Havoc had gotten out of her hideout, behind Whitelights flank, the three of them had a nice talk for about an hour, until somepony interrupted them loudly
“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!!! I`M ALREADY LATE YOU DIPSHITS!”
“Aaaaand there he is.” Whitelight giggled, “Our captain has arrived.”
They looked in the direction where the furious voice came from and saw a light gray stallion with a dark gray mane with green streaks. At least they assumed he had a light gray coat because he was red with anger. The Stallion pushed a few maintenance ponies who were supplying a smaller destroyer out of his way and trotted up to the three. Havoc, Whitelight and Shadow immediately saluted him as he came to a halt before them. At the sight of his new crew, his anger abated and he began to speak with a smile.
“At ease.”
As the three of them lowered their fore hooves he continued.
“So it seems the three of you are going to serve under my command. You're lucky. You could have gotten some stubborn old veteran who is just fixed on keeping his ship intact. Well but I´m not one of that kind. But before we speak about me, I want to set up some rules:
First of all, you don't need to salute me when I come into the room or something else. The reason for that is, that I like to become friends with my crew. That makes the whole working together thing way more pleasant.
Second, I expect you to carry out your orders without questioning. If I'm right about something, which I mostly am, it will all make sense afterward and you won't have to question it in the first place. If I should be wrong about something, it will probably end up with us floating in space as dead corpses between the debris of our wrecked ship.”
At the last line Havoc had to swallow. She just realized she could be giving her life for the federation. And it wasn't even an unlikely that she would. The rebels had started a big offense two weeks ago and three big outposts had already been overrun. The federation sent out their ships to delay the overwhelming power of the enemy fleet, but only a few heavily damaged cruiser, type “Celestia” had returned.
“For the third rule,” Kaliba continued,”If somebody, for some reason should deny one of my orders, this pony will spend the next night sleeping in one of the airlocks.”
Havoc didn't dare asking whether the airlock would be open or not.
After Kaliba had finished his speech, there was a long pause. Suddenly, Shadow broke out into laughter. Whitelight and Havoc gave him a startled look, fearing that he would anger their captain, but Shadow held up a hoof signaling them to stay quiet. As he got a hold of himself, Shadow began.
“Sorry, but I'm not used to you being so formal, Kaliba! Man you sure have changed since our time at the class D.”
“Hey, I just wanted to make a formal first appearance on my new crew. How could I have know, that you were enlisted for my ship. Oh and you don´t seem to have changed after all. You're still the same, Shadow.”
Kaliba replied, but then went on turning his attention to the two mares.
“So I won't have to ask Shadow about these things, because we both have known each other for a long time. But I have to ask you two for your name, rank and qualification.”
Whitelight took a step forwards and began.
“My name is Whitelight, my rank is 3rd class mechanic and my qualification is Shield and Sensor mechanics.”
After hesitating for a moment Havoc went on.
“My name is Havoc, my rank is 1st class mechanic and my qualification is to work with reactors, turbine engines and the FTL drive of ships.”
“Very impressive,” Shadow mused surprised. “I know it's not necessary anymore, but I'll introduce myself as well. My name is Sonic Shadow, my rank is 2nd class corporal and I´ll be in charge of he weapon systems on our ship.”
“Good, with this finished, let's go on board of our ship, because we already got our first mission!” Kaliba announced, “That's the reason why I'm so late. One of those politician eggheads stopped my on my way here and started talking some shit about 'Vital Data'. That went on for about one hour before I asked him what the hell this has to do with my crew and me. He told my that we were the lucky idiots who should deliver those secured crates over there to equestria. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, problem is, that the rebels will be hot on our flanks, because they want the stuff in the crates really badly. That's why we shouldn't waste time. But enough of the talking. Without any more delays, let me show you our ship!”
With this, he spun around and pointed a hoof at a type b fighter.
“That, my friends, is the UEF Spark. It has got the best technique the federation has left. It's not an ordinary fighter. It has got an improved FTL drive, a type two shield system plus defense drones and two Artemis rocket launchers plus one burst laser type 2.”
“Wow,” Whitelight mused, “that thing is going to be fun to play with!”
“Sure will.” Havoc said with confidence. She was in, the moment Kaliba mentioned the improved FTL. She just loved engines. She loved the way, that if everything worked together, it could move something as big and beautiful as a spaceship. She didn't knew much about other things than working on machines. She still wondered why her cutie mark is a scythe and not something that has to do with her passion, but she had to put this questions back. Now she had to focus on her mission.
“So, you guys got permission to go on board.” Kaliba said beaming brightly. Even someone who has never seen him before could tell, that he loved his job. He smiled like a little colt as the ramp slowly moved for the floor.
“Hehe let's examine my new toys.” Shadow mused as he stepped on the ramp.
Whitelight followed closely, humming the equestrian anthem. Havoc went in after her crew-mates. As the three of them, followed by Kaliba, stood in the air-lock the ramp started to pull itself back into the ship. Kaliba sealed the door behind them.
“Good everything's working, then let's step inside!” He smirked as the inner doors slid open and they stepped into the ship, which would be their home from now on, for the first time.
“Lemme give you a quick tour.” Kaliba said waving a hoof, signaling his crew to follow him.
The door in front of them slid open revealing the shield generator. Havoc could hear a very suppressed “Squeee” coming from Whitelight.
Kaliba noticed that too and with a smirk he commented “Whitelight, I won't have to explain you that this is your station. The sensor station and the bridge are to the right, the med-station is over there and the engine block and the weapons station. Whitelight, you can make yourself feel at home here, it's your station. Oh and before I forget, due to all the upgrades like the drone system etc. the crew quarters are canceled. Means that you guys will have to set up your mattresses at your station.”
Whitelight and Shadow looked rather shocked at the thought that they had to sleep were they worked, but Havoc couldn't help but snicker. It was no problem at all for her. She wanted to ask her captain if she could sleep on her station anyway. She knew that sounded like she was unhealthily obsessed with machines, but she wanted to man her station all the time. She wanted to work her way up. She wanted to become a machinist on a type Celestia battleship. This was her dream. The dream she had grasped the day the mail pony arrived with a letter from the rebel defenders fleet. She still had the whole letter memorized. The words had burned in her brain like a white hot knife.
“Dear miss Havoc,
The Rebel Defenders fleet is sorry to tell you that your father, Typhoon Winds,
fell in battle.
His ship exploded after a massive attack from the rebels.
There are no survivors. We're sorry for your loss.
His remains will be sent to you immediately.
Signed
- General Trottington”
When she read the letter for the first time, her brain refused to understand the meaning. Her father couldn't have just died! That wasn't fair! She read it over and over again, tears welling in her eyes. Her legs gave in under her and she fell to the ground hysterically crying.
At this point she made her decision. She worked extremely hard to become an excellent mechanic.
She didn't realize that Kaliba had fallen silent. She came back to the real word and saw that everypony was staring at her.
“Um, sorry, I was just thinking about something. What were you saying captain?” she said, clearly embarrassed by her own absence. She blushed slightly while she was trying to force a smile on her face.
Kaliba cleared hit throat and spoke up again “As I was saying, the room next to the engine block is the oxygen generator. Normally we would have two pony more in our crew, but the federation is running low on both, resources and soldiers, so you Havoc will have to be in charge of the engine department, the FTL drive, the reactor maintenance and the oxygen generator. You feel up to this?”
“Of course Captain! I will keep all those things working, even if I die in the process.” She declared with a confidence as if she could give an Ursa-Major a beating.
“Now that's the spirit I wanna see!” Kaliba beamed, “OK, but now for your part Shadow.”
“As you wish Kaliba!” he smiled, cleared his throat and began to speak
“Our ship is packed with some really unique weapons. Normally, ships of this class only have one Artemis rocket launcher, but ours has two. Means the missile storage is twice as big. As a consequence of that, the hull armor was improved to provide getting hit fatally. But because of this improved armor, the engine and the FTL had to become more powerful too.
Shortly spoken: the crew quarters fell away, so that the ship could have much more battle strength and speed. - Sounds good to me.”
Whitelight let out a noise of impression
“You're smarter than you look, Shadow”
“OK then, if you're that smart, Whitelight, why don't you calculate the correct flight path of a MK31 rocket when it's launched from a Hercules Launcher. Or try to organize four weapon systems plus one artillery beam in the heat of battle against 2 pirate ships at once. I'm sure you'll do a perfect job-”
“Shadow! Enough! You made your point.” Kaliba interrupted him harshly.
Whitelight who was shocked by the pure hatred that Shadow gave her for a little joke. He sure had a short fuse. She couldn't bring herself to speak. It wasn't the things that he said, it was they way he said it. She wasn't a mare to cry at any opportunity, but this had gotten her to the brink of bursting into tears.
Havoc sensed that and she moved a bit closer to Whitelight.
“Hey it's OK. I'm sure he didn't mean it.”
“Yeah, that got out terribly wrong. I'm so sorry about that Whitelight.”
Shadow offered her a hoof as a sign of apology.
She shook his hoof with a slight smile.
“It's OK Shadow. I knew you didn't mean to do that.”
“Good, now that your personal difficulties are settled, man your stations. I expect report from every single one of you in twenty minutes! Dismissed!”
With this, the three of them split up to man their stations.
Havoc immediately felt comfortable when she entered her department. The smell of oil and hydraulic fluid made her smirk widely. The constant humming of the generators droned in her ears. Her section was only dimly lit, but she had no problem with that. She preferred the darkness anyway. She playfully let her eyes wander about the different instruments and gauges.
“Oh yes this is going to be fun!” she mumbled by herself as she put her bags into an empty corner.
Another smile flashed across her face as she spotted the main control panel. She trotted over and kept her eyes fixed on the dead screen for a moment.
She saw her reflection and thought
“Now I'm the mare my dad would have been proud of.”
With a look of determination she turned the panel on, which caused several of the gauges in the room to come to live as well.
The quiet humming grew louder and louder until it continued on he same volume level.
She quickly got her noise suppressing headset and put it on, just to her a call through the ships internal channel.
“This is Kaliba speaking. Is everypony able to hear me?”
“Whitelight here, loud and clear Captain.”
“Shadow speaking, I can hear you, Kaliba.”
Havoc turned on the microphone on her headset and spoke
“Havoc here, I can hear you as well.”
After a few seconds of silence Kalibas voice rang through the radio system again
“Great, now that this is working, Report everyone!”
Whitelight was the first to answer
“Shields and sensors working and up.”
Shadow followed
“Weapon test phase completed. Everything working and deadly as always!”
Havoc was the last one to report
“Engine's up and purring like a cat. FTL almost at full power and ready to jump and the oxygen generator works at full power.”
“Excellent!” They could hear Kalibas Satisfaction even through the radio system.
“OK, now we just have to wait for the permission to lift off and we can start!”
Havoc just wanted to get back to setting up her sleeping place when she discovered a folding chair lying under the control panel. She unfolded it and sat down, her view once again wandering about the Panel, mumbling by herself.
“Magic reactor OK. Engine taking up four bars of the main energy. Hmm, I'll need to link the panel from the oxygen generator to this one here later.”
She spent several minutes with just leaning back in her chair and thinking off how she could find solutions for the few little problems she had already spotted. That was what she loved. Just sitting back and thinking of something that makes sense and that is useful. She had been a really random mare until she received the letter that her father had died. From that moment on she swore that she would grow to a mare that he would have been proud off.
She was torn out off her thoughts as a muffled, but extremely loud, explosion rang through the docks, followed by the alarms of the outpost.
She fell out of her chair from the shock wave of the explosion. She quickly got up again and ran to the window. There was a gaping hole in the back of the outpost through which she could see at least four heavy rebel cruisers.
Before she could realize what was going on, Kaliba was yelling through the radio.
“We're under siege! We don't have time to wait for permission to take off! Havoc power up the FTL, Now!”
“B-But the dock would get destroyed if we set of our FTL in here!”
“CARRY OUT YOUR ORDERS OR WE WILL DIE LIKE THE REST OF THIS BASE!”
Havoc hesitated before she powered up the FTL.
“Havoc, how long will you need until we can jump?”
“Twenty seconds!” She yelled back through the radio as the ship in the neighbor dock exploded as it was hit by the heavy weapons of an attacking cruiser.
The seconds seemed to get endless as Havoc stared at the panel, waiting for the FTL to power up.
Slowly but surely the FTL drive had charged almost fully.
“Havoc, we can't wait any longer! They are taking aim at US!”
Shadow called over the radio.
Havoc responded nervously, “Just one moment... THERE!”
She slammed her hoof down on the trigger for the FTL and at once the ship seemed to dissolve into dust, materializing not even a second later. She slowly could feel the gravity loosing it's grip on her. She looked out of the window and could see that they were already at least two-thousand miles away from the asteroid were the base had been.
That moment when she initialized the FTL drive, a shock wave had blown out everything that was behind the ship. She could still see purple lights flashing over the remaining of their base.
“They didn't stop the bombardment just yet.”
Slightly surprised she turned around and saw that Shadow had entered her station.
“Listen, I just came by to tell you that you did a great job back there.”
Havocs eyes went wide as she blushed a little
“T-Thank you, Shadow. I-It really means a lot to me.”
Shadow noticed her blush and smiled in triumph.
“No problem, but we're not out of the mess yet. The rebels are hot on our flanks, and if we get reckless, they'll bomb us to hell.”
The were interrupted as Kaliba made another announcement
“Listen everyone! You just witnessed the last moments of outpost S.A. 28. We need to hurry to get away from the rebels as fast as we can. Havoc, power up the FTL and get us out of here.
I'll lock on Sayers Point as our destination.”
“Roger that, captain!” She rushed over to the control Panel and started giving the FTL power.
She smirked as she announced to her captain
“30 seconds until we're ready to go!”
“Great. Sayers point locked on!”
Sayers point was a small meeting point for traders. Federation ships were always welcome there, but mostly because the usually carried a lot of scrap. Although it was a safe area, one wrong word could cost you your health. Some of those traders really were shifty.
________________________________________________________________________________
Whitelight worked busily on her Panel. She just completed connecting the main sensor systems to the Shield main panel when Havoc ignited the the FTL.
Whitelight had gone on missions with federation ships before, so she was already used to the FTL and its effects.
Kaliba had called Havoc on her station only, so Whitelight didn't know their current location. She went to the window and saw a cluster of medium sized asteroids surrounded by some small trader ships.
“Oh you gotta be kidding me!”She groaned as she recognized that they were at Sayers point.
She hated this station. Every time she had been here, she had to give some nasty trader a beating, because he had gotten to close to her.
She turned her attention back to her station. She stretched herself, before she sat down on her foldable cot she had brought with her.
She just sat there for one long moment before tears started to form in her eyes.
She had just realized the things that happened back at the outpost. She had friends there.
-All of them probably dead by now.
They hadn't received any other call from a ship from their base. They must have been the only ones who escaped the barrage.
She didn't realized that she was sobbing quietly, until the cold tears dripped on her legs.
She had sworn not to cry, but the thought of several ponies she cared about getting wiped out without any warning.
It just wasn't fair.
“This- this whole war is totally insane...” she sobbed.
“Indeed it is, Whitelight”
She looked up in shock and hastily tried to wipe away her tears. She saw Kaliba standing the doorway.
“How long... For how long have you been watching.”
“Long enough. I know this sounds cliche, but it's the truth.” he said moving over to her.
“May I-”
He asked gesturing to the cot she was sitting on. After she nodded, he sat down and began to speak.
“
I know how it is to see your friends die in battle. I know how unfair and just cruel it feels.
But lemme tell you, that if you let yourself get dragged down, you're not a help for either of us as well as yourself. It's not healthy to let grief posses you.”
“I- I know. I'm so sorry captain. It's just the shier insanity of this all. I don't even know the reasons for the rebellion to break out in the first place! I always thought the federation would keep everything in order and would make the lives of everypony better!”
“The federation has tried it's best. It was just the combination of ponies not getting enough and getting ignorant from their greed and the wrong things happening at the most unfitting times.”
He totally was right. The federation only was torn into this war, because some ponies just thought they weren't treated equally. But princess Celestia did the best she could to treat everypony fair. She had built up the federation in hope to seal the eternal peace in the universe. She wanted the universe to stay like Equestria, nice and peaceful. It was almost naive to think that she could keep up the utopia with so many new species who all just wanted one thing: Might.
Kalibas last words still rang inside her head, when he got a call on his mobile transmitter.
“This is the Sayers point docking control. Ship at beacon 7a4, please identify yourself in order to proceed with the docking sequence!”
Kaliba picked up his transmitter and answered
“Calling Sayers point, this is the UEF- Spark. We need some repairs, missiles and fuel.”
“Roger that UEF Spark. You're free to dock at gate 3, but be careful. Some of those merchants take the attack on the S.A. 28 outpost as an invitation to attack federation ships. You guys better keep your guns with you and ready if you should leave your ship.”
“Copy that. Thanks for the advice.”
Kaliba stood up from Whitelights cot to get to the bridge. He couldn't let the autopilot take care of the docking sequence.
As he turned around halfway to the door, he noticed that Whitelight was still crying, but despite this, he could see a grin of determination on her face.
________________________________________________________________________________
Kaliba had docked the ship and he and Whitelight went to purchase the equipment they would need for the long journey.
Havoc, however remained on the ship with Shadow. Kaliba had ordered that at least half of the crew has to be on the ship, in case something happens.
She stood on the window in her section and watched the galaxy. She loved to let her mind flow at the beautiful endlessness of the universe.
She hadn't noticed Shadow entering the machine Department until he stood next to her and spoke
“It sure is beautiful.”
Havoc was shocked by the sudden presence of her crew-mate. She didn't know how to respond at first and after what felt like an eternity she managed to stutter
“Um- I- Y-yes. It really is beautiful.”
“You just like letting your mind wander, don't you?
“How did you know that?”
“It's my intuition. It tells me that you're really good at what you do. And my intuition never lies to me.
“You seem to have been on several missions for the federation, haven't you?”
“Yep, I've been working for the federation since nearly eight years now. I've served on several ships and I was lucky that Kaliba was my captain once before. Trust me, he may seem a bit odd at first, but he is cold as ice when he needs to be.”
“W-what do you mean by that?” Havoc asked rather puzzled.
“Well,” Shadow started, “He may be a really nice guy who cares for his crew, but I have seen him in battle. Once, as we encountered a pirate ship, he ordered us to destroy it even though we took out their entire defense systems and they begged us to let them go unharmed. After we had send this pirate scum to hell, Kaliba was asked, why he didn't let them go as they begged for their lives.
He coolly answered 'Piracy can not be forgiven and I will never accept any pleads for forgiveness from such parasites.'”
Havoc didn't know whether she should be shocked or impressed by such a cold decision.
An unpleasant silence fell over the two as they stood there, watching the infinite of the universe.
After a few minutes of silence Havoc finally broke it. “Um, Shadow? May I ask you something?”
“Always. What is it?”
“Why did you join the federation? I mean there has to be a reason and I wanna know it.”
Shadow closed his eyes, considering what he could say. After a moment of silence he finally began to speak.
“I joined the federation because it was the right thing to do. That's my whole motivation.”
Havoc, had expected a much more complex answer, considering, that Shadow seemed to be highly intelligent.
“So,” Shadow said breaking the silence again “why did you join then? I mean a talented mechanic, like you, could have worked everywhere. Why did you choose the federation?”
She didn't need to think about the answer. “Revenge.”
Shadow was rather stunned to hear something like this from a mare like Havoc. “Revenge? For what?”
“For my dad. He was Captain for the rebel defenders until he got killed by the rebels. I don't know the exact circumstances of his death, but I know that the rebels killed him.”
“Is that so? What was his name then?”
“His name was Typhoon Winds”
Shadows blood froze for one moment upon hearing this name. He knew him. He knew him all to well, but he couldn't tell her. He just not dared to.
Havoc noticed his reaction and asked. “What? You knew him?”
Shadow hesitated for a moment, but then said, “Um, I-I heard of him, yeah. He died a hero I heard.”
“Huh, is that so? Well I guess that's great!” Havoc beamed. “What did he do that made him a hero? I wanna know it so badly!”
“I-I don't know any details! I've just heard the story from a friend.”
Havocs smile faltered a little. “Oh. But at least he was a hero.”
Shadow smiled slightly. “Yeah and I believe he would be proud of you.”
Havoc blushed a little.
“H-he would? Why that?”
Shadow snickered a little.
“Well first, you've become one of the best mechanics the federation has left, at least from what I've heard.
Second, you seem to be a nice mare, which is always a thing parents can be proud of.
And third, you simply look amazing!”
Havoc blushed deeply. She wasn't used to such kind words.
Nopony ever called her pretty, or smart, or nice. She didn't know how to react. After a long moment she finally managed to stutter.
“U-um, t-thank you, Shadow!”
“Ah, no problem. I'm just telling the truth.”
Havoc felt a warmth rising in her chest. She had never felt something like this before, but she immediately knew that she liked this feeling.
________________________________________________________________________________
Kaliba and Whitelight entered the airlock of the UEF- Spark, ready to enter the Sayers Point trading station.
Kaliba asked Whitelight with a clearly concern on his face. “So, White, have you ever been here before?”
“Unfortunately, captain.”
“Heh, I see. Just to remind you. Never let your guard down, always keep your hooves on your gun and you better always be skeptical about everything here.”
“Got that, captain!”
“Oh and please, I told you I don't like it when somepony always calls me captain. You can call me Kaliba like everyone else.”
“Okay, cap- I mean Kaliba.”
With this words the doors slid open with an audible 'hiss', revealing a dirty hallway. A few drunk merchants were lying on the floor. It was more than average for Sayers Point. This was supposed to be a trading station, but the traders mostly used it as a place to get drunk and live out their animalistic side. That's why it's not save for a mare to travel to Sayers point alone.
Kaliba and Whitelight didn't pay much attention to the drunk merchants.
They made their way through the dirty and stuffy hallways until they finally entered the nearly overcrowded main hall.
Upon entering the hall they were greeted by the stench of alcohol, cigarettes and sweating ponies.
The noise coming from the hall was so overwhelming, that Whitelight nearly had to cover her ears.
Obviously somepony had started a massive party in here, but Whitelight could do without the reason for it. This whole place seemed just sick.
No matter how many times Whitelight had been here before, she just couldn't get used to the somehow broken atmosphere that hung over the place.
Everywhere she looked, Whitelight could see the scarred and wasted faces of ponies drinking and bellowing old war songs.
It just disgusted her. She had her reasons to hate this place.
She was reminded of one of those reasons, when she felt the hoof of one of the merchants touching her flank and slowly wandering deeper. She reacted immediately, spinning around and giving that little pervert a strike square in the face. He fell down on the floor holding his nuzzle.
The force of Whitelights punch had shattered it with ease and now he was lying on the floor screaming for help, but he couldn't be heard over the noise of the raging party.
Kaliba had watched the whole scene calmly and spoke as Whitelight had caught up with him again. “Hey, excellent reaction, White.”
“I've been to this shabby station many times before. It has gotten a reflex to attack everything that comes within the area of my flank.”
“I see,” Kaliba snickered, “I'm glad you could deal with that so swiftly. I don't want to start a riot here.”
The two of them sat down at the counter, waiting for a waiter to come along and take their order. The waiters in Sayers point worked as mediators as well. They received the resources from the merchants, payed them, stored the goods, and sold it for their own profit.
Both of them winced as a shrill laughter rang through the air.
They turned around to see where the laughter came from.
It was a mare with a pink coat and a smooth dark pink mane. Though she looked oddly gray, Kaliba immediately recognized this mare. He had met her before and he couldn't believe that she ended up here.
The mare trotted over to them and began to speak in a high pitched voice, which sounded slightly insane.
“He he hello there folks. Are you two enjoying the party?”
Whitelight smirked as she replied. “So you're the one who started this. I have to admit it looks fairly amusing.”
The mare giggled, which sent a cold shower down Whitelights spine. She really sounded like she had gone mental.
“Hi hi, my parties are always the best!” the mare laughed proudly. “Oh where are my manners? My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie.”
“Heh, you really have changed, Pinkie.” Kaliba laughed dryly.
“Um, have I met you before?” Pinkamena asked clearly puzzled.
“Wow, that's not like you, Pinkie. I thought you'd never forget a friend.”
The mares eyes lit up. “Wait. Kaliba? Is that really you?”
“The one and only.” Kaliba laughed.
The moment he said it, Pinkie threw herself around his neck.
“Ohhh, Kal, I missed you so much! Where have you been?”
“First, I was about to ask you the same thing and second you know that I hate it when somepony calls me Kal.”
Pinkie broke the embrace and got back on all four hooves. “I- I just couldn't take it. The war. It has changed me. And I think I like it.”
“Pinkie, you've gone mental! I know you just can't forget the massacre on the UEF-Cadence, but you can't just run away from everything! Your friends are still searching for you. don't you care about them anymore?”
Pinkies glare became cold as ice as she responded.
“Friends? If those ponies really were my friends, why did they give the order to murder all those ponies? Most of them were innocent! They. Killed. Innocent. Ponies! This moment I stopped caring about them. This moment, they stopped existing to me. And no matter what you or anyone else tries, I won't forgive them!”
Kaliba snapped at her with a stern glare.
“Oh, I won't try. The search command for you is out since five months. Every federation ship that runs across you, has the order to hand you over to princess Celestia.”
Pinkie drew a knife with a manic smile. “You can try. But you won't survive it.”
Whitelight had watched the whole thing wordlessly, but that was enough for her.
Jumping from her seat and drawing her blaster she yelled. “OH CUT IT OUT ALREADY!”
Pinkie was to surprised to react. Havoc slammed the grip of the blaster on pinkies forehead, knocking her unconscious.
Kaliba, clearly surprised by Whitelights action, stuttered. “Um, okay. T-Thas was. Well just forget about this and get her to the ship.”
“Got you.” Whitelight said as she threw Pinkie over her back and began trotting for the exit.
She nearly fell to the ground when the whole station rumbled like it was hit by an earthquake.
It didn't take long for the first ponies to realize what was going on.
“The Rebels are attacking!” a merchant shouted, running for the hallway that led to his ship.
Kaliba sighed, running up next to Whitelight. “Plan changed. RUN!”
They hasted through the hallways, explosions ripping apart the sections where they had been only moments before. Luckily, the emergency air lock system of the facility was still working. It isolated the destroyed parts of the Hallways so that the oxygen left couldn't get out into space.
Section after section got destroyed behind them and they ran risk that risk to get locked into a broken section.
“Run faster!” Kaliba shouted glancing back Whitelight, who had fallen back a ponies length.
“I'm trying, but this mare weights a ton!” She grunted back.
It was a true miracle that she could run so fast with Pinkie Pie weighting her down.In her head the way to the UEF-Spark seemed to get longer and longer.
“Hang in there, White! We're almost there!”
“Captain, I have started to heat the engines, our FTL is almost ready, hurry up!” Havocs voice rang through Kalibas transmitter. She sounded really nervous and scared.
“Great work, Havoc!” Kaliba shouted into the little transmitting device, “We're almost there!”
They ran around a corner and could see the airlock of their ship was open and Shadow was standing in the door frame already waiting for them with a look of concern on his face. He had been worried, that they got killed when the first lasers hit the station.
“Quick get ready for undocking! We need to get away from here!”
“Gotcha!” Shadow shouted.
Kaliba and Whitelight got into the ship just in time. Three seconds after the air lock had closed, the hallway finally imploded completely.
Kaliba ran to his position, disengaging the locks that held the ship on the remains of the station.
As soon as the ship was cut loose from the debris, Kaliba gave the order to lock on the next beacon and launch the FTL.
Author's Note
Ok, Here's the first Chapter of my Very first Story. If you read this, this means that you've just read through the whole chapter and I wanna thank you for that, It would be nice to leave your opinion down in the comments :D
And a special Thank You goes to my pre-reader, Adam, AKA Cerulean Sound. You're the best c:
