Chapter 2: Contact [Edited]

Chapter 2: Contact

My eyes opened with the speed of a snail. Slowly, my vision cleared out the haze of sleep, bringing my bedroom window into focus. Celestia’s sun shone brightly through the glass window and the open, white plastic blinds.

I could hear the city bustle with activity, carriages’ engines humming, and Ponies chattering, all the way up in my fifth story room in apartment #502. It was the second of ten apartments, on the fifth floor of R and R Tower, opened by Filthy Rich and his younger brother, Richie Rich. Both of them had financed the construction of the modest, thirteen story apartment skyscraper.I cast aside my red blanket and white sheet, yawning as I stretched my arms and legs while still lying down. Smacking my lips, I threw my legs over the side of the bed, hooves not reaching all the way to the floor. Using my arms to propel myself with a small hop, I stood up, clad in two-tone green plaid sweatpants, and a dark, solid brown shirt.Moving over to my dresser, I pulled out my clothes for the day. A pink shirt that read “Girlz rule and Boyz drool,” purposely misspelled in bold, black lettering across the front, and a pair of simple blue jeans. My favorite outfit. I didn’t need a coat today, it was the middle of summer after all.After that, I exited my small room through a pine colored, wooden door. My room led out into the apartment’s living room where tan carpeting and white walls, decorated with family photos, greeted me.I strolled over to the dark wooden coffee table next to our couch and looked at it. The newspaper and porcelain mug of black, steaming coffee, sitting on its respective white saucer, was the coffee table’s usual morning decoration. Both a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper were part of my dad’s morning ritual before work. His absence on the couch led me to believe he could be in only one other room… the bathroom.And just like that, I heard the single toilet in the apartment flush. Moments later, a large grey coated stallion with crimson hair and tail, dressed in firmly pressed black slacks and blue button-up overshirt came out, struggling to get his red and blue striped tie centered just right on his chest.“Morning, Sprout,” my father Babs Day said, using my pet name.“Dad,” I grumbled as I rolled her eyes, “I’ll be fourteen in a few more weeks, you can quit calling me Sprout.”My dad wrapped his left arm around me and pulled me close, using his right hand to give me a noogie, utterly messing up my already bedraggled hair. “Listen here and listen good,” He commanded in a joking tone, “I’m your father. You will always be Sprout in my eyes.”He finally let go, but I wanted something more. “I know Dad. I love you,” I said, pulling my father close for a hug. Then, I got revenge for the nuggie by yanking his tie askew.My father let out a laugh as he tried to fix his tie again, “Love you too, Sprout,” he told me lovingly with a cheesy smile, “Now what would you like for breakfast?”“Pancakes,” I squealed out like a filly, blushing at the way my had sounded just then. I had hit puberty just a little under a year ago, but my voice still loved to crack up at the most inopportune times. Giggling as my blush deepened, I asked my dad, in my non-squeaky voice, “Doesn't mom usually cook us breakfast?”My dad laughed, “She does, but today she had an early appointment with Doctor Styles. I’m afraid after I leave for work, you’ll be stuck here by yourself.”“I’m not a kid anymore, I can handle being alone,” I declared, crossing my arms and trying to act tough, “You both have been gone long periods of time before.” In hindsight, I realize that crossing my arms made me look like a pouting filly.Nodding in agreement, my dad left for the kitchen. I, however, left to comb my messy hair and tail. As I prepared myself for the day, the sound of sizzling batter and pancakes wafted through the bathroom air vent above her head, prompting me to hurry up.Once finished, I raced from the bathroom and quickly sat down at my seat at the square table in the kitchen. As I waited for the food, I saw my dad spin around from in front of the stove, wearing mother's apron. The flower print caused him to look udderly ridiculous. He was carrying two plates of pancakes which had three in a stack on each, topped with whipped cream and blueberries, my favorite.“Thanks, Dad,” I said. Dad then moved to our apartment’s simple white fridge - decorated with magnets holding up crude crayon drawings I had made when I was a lot younger. Then he retrieved a plastic jug of orange juice, and one cup from a cabinet over the messy counter - Dad had his cup of coffee sitting patiently by his plate.After pouring me a tall glass of orange juice, he set the jug on the table in case I wanted more. Dad set it down right next to the bottle of syrup he must of had put on the table while I was combing my hair. Sitting down, he bowed his head and said a short blessing.We didn’t speak while eating, Dad had to hurry to get to work. Scarfing down his pancakes, he said a quick goodbye, and gave me a kiss on the forehead. I blushed and groaned from the unwanted sign of affection. I was getting too grown-up for kisses.After Dad left, I went back to my room, grabbed my pink wallet, my apartment key, and left a note on the table of the time when I left, when I expected to be back and where I went.It was a rule I had to follow every time I left the apartment. Exiting into the hallway that was just wide enough for two ponies to pass by without bumping, I made my way briskly to the elevator, entered, and pressed the ground floor button. That took me to the the lobby.Leaving the R and R Tower, I began walking the streets I knew like the back of my hand, listening in on conversations of those I walked behind. Sure it was impolite, but oblivious ponies say the stupidest things.Then, there was a rumble, not a natural earthquake… oh no. It reverberated from the sky to the ground, making me feel as if weights were being tossed on top of me. Shortly after, the sky ripped high above the city, and a sphere of the deepest purples and the blackest blacks formed, blocking out the sun.Ponies all around me began to panic, shouting different names of Gods and Goddesses who might be angry with them. A few disguised Changelings looked up with emotionless expressions… but then, the dark sphere began to arc with blue lightning, and the chaotic vibrations ended when a ship came through, the sphere collapsing in on itself after the stern of the spaceship cleared the sphere.The large vessel was a light silver and purple that seemed to make light bend around its many curved surfaces. The ship itself looking like a massively thick fishhook. I gasped at the sheer size of it. It was probably three or more miles long. The few Changelings present dropped their disguises, then began chirping and clicking their tongues, speaking in their language as their wings fluttered. The ship had managed to spook Changelings into being in their natural form in public, and that wasn’t a good sign.

<~Meanwhile~>

A lot of things had happened at once after being forced out of the slipspace jump. Alarms were blaring, sparks were flying from random consoles on the bridge of the Covenant CAS-class assault carrier, Forerunner’s Light, and a few non-vital systems had lost power.The engineers of the ship, the Yanme’e, trying desperately to fix the damage caused by the abrupt slipspace malfunction, stopped dead in their tracks. The insectoid aliens with V-shaped heads and orange compound eyes just froze stiff as boards.Tai ‘Seree, the Sangheili shipmaster - synonymous with the rank of a ship’s captain - noticed them willingly let the other engineer species, the Huragok, float around doing jobs they were meant to do. It was most unlike the Yanme’e to do such a thing.Both the engineer-savvy races often competed for positions, the Yanme’e being the jealous ones. The Huragok were often preferred for their reliability with repairs. The floating bags of gas and tentacles, who looked somewhat like floating blue and purple brains, were close to being biological supercomputers. They could assemble full machines from scrap metal and didn’t require any electronics. All they needed was cilla from their tentacles as circuitry.The fact that they were better repairmen than the Yanme’e often led the jealous bugs to physically harm the peaceful Huragok.Lexus, the captain’s Jiralhanae second in command - a title his Sangheili friend gave him since Jiralhanae normally held positions of power separate from Sangheili - was furious. Being a Jiralhanae meant he had an impeccable sense of smell, and the seemingly frozen bugs were releasing putrid pheromones to communicate amongst one another that made his nose itch. Coupling that with the alarms blaring overhead and the warning lights, his anger grew to a boil.In a fit of violence known to Jiralhanae, Lexus drew back and punched a nearby Yanme’e in the face. His rage fueled punch was so powerful, the unlucky insectoid’s head disappeared in a splatter of orange gore and cracked shell. The Shipmaster didn’t care, the Yanme’e were easy to replace.Luxus’ brutality caused the other Yanme’e to break out their trancelike state. They felt the death of their kinsmen through their limited hive mind, only to find the Huragok doing a better job than they ever could.Fights broke out between the two species, and the captain had to intervene. Getting up from his seat, the captain drew his energy sword. Two blades of transparent blue light sprung out the thick curving metal hilt with a mighty hiss of ionized air, stopping the Yanme’e dead in their tracks.“Now,” Tai ‘Seree yelled over the alarms in the lingua franca of the Covenant, his native Sangheili, “Stop your petty squabbling and get back to work.”The captain powered down his sword, and set back down in the purple hovering captain’s chair. It was a dishonor to do what he just did, but he needed to stop the fighting.In the Sangheili culture, a drawn weapon demanded blood, and he had drawn his weapon without taking life. He quickly forgot the dishonorable incident and gave a sigh of relief when one of the Yanme’e finally stopped the alarms, though his head still rung like bells.Clicking the lower two of the four separate mandibles of his jaw together, he craned his long leathery neck to call over a Yanme’e. When the bug arrived, Tai asked a simple question, “Why did you stop working?” The Yanme’e responded by clicking her tongue and rubbing her waxy wings together.A translation device built into her greenish-gold armor translated into Sangheili as, “We felt something.”With the simple answer not satisfying his question, he decided to attend to more pressing matters, “I want a full damage report, and someone to tell me where in the Forerunners’ holy names are we.”With the translator making the captains language a series a clicks and buzzes, the Yanme’e moved to spread the word to the bridge crew.A Sangheili crewman answered the summons, “Our slipspace drive is gone. Unggoy methane room sixteen, the aft-hanger, and the kitchen on deck fifteen have all caught fire. Our shields are down to thirty percent efficiency. Our Luminary tells us there are no Forerunner relics within scanning range but our other sensors have indicated we are directly over a densely populated city of several unknown species. Your orders, Shipmaster?”“Get fire control teams to extinguish those fires before they spread. Then contact the Prophets, we shall await their almighty instructions,” The Shipmaster chuckled, “We may soon have several additions to our ranks.”Hitting his left shoulder with his right fist, the Sangheili crewman quickly knelt. Coming up from the kneel, he set to work.Pressing a button on his chair, Tai ‘Seree spoke into the chair’s built in microphone and gave an order, “I want a scouting party with active camouflage formed right away. I want all the information I can get.”

<~Back on the ground~>

It was amazing how fast things went to chaos. Looting had already started in the mass panic of the ship’s sudden arrival. I repeatedly had to dodge rocks and bricks being thrown towards windows as heavily armored unicorns levitating thick metal shields tried to suppress the rioters with pepper spray and batons.I made the short distance between where I had stopped and R and R Tower, making my way inside as security guards stood behind hastily made barricades of furniture. They were armed with only stun clubs and beanbag-loaded shotguns.I had to run up the stairs to the fifth floor since the elevators had been taken offline due to the emergency situation. Running straight to my apartment door, I fumbled with my key, before making it inside.“Babs, thank Salus the Protector that you’re safe. You had me worried sick,” my mother, Apple Seed, a gold colored Earth Pony with a hot pink tail and hair said. Mom quickly wrapped me into a hug, a worried tear landing on my head.“What does the news say about this, mom?” I asked, breaking away from the embrace and heading into the livingroom where their television awaited.Sitting down together on our green faux leather couch, we began to watch the events unfold on T.V. that we were currently a part of.“We are talking to you live from the streets of Manehattan,” the reporter announced, making both mine and mother’s ears perk up. It was Dad, doing his job as a reporter.As screaming and the sound of shattering glass was heard in the background as Dad continued, “A massive vessel of unknown origin has appeared over our skies. We have no clue as to what its intentions are, or why it has suddenly appeared, all we know is that Celestia has declared martial law to-” Dad suddenly stopped as he reread the teleprompt.“We just received word that two more ships have appeared over Mareami and Detrot. A third crashing down near the Badlands, and a fourth in the middle of Ponyville. We do not know their origin at this time, though there are visible markings on the hulls of the two over Mareami and Detrot.”The screen cut to a clear image taken by a Pegasi photographer, a blue hexagon, with six blue lines coming from the six corners, meeting at a solid blue circle in the middle.There was a shudder, then a loud boom rocked the city. A second ship had appeared over Manehattan. The camera panned to the second ship, its whitish-grey hull donned with the same symbol that was just televised. It was massive, nearly two miles wide, and shaped like a donut with a large sphere in the middle. Countless lights ran down a band, encircling the donut shaped craft.A few minutes passed of them just hovering close together. Then the silver and purple ship fired on the newcomer with globs of blue cannonfire. The second ship retreated rapidly to mend its suddenly gaping and flaming wounds.

<~Minutes earlier, the bridge of Forerunner’s Light~>

Lexus was at his post - the chaos of the bridge rapidly fixed by the Yanme’e and Huragok - and noticed a rapid beeping at his station. Pressing a button revealed sensors had picked up a ship that had appeared. “Tai,” Lexus said, using his friend’s actual name instead of title, “A ship has been detected directly starboard of us.”“Scan them, this planet’s species may have a trick or two we need to be ready for.”The same Sangheili crewman from earlier responded from his post, “Only thirty seven life signs on board sir.”Tai knew it was a sparse crew for a ship that size, “Hail them. I wish to speak with the natives.”A different crewman, this one a Yanme’e, pressed a series of buttons in rapid succession on his console. A silver disk lowered from the ceiling, an image began to appear.“Hello, who is this? This is supposed to be a secure military channel,” A robot, a Trade Federation battle droid, responded in its tinny voice in a language Tai, or any of the other Covenant, had never heard before.The Shipmaster grimaced at it’s obvious possession of sentience and cut the transmission short. Of course the natives had to build the unholiest of things.Building artificially intelligent constructs that were sentient was the right of the Forerunners. And even they made mistakes with intelligent machines.In a war long past, one of the Forerunner’s creations nearly destroyed them, after being tricked into allying with their enemy, a sentient parasitic organism called the Flood which had since disappeared. Due to the betrayal, The Prophets banned the creation of artificially intelligent machines that were considered sentient. It was a way to prevent a repeat of history.Tai ‘Seree grew angry. The species below had violated the sacred laws of the Covenant. The Prophets had already given him full reign over the mission until a Covenant fleetmaster arrived with his own ships. He nearly growled out his order, “Raise the shields and prepare the turrets. I want that abomination reduced to slag. After it’s a burning wreck, send out the fighters to teach these charlatans a lesson.”Several crew members voiced their acknowledgement of the orders.  “If these lifeforms do not surrender their abominations, then we will stamp their blight out of the universe along with the human parasites.”

<~Canterlot palace~>

In a fortified room of Canterlot Palace, an emergency meeting was currently being held. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and several top representatives in the government were frantically pacing around a large circular wooden table. Papers were scattered everywhere, and a phone was ringing nonstop, but was nearly drowned out by the live news feed being televised from a large TV set built into the far wall.Everyone present stopped dead when the first ship shot the second. The second was on fire and quickly moved out of sight of the camera. The one cameraman was glued to his spot.There was a long pause of nothing happening. Then, like gnats compared to the larger ship, what seemed like thousands of small craft flew from the belly of the beast.The cameraman dropped the news camera and the sound of screaming was heard as fire rained from the sky.Celestia’s mood turned from frantic to angry, “I am declaring a state of national emergency. I want martial law in effect in every major city. We are being invaded and I will not sit idly by and watch one of our cities fall to these barbarians. I want to contact the ship that was fired upon, maybe understand why their enemies are attacking us… move,” she punctuated with a slam of her fist on the table.As the politicians and officials ran about, Celestia turned to her sister who was waiting patiently nearby in a corner of the room, “I want you to head to Ponyville. Contact Princess Twilight and have her send me a report on the craft that crashed there.”Luna nodded and was gone in a flash of blue magic. Sighing, Celestia rubbed her white furred temple, just below the horn, with her pointer and middle fingers. “And will somepony answer that damn phone,” she nearly yelled as she sat down in her chair.

<~Apartment #502~>

Mom and I ducked behind the couch. The aliens had started shooting at ponies from purple and green streamlined crafts, which spewed globules of blue fire from forward mounted guns.It had only taken a few minutes for Dad to run back to our apartment from the scene he was reporting from. When he made it back, he wrapped mom and I in a protective hug as screams and explosions rang from the city below.And as quick as the madness started, it ended when two smaller ships, no more than a third the size of the Covenant Carrier, arrived out of no where. From hangers in their gunmetal grey hulls, their own craft appeared going hoof-to-hoof with the other craft, while the smaller two ships fought the bigger ship with missiles until its already damaged shields dropped from the combined assault and departed for the protection of space, taking a few minor blows as it left what seemed like hundreds of purple dots behind.I didn’t know it yet, but the UNSC had already saved us with two Cruisers and their complements of Pelican Dropships.But, the protection only lasted three weeks before a whole Covenant fleet arrived from slipspace. The Covenant were convinced that this transgression made Equis allies with the humans in the war against them.