Space Engineer over Equestria

I stared at the hunk of solid uranium I had found. It was far too heavy to lift, much less stuff into my bag. It was big enough to fit in the ore receptacle atop my ship, but under its current weight, that would be impossible. Heck, my jetpack might have trouble lifting my sack!

Which brings me to step two of the gravity based mining process, turning off the gravity.

I know that's a bit of a oxymoron, but it's true. Once you've mined massive hulks of uranium, you have to turn off the gravity to move em.

I trodded the few steps back to my ship. There was a small access panel on the underside of the refinery I could use to shut off my grav generator, but first I had to brace my body for the sudden lack of gravity.

This process was even simpler. First, turn on the special hardening microfibers in my legs, chest, and head. These would turn off and on automatically in an emergency, but it was safer (and less painful) to have them on before turning off my backpack. The fibers prevented blood from rushing to any particular part of my body, and helped me resist the affects of flying around space at high speed.

Safety first, future engineers.

Next, I gently activated the thrusters in my legs and arms, next my pack. Finally, before my body got used to the thrusters, I flicked the switch on the gravity read out, shutting off the mass manipulators and leaving me to float gently in the nothing of space.

I didn't have time to dry heave my empty stomach air out, I had rocks to catch. I pressed my right leg forward gently, activating the thrusters spin command to the left, angling me back torwards the rocks. Then I pressed both legs, activating all my back thrusters and sending me forward at a decent speed. my arm reached out, snagging my mining pack and slowing me down gently. There was a brief spinning moment before my thrusters put a stop to that. Next, I issued a series of commands resulting in my flying straight for the large hunk of uranium I had just mined.

Progress was slow. Uranium is dense, and it took me nearly half a minute just to get to the damn thing.

Now was the hard part.

I swung my far smaller mass around the rock, nailing my pack to it while finding my way to the other side. Having done that, I firmly grasped it with both gloves, activated the micro nails in the fibers of my gloves, and strained as my thrusters attempted to press me against the uranium to a spot above my ship.

I hovered there, above the 'roof' of my ship for just a moment. I angled my prize down at the material immigration port. one burst had both me and it gently on approach. I reached around the rock for my pack, deactivated the nail, and slowly took out the rocks. Here was a trick I had learned a while ago. I unpacked while moving towards the port, then stopped myself while letting my loot sail forward gently.

The material immigration port's nanites used tiny shockwaves to pulverize the uranium into managable bits. It took them a hundredth of the energy it would have taken me to do it, but nanites were too expensive to waste outside a ship. Those were my last ones, and I wouldn't be getting more until I made the journey back to Earth. That was a long journey, too long to risk. I'd just have to be careful with my nanites.

The reactor jumped to full power as the conveyor system and refinery activated, a beautiful sound, but it meant that my ship wouldn't have enough energy to clone me. This was it, for the next few minutes I'd be risking mortality while the system refined the ore.

They were long moments, mortal ones often are. Every time I lived through one I was reminded of all the times I had before. My early years before I was old enough to be cloned. The close calls in my first few asteroid patches, back when I was still learning. The time that cult... Took me. I wiped away a tear before I could go farther, hurt more.

God I... What was that feeling?

Yang sweated over the console. The magic scan was too fuzzy. They had to know who they were dealing with. They couldn't risk poisoning the air the creature breathed by accident. They only had one shot at first contact. So much to gain, so much more to lose.

I felt air flow out of my lung in long languid screams. Everything was sensitive, my vision too sharp, my suit too hot, too cold, too sweaty, and too dry, my gut too empty.

Everything was twisting. My shoulders were squeazing. My hips breaking. My everythng...

no... not again... They couldn't have found me here, this had to be a accident. Maybe I had hit my head?

No, what if I was wrong? What if they had found me?! I had to ... had to... FADE! Fade wouldn't let them take me. I had to contact him had to... call him.

I slowly made my way around my ship to the door. Every joint in my body was on fire, just like the first time it happened. I had to get in, had to call Fade!

"Sir! The alien is panicking! I think it's in pain!"

Yang wanted to ask how the unicorns knew this, but he didn't have time for that if they were right. "Shut it off! Hurry!" The unicorns were panicking, running about. Now they were desperately trying to turn the magic amplifier back off, to stop the scan.

"Sir, it's too late. I-I think it's dieing!" Another unicorn screamed out. Yang looked around desperately, where was the fucking off switch on this damn machine?!

I floated gently into the cabin of my small ship. I could barely move now. The medical unit in my shoot was desperately trying to stop the change, to stop the pain, but it was too late. I stopped it before it killed the last of my suit power, angled myself towards the cockpit. I had to activate the beacon. I had to ensure he could hear me.

"Sir, I-I can't even tell what's happening anymore! We have to shut off the scan before we do anymore damage!" Yang screamed in frustration. Now the entire base was trying to shut down the scanner. Every hoof, horn, and wing trying to save the alien they had set out to make friends with.

They couldn't let it die, not until it posed a threat for certain. What if it had friends?! What if it had family nearby? If they weren't hostile before, then killing them was a sure way to make them hostile.

I found myself having to force my eyes open. My suit was charging through the control panel's contacts. Now my medical override was ignoring my shut off commands. It was sedating me, stopping the pain but not the change.

Just one more key, and the message would send. One more...

"S-sir... it's stopped. Something is still happening chemically, but it's no longer moving on any sustainable scale. It's dead" Yang sagged in defeat. He had failed...

He had failed everyone.