After The Fall

Dax sat at his desk. He wasn’t paying attention to what the teacher said. She didn’t care. She had studied his psychology and neural patterns enough to know that he already knew most of the stuff she was teaching the class. She was content to let him stare out the window and dream of the stars. One less problem student meant she could focus on the other cases. Fortunately for them she had patience of a great-great-great-grandmother. Being an A.I. helped a lot too.

Dax looked out the window and into space. He could see the curve of the planet as the school remained in geosynchronous orbit above the planet. Though this window wasn’t his favorite it still allowed him to dream. From here he could only see the curve of Colombia, its moon Delta, and its near-planet object, Ra, that had been placed in orbit to help adjust the tides of the planet. But here he could still dream about the stars and exploration. He sighed as he dreamed of captaining one of the huge cruisers that journeyed every day into the stars. Of course they weren’t exploring but still.

“Dax, do you know the answer to number 12?” Dally asked. She was the A.I teacher of the class.

He looked up, “M theory, Miss Dally.” He returned to his window.

“Very good,” She said, “Now, can anyone explain why Dax got the answer correct when all he does is stare out the window every class?”

“Because he’s a bozo,” Alan answered, “And a freak.”

“Now Alan, that’s not a nice thing to say.”

“It’s true, there’s no way he’ll be selected.”

“You don’t know that. Every one of you has the same statistical probability of being selected as the next guy.”

The class stared at her. Being selected was both an honor and a curse. Those who were selected could basically kiss whatever they wanted to do with their lives goodbye. Being selected was a guaranteed ticket into the Atlantis Confederation military.

For the past five years the Atlantis Confederation had been at war with the Galactic Earth Empire. The Earth had become a tyrannical government and attempted to take over the Atlantis Confederation space. The Confederation valiantly fought back but it wasn’t enough. They had to innovate if the wanted the slightest chance of beating the vast resources of Earth. But the war seemed far away now and the high scholars went on with their lives. The war was part of daily life.

“Dax Reynolds to the administrator’s office immediately.”

Everyone looked at Dax. He sighed and stood up and walked out the door. No one said a word as the sophomore left the room.

He walked down hallway, down a flight of stairs. He passed the doors to the hanger where the transport dropped him off every day. He passed through the building’s atrium. This was his favorite part of the school. It had the largest windows with the best views. He looked out and saw the vast soup of space stations that orbited several kilometers away. Each one something different; department stores, a restaurant, a gym, all of them however were dwarfed by The Hoop. The Atlantis Confederation’s crowning achievement. It was a huge ring station that encircled the entire planet at the equator. It was a majestic sight and also Dax’s home. Little blips in the side were in fact massive hangers, capable of accommodating the largest ship. A huge belt shaped portion of the ring was passing over the capital. A huge beam shot down onto the city, delivering it its power supply for it and the surrounding county. This was a weekly occurrence. Each city along the equator received their power from The Hoop. The top of the ring was coated in photo reactive cells that turned 100% of the sun’s light into energy.

He reached the administrator’s office. Inside sat the principal, his mother and father, and two men in military garb.

“Dax, thank you for coming,” the principal said solemnly.

“What’s going on? Mom? Dad?” he said.

One of the men stood up. He held out his hand.

“Congratulations son, you’ve been selected.”

***

Vinyl Scratch sat outside the principal’s office. She was in one of the most prestigious schools in all of Equestria. This was the school the best musicians in the world came from. In this school, you could learn anything. She was most interested in learning how to DJ. She looked at her shoulder. Her cutie mark had recently appeared last week. The suspense was beginning to kill her.

Inside the office were her parents and the principal of the school. Apparently her file had been the most interesting and the principal himself felt the need to review it himself. Vinyl could hear the muffled voices of conversation inside the office.

Finally the door opened and her mother came out smiling.

“Come in, Ms. Scratch,” the principal said.

She stood up and entered the office, waiting to hear the verdict.

Her parents stared at her. The principal finally put the file down and pulled his glasses off.

“Congratulations Ms. Scratch, you’ve been selected.”

***

“So let me get this straight,” Will said at the lunch table, “They selected you? You of all the people in this school?”

“Yes,” Dax said, “apparently they don’t judge you on book smarts or physical strength like some people think.”

“Then how are you selected?” Sarah asked.

“You’re selected on military and strategy smarts, problem solving, leadership abilities, and emotional detachments.”

“Emotional detachments?” Will asked.

“You have to be able to separate yourself from your emotions is what they said. And as the first test, I’m leaving for training tomorrow.”

“WHAT?!”

The next day.

Dax walked out of the school. He was being dismissed early. He was allowed to bring few possessions and only took his pad, two changes of clothes, a knife, and his necklace.

Alan glared at him with a hatred that said it all. He wanted to be selected more than anybody and he hated Dax for that.

He boarded the transport and took his seat. There were only four other kids on the ship. The each stared at the ground. Dax strapped himself in. A woman in a military uniform walked by and plastered a name tag on his chest,

Dax 7 it read.

Dax looked out the window as the transport passed through the plasma shield and into the vacuum of space.

***

Vinyl entered he dorm. She pushed her messy, electric blue, spiky hair out of her eyes. There were two beds and two desks, a bathroom, and a kitchen area in the dorm.

She placed her bag on one of the beds and began to unpack.

“Just saying, that’s my bed,” a voice behind Vinyl said. Vinyl turned, another girl greeted her with a friendly smile.

“Sorry,” Vinyl said, “I just got into this school. I’m a bit new here.” She moved her stuff to the other bed and resumed unpacking.

“Hey, no problem,” The girl said. She had a full head of blackish grey hair, styled upward and back to form a sort of puff in the front. The rest of her hair draped down over her back.

“I’m Octavia, I’m new here too. What’s your name?” Octavia asked.

“I’m Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch. Nice to meet you.”

“Well I guess we’re roommates, Vinyl. Wanna be friends? You seem nice,” Octavia said.

“Sure, I’d like that a lot,” Vinyl smiled.

***

It had been two years since Dax had been selected into the Atlantis super soldier program. He’d sharpened his mind, body, and now they were going to sharpen him some more.

“What’s this procedure going to do?” he asked from the table.

“You will have abilities no other humans will have ever,” Ajax said. Her British accent flowed over the room. She had been his personal A.I. and caretaker since her first came to the school. Her avatar appeared in front of him. She was a woman wearing a casual military garb. The name Ajax was on her chest along with the number 7.

“We will also install a personal anti-gravity system into your body.”

“What will that allow me to do?”

“Well the official explanation is that no soldier will have to worry about falling to his/her death”

“And the actual?”

“You will have the ability to fly,” She smiled.

Dax smiled. Ajax looked towards the med tech team and gave them thumbs up. The anesthesia and other drugs pumped into his system as he fell into a deep sleep

***

“So Vinyl,” Octavia said. She sat on her bed with a music sheet in front of her as she composed, “Do you have any projects coming up?”

“Yeah,” Vinyl said. She was on laptop as she built a new song, “Deadpon3 is having us build a new club mix for Friday night. We’re going to have a rave.”

“That sounds like fun,” Octavia said, “I have to compose a rhapsody for the winter ball. Princess Celestia herself is going to be there.”

“Cool,” Vinyl said, “The other day I ran into my old friend Rainbow Dash. She was with another girl named Gilda. Rainbow was her normal, friendly self but Gilda was just plain mean. I’m worried about Rainbow; I don’t think she knows how mean Gilda is.”

“Well maybe it was one time thing. You never know, maybe she was just having a bad day,” Octavia’s wisdom made sense.

“Yeah, maybe,” Vinyl said looking out the window of the dorm.

***

“Dax. Dax wake up,” Ajax said.

Dax opened his eyes. Ajax was standing over him. Her form projecting from his pad. It was mandatory that all trainees carry the pad with them at all times. It allowed for constant communication and for their A.I. to be with them everywhere they went.

He rolled out of his bunk and onto the floor.

Ajax was still standing over him, “Come on, we have a lot to do today.”

“Yes mom,” Dax got up. He brushed his teeth and pulled on his uniform. He headed out of his dorm as Ajax directed him to his own training room. It was huge and open with a series of objects with varying sizes and weights.

“Your procedure, as you know was a complete success,” She said, “But what you don’t know is what it was meant to do.”

“It made me fly, right?”

“Partly, and you still haven’t flown yet, but it does more. You’ve been going through some subconscious training for the use of your new abilities,” she said, “Now we’re going to teach you to fly. Try hovering; just imagine you’re floating.”

Dax sighed and imagined he was floating. Sure enough, he felt gravity losing its grip on him and he began to float up towards the ceiling.

“Oh now this is awesome,” Dax laughed.

“Yes, very good Dax. Now try moving forward.”

Fuck that, Dax thought. He rushed forward. He rushed through the air to the opposite wall of the room. He did a flip and headed down.

“Now Dax, you’re moving too fast now,” Ajax said concern in her voice.

“Oh relax you worry ward,” Dax laughed. His next maneuver would have been impossible using normal aerodynamics. He pulled a full 90 degree pull up before banking and landing in front of Ajax.

“Ok. I think you got flying down,” she said, “Now let’s try your next new ability. You see those blocks over there? Try lifting one.”

He began to walk over to the blocks.

“No. Not with your arms, with your mind.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” she said, “Use your head.”

“Uh, fine,” Dax said.

He looked at the box. He raised his arm. He felt the block. It was a solid metal brick; he gripped it in his head. He raised his arm and the two ton brick moved with him.

“Now I LIKE THIS,” Dax laughed.

“I thought you might,” Ajax smiled, “Soon you will be able to move things just by focusing on them. You won’t have to use your arms.”

“Cool,” Dax said as he moved on to the next object. It was a standard military shipping container. It contained components for a type four wasp fighter. He raised his arm and the container obeyed. He looked at the palm of his hand. He manipulated the container’s position with his fingers before closing his hand in a fist. The container crushed in on itself, smashing its contents to bits.

“Now Dax, you have to be careful with this,” Ajax admonished.

“Why? This is so cool!”

“You remember last week when the station locked down?”

“Yeah, why? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well number 76 wasn’t very careful and ripped a hole the size of a ground transport in the hull. He was recovered from space and thawed out properly but… I don’t want to see that happen to you. I’ve watched over you since before you knew you were selected and have come to think of you like a son.”

Dax stared at her. Ajax was now the closest thing to a mother her had. And she was worried that he may hurt himself if he wasn’t careful with this new power. He looked at his hands and back at the smashed container. He felt ashamed. It was extremely easy to abuse this power.

“I would give you a hug but my arms would go right through you,” he joked.

“Come on, Let’s get you some breakfast. You’ve been advancing faster than all the other trainees so you can spare some time.”

The walked out of the room and headed to the atrium.

***

It was graduation day. The day the trainees became soldiers. They had been trained in the art of war for the past four years. They had strengths and powers they hadn’t had when they entered the school. They had become brothers and sisters with their fellow trainees. They had parents now thanks to their caretaker A.I.s. Every one of them felt a sense of pride as they donned their new uniforms. The battle suit of the Omni soldier. The armor was equipped with everything. It was built for space; it could survive in the vacuum for 2 hours, had built in shields, sensors, and augmented every soldier’s strengths. It could even carry their caretaker A.I. They had been trained for every situation, every scenario, how to use every vehicle, how to command a battleship, all in the short time period of four years. They had had no weekends, no days off, only training and sleep. Their minds had been sharpened the first year to allow for fast learning. And now they were ready.

Admiral Hale stood before the company of shock troops, all 200 of them, examining the results. He finally spoke.

“When I first heard of this program ten years ago, I was skeptical. This Project Black Swan promised the best soldiers in the galaxy. Take 15 and 16 year old kids and turn them into the best fighting force in the history of humanity in the timespan of four years. Soldiers more versatile, smarter, faster, stronger, and better than even the Spartans of ancient Greece. But when I see what you all can do, all you’ve learned, all you’ve accomplished, the potential you all have, I think that it was damn well worth it. You are the new Delta Force, the new Navy Seals, and the new Green Berets. As a commander, I couldn’t ask for better troops.”

He saluted the new army. Admiral Hale was the father figure in their lives. He was the one they looked up too. His respect was everything to them and now they had it. They proudly returned the salute.

“Earth may have more resources to put into this war than us but quality over quantity I say! Let them come! Our fleets our better, our armies are better, and now, our soldiers are better too. Ad Astra Per Apera. Dismissed.”

He turned on his heal and returned to his flag ship, The Martian Fury. The shock troops pulled on their helmets, their visors hiding their faces and departed for their assigned missions.

***

Four Years Later. The A.C. is losing, badly. The Omni soldiers are spread too thin to make a major difference. The better built ships of the A.C are outnumbered by the faster built ships of Earth. It comes down to one thing…

It was bad luck. Terribly bad luck. This was the one scenario that no one had prepared for. The Hawking Drive on one small frigate just happened to malfunction and deposit the ship on the Capital world’s doorstep. And now thanks to that one incident, a fleet of ships stood ready to turn Colombia to glass.

Admiral Hale had massed as many ships as he could but not enough were going to arrive in time. The G.E.E fleet outnumbered the A.C fleet two to one.

Dax was frustrated. He felt like the one kid not going to the party on Friday night. He watched as 199 other fighters flew past the Martian Fury to join nearly one million other fighters. He watched as they passed the orbital batteries and sped on. The destroyers and frigates close behind followed by the battleships and dreadnoughts. The carriers stayed behind along with Martian Fury.

“Admiral, I don’t understand why I’m not up there with them. Ajax and I should be there,” Dax said. His frustration was evident even through the visor of his armor.

“Your mission will be more important than what your brothers and sisters are doing. Their mission is to buy you time. As much time as they can,” Admiral Hale said. He was pulling up some kind of battle strategy on his pad.

“What is my mission, sir?”

“Your mission, son, is to live. This mission comes straight from the top. You are to take a fighter and high tail it to The Hoop, hanger number X79.”

Ajax pulled up the hanger registry on The Hoop. She searched for the hanger the Admiral seemed so desperate to protect. Using Dax’s armor’s speakers she spoke.

“Admiral, there is no X79,” she said.

“Ajax, I’m uploading a file. You should find it now. Dax, you are to go that hanger and get the Galactic North out of here. This is your last mission.”

“What? What do you mean it’s my last mission?”

“We have been losing this war, Dax. And we will lose this war. Our best A.I.s calculate that the Earth tyrants will win and rule the galaxy with an iron fist. But they also say that a rebellion will form and eventually win back freedom. The G.E.E doesn’t have A.I.s to calculate this so that gives us one advantage. We will win back our freedom and a new Confederation will form and eventually rise to be the greatest power in the galaxy. Even stronger than Earth. But this hope will only exist if you succeed in your mission.”

“They’re buying me time? What is so important that they have to die for me to live?” Dax would have begun to cry if he hadn’t kept such a good grip on his emotions.

“Galactic North would have been the game changer if we had her two years ago. But now she may be everything. She is a highly advanced prototype ship that was built using technology not of our race.”

“What do you mean by ‘not of our race?’ Are you saying that thing is alien technology?”

“Partly,” The Admiral said without looking up from his pad, “That ship is thousands of years ahead of anything we can build. If Earth gets her, it’s over for all of us. That nice future our techno buddies have predicted won’t happen.”

He turned rather violently and grabbed Dax, “Get that ship out of here and survive!”

He pushed Dax toward the bridge exit, “GO! GO DAMN IT! GO!”

Dax ran through the ship until he got to the hanger. He found his fighter and jumped in and sped out of the ship. Behind him the Martian Fury accelerated into the fray. The orbital batteries fired and the Atlantis ships began their valiant march toward honorable defeat.

“Ajax, load that file and find us that hanger. Let’s not let them die in vain.”

“On it,” Ajax said.

The fighter sped towards The Hoop. In a few minutes they found the hanger and approached the aperture.

“Fighter number 7 you are in restricted airspace please divert now.”

“This is Shock Troop number 7 I’m under orders from Admiral Hale to get the Galactic North out of here.”

There was a long pause

“You’re cleared to land. And may I say it’s an honor to help carry out the Admiral’s last command.”

“What do you mean last command?”

“Don’t you know? The Admiral’s ship has been destroyed.”

A punch to the gut is what it felt like. The father figure in his life was gone.

“Roger that,” he said coldly.

He landed his fighter. He looked out the hanger and watched the battle rage on. Burning hulks fell into the atmosphere, burning and leaving scorch marks on the ground below as they impacted the planet. Others burned while others exploded, sending debris every which way.

A technician directed him to a landing pad. Before him stood a ship unlike any other he’d ever seen. It was sleek and white. Two wings extended out of it. There were no jagged edges on this ship. Two engines were located in the back of the ship. The technician pointed and left.

Dax boarded the ship. He listened to the door close behind him. He quickly found the bridge. It had two chairs in front of a control board. There was a row of windows that allowed for a nice view of space. The control board flashed on at his touch. A pair of control sticks extended out. A pad extended from the floor. Dax pulled a chip out of his TAC pad on his arm and slapped it into the pad.

“Roomy in here,” Ajax said.

“What can this ship do?”

“Let me fin- oh my god. The Admiral was right. This thing can change everything.”

“Alright, let me see here,” Dax said.

He activated the engines. The ship rose into the air. He retracted the landing gear.

“Would you like the controls in manual or automatic?” Ajax asked.

“Manual. I want to see what this thing can do.” He took hold of the sticks. Instantly the ship interfaced with his neural systems. He became the ship. He flashed the ships engines and rushed out of the hanger. He flew through space like a bird through the air. He watched as the Earth ships converged on The Hoop.

They fired their antimatter lances. The shots impacted the ring. The weakened part of the ring began to buckle under the orbital stresses. Pieces of the ring began to fall towards the planet.

Dax turned and started heading out of orbit.

“Activating shields,” he said. He pressed the control a hologram of the ships weapons and defensive systems appeared on his HUD.

He pushed the stick forward as the ship rocketed away from the planet. A shot shook the ship, bringing the shields down to 99% but leaving the ship undamaged. These were some strong shields. A voice came over the com.

“Unidentified craft, this is the G.E.E.S Retribution. Heave to and prepare to be boarded.”

“Like fuck,” Dax responded. He pushed the ship faster. His speed was approaching six Gs.

“Ajax, at what point do the inertial dampeners become ineffective?”

“Fifteen Gs.”

“Holy shit, we can go fast then, can’t we.”

“Oh yes,” Ajax smiled. Her avatar on the pad.

“Unidentified craft, you will reduce speed or be fired upon.”

“Catch me if you can cocksuckers!” he yelled back, “Ajax, what’s the FTL ratio for this ship?”

“One AU to every ten Parsecs,” she smiled, “We are one fast ship.”

“Prepare to jump,” he said, “G.E.E.S Retribution, you can kiss my ass cause I’m pushing seven Gs and your about to top out. I wish you a kind FUCK YOU and GO TO HELL.”

“Jump prep complete. Standing by to make the jump to warp space.”

“Jump!”

A special distortion began to form in front of the Galactic North. The ship’s Hawking Drive opened the worm hole and soon the ship was sucked inside and out of the system, gone and never to be seen again…

***

One Year After The Fall.

DJ Pon-3 had finally returned to her home club in Ponyville after a month on tour. She unlocked her house and sauntered up the stairs. She tossed her bag on the floor before walking out onto her balcony.

In spite of being one of the most popular DJs in the world she was unhappy. She was lonely. Every other guy she met just wanted to get into her pants; the other half only wanted access to her money. She sighed as stared at the night sky before her. It was a nice night. The constellations were visible and the moon shined bright.

She looked up and saw something that made her gasp. It was a shooting star! Princess Luna only made those once in a blue moon; and an actual blue moon only a few times every fifteen years. She stared at the falling star and made a wish.