After The Fall

One Year After The Fall.

The Fall is what they were calling it. The day when the A.C. is said to have had their final stand. After The Hoop collapsed down onto Colombia, what wasn’t turned to glass by the impact was destroyed the G.E.E.s Planet Killers. The fleet proceeded drop five heavy antimatter charges on the major cities. The planet was irradiated and would remain uninhabitable for thousands of years.

After the death of the last company of Omni Soldiers and the loss of Fleet Admiral Hale, the A.C. quickly fell. The A.C. valiantly destroyed all materials and A.I. and prototypes; making sure that the last hope for freedom would survive. The G.E.E ruled over the A.C. space with an iron fist. Their ships patrolled the once free space. Gangs, cartels, and other crime syndicates quickly popped up. The space was weak and fragmented. But one last ship still roamed the now lawless space of the old A.C. The game changer, the one ship that escaped The Fall. The last Shock Trooper, the last A.I., the best ship.

Dax jumped awake. He was in his quarters on the Galactic North. The ship had become his home. And a good home she was. An energy reactor beyond what even Ajax could comprehend powered the ship. Every system was hooked up to the reactor. Regenerative antiproton torpedo launchers, energy cannons, point defense systems, shields, the stealth technology, the replicator capable of building anything in the ship’s vast data base, the armory, a simulation room, a machine shop, a medical bay, a mess hall and even a port for Dax to recharge and repair his armor. Not that he needed to do that; the armor’s reactor could power the suit for 20 years consecutively.

The ship’s drive systems weren’t entirely unlocked. Ajax, after further investigation discovered the ship’s computer contained a map of the galaxy that using a complex math formula was always accurate. The drive and map allowed the ship to jump to any point in the galaxy, even into the unexplored space outside the Orion arm of the galaxy. The ship’s alloy contained a nanotechnology that allowed the ship to repair its self as long as the reactor was powered up. The rest of the technology was still beyond Dax’s and Ajax’s understanding, for now.

“Lights,” he said. The room lit up. He was sleeping in his bed next his one way window. The window was made of the same alloy as the rest of the ship yet it allowed for transparency. It was still beyond his comprehension but he didn’t care.

He reached onto the night stand and grabbed his pad. His room was a simple one; a bed, a desk, a nightstand, a dresser and closet. There was even a connection to the galactic internet. It kept him entertained when they were in the darkness of intersystem space. Boredom was something Ajax never suffered. When she had any free time she attempted to delve deeper into the ship’s data base. So far she found that an object of unknown origin was found on orbital object D9387X763. It had apparently crashed 300000 years ago. Atlantis scientists attempted to reverse engineer the technology but only succeeded in repairing it and unlocking a little of its secrets. But then, just as they were beginning to make progress, Colombia was turned to glass.

Dax pulled on a set of civilian clothes and walked to the galley.

“Ajax, any updates?” He asked. He did this on a daily basis but didn’t expect the answer he wanted to hear.

“No, not today. No signs of any organized rebellion, or anything resembling one. Just a few terrorist attacks in the last 18 hours,” her form appeared next to him and joined him on his walk.

“Any friendly ships detected?”

“Again, no.”

Dax entered the galley. He walked to the replicator. His morning tea and egg was waiting for him. He took the cup and took a sip before looking at his pad.

“Are there any signs of…of any surviving shock troops?” he asked hopefully.

“Again, no. I’m sorry Dax but you may have to accept that you’re the last. And not just the last of you company, the last one entirely. I hate to be so harsh with you but you need to be realistic here.”

He sighed, “I know Ajax.”

There was a silence for a long time as Dax drank his tea and ate his breakfast.

“Alright, what’s on the agenda for today?” he asked tossed the plate and cup into the recycler.

“Same as always, wake up, get materials for another safe house, build the safe house, stock it up, and move on.”

“Now that safe house 8 is complete, where can we get the necessary materials for the next?”

“Bolide station is only a few light years away. And since this ship’s computer somehow omnipotently updates information on everything in human explored space, the computer says that the station is relatively friendly. We could acquire the metals and raw materials we need there,” Ajax finished.

“Good, the more places to hid we have, the better.”

“Another thing, since currency in that part of space is basically moot, we’ll have to trade. We can trade some more plasma coils, we don’t even need those, some ditrenzite monoacetate, some hextainium alloy, and some tritium.”

“Hmm, let’s get rid of some of those plasma coils if we can, the ditrenzite I think we need. I think we need to get rid of that tritium. I don’t want to risk that coming into contact with the air any longer than we have to. And I absolutely don’t want to have to clean up any radioactive water if it does.”

“You remembering when Malcolm lost all his hair when he ‘accidently’ broke a container of that stuff?”

“Yeah, it kinda sucks when you get tritiated water on your skin.”

The shared a rare laugh before setting course for Bolide station.

***

Vinyl Scratch woke up. She groggily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. He raised her arm up, the patterns on her hands glowed as her trademark glasses flew off her desk and into her hands.

She pulled on a tank top and some cargo pants with her cutie mark on them before trudging down into her kitchen.

“Uh, I don’t feel like cooking today,” she said. She pulled on her shades and walked out her house. She pulled out her phone and checked the time; 9:00. Good. Still enough time for breakfast.

She walked down the streets of Ponyville. People were going about their daily business. Pinkie Pie decided it would be another great time to break the laws of physics as she popped out of a chimney, smiling before jumping back down and popping out of a hole in a nearby tree.

Vinyl giggled as she waved to her friend. Surprisingly, Twilight decided not to continue any Pinkie related research into how she defied all logic and understanding.

She approached a café. She sat down at one of the outdoor tables that offered a nice view of the promenade. She ordered a muffin and coffee.

Her friend Twilight Sparkle approached.

“Hi, Vinyl,” She smiled warmly, “Mind if I join you?”

“No, go ahead,” she said, “So did you see the shooting star last night?”

“What? There was a shooting star last night? I must’ve missed it.”

“Yup, it was particularly vibrant.”

“So, did you make a wish?” Twilight asked eagerly.

“Uh, I…uh…”

“Yeah, you did. I can see it on your face. What’d ya wish for?”

“Uh, I’m feeling lonely right now and I haven’t been having much luck with relationships. I can’t really find a guy who, you know, likes me for me or a guy I like for him being him. So, I wished not to be lonely anymore.”

They paused as the muffin and coffee arrived. The waiter asked Twi if she wanted anything but she declined.

“So,” Vinyl said as she took a sip from the cup, “Do you think it will come true?”

“Of course it will,” Twilight said, “That’s the magic of shooting stars. If you make a wish on one, it’s bound to come true. You were lucky that you happened to see the first one this year. Princess Luna doesn’t make them very often.”

“I guess you’re right. Speaking of which, has Spike gotten the courage to confess to Rarity yet?”

“Nope, he’s so nervous that he’s been grinding his arms against side of the tree without knowing. It’s kinda funny. There’s one part of the bark that’s smoother than silk.”

“I’d like to see that,” Vinyl laughed, “Have his wings developed yet?”

“Not yet. Princess Celestia says that they won’t show up until he’s reached adolescence.”

“Hmm, I’m so glad I’m finally off tour for now. I hate those hectic schedules.”

“You’re telling me? You should see AJ during Apple harvesting season.”

“You referring to that time when she got like three hours of sleep a night just so she could harvest all those apple trees herself?”

“Yeah,” Twilight giggled, “She was so stubborn that week. She wouldn’t accept any help.”

“I remember that. I saw Rainbow Dash flying across the sky that Tuesday.”

They laughed as they remembered the Rainbow haired pegasus girl shooting across the sky like a cannon ball.

***

Bolide station was huge. But then again, most orbital docks were. It was a huge almost mushroom looking structure with smaller bubbles and buildings popping out of the top and bottom. A large spire rose out of the top. There was an opening in the mushroom to allow for larger craft to dock with the station.

Dax brought the Galactic North closer to the behemoth.

“Thank god that this thing came with a false transponder generator,” Ajax said, “For this mission, we’re officially the ore trader Work Horse, looking to sell some tritium and plasma coils. That should work.”

“Hopefully we don’t run into any Earth patrol ships like last time,” Dax said.

A gruff voice flooded into the cabin, “Ore hauler Work Horse you will proceed to dock 492.”

“Thank you kindly, Sir,” Dax said, doing his best impression of a southern drawl.

He brought the ship into the hanger of the station. It was an open, arching area. Lights and advertisements flashed, there were all sorts of areas for one to park his/her ship. There were landing pads for smaller craft, huge piers with docking arms for the larger ship.

The Galactic North’s computer guided them to their assigned dock. They landed the ship on the large platform. Dax grabbed his pad and loaded Ajax onto it. He walked out of his new home and into the station’s atmosphere.

The station had a musky, oily smell mixed with fumes from engines and burnt metal. In this industrial environment, the sleek, shiny form of the Galactic North seemed out of place.

Dax walked up to a terminal and loaded the station’s map onto his pad. He searched for metal merchants among the chaos of the station. He quickly found what he was looking for and walked out of the shipyard.

The interior of the station was cleaner than the yard, but not by much. Shops and stores lined the interior promenade. People going about their daily business in the hustle and bustle of station life. After the fall, many chose the lawlessness of space over the tyranny of planet life.

Dax paused to take in his surroundings. A hardware store selling all sorts of things needed for life in space. A grocery store selling foods designed to last long in the vastness of the vacuum. There were even stores selling small transports and shuttles. No one was paying much attention to the escape pods. It was a taboo in the space industry to purchase any escape pods that didn’t already come with the ship. It was supposed to be bad luck.

He continued to watch. Teens running around with their friends, most likely getting into all sorts of mischief. He watched a boy and his friend rant on about the tyranny of Earth and the once greatness of the A.C. to the girls next to him. They were happy to watch them boast. The tradition of wooing women and women choosing who got to woo them was one of the few constants in space. He looked further down the promenade. A girl with a mischievous look dragged her boyfriend out of sight and into an alley.

Dax continued on until he found the metals shop. He walked in and headed to the customer service desk.

“Hello, how may I help you today?” a woman who looked too clean for her current environment said.

“Hi,” Dax said, “Do you sell tritainum alloy here?”

“Yes we do. What do you have to trade?”

Dax held up his pad. A holographic list popped up.

“I have twelve hundred liters of tritium and twenty plasma coils. The coils are in reasonably good condition and-”

A muffled boom came into the door of the shop. The floor shock and gravity momentarily fluctuated. Alarms sounded. Dax pulled his pad and Ajax back into his pocket in one fast motion. He had seen this before. He jumped and headed for the door, he rolled out of the shop just as the blast door closed behind him with a thud.

“Ajax, what’s happening?!” he yelled. Pieces of the ceiling had fallen; people were running and screaming in a craze. Far down the street, smoke billowed in from the ship yard. Another boom shook the station. Again gravity cut. Debris floated up and fires began to spread faster. Gravity returned and metal and fire all returned to the ground.

“I don’t have a lot of information right now. The most I can tell you is the obvious,” Ajax’s British accent flowed into his ear piece.

“Come on, we’re out of here.” Dax ran down the promenade toward the shipyard. Dax emerged in docks. The yard was burning. Two ships were severally damaged and burning in their berths. Dax activated his integrated HUD. He zoomed in one of the ships. It was an Earth battle cruiser. From the looks of it, someone had flown a small craft loaded with explosives right next to the hull and remotely detonated it. The other looked like it had a similar problem.

Smoke billowed from the hulks. Pieces of flaming debris had set fires in the yard. Another explosion rocked one of the cruisers; presumably a weapon emplacement. Pieces of the battery and undetonated shells sailed across the yard, impacting a heavy cargo vessel, ripping a hole in its hull.

“This looks like another terrorist attack,” Ajax said, “I wasn’t even aware that there were Earth ships on station.”

“Yeah, let’s not wait to find out if there are any more.”

He ran back towards the Galactic North. The gangplank descended and Dax ran back onto the ship. He bounded onto the bridge with gangplank closing behind him. He powered up the ship’s engines and lifted off the landing pad.

Other ships were doing the same. Dax slapped Ajax back into the ship’s computer and took control of the sticks. The interface activated as he brought the ship out of the station. Other craft were close behind him.

Outside was a small battle group. Two cruisers and a destroyer. A voice came over the com.

“All craft, this station is under lockdown by order of the Galactic Earth Empire. You will return to your berths and await further instruction.”

Three small gas haulers obviously didn’t get the message and accelerated. The destroyer fired a missile. The antimatter rocket impacted a gas hauler, turning it into a small sun. The other two jumped before the destroyer could get another lock.

Dax accelerated the ship away from the station. He was approaching the six G mark where all other ships had to top out before their inertial dampeners failed and acceleration forces killed the ship’s occupants.

“Work Horse, you will reduce speed or be fired upon.”

“Like fuck,” Dax responded. I should paint that on the stern later, he thought. He seemed to say that whenever a G.E.E ship ordered him to do something.

One of the cruisers broke formation and accelerated after him, like a shark chasing its prey.

An antimatter lance hit the shields of the ship. The North paid no heed and continued on.

“I love this ship,” Dax said, “Ajax; prepare to jump to emergency coordinates Alpha 7.”

“On it.”

“Work Horse you will reduce speed or be fired upon again.”

“Yeah? Your threats mean nothing unless you have something a little bigger in your magazine.”

The cruiser fired again. Again the shots did nothing. The cruiser opened up with all it had. Point defense cannons, antimatter lances, plasma cannons, and even chemical lasers.

“Alright, I’ve had enough of this. Ajax, activate weapons. Target their laser arrays and fire a spread of torpedoes.”

“Weapons online, target locked, firing torpedoes,” Ajax said. The rear screen showed three blue shots arcing across the darkness. The torpedoes phased through the ship’s shields and impacted the arrays. Blue explosions rocked the warship. The lasers cut off and the point defense fire thinned.

“Jump prep complete. Standing by to jump,” Ajax said.

“Get us out of here Ajax.”

Forces in the Hawking drive activated. Spatial distortions began to form. The worm hole opened and the Galactic North jumped out of existence.

***

“Vinyl.”

“Vinyl wake up.”

“Vinyl!”

Vinyl Scratched jump awake. She had fallen asleep listening to her music in a tree. She looked down. Octavia stood tapping her foot beneath the tree.

“Oh, hi Tavi,” Vinyl said.

“Nice to see you to, Scratchy,” Octavia said. She sat down at the park bench under the tree.

Vinyl jumped down and took a seat next to her longtime friend.

“You called?” Octavia said.

“Yeah. Thanks for coming. I wanna talk to you about something.”

“Fire away.”

“I talked to Twilight about this but I wanted to hear your opinion. I’m having relationship problems and well… I wanna know how you’ve had so much luck with them.”

“Well… that’s a tough one. Well when Noteworthy and I met I wasn’t looking for anything special. He was at the Equestrian Orchestra’s Winter Recital playing the piano. I was a cello player in the strings group but after I saw his playing I wanted to know him. I was fascinated with his playing. We quickly became friends. I would listen to his playing and he would watch me play the cello. We ended up practicing together. Then…uh…I guess… I don’t really know what happened. It was spontaneous I guess.”

“Well… I wish I had your luck. All the guys I meet only want one of two things or both.”

“Well, be patient Vinyl. Something like that won’t take forever. You’ll eventually meet someone.”

“Yeah, some guy is just gonna fall out of the sky,” Vinyl said sarcastically.

“Hey! You never know. Some nice pegasus boy might hurt himself and crash onto your balcony,” Octavia giggled.

“I can guarantee that will not happen. The only reason some guy will fall out the sky is if Rainbow Dash says yes to one. It wouldn’t be that he hurt himself, it would be he had a heart attack and lost control.”

“Well, I have a rehearsal to get to. Sorry to cut this short Vinyl but as they say in the Wonderbolts, ‘Duty Calls.’”

“Thanks for the talk, Tavi. I’ll see ya later.”

They got up and went their separate ways. Octavia to the concert hall and Vinyl to her recording studio.

As she walked down the street, Vinyl failed to notice the man in the black trench coat taking notes in a little black notebook.

***

Nebula 12B-222 is what its official registry was. Slang terms were ‘The Devil’s Nebula’ and ‘The Black Cloud.’

No one ever entered the cloud. All those who did never came back out. Those who did were found to be dead with serious damage to their ships. No one had gotten within one light year of the nebula. Not even the G.E.E ventured here, making it the perfect hiding place.

Space ripped open and the Galactic North reentered normal space. Dax switched the ship to auto pilot and deactivated the neural interface. He sat back in his chair and looked at the swirling mass of clouds before him. It looked almost like the storms of Jupiter and Saturn with more vibrant blues and reds mixed in. Everyone said the friendly colors were used to lure ships to their deaths.

“Well that was mildly unpleasant,” Ajax said, “Last time it was a battleship.”

“Yeah, that sucked. That antimatter beam was particularly nasty.”

They both stared at the swirling clouds.

“Hey Ajax, this ship’s sensors are more advanced than anything the rest of the galaxy has. Can they scan into that soup?”

“Hmm. Let me check,” She said. She paused, her avatar holding her temples, “Yes! Yes we can. We can actually see what’s inside ‘The Devil’s Nebula’. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Well what are you waiting for? Let’s see what that cloud hides.”

The sensors began to scan. A map of the nebula began to take shape. Soon the 3d representation was complete.

“Well what’s been killing every ship that’s gone in there?”

“Well it looks like an extremely thick asteroid field lies hidden behind those clouds. There are also some electromagnetic anomalies that I can’t identify. That combination could kill any ship; accept ours of course. The EM anomalies most likely kill power and the asteroids kill the ships.”

A beep on the console got their attention. Ajax examined the new sensor data.

“I don’t believe it,” she gasped.

“What?”

“That shouldn’t even be possible.”

“What shouldn’t be possible?”

“The nebula is hollow on the inside. There’s an area about one light year across inside where there is no gas or any asteroids or EM activity. But there is something else inside that absolutely baffles me.”

“What already?”

“There is an H class planet in the center of the nebula.”

“H class? How is there a habitable planet in that?” Dax said pointing at the cloud.

“I don’t know, but the sensors say there’s a habitable planet in there and, if I’m not mistaken, life.”

“There’s life on that planet?”

“Unless I have glitch then yes.”

Dax sat in his chair for the longest time. A habitable planet inside a nebula no one returned from alive. An opportunity to explore a new world. To boldly go where no one has gone before. The opportunity was here and he was going to take it.

“Let’s see what’s in there, shall we?”

“What?”

“Why not? It’s an opportunity to go somewhere no one has ever been before. I always wanted to have an opportunity to explore like this since I was a small child. Even before I was a Shock Trooper. Let’s do it, at the very least for setting up another safe house.”

“Alright,” Ajax said a hint of reluctance and adventure in her voice, “Stand by to jump.”

The ship jumped again. It only lasted a few seconds before the ship emerged in orbit of the new world.

“Report,” Dax said in his best impression of a certain famous captain.

“I don’t believe my sensors,” Ajax said.

Dax stood up to see what she was looking at. Instead of a planet orbiting a star it was the other way around. A small ball of flaming gas was in a high orbit above the planet. On the other end was a small moon.

“How is this possible? Are there any other cases even remotely similar to this?”

“No, none at all. As far as I know, this is the first time anyone has seen a star system of this configuration.”

Dax stared into the darkness beyond the planet. Small pinpricks of light were visible. They resembled stars.

“Ajax, what are those?”

“Let’s see here,” she said, “uh, my best guess would be that they are micro neutron stars. That’s the closest I can come up with for what they are.”

“Scan the surface; is there any sentient life down there?”

Again, more waiting. Soon the console beeped again. A series of forms appeared floating above the console.

Ajax and Dax gasped.

The life forms were humans. Or nearly human. One had wings, another had strange marks on its hands, the other looked normal accept that the sensor data on it said its density was higher than the others. There were more still, others had bull horns, others had dragon wings and sharp teeth, there were all sorts of strange human looking variants. All were sentient.

“These are the races that live here?” Dax finally gasped.

“Uh… um… yes. This is the computer’s extrapolation of what a general looking member of each species would look like.”

“Why isn’t any of the hair colored? Is that just a part of the race?”

“No. The hair colors range so much that the computer defaulted to white.”

“Hmm.”

Another beep.

“You should also know that they have a universal language. You may wanna sit down for this one.”

Dax took his seat.

“It’s ours. They speak perfect English.”

Dax gasped, “Meaning, we can communicate with them?”

“Yes surprisingly.”

“What’s the geographical information on their civilization?”

“From the looks of it,” Ajax pulled a map up of the eastern hemisphere of the planet, “They are all concentrated on this side of the planet. For some odd reason, the western half of their world remains unexplored.”

“What are the power distributions? What nation is the most powerful?”

“Well, from what we can glean they are an extremely peaceful and trusting planet. But the main ‘power’ if you will is a nation located here,” the borders began to appear. Ajax pointed at a nation on a continent that stretched over both the northern and southern hemispheres. The nation bordered the ocean and had many cities and towns.

“They call it, Equestria.”