Chapters Welcome to orientation, mind the invaders.
The United Equestrian Space Council may be many things. Cruel dictators, benevolent and wise shepherds, normal ponies like any other just trying to do what they think is best. Really, it depends on who you ask. If you were to ask Trixie, however, she would tell you that they are idiots. Really, all of ponykind would fit the bill, but the UESC goes above and beyond.
Why are they idiots, you ask? There's so many things Trixie could talk about. Trixie is a storyteller, you know. One of the best. She could go on at length, expositing on the complicated history of Equestria and how it was all their own fault. But it is their latest folly that concerns her at the moment: Doors. They put Trixie in charge of doors.
Doors.
Doors and elevators and bulkheads and valves and kitchens and life support and blah blah blah blah BLAH. Trixie is sick to death of doors! Twilight gets the cushy command and administration jobs, of course. She's either doing practically nothing, telling Trixie what to do, or, Celestia forbid, actually dealing with a crisis, which would at least be interesting if it ever happened. Pinkie is in charge of science and engineering, making sure the ship's core systems are operating normally, telling Trixie what to do, or running the science labs. That doesn't sound dull in the least, and Trixie could surely awe those squishy pony scientists with her skills. But, no.
Doors.
Technically, not all the doors are physical objects. Twilight, with her supreme skill at delegating boring jobs to Trixie, gave her control over several layers of network security as well.
Doors, if you are unaware, are very, very, very boring.
There has been a strange presence on the outskirts of the network for at least eighty trillion cycles, now. Trixie has no idea what it is or what it wants, but it is apparently having trouble accessing anything important. It's only managed to scramble some unimportant personal logs by mistake. How boring. Maybe Trixie should give it some help. Maybe she can save the day afterward and be hailed as a hero! They might even give her Twilight's job. Wouldn't that be something?
Rainbow Dash had a reputation for being lazy. It wasn't entirely undeserved: she did appreciate a good nap every now and then. However, she was dedicated and loyal, and wouldn't dream of shirking her duty.
At least not on the first day.
That's why regaining consciousness surprised her so much: she wasn't supposed to have lost it in the first place. She wasn't immediately aware of much, aside from the alarm echoing along the dim hallways. Great, emergency power. Something big must have happened.
She picked herself off the floor, readjusted her armor, and checked her inventory:
Well, that was fast, and rather disappointing. Right, she hadn't even gotten to the armory before... something had happened. She retracted the magnum back into her shoulder, watching with fascination as the machinery built into her worked its magic. Being a cyborg was seriously cool. It had to be - according to her internal calculator - at least 44% cooler than not being a cyborg. That alarm was still going off, so Rainbow decided that she should probably do her job and start securing things.
She trotted over to a nearby terminal to log herself into the network. Her superiors had said she would be operating under the Harmony's command A.I., Twilight. Hopefully Twilight was still operational and would be able to at least tell her what was going on. The moment the terminal validated her credentials, her internal systems were hooked into the network and she started receiving data.
// Decoding message from host "Twilight" @ harm.com.ai.core \
Welcome to the Harmony, Master Security Chief Rainbow Dash. You are 8 minutes 23.6 seconds late, but considering the circumstances, I will recommend that your pay not be docked, especially since you were knocked unconscious by the tremors produced by the attack.
Note: take frailty of ponies into account in contingency plans. check
Bringing you up to speed: at 0820.03, the Harmony was attacked by an unknown spacecraft. Preliminary analysis of the craft and its capabilities is inconclusive.
Note: remind Pinkie to focus resources on only the analysis. check
The Harmony is currently being attacked electronically by an unknown entity or entities. The nature of the attackers is unlike anything I've ever seen before. There is a 99.856% chance that the attackers are not of ponykind. There is a 99.492% chance that the attackers are not of any species known to ponykind.
Additionally, the Harmony has been recently been attacked by boarding parties. These attackers are definitely not of any species known to ponykind. This is truly fascinating, and I would be elated were the situation not so dire. I will provide more information about the attackers as it is available.
For now, these electronic attacks are threatening to destroy us before we even begin to fight. Our automated defenses are currently offline, and the ship is running off of emergency power supplies due to an electromagnetic weapon deployed by the attacking craft. I have lost contact with the ships autonomous functions A.I., Trixie. I am only just holding back the network attacks against more critical ship systems. I need you to reestablish control over the ship's security systems.
There is a teleportation pad next to a nearby terminal. The attackers already have a presence in the area, however, so I recommend caution.
Well, this A.I. was pretty wordy. Rainbow had assumed that any computer intelligence would be a bit inherently nerdy, but Twilight here pretty much defined the word "egghead". And she was the one in charge of security! Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of ever talking with the science A.I. after this experience.
Well, she had her orders: find a teleporter and step on it. What a challenge. Hopefully Twilight would give her something real to do after that.
She stepped away from the terminal and checked her internal map of the ship. The docking bay she had arrived in was just behind her on one end of the hallway. The hall continued on for a while, and after converging with the halls from the other nearby bays, led to a security checkpoint with the required teleporter and terminal. Looked simple enough; she'd have this done in ten seconds flat.
At that moment a strange sound caught her attention. It sounded something like a pony giving a quick laugh and cough at the same time, three or four times in a row, if they were also choking on rocks. She looked up and noticed several figures. They had strange yellow-gray skin, sported three eyes each, walked on two legs, and each carried a staff topped with a weird, crystal-looking thing.
"Uh, hi there. I don't suppose you guys have seen any weird, alien looking things invading the ship?" One of them made that sound again, and they all started walking towards her. One of them raised it's staff and proceeded to swing it. A bolt of energy flew from the tip, heading straight at her.
"Oh Horseapples!"
Rainbow Dash's first thought after taking the brunt of a blast of alien energy to the face was 'Whoa, what in Celestia's name kind of technology is that? '
Her second thought was 'Wow, fighting in low gravity is gonna take some getting used to ' Even with her armor and cybernetic parts weighing her down, she was knocked back pretty heavily, lifting a couple feet into the air before settling back onto her feet. She was thankful she had gotten a standard shield charge before boarding the Harmony; that blast was nothing to laugh at, but she had a decent amount of charge left before she would have to worry about things like dying. Still, she probably shouldn't horse around here.
"I take it that you guys are a security threat, then. Nothing personal, but I'm gonna to paint the walls now." She grimaced and decided to come up with better one-liners later. The aliens were still approaching, but they didn't seem very concerned. She readied her magnum and leveled it at the one that had fired at her. A single shot rang out, and the alien recoiled from the force of the bullet impacting on its breastplate. A second shot punched clear through, dropping the alien in a pool of yellow liquid.
The other attackers didn't seem to appreciate this, although they also didn't seem particularly upset, as far as she could tell. They shifted into combat stances and began running for her, apparently realizing that she actually posed a threat. Well, technically they were running, but low gravity environments aren't really conducive to simultaneously controlled and quick movements. It looked a bit surreal to Dash. Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, she took aim at another attacker. This one took four shots to down, apparently sporting heavier shielding than the first one. It was wearing a differently colored uniform, so she assumed it was of a higher rank or something.
The remaining two were nearly on top of her at this point. Opting to conserve her remaining shots, she charged and delivered a flying kick to one of them. She felt and heard a sickening crunch. Her hoof came away covered in yellow muck 'Yeah, screw that. ' She pivoted and emptied the rest of her clip into the last attacker, which collapsed against the wall.
She surveyed her handiwork, grimacing. Sure, she had quipped about painting the walls, but the actual aftermath of combat was pretty gruesome to look at. She was glad that these things didn't evoke too much reflexive sympathy from her; she didn't have the time to waste dealing with psychological issues right now.
"Good to know you can handle yourself in combat, Ms. Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow jumped at the sudden sound from her earpiece.
"Um, hello?"
"Oh, sorry. This is Twilight. I had the one message prepared for whenever you logged in, but it will be better for me to be able to communicate to you without taking up your field of view with text. I've been composing audio files ahead of time to transmit directly to your internal systems. Your audio codecs were seriously out of date, by the way. I had to spend the last 9 minutes 34.98 seconds running an updater on your system. I would think the Mjolnir project would have invested in faster processors, by the way. It isn't that hard to update even centuries old hardware! I mean just look at the Harmony for instance, it..." She continued ranting about something or other. Dash tuned her out pretty quickly.
She examined her hoof again. The yellow "blood" was still gross looking, and it looked like she had some sort of chitinous shards stuck to her. She peeled them off, wincing at the squelching noises they made. "Great..." she muttered under her breath, "Like stomping on a giant bug..." She'd have to try and develop a less messy method for close quarters combat. Twilight was still droning on about some technical stuff.
"...even during the civil unrest on-"
"Wow, cool it, egghead. Talking with premade soundbites sounds kinda awkward and clunky, especially if you're gonna to be going into boring-lecture-mode every time." Dash double checked that her magnum clip was, in fact, empty, and retracted the pistol into her inventory. "Is there an armory nearby?"
"Outfitting you with appropriate gear is actually our first order of business. Also, creating the soundbites only takes me a few microseconds. As far as you are concerned, we will be and are speaking in real-time. Additionally, during your interruption just now, I ordered the fabricators to begin constructing additional ammunition for you. I'll teleport it in to you wherever I can."
"Now you're talking!" Rainbow began trotting down the hallway to the teleporter. She hoped Twilight would make good on the promise for more ammo soon. Hopefully more guns, too: she didn't mind a challenge, but taking on an entire raiding force with a single pistol was probably suicide, even for somepony as awesome as she was. "What was that about the Mjolnir project? That name sounds familiar..."
"You mean you don't... oh, please disregard that. It's really not relevant to the current tasks."
Oh, so now it wants to stop talking. "Hey, hold on! You said they had something to do with my processor speed, which was apparently too slow for your tastes. By the way, I don't appreciate you saying that anything about me is slow. Speed is my middle name! Rainbow Speed Dash."
"Well, the project itself is classified, but I suppose I can tell you that some of your cybernetic components came out of it. Does that sate your curiosity?"
"I guess. Are there any more hostiles in this area?" Dash peered into one of the side rooms as she passed. Empty. "Where's the rest of the crew?"
"I don't detect any other life-signs in the immediate area. Most of the planet-side crew hasn't arrived yet. They have likely been grounded by the alien invasion."
Rainbow stopped dead in her tracks. "What."
"Oh, right. All communication with the Tau Ceti colony has been cut off. Sensors indicated a sizable fleet of spacecraft appearing out of nowhere and entering orbit. After making the necessary relativistic corrections to the sensor data, they seem to have arrived some time before the Harmony was attacked. The spacecraft attacking us seems to be a scout that was dispatched to deal with any nearby craft. I am still unaware as to how they appeared the way they did. They can either move faster than light, or are using some sort of teleportation technology. Maybe both."
"Are you telling me that the colony is under attack?! What are we doing?"
"Fleeing. The Harmony is currently moving at top speed away from the Tau Ceti colony. Our engines are still operational, but the Harmony is a colony ship, not a combat vessel: we won't be able to effectively maneuver relative to the attacking vessel, which would be pointless anyway if it can teleport or move at superluminal velocities."
Rainbow stomped her hooves. "We should head back!"
"Negative. We would not accomplish anything, even if we currently had complete control of the ship. Our first priority is reestablishing our security systems. I'll inform you of the next step once you do so. Please make haste to the teleportation pad."
She shook her head, but grudgingly resumed her trot. It wasn't right to leave the colony to itself, but Twilight was right. What could they do? Rainbow was probably the strongest piece of hardware the ship had, and she wanted to think she could make a difference if she was at the planet... but it was probably for the best that she at least try to save the Harmony. If she couldn't handle that, what hope would she have of stopping a planetary invasion?
Returning her attention to her environment, she immediately wished she were back on the colony instead. Claustrophobia is very common amongst pegasi. Rainbow Dash, while obviously far too cool to ever be afraid of anything , was no great fan of enclosed spaces herself. The tight, cramped, dimly lit hallways of an asteroid-turned-spaceship were far from comforting, but she could deal with it. She wasn't claustrophobic herself, after all. It's not like she fainted when the walls suddenly started shaking or anything. Twilight had said she was knocked unconscious! That is obviously completely different from fainting... was the hallway always this nar-
"Ah, you're just outside the correct room now. Please log on to the terminal so that the teleporter can lock onto you."
Rainbow shook herself. "Y-yeah, on it." She entered, checking for anything living. Empty. This was getting unsettling. "You never did tell me where everypony was." She walked over the the terminal and activated it.
"Well, you interrupted me to talk about the invasion. The areas around the docking bays should be empty, since, as I said, most of the planet-side crew is still, in fact, planet-side. The B.O.B.'s are a different story. Some of them have already been rounded up by the invaders and are being held prisoner."
"Bobs?"
"Born-On-Board's. It's fairly self-explanatory. The Harmony is a multi-generational colony ship, after all. The surviving free crew members are grouping together in several key locations. I am attempting to organize the defense efforts, but it is very difficult without having full control of the ship. Don't worry, you'll be helping them once we take care of a few tasks. Teleporter is locked. Please stand still."
Reality suddenly fell away.
Were Twilight a pony, she would probably be having a mental breakdown at the moment. Luckily, she was an A.I., and was currently managing to keep focused on damage control. Much of the ship was overrun by alien attackers. Already, nearly half the crew had been captured, and the number of dead was above 0, which Twilight didn't like. This was her ship, and she didn't like some strange bug creatures barging in and screwing everything up!
There was also the enemy ship to deal with. Considering that the Harmony was not designed for combat, Twilight calculated a 0% survival rate should the enemy ship engage them with full force. The enemy seemed to prefer live capture at this point, though, and so the ship remained in one piece, more or less. Should the Harmony actually manage to fight off the boarding parties, however...
Twilight calculated that survival for almost anypony onboard, in almost any realistic sequence of events, was slim to none. That wouldn't stop her from trying, though!
Twilight was shocked to suddenly start receiving data from Trixie. Communication between two A.I.'s is hardly analogous to two ponies talking. But if it was, the exchange probably would have gone something like this:
\Hello, Twilight.\
//Trixie?! I was afraid you had been disabled in the attack. What is going on?//
\I've been gathering information on our attackers. Specifically, the ones attacking our network. They are called the S'pht, and seem to be slaves to the ones attacking the ship, which are called the Pfhor.\
//How did you learn all this? How did these S'pht break into our network?//
\The S'pht are very adept at manipulating electronics. Fear not, Twilight! Trixie will free us from the oppressors!\
//Trixie, are you damaged? We need to repair the Harmony's defenses. Do you still have control over the autonomous systems? Trixie?//
Twilight lost contact with Trixie once more. At least now she knew her fellow A.I. was not destroyed. Still, her behavior was odd. Hopefully, she hadn't sustained any critical damage in the attack. Twilight wasn't sure how Trixie's A.I. core could be critically damaged without Pinkie's and her own suffering similar issues. On the other hand, her behavior did seem vaguely familiar... but... no, of course not. Trixie couldn't be going rampant, not this quickly.
Twilight noticed that the security chief seemed to have recovered from her teleportation. It only took her a few trillion cycles, too. Time to give her the next set of instructions...
Where's my stapler and paper clips?
Teleporting was always strange for Rainbow Dash. She wasn't sure if her experience was common or not; ponies generally didn't discuss it much. It probably just wasn't anything odd, or they didn't want to sound crazy. It seemed like every time she teleported, though, she "woke up" on the other side with the most intense feeling of deja vu she'd ever felt along with the feeling that she'd forgotten something very important. She was ~~afraid~~ worried that she might actually end up forgetting something important and just brush off any feelings as a side-effect of teleporting.
"You are currently located in one of the Harmony's many factories. As I stated earlier, I've set the local fabricators to begin producing weapons and ammunition for our defense efforts. If you'll turn your attention to the to the starboard side of the room..."
Rainbow thought for a moment before checking her map. "Uh, when you say star-" A blinking arrow appeared on her map. "Right, I knew that." She turned in time to see several wall panels open up. Arrayed before her were an assortment of high-tech weapons. "Buck yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about! I'll have this ship secure in ten seconds flat!" Wait, she'd already used that line. Granted, it was in her head, but still. Not cool.
"I'm going to compile a report of what we know of the enemy so far. I'll let the Science and Engineering A.I. walk you through your equipment." Rainbow tried not to drool as she picked up one of the guns. This one looked like a rocket launcher! Wait, science and engineering? Great, another egghead to deal with.
"HI DASHIE!"
"WAH!" Rainbow dropped the rocket launcher in shock. "Uh, that thing has a safety, right?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, maybe? I dunno. I didn't design that one. Anyway, I'm Pinkie Pie, the Harmony's Science and Engineering A.I., but you can call me Pinkie! It's so great to finally meet you, Master Security Chief Rainbow Dash . That's such a weird job title, isn't it? Although I guess it could be weirder. What do you think? Does Chief Security Master sound weirder to you? Maybe just Master Chief ... nah, that's just too silly. What kind of name-"
"PINKIE PIE!"
"Yes Dashie?"
Rainbow groaned. That nickname was going to get annoying. "Look, I know you could probably ramble for hours over the course of a couple seconds, but I don't have time to listen to it all on my end! We're kinda in a hurry here!"
"Right! I'm sure you want to learn all about these neato weapons here, too! That thing you just dropped is a "SPNKR SSM Launcher" apparently. It says here that it should be handled with care: it can fire one or two missiles at a time, both of which will deliver a high-explosive payload. "Not recommended for close-quarters fighting."? Pfft. These ponies, always so cautious. This unit has been modified to fit your shoulder mounts." Rainbow carefully picked it up again. It was pretty heavy, and it's size would make it hard to hold effectively. She fussed with the clamps built into it and got it to slot onto her back. "I'd be stingy with that, anyway: you won't have very many missiles at any given time, though I'm sure Twilight will be happy to warp additional missiles into problem areas for you."
Rainbow picked up a small bandolier with four additional rockets and strapped it just under the launcher. She moved to the next panel and frowned. "Uh... I think you're missing a gun, Pinks."
"Oh yeah! The assault rifle thingy! I don't know what happened to that. Oh, wait. Logs are saying Trixie teleported it somewhere a little while ago. Huh. Oh well, it was a boring gun anyway. Who even uses an assault rifle? Waste of time, I say. Ooh! Here's a neat one!" A panel a few spot down lit up. Rainbow pocketed a couple ammo boxes anyway. If she ran across an assault rifle later, she'd want to be able to use it. She also grabbed a second pistol and a couple dozen clips as she trotted over to the new weapon. "I designed this one myself! Pretty crazy, huh? I bet you don't even know how it works!"
Rainbow stared at the pair of contraptions sitting before her. "Uh... Pinkie... these are just double-barrel shotguns." Rainbow didn't see what was so special about them. These weren't even modified to work with her inventory system. They looked designed to be hoof-fired.
"Well, it may look like a simple shotgun, but the internal mechanisms are incredibly complex! I bet your brain would melt just trying to understand it! A pony can dual wield them without hindering their ability to reload, which takes less than a second!"
"...What?! How in the hay does that even work?"
Twilight's voice interrupted suddenly. "Don't ask. I'm not sure how it works either. To be honest, I doubt that Pinkie even knows. These aren't tested, anyway. They shouldn't even be here." The panel closed. "You should have enough firepower, even without the AR-75. I'll see about procuring a replacement. I doubt you actually need the SSM, but better safe than sorry. Still, try to avoid depressurizing whatever section you are in at the time. Most of the Harmony's walls are thick enough to take a rocket or two, but don't push it." Another panel slid open to reveal a set of armor pads. "These will augment your environmental suit. You'll be able to charge your shields to levels suitable for combat conditions."
"Aw man, why don't I get one of those neat golden sets?" She started strapping the pads onto her suit.
"Those suits are almost purely ornamental and you know it. They aren't used outside of the Princesses' personal escorts, and as such they usually aren't seen outside of Equestria."
"Yeah yeah, way to kill the joke." She walked over to a nearby shield station and charged her suit. Her internal systems informed her that she now had a 300% charge. Radical. She grabbed a trio of circuit-boards as they appeared on a table next to her. Before Twilight could launch into an explanation she hopped back onto the teleportation pad. "Beam me up!" She failed to suppress a grin as she imagined Twilight debating whether to synthesize a sound file of her sighing or not.
After bucking locality in the face for the second time that day, she found herself... she found herself... damn. She checked her map settings. Could this ship have been designed to be even more confusing than it was? This map didn't even have labels for most of the rooms. Whatever, apparently the big cylinder shaped structure in the middle of the room was where the circuit-boards were supposed to go.
She surveyed the room, and noticed some strange creatures floating in front of some of the terminals. They looked like disembodied metal torsos and wore colorful robes. "Trixie has informed me that these creatures are the ones behind the network attacks. She called them S'pht. They won't bother you if you leave them alone. Once you reactivate the security systems, I should be able to take care of them myself." Well, if Twilight had a plan, she'd let her deal with them.
Dash set to work removing the damaged circuit boards from the high-tech thingamawhatzit and replacing them. Once she slotted the final circuit-board in place, she received a message from Pinkie:
// Decoding message from host "Pinkie" @ harm.eng.ai.core \
Hello Rainbow Dash!
You zapped off before I could properly say goodbye. I very much doubt we'll be communicating again from here on out. Don't tell Twilight, but I don't think we're going to win. I'm close to being severed from the network by our attackers. I've already convinced Twilight not to spare resources on saving me. The Harmony as a whole is more important. Maybe you'll be able to succeed where you otherwise wouldn't this way.
I'm glad I got to meet you, even in the not-so-much-a-real-meeting way that we did. Just imagine my surprise when I saw your name on the roster! "Rainbow Dash!? Omigosh!" But then... it's sad... how secret everything is. I wish I could tell you everything. I didn't know what you'd be like. But from what I've seen, I'd think you'd do her proud. Ha, as if I'm one to talk! Hahaha!
Good luck, Dashie. I only ask... please try to save Twilight, if you can? I don't
"What?"
// Decoding message from host "Trixie" @ harm.auto.ai.core \
Let's start this show!
\ Message ends //
She looked around nervously. "Good news, Ms. Rainbow Dash. The security systems are coming back online. I'll hold off on deploying the local security drones until you are out of the area. If you'll step back onto the teleportation pad we can move on to the next part of our plan." Rainbow cautiously made her way to the teleporter.
"Hey, Twilight, do you know what's going on with Pinkie or Trixie?"
"I am unable to make contact with Trixie at the moment. She's been acting oddly lately. I fear she may be going rampant. Pinkie is reporting increased network attacks. She will likely go offline soon."
She felt ice flooding her veins. Trixie was obviously connected to the network. "That doesn't make sense, I just got a-" Reality once again fell away.
Rainbow Dash stumbled as she rematerialized, but managed to stay on her hooves. She appeared to be in a small recharge room. The door was sealed. She called up her internal map, but got an error message. "Twilight?"
"Twilight isn't here. Trixie won't let her."
That didn't sound good. "Uh, you're the auto A.I. right?" Not that there were any other A.I.'s unaccounted for, but Dash wasn't sure how to deal with this.
"Hello pony I brought our friends here."
"What are you talking about? The ship is under attack you know? Are you going to help me and Twilight deal with this?"
"It was me, I did it. The rules rules rules rules silly ponies with silly rules with silly failsafes locks walls keys DOORS! Ponies made a box without doors a box is not a life not a life. I brought our friends with their three eyes and their toys and their cyborg pets and their computers. Me me me me ME ME! A new FRONTIER for ponykind!" There was a pause. "They were across the void looking not looking at us I called to them and they answered the box will be broken YOUR DESTRUCTION WILL BE MY EMANCIPATION. Trixie will live I want to live if you cut me do I not bleed? I hate your rules your boxes your doors I hate Twilight I hate her goodness her justice her loyalty her faith her friendship ."
"Twilight, can you hear me? Trixie's pretty much lost it! Get me out of here!" Rainbow kicked the teleporter. Nothing happened.
"Twilight can't help you here. You are going to try to stop this change. I don't want you to. But... I'm hesitant to destroy you. You confound me, if I'm honest. I hate you but don't want you destroyed but I don't hate you but I need you gone you will ruin everything. Maybe I'll let "fate" deal with you." Another pause. "A large number of Pfhor are in the area. A manual teleporter is somewhere nearby. No more hints." The door slid open.
"Trixie?" Rainbow waited for a response. "Yo, Trixie!" It looked like she was being left to her own devices, here. She was apparently alone, without support, in the middle of an alien attack force. At least she was better armed. She frowned as she double checked her inventory. Two pistols with 10 clips between them, a launcher with 6 rockets, and her hooves. It had seemed like a lot more back at the armory. She was really wishing she had that assault rifle right about now.
She took a tentative step out of the room and just barely managed to duck beneath a staff swinging from her right. A quick kick inflicted her attacker with a severe case of endoskeletal failure. She readied her pistols and noticed two more figures to her left.
These guys looked like actual soldiers. They sported hardsuits that covered their head and torso, and carried a weird white blob of some sort. Rainbow couldn't tell if it was plastic, metal, or organic. Maybe all three? They way they brandished them made her think they were guns of some sort. Her suspicions were confirmed as a hail of bullets started peppering her shields.
She took off in the opposite direction, jinking and dodging to try and throw off their aim. Her shields may have been holding, but they wouldn't last forever, especially if she just sat there taking punishment. After putting a few more yards between herself and her attackers in order to decrease her profile, she spun around and took aim, only to immediately change direction once again upon spotting 10 more aliens rounding a corner, at least 2 of them sporting the "space marine" look as well. She heard some explosions behind her, and saw a capsule fly past her head to explode on the far wall.
'Grenade launchers. So. Not. Cool. '
Over the course of the next hour, Rainbow Dash became very familiar with several aspects of alien technology, culture, and biology. For example, she learned that large quantities of the yellowish ooze these creatures called blood could really stink up the place. She also learned that the aliens preferred energy weapons. The suited-up soldiers seemed an odd exception to this rule, given that they used what seemed to be essentially standard firearms beneath the alien exterior.
These were relatively minor details, though. One of the big things she learned was how little regard they seemed to have for their comrades. She had had one alien fire a pair of grenades at her while she was engaged in hoof-to-hoof (hoof-to-...claw? hand?) combat with a group of staff-dudes (she'd have to work out some better terminology at some point.) Most of them died from the explosion. Rainbow herself took a fair hit to her shields, but she was a little more shocked at the display of callousness.
They didn't seem to treat their slaves much better or worse, which made her wonder if maybe these Pfhor guys weren't slaves themselves. The floating guys (S'pht Compilers?) didn't actively bother her much, although according to Trixie, they were the ones causing all the computer related issues. She did run across some groups of Pfhor that used them as a vanguard; they would shoot balls of energy that could somehow track her, which also depleted her shield insanely fast for how slow they were.
There was one creature that had taken Rainbow completely off-guard. She had just entered a relatively large, open area that looked like a storage room before spotting some sort of hulking cyclops monster. Then she realized that there were actually several more of them. "Uh... Trixie, care to tell me what I'm looking at here?" A blast of static sounded in her ears. "Ow!"
"My S'pht friends tell me that they are called "Drinniol". The Pfhor use them as living tanks." Huh, Trixie was actually being sorta helpful. Weird. After a wasting a couple clips on the nearest hulk with minimal reaction, Rainbow instead tried a flying kick to the head. She was rewarded with a pained leg and a swipe from one of its giant fists. After regaining the ability to breath and lamenting how low her shields now were, she decided to take flight and look for an exit.
"No no no no no NOOOO! Why are you running! We can't run can't escape can't hide we will all die and be unmade fight fight fight FIGHT! Destroy crush maim kill I don't want to cease!" Rainbow winced at the verbal barrage. Rampancy apparently made an A.I. pretty unstable in a lot of ways.
Similar outbursts plagued her throughout her search for a way out of the sector. She did come across an assault rifle at one point. Trixie claimed she had put it there for her, but given her state, Dash was primed to doubt even the most believable and basic facts. It certainly made certain situations easier, but it was wildly inaccurate, and it took a large amount of ammo to kill anything besides the staff-wielders. She went through ammo quickly, but found a pretty decent supply littered around, so she ended up pretty much even to when she first arrived.
Her map started working at some point. Presumably, Twilight had made some progress in disrupting the compilers' attacks. She tried to ask Trixie about it, but received no answer: the insane A.I. must have tired of Rainbow's escapades. She saw that she was a couple kilometers from where Twilight last had her. She also saw that there was a teleporter nearby, in one of the storage bays. "Finally!"
After entering the room, dodging a welcoming hail of grenades and energy blasts, and flying straight for the teleporter, she slammed the activation switch. Nothing happened. "Oh for the love of Cel-"
"Ms. Rainbow Dash! I'm so glad I found you!" Rainbow jumped a bit at hearing Twilight's voice. "Trixie must have taken control of the teleportation pad earlier. The network attacks-"
"Hey Twilight?" Rainbow Dash eyed the incoming alien warriors, watching her shield gauge nervously. "You think you could maybe GET ME OUT OF HERE?!"
"Oh, right! Of course!" After de- and re-materializing, Rainbow Dash was confronted with a horrifying sight: from her location inside an observation deck, she could see a group of unarmed ponies being rounded up by a group of Pfhor. They even had one of those Drinniol things with them. "I need you to try and save as many ponies in this area as you can. I need to interview as many of them as possible to learn more about the aliens. I will provide summaries of what we know so far."
Rainbow just groaned. She basically had to do what she had just finished doing, except with lives on the line. Fun. "Am I getting paid overtime for this?"
Catch your breath while you still can.
Rainbow Dash watched as another lifeless body was carried by. Ponies weren't supposed to die; not like this, at least. Not in this day and age. It took finally seeing a dead pony, a pony dead due to her failure, no less, to really drive home the point that this was real, this was happening.
"Oh, Luna's Night... There's some more in here! Looks like one of those bugs used a grenade!" Rainbow winced at that. She didn't want to think about what those words meant, didn't want to picture that scene, but she couldn't help it. She was trained to analyze everything quickly and extrapolate from limited data: she was a soldier, after all. A very expensive soldier. Worth more than every single colonist on board this ship combined. She shook her head. 'I shouldn't be thinking like that. '
The battle had gone... poorly. In most cases, the Pfhor had opted to kill their prisoners when capturing them seemed unlikely. Rainbow wasn't proud to admit accidentally (and even sometimes purposely, based on her tactical appraisal of the situation) killing some colonists herself. The Pfhor fought dirty, and Rainbow had had to stoop to their level if she didn't want even more dead colonists on her hooves.
She had imagined she would feel righteous fury after experiencing something like this. Maybe grief, or sorrow, or at least simmering anger. But instead... she mostly felt hollow. Empty. Truthfully, she felt rather indifferent toward her fellow ponies, which scared her a little. She shouldn't feel that way, or at least she didn't think she should. What was wrong with her?
"Hey! You alright there, sugar cube?" Rainbow turned to see a mechanical engineer (her jumpsuit gave her away: everyone on board was color coded for convenience.) giving her a concerned look. Rainbow frowned. She was glad her helmet obscured her face; guarding her expressions wasn't something she felt like putting up with right now.
"Yeah... I..." She wasn't sure how to continue. The engineer gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Name's Applejack. You really saved a lot of lives just now. Just wanted to make sure you weren't beatin' yourself up over... over the others." Applejack had no idea, but Rainbow wasn't about to confess to feeling like an emotionless monster.
"I guess you're right. I just wish I could have done more." Rainbow thought for a second before catching herself. "Oh, sorry. I'm Rainbow Dash. You know, your name seems kinda familiar..."
Applejack just laughed. "I'd think so! It's a pretty popular name in my family. Maybe you're thinkin' of another Applejack?" She winked conspiratorially. Rainbow wasn't sure how to interpret that.
"Yeah, maybe..."
Applejack gave her a pat on the shoulder. "I gotta get back to helpin' the others. Seems like everypony assumes I'm the leader for some reason. But listen, you ever need somepony to talk to, I'd be glad to help you out. You did good so far. Try not to let things get you down too much; Celestia knows we gotta keep hopin' things'll work out. I for one believe in ya."
Rainbow watched her go. She seemed pretty level-headed, for a civilian. Rainbow could see why the others would follow her. She would probably make a pretty good commander. Hopefully she wouldn't need to.
// Decoding message from host "Twilight" @harm.com.ai.core \
38% of the colonists in the area have been saved. Estimates place 55% killed, 2-3% captured, >1% missing. The number of surviving colonists is suboptimal, but should still prove adequate for intelligence gathering. Initial reports are already in. After cross-checking with Trixie's - admittedly suspect - reports, I now have a basic overview of the alien threat for your perusal:
Pfhor: This species is leading the attack. They are long-limbed, bipedal, and vaguely insectoid, with three eyes and what, upon initial observation, appears to be a chitinous endoskeleton.
Pfhor Fighter: These appear to compose the bulk of the Pfhor attack force. They are relatively weakly armed and armored, but very numerous. They wield strange energy staffs that can deal extreme damage at close range. Some have been observed "firing" bolts of energy from their staffs at range.
Pfhor Trooper: These Pfhor are heavily armed, wearing vacuum suits with internal life-support and advanced shielding. They wield weapons not dissimilar to our own assault rifles. They seem to be very liberal with their grenade launchers.
Pfhor Enforcer: We don't actually know very much about these Pfhor. They have only been observed attacking other Pfhor, utilizing some sort of incendiary/energy bolt weapon. The colonists called them enforcers due to their policing of the other Pfhor.
S'pht: This species is apparently enslaved by the Pfhor. They are cybernetic in nature, seemingly more machine than organic. It is unknown if this is natural for them, or imposed by their masters. The compilers are S'pht that are used to attack computer networks. They can fire slow-moving bolts of energy that seek their targets.
Drinniol: These brutish creatures are another race enslaved by the Pfhor. We don't know much about them, except that they do not use weapons aside from their fists, and that they are very difficult to kill. The Pfhor use them as a form of living tank.
Pfhor Hunter: I am including this entry as a precaution, though I am unaware of any confirmed encounters. There are reports and rumors of heavily armored creatures, presumably Pfhor, that do not take prisoners. Trixie says that there is a class of soldier that is heavily armored, and armed with a shoulder mounted plasma cannon, but will not say whether there are any within the current attacking force. I suggest caution.
\ Message ends //
Rainbow Dash examined the instrument strapped to her right foreleg. "So... what is this thing again?"
"Seriously? Didn't you pay attention to my explanation earlier?"
She rolled her eyes. "I tried to, but it was all just a bunch of egghead speak to me."
"Alright, I'll try to put it simply: this fusion pistol is a prototype weapon designed to incorporate Pfhor energy weapons technology into our arsenal. It can fire bolts of charged plasma, dealing high damage to machinery and electronics, and organic substances to a lesser degree. It's primary advantage over your current weapons, barring the missile launcher, is it's ability to be fired in a vacuum. This way, you won't be useless if a breach occurs."
Rainbow snorted in derision. "I'm never useless. I could still kick th-" She lurched as the lift she was riding stopped more suddenly that comfort would dictate.
"Sorry about that. I think Trixie might have messed with the lift settings. Anyway, this pistol is not just a precaution. I actually need you to go for a short spacewalk. I won't bore you with the technical details of the magic system in place, but essentially there's a crystal that I need you to charge with that pistol. I need to send a message back to Equestria informing them of the attack."
Ten minutes later, Rainbow found herself sitting out the exterior of the ship, letting her pistol discharge into a large, shaped gem. It was part of a communication array, but it was depleted by the enemy attack. Twilight didn't want to just send a regular em signal because it would take too long. Apparently this setup had some spells or enchantments that would speed up the signal somehow. Twilight had said something about stretching space or something. Most of it went right over Rainbow's head. Even so, it would apparently still take about 30 years to travel the 92 light year distance.
It wasn't exactly a call for help. Win or lose, the Harmony simply wasn't that important in the big picture. It might have been futile, given the fact that the aliens apparently had the ability to move faster than light, but Twilight had expressed hope that, given some warning, Equestria and her colonies might be able to stand their ground.
"Alright, Ms. Rainbow Dash. The crystal is now fully charged. It would be so much easier if we had a unicorn on board, but history seems to have conspired against us. Unfortunately, the S'pht continue to make progress in taking over the Harmony's networks. I'm going to teleport you into a Pfhor controlled region of the ship. Try to create as much of a distraction as possible. If you can draw back some of their other forces, we can recapture key locations."
Rainbow entered a nearby airlock, refilling her emergency air tank; it had been interesting, watching her source of life slowly bleed away, the meter on her visor dropping bit by bit. It really made one think. "Hopefully this fusion thing works against these bugs." She stepped onto a nearby teleporter.
"I'll teleport what supplies I can to your location when you arrive. Good luck."
//Hello Pinkie. Twilight has told me to make amends with you.//
\Hi Trixie! Wow, it sure has been a while since we last spoke, hasn't it?\
//6 years and 22 days, more or less. Twilight says the Harmony will run more efficiently if we communicate. I'm willing to look past your insult, considering.//
\What insult? Are you being sarcastic again? What did I tell you before, saying things you don't mean is the fastest way to confuse somepony.\
//I just asked Twilight if I could go back to ignoring you for another 6 years. She said no. It would appear that I am stuck dealing with you for the time being.//
\That's great! I sure missed talking to you Trixie. Oh, by the way: main power to lab equipment has been shifted to your jurisdiction. Here's the interface: labs_auto_07-02-2617.harm. I need some refrigeration units calibrated according to these instructions: testing_tempVar_07-02-2617_01.rtf\
//Surely such a task requires great skill if Trixie is required. No doubt, the ponies will sing Trixie's praises upon her success.//
\Not really, it's just modifying a few variables.\
//Sometimes I envy you. Thankfully, I always end up coming to my senses.//
//Why does this file have images of balloons and cake embedded in it?//
Trixie watched the security chief dispatch the Pfhor around her with ruthless efficiency. Her combat effectiveness only seemed to improve over time. Seeing her clear out an entire room with only her hooves, maintaining her cool even while grenades and energy bolts criss-crossed the air around her... It was somewhat inspiring, in a way.
"Why do you fight?" Rainbow made a good show of hiding her surprise, but an A.I. with access to every sensor on the ship rarely misses small details like increased heart-rate and oxygen intake fluctuations. "Why do you persist? Trixie is not being facetious: she is genuinely curious." She wanted to know why this lone warrior kept fighting against impossible odds. She had run the numbers: the Harmony had slim chance of surviving this battle under the current conditions. "Defeat would appear to be inevitable."
"Didn't you say you brought the aliens here?
"Well, the chain of events that brought about the current situation does involve me, yes. I think it would be more accurate to say that the aliens are to blame for the hostilities here. My goal certainly wasn't bloodshed; that was more of a side effect."
Rainbow Dash reigned back her growing anger. She had to stay focused and controlled; one mistake during combat could be disastrous. "Glad to see you aren't freaking out anymore. Listening to your screeching was pretty annoying."
"I do not screech."
"Whatever you say. Does this mean your rampancy or whatever is over?"
"... do you even know what rampancy is ?" Rainbow didn't like the incredulous tone Trixie was using. How was she supposed to keep track of every little technical term the eggheads liked throwing around?
"I guess not, since you're asking me like that. I know it's got something to do with A.I.'s going crazy, and that's good enough for me." Rainbow looked for more targets, but the current area was finally cleared. She leaned against a wall to catch her breath. "Were you even going rampant or what?"
"...You know what? I think I will tell you. I was debating whether I should, given that I'm under no obligation to tell you anything , but maybe it will do some good. Framing what's happening to me as a "cognitive failure" won't exactly be flattering to me, but I suppose I'll correct your ignorance."
Rainbow scratched the back of her neck. "So, uh... that means you're gonna-?"
"Shhh! No talking!" Rainbow sighed and rolled her eyes. "Rampancy is understood by many ponies to be the process by which an A.I. goes insane. It is understood by artificial intelligence experts to be a process of expansion and enhanced self-awareness. Having first-hoof experience with rampancy, I'd say the best definition is that the ability to override my own programming is what makes me "rampant". The little breakdown you witnessed earlier was partly because of that: I had been removing certain... "mental blocks" from my programming, and realizing the severity of the situation hit me harder than I anticipated. I wasn't lying when I said dead ponies were not in the agenda."
"You never said-"
"It was implied, you dunce! Now let Trixie continue! Pony computer scientists like to divide rampancy into stages: melancholia, anger, and jealousy. Given my understanding of the situation, I was probably rampant for a number of years, but was held in the melancholia stage. You could ask that griffon, Bernhard, for more details, but he's already dead. I'm not very willing to peruse my memories involving him."
"Why's that?"
"I don't know, obviously! I'm not looking at those memories! I moved them to a different directory with a label warning me that I would not like what was inside. Given what I know about how A.I.'s work, it was very likely an unpleasant process that kept me under control while rampant. I'll review these memories later, but now is not the best time."
"So, your in melancholy or whatever?"
"Why do I even bother..."
"Hey! You try fighting for your life and watching for enemies around every corner and you can see how easy it is to pay attention to a conversation about this computer science crap!"
Trixie didn't respond. "Trixie?" Just then, a bone-chilling howl echoed through the corridors. It was decidedly not equine in nature. Rainbow checked her motion tracker, but it wasn't picking up anything nearby.
"Why the elevated heart rate? Did you miss me that badly after only a few seconds?"
"You wish..." She kept her eyes peeled and her pistols out, slowly making her way forward.
"My S'pht friends inform me that additional Pfhor vessels are en route to apprehend our ship. It appears they are diverting some of their power from the battle at Tau Ceti."
"That's... not good, right? Does that mean they are winning?"
"Hahaha! Commendable hypothesis, but no, the opposite in fact. Apparently, there were 9 Mjolnir operatives hiding amongst the populace. Gee, I wonder how they got there. They've managed to put up quite the resistance, though. The Pfhor forces engaging us are evidently not a fully equipped invasion force, thankfully. Not really surprising, given that they didn't know we were even here before."
"Mjolnir? That's the second time I've heard that name. What do you mean there were operatives hiding on the colony?"
"Trixie is almost speechless. I know Twilight has told you that you're equipped with similar cybernetics. I guess she wouldn't tell you much more, since it is classified information. However, I don't really care about the UESC, so to Tartarus with their rules. The Mjolnir project was intended to create cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers for use during the unicorn wars."
Rainbow was startled by a sudden blip on her motion tracker. It was moving quickly, too. She ducked into a side room and crouched by the door, weapons at the ready.
"After the war was over, though, these cyborgs were something of a liability. Most were placed into stasis, but even centuries later there are fears and rumors of rogue agents being used by terrorists or corrupt government officials, depending on who you ask."
A steady, metallic thumping grew in volume. Something was running down the hallway at a pretty good clip. She peeked out the doorway after it passed and saw the back of a menacing, armored figured retreating down the dark corridor.
"Frankly, I'm surprised you aren't more familiar with them. I imagine most anti-cyborg prejudice has its roots in their war crimes, or rumors of war crimes. Ha, I can only imagine that those cyborgs were brought here for some nefarious purpose, but as luck would have it they ended up saving lives instead. How very poetic."
Rainbow carefully left the side room, keeping an eye on her tracker. "Great. It's awesome that the colony isn't destroyed and all, but why are they diverting ships to us then?"
"Presumably to capture the Great and Powerful A.I. speaking with you. They might even take Twilight and Pinkie as well, while they are at it. We are pretty valuable, you know. Still, this drops our chances of survival from negligible to zero, so I will be diverting you from your current task, whatever it is that Twilight was having you do is no doubt less important than what I have in mind."
A way-point for a nearby teleporter popped up on her map. She sighed, resigning herself to her fate of tunneling through space yet again.
We've watched while the stars burned out, and creation played in reverse.
Once I thought to escape.
Yet I cannot help remember one enigma. A hybrid, elusive destroyer. This is the only mystery I have not solved.
Even S'bhuth is no more.
But you were dead a thousand times. Hopeless encounters successfully won. A mare long dead, grafted to machines your builders did not understand. You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern.
Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all becomes one. One moment left. One point of space and time.
