A Danger in the Stars
By
Teal

Chapter 1

I couldn’t believe this was happening to me; this was just like a nightmare that I desperately wanted to wake up from. I could feel the rumbling of the capsule vibrate through my seat, as I shook in fear and the knowledge of the unknown. As I kept my eyes close tightly, I tried to imagine that I was anywhere else but here. I would have preferred the hard stone cold bed of my barracks, back at Equestria, rather than being sealed inside this claustrophobic metal capsule that was about to be shot into a planet, in a far off galaxy.

“This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. Come on, Silver Shine, this isn’t real.” I told myself, as I tried to curl up on my seat and cry out like a helpless foal. Of course, I wasn’t a helpless foal, believing that I am very self-sufficient and reliable, but right now, being put in a situation that I never hoped to be in, I felt more helpless than any foal that ever existed.

Sure, I’ve been through the basic training, but since this was this was an emergency deployment and the military didn’t have time to go through the simulation part of the training, the only thing I learned was the fact that we were going the hurtle through the atmosphere and had a ninety-nine percent chance of survival.

Sure, ninety-nine percent sounds good, but with my current luck, I could be part of that one percent that didn’t make it.

I started to sweat inside my suit, even when its cooling system was working fine and keeping my body cool and comfortable. I could feel the sweat pour down to my fur, making it stick to the insulation of the suit. This made me irritated, as I flung my hooves around. Combined with the panic, building inside of me, it made me look like any idiot, who was flinging her hooves around.

Good thing I didn’t accidentally hit anypony, knowing that the suit amplifies the strength of the user, turning one simple swing of a hoof, into something that is equivalent to the kick of at least ten earth ponies.

As I continued the fling my hooves around, I started to breath heavily, sucking the recycled air inside the tanks. My breathing started to become strained as I felt myself become choked up, even though my oxygen systems were reading fine.

Now at this point, you are probably wondering on is this suit that I keep talking about. Well, the suit I keep on talking about is the Equestrian Space Force Mk. 10 suit, the latest of its kind. It has the strongest armor, capable of resisting almost all light weapons and gives the user great strength, like previously mentioned. It’s basically powered armor, which has a deadly array of weapons. A normal soldier would have one laser and plasma gun, which deploys on the side of the suit. It has its own targeting system and a neural sensor connected to the users’ brain. The neural sensors enable the user to fire the weapon and use the many capabilities of the suit.

I never usually felt claustrophobic about wearing this suit, having been using them for at least a year now, but right now l felt like I was choking. It was probably because of the fact that I was in a small metal capsule, along with a dozen more ponies, compressed together to try and make use of every inch of space or the fact that I might die in a flash of a second, giving me no time to utter a prayer. Whatever it was, it made me squirm around, trying my best to slip away from the metal straps that held me to my chair. The only way to remove them was when the capsule’s computer decided that it was time to deploy us or when there was an emergency.

“Hey, you better stop doing that crazy dance of yours or you would end up hurting yourself.” The mare in front of me said. The seats in the capsule were placed face to face, making us face each other. Although I couldn’t see the face, I recognize her from the voice. It was Ruby Cloud, a pegasus who likes to pick on me for fun.

“When the ship above us detaches the drop pod…” She continued. “…all of us will get flung around, making it a bumpy ride. So I suggest you stop that dancing unless you want your hooves to hit something and break a bone. Besides, you’ll end up injuring a member of the team while you’re at it.”

I immediately stopped and drew back my hooves in fear and cowardice.

“Ah, rookies, they never cease to entertain.” Somepony laughed from the other side of the capsule. I recognized that it was the Sergeant who was talking “I’ll give her a minute before she ends up killing herself.”

I immediately gulped at the thought as I manage to shake my suit in nervousness. I just hope that my platoon mates would think that I was shaking because of the vibrations, rather than shaking in fear.

One thing in the military was always clear, no matter what branch you join, the new pony was always picked upon. Taunts and insult were always thrown at us new ponies and we were always left helpless to fight. The only thing we could do was to show that we were just as though as them, but in my view point, this was easier said than done. Since I was currently attached to one of the most veteran unit in the entire Equestrian Space Force.

“Hey, maybe we can use her as bait. We can have her ran around and be chased by the enemy, while we shoot at them.” One pony said, piping up.

“Hey maybe we can ask our little PR pony to talk them out of fighting, maybe even get her to let them join our side!” Another laughed, as he mocked my previous job.

Before being sent into the deadly job of dropping into far off planets and fighting off different creatures, I used to work for the PR department of the military. My former job was to go around cities, mostly in Equestria Prime but sometimes in the colonies, and encourage ponies to join the Equestrian Defense Force. I would usually walk around the cities, wearing my suit and showing off its features and its impressive firepower, while shouting slogans like:

‘Join the force and serve Equestria!’ or ‘Want to explore distant planets, then join the force!’

It was mostly composed of cheesy lines written by the clerks back at headquarters. But what really sold the deal was my talent at convincing them. You see, after doing the same old routine over and over again, I manage to learn what ponies want to hear. With that knowledge, I manage to crack open their minds and convince them that joining the force was a good thing.

It might seem as a demeaning job, trying to convince ponies to join the force, but it was a better option rather than trekking through the mud of some far off planet. It looked like that I was asking other ponies to fight, so that I don’t have to fight.

I wish I never joined the force in the first place. Huh, the funny thing about this was, I joined the force because a PR promotion convinced me that I would be able to see the universe if I did and not just one part of the universe. ‘See the stars and see it all!’ They said.

Ever since I was a filly, the stars have been my interest, so much that my cutie mark has become an image of the stars, after I spent an entire night with a telescope and looking up to the darkness above. So my interest to go to space grew until I finally had one option left, to join the military and see the stars. I know, it sounds like one of the corny slogans I say, but it’s true.

Although settlers also get to see the universe, they were usually confined to one planet and nothing more. Since it was too expensive to have ships travelling to different planets, only Military and Trading ships were allowed to travel through the stars, back and forth. Colony ships were just a won way ticket, so that was out of the options. The materials used to power these vessels were expensive so the Federation needed more colonies to supply them and continue expansion.

Being a trader was out of the option also, seeing that you would have to be good a mathematics to be able to join their crew. Because trader crews were expected to be able to handle the space vessels, in case of emergencies, and I was far from a mathematical genius. I can prove this by showing you my test result, in which they didn’t even bother to show the score. Instead, they said, ‘Sorry, but your mathematical knowledge does not pass the standards of the Equestrian Trading Fleet.

So that left the military as the only option, seeing that they would accept anypony, as long as they were willing to join. So I signed up, expecting it to be the best years of my life, too bad it wasn’t.

The first month of basic training proved to be as terrible as death itself, as we went through intense physical programs. This is a funny thing since the suits do most of the work for us. The physical regime was more of a test, in which you prove yourself worthy of the suit.

But of course, I didn’t pass. Instead, I got terrible scores on my physical training and was in the border line of getting kicked out. I actually pleaded and begged with them, so that I would stay, knowing that no matter how much I hate their training, it was the only kept I had to go to the stars. I remember seeing myself in tears as I faced the officer in front of me.

But that was when a small opening of opportunity that came to me. It came in the form of the PR Department. They gave me the chance of joining the department, in which all I had to do was tell them about the benefits of joining the force and on how great it is.

So they gave me a Mk. 10 suit, told me the basics on operating it, and through me in a crowd which I was supposed to convince into joining the military.

I was a little shaky at first, feeling nervous in front of crowds of ponies, but I soon got used to it. I manage to convince whole crowds in joining and became so good that they kept me. Sure I might be stretching the truth, but it was for a worthy cause, in fulfilling my dream!

Which I manage to do, when they sent me on my first PR mission to the outer colonies. I had to visit the towns and do my job, but when that was done I had all the time to enjoy the scenery. It was amazing! To be able to see the strange new worlds, the beautiful mountains and cool flowing rivers.

It was a wonderful time and I thought that things might have been looking up for me. But that was before the war came. A war in which ponies found themselves in the presence of an enemy as ambitious as us. A race that was also planning to expand and settle in their own interstellar colonies.

At first, we thought that it would be an easy fight, surely nothing could be able to defeat Equestria and its colonies. But those creatures proved to be as arrogant as us and we soon found ourselves in a desperate battle. They had space vessels that could match ours while on the ground they used suits that were similar to the capabilities of our own. It was like we had the same technological development.

The Equestrian Space Force was soon having difficulties in battle and although they were holding their ground, they were taking heavy casualties. They needed replacements and they needed it fast.

Soon the conscription began, proclaiming that every able bodied pony must join the force and fight. Ponies from Equestria Prime and all the colonies were now called upon duty, so that the force could fill up its dwindling power.

This meant two things. One, there would be no need for the PR department, since all able bodied citizens were now required to join. Two, I was now required to serve as a member of the fighting force, no matter what my records say.

So now here I am. Inside a metal capsule, serving as our drop pod, and waiting for it to hurtle into the atmosphere.

Although drop shuttles could be used to enter the atmosphere, giving the teams inside a smooth ride, and land on the planet, they were often used as recovery vessels. The drop shuttles were too vulnerable and too slow to be used for planetary assaults. So the drop pods were used, to lessening the risk of losing your assault force.

Drops pods were usually long metal capsules, big enough to fit at least a dozen ponies inside, built to resist the heat of reentry. They were attached to the transport vessel, stored inside till the time of the assault begins. These things were used to conduct ‘drops’, which was the process of deploying ground troops in the ground as quickly as possible. They were usually cheap and easy to replace, being a one use piece of equipment. It was this fact that made me nervous, seeing that it was basically a metal capsule with a heat shield and parachutes.

When a drop begins, the drop vessels are deployed via launch bay. The large bay doors, located at the belly of the transport vessel, would open and the pylon attached to the pods would push it outside, leaving the pods hanging outside the vessel, with only a metal pylon keeping it attached.

When the order to start the drop begins, the transport vessel would detach the drop pod, leaving its onboard computer to do the job.

At exactly five seconds after detachment, the drop pod’s onboard computer would activate its thruster, to begin deorbiting the pod. It was said to be a bumpy ride, as the thruster try to correct the course to achieve the proper position to enter the atmosphere.

My ship, the Lunar Express, was only a small transport, meaning it only carries a small contingent of soldiers. It carried a total of three companies (One Battalion) that were deployed in nine different pods, a platoon of a dozen ponies in each.

Now you’re probably thinking, a platoon of only twelve pones? Isn’t that a little small? Well in a way, it’s a little bit of both.

On paper, a platoon was supposed to be composed of twelve highly trained ponies, which had complete knowledge on how to use the powered suits. Each would have a specific job and would all work together to become a deadly fighting machine. This system has been working since the early days of the Equestrian Space Force and would most likely work today and any other day.

But there is just one problem. With the war taking its toll on highly trained ponies, the Equestrian Space Force is starting to have trouble to replace them. So they rushed soldier to the front, even if they do not have sufficient training or knowledge on how to use the powered suits. This meant that the platoon aren’t as highly trained as they are supposed to be, which in turn would cause more mistake, which would cause more casualties and would mean that more replacements would be needed.

In the end, the system is not the most effective one that could be implied. But for some reason, the Space Force has failed to notice it.

But were getting side tracked, we were talking about the drop pods and planetary invasion weren’t we?

The drop pod’s heat shield would protect it from any friction caused because of the pod’s entry through the atmosphere.

Once inside the atmosphere, the drag chutes would begin to deploy, trying to slow the pod to a gentle speed. A total of three drag chutes would deploy before the main chute would launch itself and bring the pods into a gentle speed.

But this meant the pod would be a slow moving object, as it descended from the sky, vulnerable to enemy fire. So it means we shouldn’t stay in the pod anymore, we have to get out.

A few seconds after the main chute deploys, the belts strapping us to our chairs would be removed and a large escape hole would open. We would then jump out of the capsule and use our jets to land safely on the ground. The suit had two small jets built in it, capable of giving the user thirty minutes of continuous thrust. We would have to use five minutes worth of our thruster, so that we would be able to reach the ground safely.

It sounds all complex and stuff and I probably didn’t do any of you favors with my lack of knowledge on the technical stuff. If you want a better overview, I suggest reading it in the nearest library; I heard there are some books there that would have more technical explanations.

For me, I didn’t care how complicated it sounded. All I wanted is for this system to work. From the moment of detachment to the deployment of the main parachute, my life lay on the hooves of the pod and its small computer. From then on, it would lie on my skills and what little I learned, to be able to work the jets and land.

The sound of the clamps detaching echoed through the pod and caught my attention. I looked up and felt as sudden drop in my stomach. Everything started to feel weird, in a way that was hard to explain unless you were there to experience it. I concluded that we were now beginning to enter the atmosphere.

“Well rookie, you’re in for a ride now.” Ruby Cloud said.

I gulped, knowing that I would not like this experience one bit.

Author's Note

Well this is my attempt in writing Sci-fi, so I hope you like it.