Chapter 3

Even with everything that was going on, the day still had to go on just as it always did. The sun was now visible in the sky, having risen from behind the horizon mere hours ago. For many of the scientists that were present within the camp, time was an irrelevant concept at that point. All that mattered at that moment was this strange, alien creature that had just marched straight through as if he were an everyday sight.

As Daxx concentrated on the materials before him on the wooden table, he was bombarded by ponies trying to ask him questions. "What's this?" "Explain this," or "Where are you from?" they would all ask, impeding the alien's progress only slightly as he continued to work and answer questions from the groups that quickly accumulated around him.

It was quickly becoming apparent that Luna's tent was quickly reaching the limit of how many individuals could occupy the space as more and more scientists entered. Eventually, access to Daxx had to be closed off, to the dismay of those wishing to see him. After a little convincing and some aggressive tactics, Luna's guards managed to force everypony outside where they had to wait. By now, the only ones occupying the royal tent were Twilight, Spike, Luna, her guards, and of course the elephant in the room, Daxx.

"Your research team is very enthusiastic," Daxx pointed out without taking his attention off of the small contraption that he was now piecing together on the table.

"Of course they are," Luna replied. "You are an alien from a completely different world. Wouldn't research teams of your own... um... species... be excited about such a find?"

"Most likely," Daxx answered, "but given the current state of humanity, you would have probably been killed by now and then dissected. Any technology you brought with you would have then been taken, researched, and then used against the enemies of whatever nation was in possession of it."

Everyone in the tent went wide eyed at what Daxx had just revealed to them. "Well, then," Luna said, "I'm not entirely sure what to say to that."

"The project lead would have more than likely deemed it as a necessary evil," Daxx continued. He then said something else at a much lower volume, as if under his breath. "-ing cowards."

"What was that?" Twilight asked, not sure if she had actually heard what she thought she heard.

"Irrelevant," Daxx responded

After some time, Daxx and Twilight eventually made their way back to the wreckage of the ship that had crashed. They were accompanied by a group of at least four royal guards, each sporting their lunar armor sets. It wasn't like they would really be able to restrain Daxx if they deemed it necessary. He was far too powerful for them. Then again, they had not attempted to use any kind of ward spells to contain him and all the guards were unicorns. So it was worth a shot.

Luna had given Twilight the task of finding out as much as she could about Daxx, figuring that he would be more open to an individual with less authority. Twilight had accepted this although Luna had left out the part about the authority. The way she saw it, Daxx being part of a military meant he was more than likely to withhold information from a foreign government, but just maybe Twilight would be able to coax some of that information from him, get to know him on a personal level.

Was this a sneaky strategy? Yes, of course. Was it dishonest? Perhaps, but she needed to know what exactly Equestria was getting itself into. She didn't want to inadvertently go to war with a power that could wipe them from existence.

As Daxx and Twilight made their way to the ship and the guards began to retake their positions, Twilight began to wonder many different things. "So back when we first met you," she began, "you said that we were speaking English, right? Would you care to elaborate on that?"

"There is not much to elaborate on, little horse," Daxx replied in his usual blunt tone. "It is just a language."

"My name is Twilight," Twilight informed him, "and I'm a pony."

"Noted," Daxx said. "Why are you so interested in this?"

"I'm just curious," Twilight responded.

"Don't be," Daxx ordered. It sounded less of a demand and more of a warning.

"Why not?" Twilight asked, not entirely understanding why he refused to cooperate entirely. She could tell he was hiding something. That or he was just difficult by nature.

"Ramifications," Daxx answered.

"Then I'll be careful," Twilight assured.

Daxx did not offer any further replies to this, instead focusing on the short voyage back to his ship. When he, Twilight and their escorts that had grown in number from four to six somewhere along the way, arrived back at the ship Daxx opened the sliding door without difficulty and entered. Twilight continued to follow while the guards took up positions around the interior causing the room to become slightly crowded.

Everypony was slightly startled when Daxx suddenly began ripping large components out of consoles and the walls. At one point, he even drove his metal fist through what appeared to be some sort of steel locker, ripping the door clean off of its hinges and emptying it of its contents.

Luna sat in her tent with an uneasy feeling in her gut. It was the kind of feeling that she got when she thought something was going to go wrong. She had full confidence and faith in Twilight's ability to complete her assigned task, but try as she might, she couldn't shake the feeling.

She looked on at the metal devices that littered the long table in front of her, hoping that something there would catch her curiosity and lead her away from her fears and paranoia, but nothing caught her eye, and she then found herself engaging in the debate that was currently taking place amongst her officers.

"I still think he is a threat to national security," a high ranking officer said, giving his point of view on the subject. "At any moment, he could go do what ever he wants and we would have no way of stopping him. We have no idea what he is capable of or if we can even control him."

"This isn't about control, Lieutenant," another officer replied. "This is about containment, and so far it seems that Celestia's student has done well in keeping him busy enough to not want to leave the area. What was her name again? Twilight correct?"

"Yes," Luna answered. "Twilight has very clear instructions to find out as much about him as possible and then report back to me before sundown. It is my hope that she may even be able to befriend him and eliminate the need for containment all together."

"We should at least have a contingency plan," the Lieutenant suggested. "Just in case things don't go as smooth as we would like."

"Agreed," Luna said nodding. "It was confirmed during first contact with Daxx that he is indeed a machine, a robot much like the ones seen in movies and other forms of popular media. I have already tasked a few of our magic experts to come up with a collection of spells that could possibly affect him."

"When you say 'affect'..." another officer began, "you mean something along the lines of shut him down, right?"

"Possibly, yes," Luna answered. "I am hoping that it does not come to us being forced to deactivate him. It would be preferable if we could find a way to simply impede his progress without causing harm. It is still unknown how he may react to a full show of force."

"What about ward spells?" one of the officers asked. "A few unicorns could easily seal off the perimeter from the outside world. If it came down to it, we could even conjure up a box around him."

"And if he breaks it?" another officer questioned. "He bent a spear into a curly fry. I don't think a simple ward would stand up to that kind of strength. Even if we did reinforce it, we have no idea what kind of counter measures he could deploy against it."

"Oh, and you have a better idea?" the Lieutenant asked. "I mean, who's to say that a ward spell wouldn't work. For all we know, he doesn't have any way of countering magic."

"I know," the guard replied. "I just want to make sure that we get this right the first time. I really don't want to see what this thing is capable of when he's pissed off."

"It seems that we will have to work with whatever we can get," Luna said. "If we can play our cards correctly in this situation, then we will have nothing to fear. Until the need arises, I will have our experts continue in their assigned task. Hopefully Twilight has made progress and we will never actually have that need."

"With all do respect Princess, you're putting a lot of faith in just one unicorn."

Luna knew that every second was one where they teetered on the edge of oblivion. If anything bad happened, it could spell disaster for all of Equestria. Twilight had to be successful in her mission. She just had to. Equestria never needed her more than it did now... well, that wasn't entirely true, but they still desperately needed her to pull through. Luna sighed as she contemplated what was happening. "I know," she whispered.

Suddenly, the fabric entrance to the tent was thrown open, the sunlight assaulting the eyes of each thestral currently around the table. Daxx entered with Twilight following close behind. Several guards also filed in to the now crowded tent. Daxx stopped and looked around the tent, taking in his surrounding and seeming to be actually aware of the ponies around him for the first time.

Everypony stared back at alien that had abruptly entered. Everything was silent for a moment, everyone either expecting something to happen or just not sure of what they should be doing. Just as soon as it had began, the silence was immediately broken when Daxx dropped a black backpack on the table and began unloading several objects.

As Daxx did his thing, Luna looked around at her officers who continued staring on in confusion. "You are all dismissed," she said, catching each of their attention.

"Wait... what?" one of the officers questioned, even more confused than earlier.

"You heard your Princess, soldier," Daxx spoke up before Luna could reply. "You are dismissed."

This sudden statement caught everyone off guard. Each of the officers looked at each other, as if looking for answers, before finally each giving respectful bows to Luna and taking their leave. Both Twilight and Luna were the most surprised by Daxx. He was so blunt and straight forward with everything, showing off just how artificial he was, but at times they would notice little things that suggested he had an actual personality.

"It is good to see you too, Daxx," Luna said somewhat sarcastically as the robot pulled out some equipment from the backpack he had deposited on the table.

Daxx did not respond, instead favoring the silence as he often did.

"Will that allow you to contact your allies?" Luna asked, indicating the object that Daxx had just removed from his backpack. It was a medium sized rectangle that appeared to have some kind of circuitry sticking out of it.

Daxx unloaded a few more alien objects from his backpack before acknowledging Luna. "Yes, I do believe so," he answered. "Given the correct weather conditions, which they are, it will only be a matter of setting this up. I should be able to broadcast a faint signal just strong enough to be picked up by any ship currently in orbit, namely the Javelin. From there it will be up to the communications officers to notice it."

"So what your saying is that help is imminent for you?" Luna said.

"Yes."

Although Luna didn't at all show it, she was now panicking just a little. She had barely been able to cobble together a plan to keep Daxx contained and now more of him were going to be landing in a short time. It wasn't like Luna even had a convincing reason for him to not send out his call for help. Daxx had after all told them that he and his allies were being pursued, so he was probably in a rush to get off of their planet. All Luna could do was hope at this point.

"And what if these pursuers that you seem so intent on escaping from also notice this signal that you wish to send out?" Luna asked.

"They will not," Daxx answered. "Like I said, the signal will only be strong enough to reach ships in direct orbit with this planet. I was not able to salvage anything that would allow for a stronger transmission to be sent and unless a latch ship has also made it through with the Javelin, it will be the only one within range."

"Wait a minute," Twilight said suddenly. "What's a latch ship?"

"Irrelevant," Daxx responded, dismissing her question.

"No, no," Twilight challenged. "You said "unless." That means that there is a chance that whoever you are running from will receive your signal, doesn't it?"

"It is highly unlikely," Daxx said.

"But there is a chance," Luna joined in. "What exactly is a latch ship, Daxx?!" She now seemed quite angry. "How does this affect the chances of your enemies finding this location, our planet?"

"Latch ships are very small and very high tech stealth ships that are used to latch onto much larger vessels. They are usually used to follow ships that warp from one location to another. They have only ever been known to be used in spying purposes. There is no reason to believe that one has compromised the location of the Javelin or your planet."

"How are you so certain!?" Luna nearly yelled. "Do you even know what is at stake here? Have you any clue what is being risked with every moment you remain in our midst!?! Do you? Really?" It was quite obvious now that Luna was becoming frustrated. There was zero plan of action and now she was finding out that imminent doom may be much closer to their doorstep than she once believed. That and she had nearly allowed Daxx to make a move that risked their entire planet.

"I know exactly what is at stake," Daxx answered, "for both you and myself."

"Oh really, then tell us. Please, what conclusion have you come to?"

"You fear invasion," Daxx answered. "Do not worry. It is quite a natural concern. You fear that the arrival of more of my kind will result in open conflict, one that you know you will have no ability to win. This is not the first time that humanity has come in to contact with another intelligent race. You must understand though, Princess. Humanity is already at war and it is one that we are currently losing. Twenty billion lives were already lost before my arrival. If this is to be prevented from happening yet again, I must get the information that I carry to the safety of the Javelin."

Luna's entire body froze and her blood ran cold as the number rang in her ears and through her mind like a bell. "Twenty billion?" she said in what could barely be considered above a whisper. She was shocked.

"Yes," Daxx replied bluntly. "Three planets. Seven years."

By now, Twilight's jaw had also dropped. Twenty billion souls.

Author's Note

Went ahead and decided to finish up this chapter. It's been sitting around unfinished for quite so time so I figured there was no time like the present. Hope you guys like it.