The planet of Hocotate was a dry an arid place with scarce any liquid water to be found on the surface. The wildlife there reflected that hostile environment and the surface boasted an incredible number of dangerous animals. But most dangerous of these were the Hocotatians themselves. How they managed to survive the cycle of evolution was a mystery to even the most intelligent minds they possessed, they had just simply won the life lottery it seemed.

The hocotatians were very greedy individuals by nature, actively seeking bigger fortunes, sometimes at greater costs than the fortunes were worth. One would've guessed that with the climate of their world and the scarcity of resources that they would've banded together long ago and shared what little they had, but the exact opposite is true. The first tribes of Hocotatians, when not fighting other tribes, were often fighting among themselves. Even far into their modern era, wars were fought over the most trivial of things, be it a trade deal gone sour or a stolen bucket, the different city states wanted what the others had. The history of Hocotate was bathed in bloodshed and greed. Then something happened that would change the course of the Galaxy's history. They looked up.

What they saw was a sky full of diamonds and endless space to live. The various city states then began to invest all their wealth into aerospace technologies and soon the first fixed wing flight took off from the chief of these cities, Capricorn. In another decade, the first rocket to reach sub-orbital flight took off from the space center in Capricorn as well. Another year saw the first artificial satellite. Soon Capricorn became the center of all politics on the planet and its now de-facto capital. Several city-states of similar influence saw this as a threat and launched a large attack against their prospering neighbor. In the following weeks, the planet was engulfed in a war that encompassed the entirety of the globe, the first of its kind. The City of Capricorn and its few allies, against the rest. In a remarkable twist of fate, Capricorn managed to secure victory over its fellow city-states and established a world-wide nation under its rule. So, with the entire planet and its resources at its disposal, Capricorn focused once again on the heavens and soon all three moons of Hocotate were colonized and new minerals were being mined. Among these was Unobtainium, a once thought hypothetical substance that could generate worm holes. Now armed with this new resource, the scientists of Hocotate sought to conquer the last frontier of their race, the stars themselves.

Chosen for the test flight of the first Wormhole ship was a Capricorn war-hero Captain Olimar. After a well documented escape that lasted nearly 30 days, Olimar returned with a trove of treasure from a distant world and the populous was invigorated. Soon ships of increasing size were leaving and returning to Hocotate laden with the spoilers of far off worlds. New longer ranged ships were built and farther stars were conquered by the Hocotatians.

On the bridge of one of these ships, the H.S.S. Dolphin, stood Olimar. Coffee in one hand and a tablet in the other. This new ship was not the largest of the fleet but it was larger than anything Olimar ever imagined. On the bridge with him was Louie, his ever present second-in-command. With them were four or five other officers busy monitoring all the screens and looking for any signs of new riches. It was getting late in the day and Olimar was ready to head off to rest when one of these officers said, "Captain, I'm picking up a strong signal from sector C."

"Sector C? That's across the Grey Nebula. We shouldn't be picking up any signal at all from this distance." Olimar retorted.

"I know that sir, and I re-calibrated the array and the signal still holds." Olimar made his way over to check the findings. Sure enough, there was a faint but unmistakable signature for a far off system. What ever it was, it was bound to very strong, and strong energy like that could feed the entire race indefinitely.

"Alright, its worth us checking out, ensign, plot a course for the system and wake me when we arrive" Olimar ordered as he made his way to his room.

"Aye Aye sir." The bridge staff replied.

As Olimar slowly opened his eyes and recovered from his sleep, he became aware of another person in the room. "What is it ensign?" He asked groggily.

"We arrived at the system and I think you may want to look at this." The Ensign reported and then ran off to the bridge.

"Better be good," Olimar said as he put on his uniform and made his way to the bridge.

He found the bridge to be packed with virtually all the ship's crew. "Whats the fugg is going on here?!"

"Sir, come take a look at this." another officer said.

Olimar pushed his way through and looked at the screen, and his eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "This is a prank right? Right?"

"No sir, this is live footage from our drone near the third planet from the star."

Olimar couldn't believe his eyes. On the scree were colorful equines prancing about, that, in and of itself wasn't too much to worry about, what was though was the fact they were prancing around in a city made of a pearly white stone and roofs topped with gold. "This is the power signature?" Olimr inquired.

"No sir, the power we saw was coming from this tree," the ensign said as the screen moved away from the surreal city to a forest and then focused on a small alcove where a bright tree made of crystal was hiding. "This is the source sir."

"Damn, that's bright. Any locals nearby?"

"No sir, the only structure in the vicinity seems to be in ruins and abandoned."

"Okay, I want a team put together and I'll lead the first shuttle down, and Louie will lead the second. All right people lets get to it, we have riches to take."

The Bridge was flung into a flurry of activity as crew were ushered off to perform various tasks and the officers prepared to descend into the unknown. Olimar took his seat on his chair and stared at the strange city once again, and, in some weird primal way, as he sat there watching those strange ponies, he could swear something was watching from inside that castle in the city.

Author's Note

Well, here's chapter one, I wouldn't expect chapter two for at least a week, but here's to hoping.

Any suggestions and criticisms will be heartily accepted, so feel free to point to any errors you see.

With that, I'm off, have fun.