[displaced] THE DRAGONFORGE (artaius pov)

Audio log no. 31: start

Okay, well. That's a thing that happened.

Okay, let me recap. when I arrived at sector delta 3, I arrived to see the strangest thing; ponies, anthropomorphic bat ponies sure, but ponies. Honestly Not what I expected, I expected aliens, maybe humans, or just more biters, not ponies. Anyways so when I arrived there they were getting slaughtered by biters and spitters. thankfully my automated defenses, and my trusty bolt rifle, dealt with most of the biters (they were only class twos, so only about as big as a Ford Focus) rather quickly, the rest fell to artillery fire.

I unfortunately only have my sealed apartment where I could store them. Yeah, it turns out that the entire atmosphere around my Factory is toxic, and Incredibly so, so anything without an environmental hazard suit is going to die. Except for the biters. for some reason, the biters don't die immediately. The bastard just keep coming and (speech dissolves into angry incoherent mumbling)

Anyways I also found their... caravan, I think, it’s just a collection of canvas, wood, and crates, and what LOOKS like the remnants of a wagon, it’s really hard to tell. Looking at their equipment I can tell that they came from a colder region, or that the surface is frozen, either or. They, unfortunately, lost a lot of their food rations and men, one of my scout/survey drones found what was left of their bodies, it was rather messy, though I can’t tell how many there were originally, there are only 13 left.

I’m going to have to make some HEPS aren't I? (sigh) oh well. I also found some letters amongst the wreckage, and strangely enough, I could read them, somewhat, I was more fluent speaking russan than reading or writing. Yeah, that was a big surprise, the ones still conscious when I got there, spoke russan. It was a bit of a shock, but I didn't let it get to me, till about 4 minutes ago, where I freaked out for a good minute, then I got to work. What I could read on those letters said that this group was a survey expedition, and that means there’s more who will be coming down here, and with the toxic atmosphere around here, they will die, and not quickly. So I am getting my Hermans and rubber-ducks, and having them build some air-tight apartment complexes, at least enough for 200 people, with room to expand.

Oh right, I've never told you about the Hermans. The Herman class logistics tractor stands at 11’ 0” and looks like a mechanized shrimp, powered by a mercury turbine engine, with an electric drivetrain. And a modular attachment hardpoint, scurrying about on armored cat-tracks at a staggering 26 mph.

And the rubber-ducks, 4 steering wheels, 4 drive wheels, hydrogen fuel power plant, with 4 high torque electric engines. Looking like a box on wheels with a small cab so I can drive it if necessary. It is 19’ 4” in height, and 40’ 6” long, with a nice huge flatbed on the back. I use them mostly for the transportation of cargo over medium distances (too long for a belt, not long enough for a train), also for expanding the factory, the tanks go ahead and kill every bug in their path, and the rubber-ducks are right behind them, laying down auto-turrets and pre-built infrastructure (drills, ammo factories, train tracks/stations, ect), and at a blistering pace, I’m serious these things are NOT slow, their top speed is 120 mph while carrying 47 tonnes, I learned that the hard way… I actually think I did too good a job.

...Nah. Anyways, a lot of them were in pretty bad conditions, thankfully, enough were intact enough to figure out what did work and what needed to be fixed. So now I have 13 unconscious heavily wounded bat ponies. 6 of them only having light wounds (scratches bruises ect), 4 whom I was forced to amputate some limbs (best case: a finger, worst case: triple amputee), the last 3 had moderate to severe wounds that would leave some nasty scars, but they’ll live. hmm, Note to self; start work on prosthetics.
But for right now, I am going through the stuff the bat ponies had in their caravan. Immoral? Maybe. But I need to know where and when they’re from, and the surface conditions of this planet. I haven’t found much yet besides the previously mentioned equipment, some letters, a few wills, and some tools… oh and the 7-tonne biter right in front of me… (unholy screech!) shi-fuck BITER! ( more unholy screeching) CORRECTION, BITERS!! (TLAM-TLAM-TLAM!!)

(CHOMP-CRUNCH) gah! My arm! THAT WAS MY FAP HAND YOU BASDITCH!! (BOOM! T-BRRRRRRR) yeah, that's right, die like your mother did! (Screeching echoes of dying bugs)

Fweu. Okay, that was a lot of bugs. I just turned around and, teeth. NOT a fun thing to wake up too let me tell ya.

Anyways I got to go reset my arm, I'll talk to you a lot later. Artaius out.

~÷π~

Ow, where am i? My head is killing me. And my throat? Jeez what did I do last night?

As I open my eyes I looked around me, what I saw was mighty strange, I was in the smallish room, the bed I was laying on was a rather comfortable average sized bed, the floor itself appeared to be made of hardwood but it didn't feel like it, there's a large expensive-looking red rug, looks like something some Foreigner would have or the unicorn high priestesses, there is a bookshelf next to me that has quite a few tones in it many languages I recognized and even more I didn't, there was a strange iron contraption on the other end of the room with a cylinder of the same or similar material coming up from the floor on one side and another leaving top on the other side and going along the ceiling, there's a similar iron contraption next to it that look like some kind of storage other than that I have no idea what it was, but then I looked out the window, and I saw something magnificent.

When I looked out the window I saw a city, a city so massive and so beautiful I had no words, still have no words even after an hour of just staring at it. It was a bustling Hive of activity there are things going around lighting up the land around them with strange magical torches, there were massive magical bonfires piercing the shadows around and before them, and huge fires erupting from massive pillars, and these massive buildings that tower from floor-to-ceiling like stalagmites in an absolutely gargantuan cavern, with rivers of lava running between them.

I have to go out there, I need to see the creatures who can make such a Grand City.

I looked around the room noting a armor stand with a strange suit of armor resting on it, but paid it no mind, at last I found what I can only assume would be a door, as there was no handle on it, but when I approached it opened! After I got up off the floor(I thought it was a snake!!) I walked through the door it revealed itself to be but a single room in what is probably a large mansion as the hallway went on for dozens of hoof lengths, I decided to go left down the hall, however halfway down the hall I heard strange... music?

[

]

As I walked towards the sound, I could somewhat make out the lyrics. But they were in stone-speak, the language of the earth-ponies, Sounded like earth-pony music too. Mostly percussion instruments, and vocals.

Eventually I came to a… I can only describe it as a half finished landing to a large staircase. But where was the orchestra? Or the stage for that matter?

“Woh! What was that?” some kind of metal bird? Whatever it was there were a lot of them, just buzzing around, and carrying iron logs?{A.N steel girders}. They’re a deep grey i’ve never seen before, they buzz around on invisible wings with massive claws grabbing and moving various things that I didn't recognize.

As I caught my breath, I took a big inhale and something caught my attention, APPLES! I smell apples, apples means food! I took off for the smell, it led to a small room with a shiny ceiling, I could see myself in it, and a bunch of glowing circles with numbers on them… WAIT WHAT? Those are thestraly numbers! The numbers only went to 18, wonder what that means?

All of a sudden one of those strange birds flew in, and touched one of the glowing numbered circles. And some doors that i somehow missed just closed, locking me in here with this bird, wait, why are we moving?

~∆~