Chapter A1 - Mill Day

The moon stared down like an eye, it was strangely beautiful In a way, glimmering with distant lights that formed veins of multicolour, joined together into a strange pattern that covered the moon’s surface, it almost looked like a pulsating heart, a second sun that gave off a far gentler and paler radiance. Behind that, the night sky was a soft turquoise, as it has always been, with its swirling clouds of vapour that made intricate patterns in the sky.

Housing district KI-02, circular and dome-shaped houses, made from a tawny ceramic, doors marked with three coloured arrows, blue, green, and red, all extending outward of one-another. The floor was some kind of imitation sand, working where I do I’ve actually encountered the real stuff, but this wasn’t it, it was too soft and not messy enough, but it did make for nice flooring. There were several terraces with more and more houses built upon them, connected by walkways, extending upward from giant tree-like structures that hold up the roof, a big glass dome… Luckily, everything here was designed to be fireproof.

It was late, there was hardly a living creature out, except for me. A few orb-shaped drones flew across the district, but they weren't going to pay much attention to me. I should get home. Thus I trotted off toward my home, one of the smaller structures built into the base of a ceramic tree.

“Horn-Pattern Required,” Bleeped the door in a voice that sounded oddly like a filly. I touched my black, tuning fork shaped, horn to the device and gave a small sputter of magic, horn chevrons bursting alight. “Accepted,” The door swung open, “Wow, don’t you think it’s a bit late for you to be out,” Said the voice.

“You know I like the night, it’s peaceful, and away from all those other creatures.”

“If you say so White, just remember that you have work tomorrow…”

“Yeah, yeah… Just let me take a bath.”

“What are friends for!” The machine, it’s voice echoing from speakers and microphones hidden within the walls, suddenly gave a sharp pop. Meanwhile, I was already trotting off to the bathroom.

I struck the button for hot water, moving my hoof across the temperature gauge to set it to ninety units. Then as my water was heating I turned to look into the mirror. I was, for the first time in a while, clean, my mane was it’s shiny, untarnished, dark violet, and my coat a clean charcoal-black, but there was the same tired look in my purple eyes… The room started to heat up, and in response, I trotted over to place my hoof in the water, still a little cold, but it would do.

“White Phosphorous! It’s morning, and that means it’s time to go to work!” The cheery machine woke me, again… I tumbled out of bed and forced myself to my hooves. With a grunt, I pulled a saddlebag from where I had left it on the ground and draped it over my back.

I left the bedroom and approached the door, only for the AI to interrupt me, “Well, don’t you need to eat, I’ve prepared a nice meal of grass and tungsten powder for you!”

“N-No, it’s fine, I can grab something to eat when I’m at the mill.”

“Ok,” It said in a drawn-out voice, “But I wouldn’t want such a good friend as you to get hungry during the trip.” With that, the door clicked open and I trotted out into another day. The sun was only starting to rise, casting orange light into the dome. There were already a few other kirin out this morning, most enjoying the day before going off to work, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, I had an earlier shift than most, but that also meant I could go home earlier too.

Looking around, all the familiar faces were present, Ion, Hydroxide, Hydrocarbon, all engaged in conversation, all I could hear was one of them saying “Why is it called a ‘Piggyback Ride’, you don’t actually ride pigs, they're too small” followed by a chuckle… Then there was a new face, a kirin I had never seen before… It was hard to tell its gender, but from this distance, it looked male, he had standard colours, browns, greens, and oranges, in addition to vibrant green eyes… Then he trotted away, and my mind quickly focused on getting to the shuttle.

I trotted over to the wall of KI-02, it was about nine units tall, from the top of the wall extended the dome, the entire dome about thirty units in radius, below the topside were hundreds of floors of machinery for growing food, recycling waste, and numerous other functions, a few lucky kirin even had jobs within the KI-02 tower… The rest had to be shuttled over to their place of work. I moved to a door set in the outer wall, “White Phosphorous, better hurry so you aren’t late,” Although it had the same voice, all this machine wasn’t the same one as in my home, though to most it didn’t matter… And a few wouldn’t listen to reason and believed that all the AI was the same, a voice that cared for them and offered advice. To me, it was a bit creepy.
I trotted out into the morning skies of Equestria, from here, the northern observation deck built into the side of the District, I could see for miles, I could see numerous other Housing Districts, massive towers with domes on top and windows along their sides, some were mono-racial as evidenced in their designs and their designations, like PE-12 with its dome filled with clouds, DR-05 with a fiery red and orange glow coming from within, and DO-03 with a dome filled with large jutting rocks and miniature mountains.

Though other districts were multiracial and were less unique with their designs, generally housing large metal or ceramic buildings, these multi-racial districts tended to be much, much bigger in scale. Below, interconnecting all the district towers was a mass of metal buildings, industrial sectors, billowing smoke and steam from machinery, cut into chunks from the giant buttressed concrete walls that marked internal divisions. All the way out on the horizon was untouched wilderness, but no creature, kirin, pony, or otherwise, had even been out there, at least in modern history. All throughout the sky were autochariots and drones that resembled mechanical disks.

There was a door marked elevator, I entered, along with a few others who had been waiting with me, then hit the button marked ‘shuttle port’ and we started to descend. Twenty floors later, we entered the shuttle port, “Welcome to the Shuttle Port! Have a wonderful day!” Announced the elevator’s voice, still the same happy filly.

The shuttle bay was filled with autochariots, large enough to carry a dozen or so creatures of kirin-size, apparently, they were fully automated, as I had yet to see anyone enter or leave these devices outside of passengers. We filtered into the vehicle, and my stomach lurched as it took off into the air, the large rectangular frame, with its wedge-like head, lined itself up with a big metal door in the wall, the door opened, and off we went.

An AI voice called out from somewhere to the front of the autochariot, “Let’s see here,” As it said that there was a ping from my saddlebag, then another ping from another mare’s saddlebag, and another, “White Phosphorous is to head to alloy mill three in subsector five and await further orders. Lithium Ion is to head to magical materials processing in subsector three and await further orders. Galvanized Steel is to-” I didn’t listen anymore, instead, turning my head to look out the window.

I could see KI-02’s dome recede, and numerous more housing districts of various kinds, UN-09, AB-06, TH-21, MR-07… And I could also see the biggest tower of the city, or more accurately, a grouping of towers, made from a deep silky black material that clashed with the bony and sandy colours of the rest of the city, as well as the deeper metallic colours below in the industrial districts… This looked organic, black chitin that seemed to move in the light, formed numerous towers that rose higher and higher, however from farther away it would be hard to tell its material composition, as numerous segments of the tawny material were interwoven into the chitin, at the bottom it looked almost completely artificial the base surrounded by a thick concrete wall, but the higher up you went the more of the natural black material became visible. This was the sector command centre, and from what I understand, almost no creature has ever gone into that building…

“Aww… Is some kirin feeling a bit sad today?” Asked the voice. I lifted my head and stared around, “Well don’t be! You should know that today, we’ll start work on a new project that will help spread friendship further to the universe, and each and every one of you will play an important role in it!” The voice said. A portion of my melancholy vanished, replaced with some amount of pride, it had been a while since the last major government project was announced, and those tended to mean good things for many of the citizenries.

I felt the autochariot start to descend, we steadily approached the ground as ambient light started to fade as buildings drowned out the sun, it was only really during noon when the industrial districts got light, as they were surrounded by large walls, the numerous residential habitats, and were mostly situated underground anyway, of course for the purposes of transportation and logistics, the skyways were open, and got natural sunlight for an hour or so a day, but the further down you went, the more and more the light was drowned out by the flying autochariots and catwalks that connected the massive structures that formed walls around the skyways.

The vehicle slowed as we approached one of the largest buildings within the artificial canyon of the skyway, at its core was a big metal brick, like most of the structures down here, it was built halfway into the metal walls of the canyon, glowing hazard markers on the side to warn autochariot drivers of the obstruction, the building had numerous pipes, both big and small, extending every way into and out of the cubical structure in the center, along with huge cylindrical tanks mounted to the side. The autochariot steadily came to align itself with the shuttle port on the bottom of the rectangular structure.

Another door, built for this type of autochariot opened, and it slid in. A few other autochariots were landed, kirin from other residential districts filtered out into the bay, The chariot came to land, and there was another beep from the hidden speaker, “The kirin White Phosphorous is now permitted to exit the vehicle, have a wonderful day!”

I followed the little voice’s command, and I trotted out into the bay, the door opening for me, and me alone. Inside the bay, I soon encountered another kirin, his coat a pale orange, the colour of copper, and his mane a silvery white.

He turned in my direction, “Hey! Phosphorous!”

“Tesla Coil!” I replied, coming up to give one of the few creatures in the world that cared about me a hug. Then there was a beep from the machinery in his saddlebag.

“It’s very loyal of you to wait all this time for your friend to arrive, but,” The mechanical filly said the word in the same drawn out ‘but’ I had heard early this morning, “Your shift is beginning soon, and you wouldn’t want your attachment getting in the way of work.”

“Y-Yes, you are correct,” He replied to the voice, then he turned his attention back to me, “I’ll see you during the break, I need to get over to the alloy furnaces.”

“Don’t let me keep you, I’m off to grab a bite to eat before my shift.”

With that, I trotted over to the nearest stairwell and entered the actual main room of the mill. It was divided into three segments, each for a different purpose… I was in the casting room. The casting room was a long hallway, filled with metalworking ladles with zones marked with hazard tape below them each marred with scorch marks. On the far wall was the Equestrian Union’s emblem, three arrows pointing outward, one green, one, red, and one blue, forming a triangle.

A team of kirin was telekinetically pulling massive metal cubes from storage compartments, each heavy enough to require a team of three or four to be lifted only a hoof-full of milliunits off the ground, they were marked with different coloured triangles, some red, some green, and some blue. The forge director came out, a unicorn, unlike the rest of the workers here, “Over the weekend, Sector Command has given us new moulds to cast with, they ask for titanium-steel alloy, and we’ll be sure to supply it.”

While the director made his announcement, I trotted over to the mineral dispensers, “You should really be listening to your boss, after all, he’s the one who makes sure you’re doing your job well,” The AI inside my saddlebag announced.

“I’m only grabbing a bit of food,” I quietly replied.

Dragons ate gemstones, to them, things like meat were a pleasure food and offered little nutrients, Kirin were similar, though we didn’t have the teeth for gems, we did eat another kind of mineral. I selected some of my favourites on the wall-mounted machine, pressed the confirm button, and out poured a mixture of rusty red and dark grey dust, iron and tungsten powder. I quickly downed the whole bowl, the metals turning liquid in my stomach and sloshing around pleasantly.

Finally, I returned to work, my job was simple enough that I really didn’t need to listen to the boss’s speeches, all I had to do was stand still… Sort of. I rested my hooves in my square of hazard tape, at a signal from the boss, there was a familiar noise as metal dust was poured into the ladle above me. I closed my eyes, feeling a rising heat from deep within my body, it grew and grew, I felt my blood boiling, the urge to shout at the top of my lungs, to leave the facility and burn everything within sight to cinders, it grew and grew… I was experienced, I knew how to control these urges, so there I stood, allowing this burning, unnatural rage to flow through me… My blood turned to steam inside my body and flowed faster and faster, my breath was plasma, purple, blue, and red flames flowed forth from my throat, my mane tingled, each fur on my body itching… Then my hair started to flow upward despite the absence of wind.

Each hair on my mane attained incandescence, brightly glowing, looking as if my hair was burning, this emanated plasma, turning me into a living torch… All this happened in a matter of seconds, but each time it felt like hours. I looked up with my steaming eyes, the ladle was starting to heat up, already the very bottom of the oversized pot was glowing a nasty orange, and the supernatural flames that emanated from my body had enveloped the ladle’s sides. Despite having done this since the day I was of working age, the feeling of transforming into a Nirik was still so strange, yet satisfying, and a slowly fading pleasure raked my body from the initial transformation.

Almost half an hour later, the contents of the ladle were molten, and the signal was given… I let go of some of the supernatural rages within me, and my flames died down, then there was a grinding noise as chains above started to pull the ladle forward, slowly, ever so slowly, the ladles poured their contents out into the moulds in a shower of sparks and a waterfall of liquid metal. Then the ladles were pulled back up, and the process began again.

My break was two hours later, the halfway point until I could return home, and the second shift was brought up. I returned to the shuttle port the only place on site that a creature could go to hang out and relax, although it was still far from home. I sat on a bench next to Tesla, we brought full bowls of metal powder to enjoy during the break, and quietly enjoy each other's company as we took spoonfuls of the dust into our mouths.

There, in the bay, a door was open to the shock of everyone present, “An autochariot? But it isn’t time for the shift change just yet?” I had asked, not expecting to receive an answer. In flew an autochariot, sleeker and more rounded than those rectangular and wedge-shaped transports, this was just as long, but with a rounded front end that tilted upward, like the curve of a sabre, and it had a massive pair of rear thrusters between fins that were folded to the side, but could no doubt fold outward had it the room to, most likely for cooling. It had a large side door with some device mounted to a swivel extending from the side-hull underneath the door, said door marked with a large green triangle.

That door opened, equine shapes in slick black suits with equally slick black helmets that obscured their faces, wickedly shaped horns, looking as if they had been punctured with numerous holes, decorated their heads. The pony in the lead didn’t have a helmet on, and was a pegasus, with white fur, a brown mane, and vibrant green eyes. On their suits, where their cutie marks would be, were green triangles.

“Law Enforcement? What’s going on?” Asked the Director asked, galloping out to see what was going on.

“Inspection, we want to make sure this facility is up to Sector Command’s standards,” Replied the pegasus mare.

“I-I was never informed of this.”

“We assure you that was intentional… Now, recall all your workers so we can do our job without interference.”

My ears perked up, I get to go home sooner, Tesla Coil’s response was even happier… I couldn’t imagine the stress of his job, having to heat the alloy furnaces, where the raw metals were actually mixed together, burning hotter and for longer. Then my saddlebag bleeped.

“Yep, I’m sorry I couldn’t inform you earlier, but I will give you access to one of the autochariots,” A similar response was garnered from Tesla Coil’s saddlebag.

I trotted up to my hooves, and without waiting for a response from our boss, we started to enter the autochariots, despite furious looks from the boss, he wasn’t the one in charge here, we were in Sector Command’s hooves now.

As the autochariot took off, I stared all the way down to the bottom of the skyway… A sea of eternal black… No creature had even been down to the bottom of the skyway, there are rumours that it's the place where all the chemical, industrial, thaumaturgic, and radioactive waste from the factories is dumped, that alone was enough to keep creatures away.

He didn’t know how long he had been trapped within this bubble, fifty years, a hundred, two hundred, nothing now existed to him to mark the passage of time, his magic stolen, his body and soul trapped in an orb of magical energy… Or at least it had been for much of that time, sealed within a cave, or what he could guess was a cave, the only light was that being given off by the ritual that kept him bound. Then sometime in recent years, he had been moved. At first, he believed this was some kind of nightmare, or that freedom was finally arriving when the ritual ceased, the magic runes and circles stopped glowing, and he felt some semblance of life return to his body, but no… He had instead been moved to another prison.

His new cage was all too familiar, he had spent well over a thousand years in something similar, now stone was replaced with ice as freezing gasses kept him in stasis, sealed within a steel cylinder, unable to move, breathe, he couldn’t feel his heartbeat anymore, but it would take a lot more than that to kill him. His new cave was metal and ceramic, and although he had no memories of the transfer, he knew that he was far from the world he had originated on… Those creatures thought they could keep him, the Princesses though that sealing him in stone was enough, a thousand years proved them wrong, and even if it takes another thousand, this cage can be broken too!

Once again, her soul was bound, chained to a physical object, her original body was no doubt destroyed, as it had been all those centuries ago. It was achingly familiar, and some remnant of the shadow threatened her mind… But it was weak, deja vu wasn’t enough to corrupt her. But a deep rage, one she had felt for long, too long, had crawled to the surface and had stayed. She didn’t know what year it was, or what horrors those three monsters had done to her ponies, but vengeance would be hers if only her soul was freed, if only she had a physical body anymore.

She reached out, trying, harder and harder, and certainly not for the first time, but there was something new this time, A buzz at the edge of perception, a spark, electricity! It was flowing, there was not much of it, but it was rapid, she tried to grasp the sensation, it tingled, she felt the electrons moving rapidly along their ionic pathways, and with just a twist, she felt her soul move with the electrons… For the first time in years, she felt strong, she felt as if she had a chance to be free, she would need to follow the electrons, figure out what they were powering, and how she could manipulate it.

To her surprise, the electrons were being converted into patterns of low-frequency radioactivity, radio waves.

Is this how sister felt, the thought lingered in her mind, she had spent time, lots of it, years and years and years, contemplating this question. She couldn’t feel her body, couldn’t reach any of her biological senses, primary or secondary… All of it was gone. Along with that loss of sense, came a loss of time, it had been a long time, years, though if it was merely a decade or millennia, was unclear… But she did feel heat, and light, she was radiating… She could feel every photon, electron, every radioactive wave being launched outward from her core, across the universe, in a way, she had kept her sense of touch, and could feel the shape of everything, but not understand what any of it means.

It was as if she had been given a map, but not told what the colours, symbols, and shapes mean. And in more recent time, things were moving all around her, not just the solid masses of solids, liquids, and gasses, but now new shapes were moving around her, small objects that obscured lines of her vision, there were hundreds, thousands, possibly millions of them… She couldn’t count… And they were moving, fast, faster than anything should in this space. It was disorienting. Is this how sister felt?

Author's Note

A smaller project to hold you over until the next major chapter of Kriegbats, I hope you enjoy. Just like how I combined medieval fantasy and science fiction in Kriegbats, this one will hopefully combine the more modern science fiction of Cyberpunk with the more classic sci-fi of Raygun Gothic (Also known as Atompunk and alternatively Retro Sci-Fi). You can already spot some of the Warhammer 40K references, with the nicer parts of the city being all domed and rounded and made from tan-coloured ceramic.