Space Engineers: Starship Unknownby Stalin with Da SpoonChaptersPrologue: Space, The Final Frontier1: Quite a Crash, and It ISN'T Craz's fault!2: Rally the Crew!3: Escaping from Planet Bob4: Cap'n, The Ponies Are Talkin'!5: Perplexing Pastel Ponies6: Strange TimesPrologue: Space, The Final FrontierStar System Gaia, Victoria Sector C6. The void of space was dead quiet, no sound to fill the endless expanse of the dark perpetual void surrounding a lone planet within this solar system. But then... A lone vessel slowly drifted into view, its engines burning as the ship slowly came into the illumination of the light emanating from the system's sun, which was for some reason, orbiting the only planet in the system. The vessel bared the red and black color scheme of Redwood Industries, as steel wording on the side of the ship read 'Tigris'. As it slowly burned through the void of space, within the bridge of the ship, could be seen Rear-Admiral Jack Roberts, or simply referred to as Captain Jack, sitting in the center of the bridge, his crew around him, as Lieutenant Reed spoke up from his console, viewing a display of the star system. "Admiral, we have entered star system Gaia of the Victoria sector." Captain Jack nodded in confirmation as he turned to his other officer sitting in the second chair in front of him. "Lieutenant Higgs, report our status." The man nodded before taking a quick look at several screens in front of him. "Sir, were already rigged for silent running on engines, and all systems are operational and standing by. Nothing on comms or sensors currently." One of Jack's friends behind him then spoke up through his helmet radio, his voice speaking clearly thanks to the advanced headsets built into the crew's suits. "Wait one admiral, we got a faint distress signal coming through... Roughly about 15 clicks out... No clear source, appears to be emanating from a large asteroid cluster. It might be the signal that RWI command detected." Jack nods in acknowledgement, as he speaks to commander Craz in the back. "Commander Craz, how about any other ships in the area, getting any other signals?" "Long range scans show no other ships in the surrounding area, and there isn't even any comms buoys around... We are alone out here." "Alright, lets see if we can lend assistance." Castle then happily chimed in. "I sense a potential salvage opportunity then." He happily said in his heavy scottish accent, as Reed spoke in an amused tone. "Stealth already going out the window sir? Don't you remember what happened last time?" "When has this crew ever been stealthy mister Reed? Besides, far as I'm concerned, we should be the only vessel for lightyears out here, maybe the only ship in this entire sector. Helm, set a course." The ship slowly began to turn to the right as the engines ignited, while Craz noticed something as he turned in his seat towards the window. "Anybody else notice that the sun is... Ummmm, how do I say this... Orbiting that planet?" Castle looked to see it, and had a look of confusion on his face. "How in hell is that even possible?" Reed of course tried to explain it. "Most likely a small star wound up in the planets gravitational field and began to orbit it." Higgs then noticed another crucial detail. "Then why are the sun and moon both standing still?" "Wait, what?" "Yeah, look, they aren't even moving! Well, either that, or they are just moving very slowly." The entire crew on the bridge looked to see both sun and moon completely unmoving. Jack was unsure how to react to say the least. "Perhaps this is something we best leave to the RWI science department to understand. Captain Hawk will be delighted to hear about this." Everyone in the bridge nodded in agreement, as everyone proceeded to have small talk. "So Mr Castle, how are the new targeting systems handling?" Reed spoke to his welsh compatriot. "I don't know why, but for some reason the targeting messenger keeps talking about potatoes. Must be a bug." "Maybe it has something to do with the pyramids. But anyways, it's good to have you and Finn back. That whole mess on Monus III with the green drone remnants was chaotic. Good thing we dealt with them before they could become a major problem." "Yeah, tell me about. It's a bloody miracle we survived that shitstorm. Gotta admit, I love salvaging and running Dawnstar, but damn does it feel good to be back in the saddle. Heck, maybe I'll still get to salvage whatever ship is sending the distress signal." "Hate to break up whatever you guys are talking about back there, but were here." Captain jack said as a cluster of large asteroids could be seen on approach, drifting aimlessly through the void as the ship weaved through them and avoided collision. "Alright, can you get a better signal now?" "Affirmative, attempting to fully lock on... Huh..." "What is it, Reed?" Captain Jack said standing up from his seat, Castle seizing the oppurtunity and taking the seat for himself. "He he, mine." As Jack walked over to Reed, he then shared his worried look. "Looks like a green drone signal but... All garbled and messy." "I can't read it, like at all, there is simply no form of transmission signal in our database that matches it. Perhaps it's just a corrupted beacon from during the war?" "Then where the hell is it's source? I don't see anything out here-" Suddenly, alarms began to blare as emergency lights flashed red and put everyone on edge as they quickly turned to their terminals. "Captain, radar just lit up like a christmas tree!" Craz shouted, looking at the radar screen to see several red dots. "Crap, Castle, gimme the seat back!" Jack yelled as Castle jumped from the seat and Jack sat down, quickly readying himself for battle as he grabbed the intercom of the ship and spoke into it. "All hands to battle stations! It's an ambush!" He shouted as everyone on deck quickly ran around, taking seats and engaging control of the defense systems, as the turrets on the outside of the ship activated and began scanning the void. From behind the asteroids emerged several rapidly moving fighter craft, lacking any insignia or paint on them as they boosted towards the Tigris. A hail of bullets and heat seeking missiles flew through the void toward the squadron of unmarked ships rapidly approaching at a fast pace, quickly maneveuring and surrounding the Tigris as they fired rockets and autocannons at the ship. The shields of the Tigris were seen pulsing bright blue and blocking the various bullets and missiles, the shock of the explosiosn still slightly rocking the ship. "Captain, shields are holding, but charge is running low!" Reed shouted in panic, before a lucky rocket managed to hit an enemy fighter in the wing and caused it to spin out of control and collide with an asteroid, as Craz shouted in victory. "Scratch one! Wahoo!" Castle then yelled in pure welsh rage as he blew apart another fighter, watching it's wreckage directly crash into one of its squadmates and knock it off course. "Eat that ya cunt!" Before Castle could continue celebrating his victory, a loud boom rang out across the ship, as Higgs spoke in a panicked tone. "Shields have been breached! Engine four has suffered a direct missile hit! Fires spreading on deck 2!" Captain Jack gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Blast it! Reed, get together a fire suppression and repair crew, ASAP!" "On it captain!" Reed said jumping from his chair and looking to a few of his fellow crewmates. "Craz, Owen, Venom, with me!" He said rushing off down the stairs below deck as his comrades followed closely behind, grabbing fire extinguishers as they descended down into the lower decks. "Castle, whats the status on getting our shields back up?" "Shield generator is heavily damaged sir, can't get it online when were being hit from all angles! At this rate, we're gonna have more bullets in our hull than there are in your average Rambo movie!" "Damn it, you're right, we gotta go on the offensive! Higgs, divert all available power to weapons!" "Understood captain! MAXIMUM POWER!" Higgs said as he tapped a few buttons on his console as power flowed to every gun turret as they began unloading rockets and bullets into the attacking fighters, as they were almost wiped out with the few remainin fighters scattering to avoid being destroying in clumps. "Suck on that, ya bastards!" But his celebration was cut short, as another explosion rang out, and Craz came in over the radio. "They blew open the hangar doors! Barely managed to seal it off from the rest of ship before the whole damn thing got depressurized!" A rocket flew right into the cockpit of a fighter, scoring a direct as the flaming wreckage drifted and impacted the front deck, breaking off a turret and leaving a sizable dent in the armor. "Admiral, engines two and three are critical!" Most admirals and captains would be panicking right now, but not Captain Jack. He had seen his fair share of battles and close calls, and they had molded him into the perfect commanding officer. As he kept his composure, he looked out the window, the green and blue of the planet below catching his attention as he quickly turned to Higgs. "Higgs, set course for that planet, we need to commence an emergency landing now or else we soon won't have a ship to land!" "Understood admiral!" The ship slowly began to turn away while still shredding the enemy fighters coming its way. As it tore away from its enemy assailants, it began to enter the planet's atmosphere. "Sir, the gravity is pulling us down too fast, we can't land without digging this thing halfway into the ground!" "Blast it! Engage emergency shielding!" Captain Jack quickly grabbed the radio on his seat and spoke through the ship speaker system while armored blast shields lowered over the windows of the bridge. "ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT! IT'S GONNA BE A ROUGH LANDING!" 1: Quite a Crash, and It ISN'T Craz's fault!The sound of warning alarms filled the air, as terminals and screens flashed with alerts and warnings. Showers of sparks burst from damaged lights and torn open circuits, fires raged across all decks, the sound of rapid footsteps and paniced yelling can be heard, as Captain Jack slowly opens his eyes, the visor on his helmet being shattered, gritting his teeth in pain from a horrid headache he was having, as he looks to see Castle and Craz standing above him with visors up and lights on, as warning lights flickered on and off above, sparks falling, and smoke filling the air. "Hey, hes waking up! Captain, can you hear us?" Craz spoke, trying to get the captain's attention "Wake the fuck up, cap'n, the ship's fucked!" Castle yelled violently in the captain's face. "Jesus, tone it down Castle! Damn it..." Jack said gripping the sides of his head with his hands. "Well, at least he's awake. Anyways, yeah, shits on fire, Reed and Venom are currently trying to stop engine one from exploding, Finn and Horza have been trying to quell the fires, Owen and Higgs are busy patching holes, and Bash is just crying in a corner from stress." Craz slowly explained the situation to the captain, as both men then assisted him in standing up. "Hooo boy your heavy." "Craz, you're one to talk, Finn and I had to carry your fat arse out of the pub that one time." "I thought we agreed never to speak of it again, Castle." "Aye, but that doesn't mean i'm gonna let you live it down." Castle said as he chuckled, before getting whacked by Craz. As Jack fully stood, he lifted his visor and grasped his head as he groaned. "Fuck me... Head feels like its about to burst..." "Yeah, to be expected cap'n, when we impacted the ground you went flying out of your seat straight into the floor, knocked ya out good. Surprised you don't have a bloody concussion." Castle said pointing to the ground where Jack had been laying to reveal a tiny dent in the floor. "Damn, your helmet is pretty tough, Admiral. Surprised it didn't totally bust open." Craz said as he whistled at the visible damage done to the floor. "Yeah, thanks Craz... Alright, any idea where we are?" "Well, if you would look out the window behind you..." Craz said pointing behind the captain, as he turned to see quite a sight when the blast shields over the windows lowered. The very end of the ship's bow was buried within the earth, and several dents and holes could be seen in the armor. Surrounding the ship would be a staggering amount of trees, as well as tall grass, and in the distance some mountains could be seen, all illuminated by the emanating moonlight above as well as the raging fires burning on the ships outer hull and spreading to the nearby tall grass. "From what our scans show, the planet has plenty of oxygen, so no need to worry about that. Although you could probably tell by the fact the glass is shattered." Jack nodded, taking a sigh of relief as he marveled at the sight. "Gotta say, a better crash spot than most other places we've landed." Castle nodded with a snicker. "I'll say cap'n, least it ain't a frigid wasteland or some desert. Not a single patch of sand or snow for miles." Both Craz and Jack agreed on that one. "Well, whats the damage report?" Craz walked over to one of the only terminals that was still functioning, as he tapped at the keyboard and reviewed the ship's systems, being barraged with warnings and alerts. "Well, all engines are either damaged or totally destroyed, we have multiple hull breaches, our jump drive is thoroughly fucked, weapon systems and shields are down, fires spreading on all decks, mass electrical failures, reactors on the verge of going critical, oh, and did I mention comms are down as well?" Jack audibly groaned out of frustration, as Castle tried to lighten things up. "Aye, least we ain't dead, right?" "Your right Castle, but things are still quite bad. Let's work on getting those fires under control and restoring the electrical grid, after that we fix up the breaches and try to patch up the comms antenna, see if we can get word back to RWI command. Even without a comms buoy in the system we should be able to at least send out a distress call hoping a relay picks it up." Jack ordered to his crewmate's as they both saluted. "Aye aye, cap'n." Castle said as he ran down the stairs, politely passing Reed. "Scuse me, Reed." "All good, Castle." Reed says as he comes up the stairs to Captain Jack. "Good to see your awake admiral, I trust you've been briefed on the situation?" "Indeed Mr Reed, I am fully aware of our current state. Is engine one under control?" "Yes captain, Venom finally got the fire suppression systems working and cooled the engine down. The other engines have been shut down to prevent further damage." Jack audibly sighed in relief, as Venom came running up behind Reed, visibly exhausted as he wiped some sweat from his helmet visor. "Good news, I managed to get engine two partially functional and no longer burning as bright as this worlds sun, but engine three is still thoroughly fucked, and as a Canadian, I can sufficiently say that engine four is currently the hottest thing aboard this ship even after being shut off." Venom said in his traditional Canadian accent. Captain Jack's comm device then whirred to life as Finn spoke on the other end of it. "Captain, fires are now under control, only fires remaining inside are within the hangar bay, and Horza has already begun venting procedure. Recommend keeping your visor down though, it'll be smokey for a bit." Jack was glad to hear Finn and Horza had succeeded, as he congratulated them. "Good work, Finn, now go help Higgs and Owen patch those breaches." "Yes, captain!" As Finn ended the comm line, another opened up. "Captain, I'm done sitting in my corner, and I noticed that the rover we were supposed to have in the hangar bay is gone." "Of course its missing Bash, the hangar door was blown open during the battle!" "Oh right, well anyways, I'm gonna go ahead and work on fixing the door." "Yes, do that, we need to get the ship at least partially repaired by sun rise." Finishing his chat with Bash, he turned back to Craz and Reed. "Gentlemen, you go ahead and assist with repairs. I'll join you soon." They both nodded, as they ran down the stairs while Jack turned back to face out the window, deciding it was time to do a good ol captains log. "Captains log, hooo boy, ain't done of these in a while... Anyways, its been 3 days since we left RWI space, and a couple hours ago we recently arrived in this new system, only to be ambushed by hostile fighters and forced to make an emergency landing. Me and the crew survived with a few minor injuries, however I cannot speak for the Tigris, as it has seen better days. Me and the crew are going to try and get the ship fully repaired before we consider setting up a base on this planet, and hopefully find a way to establish contact with RWI command. However, the worst bit of news, we have almost no bloody idea what attacked us, though considering how we encountered green drone remnants on Monus III, it goes without saying there is a possibility that another rouge cell of the armada operates within this sector." The captain took in a deep breath before continuing. "Thankfully, I have my trusty crew with me. However, due to the uncharted nature of this planet, I am not sure what to expect, but luckily, this planet has an abundance of oxygen in its atmosphere, most likely due to the large amount of forestry and greenery. I must admit, it is quite beautiful, and if it can support plant life, could it support an intelligent species? Perhaps we may finally encounter organic alien life, cause the drones don't count. Anyways, I'm off to patch some holes and fix my visor before helping with the repairs, end log." Two hours earlier... Twilight was currently standing on the balcony of her library, overlooking the entirety of Ponyville, and beyond it, the everfree forest, simply looking over the area with a smile on her face, as she then turned to the stars. Her new castle was a pretty great place for star gazing, as she sat on her haunches and observed the sky. However, something caught her eye... A small shooting star appeared... However, it wasn't a shooting star, and it was getting bigger and closer, on a direct course with the everfree, as Twilight watched in horror as a massive steel object crashed down into the forest, a massive plume of smoke and fire rising from the crash site. As Twilight looked on in confusion and fear, her good friend and assistant Spike ran out to see what the commotion was. "What the hay was that!?!" Spike asked his friend in a panicked tone. "I dunno, but it seemed to crash down deep in the everfree, and I think it's on fire..." "Well, that's worrying... Should we go and investigate?" "Yes, Spike, I think that would be for the best... You go ahead and wake up the others..." As Spike nodded, Twilight turned back to the forest, wondering what had crashed down in her proverbial back yard. High in orbit above the planet, lies a large hulking vessel slowly drifting through space, it's purple paint shining in the suns light and illuminating the ships hull, having a similar design to a bee hive. The vessel had several marking spray painted on the side, one of them being a symbol of a welder and a grinder underneath a skull, similar to a skull and crossbones, the words 'Last Stand' written under them in bold black and gold font. The ship lacked any windows, with the only access point being a large circular hangar door, as it opened in a spiral motion and allowed a small drone to fly inside. Within the vessel was a large cargo bay with loose scaffolding, sparking wires, loose bolts, and creaking metal, along with a few re-programmed drones hovering around, moving cargo. On the ground there were several engineers welding and repairing broken drones, grinding down salvage and scrap metal, and in one case driving a forklift to move large machinery around. At the center in a control center surrounded by screens sat the captain of the vessel, Aaron, along with some of his cohorts. "Feels good to be back in the saddle Aaron, I missed it like this to be honest. No more fighting wars for the DRF, just roaming the galaxy and being care free adventurers for us!" Aaron simply chuckled as he looked to his friend, while he held a crate of salvage scrap. "Indeed. So, Papple, how was your time with RWI?" Aaron asked as he turned to Papple, who was welding a damaged drone. "Quite enjoyable, after the war I joined the engineering corp and helped to fix some of the damage caused during the war. Course, even after I got my old body back I couldn't resist joining back up with you Aaron. I may have been programmed and brain washed to be loyal to the DRF, but you're still a good guy. Speaking of which, how the hell did you survive the battle of the colonies?" "Well, its a combination of sheer luck, and cloning." "Ahhhh, okay. Hey, wheres Finchy?" As he said that, Finchy could be seen riding on his ultimate hover chair creation. "Yahoo, I missed this thing!" Finchy said as he then accidentally knocked BB over the head, who was carrying a heavy crate, as he dropped it on his foot. "Ah bloody hell, piss off with that flying thing before I grind it down!" Hardman and Apathy were watching the display, as they burst out laughing. Conrod was currently working adjusting to adjust the ship's course, when he spotted a signal. "Hey Aaron! Got something here on the scanner." "Whatever it is, it better not be some kind of weird giant alien creature, or I will lose my shit. We already had to deal with one of those last week." Aaron said turning to Conrod as he stood and turned to a communications screen. "Got something on the signal detecter, seems to be a distress signal. Should we investigate?" Drunken Scotsman was currently standing next to him, still trying to scan the signal. "Can you determine the origin?" Aaron asked as he turned to Scotsman. "Nope." Scotsman said in a typical Scottish accent. "Good enough for me, set a course." Ryan was listening in, as he chuckled while slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. "So, were good guys now, good to see." Aaron looked over and deadpanned at Ryan, while Papple and Finchy just laughed, and Habbsy just sighed. "Told ya bringing this crew together was a bad idea, Aaron." Habbsy said, before getting slapped across the face, as the drunken scotsman broke out into laughter. "Shut it, Habs. Now let's go see whos calling for help." 2: Rally the Crew!The sounds of slow footsteps echoed throughout the steel hull of the vessel, the creaking and waning of the metal hull, the strain of constant movement and structural weakness sounding out with audible creeks and groans bellowing within. It was unnerving to an un-experienced crewman, someone who hasn't been in this kind of situation before. That's why it was so calming for Grand Admiral Jack Roberts, he was simply used to this kind of thing, and to him, the sounds of a ship's hull straining and waning was better than it tearing at the seams and breaking apart all around him. The rest of his seasoned veteran crew could agree, having survived practically dozens of crash landings and hull breaches over the years. Of course, that didn't mean everyone was necessarily calm and collected. Remember, they were still stranded on an alien world, with no weapons, jump drive, communications, or form of transportation. They were effectively stranded in completely uncharted territory as well, and seeing as this operation was officially off the records, in other words, a black ops, there was not going to be a search and rescue team for a loooooong time... As such, it was best the crew settle in, as Castle and Finn were currently outside the ship with their grinders, grinding down and salvaging any broken off parts of the ship, because that's what they do best. On the interior of the ship, repairs were still being made, as Venom, Owen, Reed, and Bashful were currently running repairs in the bridge section, welding back together broken and frayed wires, re-fitting displays, adjusting power levels, bolting on new armor plates, affixing new glass windows, and chatting among themselves as they did so. "So you're certain about your decision, Reed?" "Yes, I am certain, the first Starship Troopers is the best, Mr Venom." "Bold words there, Reed. Everyone knows Starship Troopers Two is the best of the series." "Owen, your on thin ice pal, I agree with Reed, the first is always the best." "Bite me Bash, least nobody here likes the third installment, that movie was... Well, it was decent, but still." "Yeah, ya got a point, we can all agree, the third is inferior." Venom said as collective nods and grunts of acknowledgment and agreement sounded out from the crew mates, meanwhile Higgs and Horza were busy down in the lower bowels of the ship, taking readings of the main reactor core. "Okay, so, I would try to look at the reactor readings... If it weren't for these damn errors! Somebody installed a damn Bonzai buddy!" Higgs said as he sat in a chair affixed to a large computer terminal, several screens flashing with alerts and warnings, Higgs trying to clear up some space on his screen by clicking the 'x' button on each of the pop ups, simply causing more to appear as he groaned in frustration. "Damn you Bonzai buddy, why do you curse me with popups?!?" Horza just chuckled, sitting at his own terminal, as he lended his friend some assistance. "Here, lemme divert some computing power to you, the central CPU can take it." Horza says typing away at the keyboard on his terminal, as Higgs looked to see his screen cleared up, now getting clear readings of the reactor's energy readings and power levels. "Alright, reactor is in a somewhat stable condition, relatively undamaged from the impact, power is somewhat regulated, although distribution is utterly fucked due to the electrical network being in tatters. Energy readings are somewhat standard, radiation is still contained, which is a miracle considering we nearly got a direct hit to it." Horza nodded, as he went back to typing at his terminal. "Right, better make sure we don't waste any power, seeing as this reactor is quite strained already. I'll shut down some un-necessary functions, like oxygen production, seeing as we are on an atmospheric planet. Weapon systems are already buggered, so no use diverting power to ammo production. Shield generation is somewhat functional, but no use for it, shut that down... Alright, power seems pretty well distributed for now." Higgs nodded in confirmation, before a buzz could be heard on his comms. "This is commander Craz, the Admiral has ordered all crew to assemble in the bridge for debriefing." Higgs looked to Horza, who had also received the message, as they both quickly stood up and got out of their seats, quickly rushing out of the engine bay. Meanwhile, in the captains quarters, Craz ended the comm link as he turned to Captain Jack, who was currently sitting at his table in his office, which he had won after the long and grueling office wars. "Announcement made, Admiral." Captain Jack audibly chuckled as he held a hand up. "Craz, please, just call me captain, being admiral doesn't mean I forsake my duty as the captain of this wayward shitstorm of crew." Craz chuckled as Jack stood up from his chair, as they both walked out of the quarters and through the halls of the ship. "Yep, heard about all the chaos you guys went through helping Castle, laughed my ass off when I saw him go interstellar in the database!" Both Craz and Jack burst out into laughter as Jack could barely breathe as he spoke between chuckles. "Heh, we had so many catastrophes I couldn't even count them! Praise be Clang I guess." "Praise be. Anyways captain... About what we saw up there, you think they're still a threat, or just a slight pain in the ass?" "I know, Craz, i've been thinking about it too... If the green drones somehow manage to re-organize, then the galaxy might be in danger once again." "Guess we just have to put them in their place again!" Craz shouted defiantly, Jack chuckling as they slowly climbed the stairs, entering the bridge section to see the crew all lined up along the center of the room, as the Captain slowly walked to the very back of the bridge, standing in front of the large window overlooking the forest behind him, his crew looking to him as he began to speak. "Gentlemen, I have assembled you here because I believe it is time we assess our current situation and determine our next course of action. So, first things first, our ship has been heavily damaged due to enemy ambush, and generally the situation is fucked. Repairs are of course running along as planned, thanks to your hard work, and our power is operational at least, but we still have several problems. Our jump drive is currently in a sorry state, our communications systems have been completely decimated, our weapon systems are dysfunctional, and we lost our rover. Seeing as a lack of ground transportation could be detrimental, we shall begin work on a standard RWI Marauder Class rover design." Jack says, taking a step to the side as a large red holo screen appeared, displaying the image of the standard twin-cockpit RWI exploration and reconnaissance rover. As the blueprint was displayed to the crew, audible ooh's and ahh's could be heard. Once everyone shut up, Jack continued. "While this rover project is one of our priorities, our top priority is going to be constructing a base of operations, seeing as operating out of a wreck halfway embedded in the ground is not a good idea. The base will start off relatively basic, and seeing as we are surrounded by trees and the majority of identified ore deposits are deep below us, it is best we build the base underground, complete with an underground garage and hangar bay." Jack says, displaying blueprints of the large base, including room designs and measurements, as everyone nodded in agreement, with Castle and Finn being particularly excited. "Now then, I shall address the elephant in the room, something I am sure all of you are wondering. While I highly doubt the green drones are somehow coming back, especially after we sent the Controller and the Artifact careening into a blackhole, but I don't doubt the possibility are some kind of rouge remnants out there, fighting without orders or reason, just luring ships into traps like the one we encountered in orbit of this planet. The age of the signal indicates it's from a period during the war, so we may be opposing a remnant that doesn't even know they've lost yet." "Of course, we also know that these remnants are somewhat organized as we saw during our second tenure on Monus III, but as far I saw these, it's possible these may not be green drones and only pirates and scavengers using stolen tech. But if they are, they are likely be isolated and alone. So before you go panicking, I believe this is simply a rouge squadron we need to mop up. But if it's something more, this planet could be in danger, and we need to be ready for anything. Regardless, that concludes this assembly, you are all dismissed!" Jack shouted, his crew nodding as they went back to work, with Jack just turning to look out the window out of the ship's bridge, and to the stars. "So, lemme get this straight, you wanna re-brand to the Freelance Exploration Force?" "Yeah Papple, it's the perfect title! We get paid to explore, we'll be living the dream and making the big bucks while doing it!" "Finchy, your insane." "I know. Anyways, how long till we reach that signal?" "It's still quite a while, this ship is slow as shite." "Yeah, fair enough. Wonder if anyone else has picked up the signal..." "Ehhhh, who knows, heck, we might get several other ships arriving considering the power of this signal. Guess we better get there first to call dibs for exploration and salvage." "Yeah, sounds like a plan mates." The green monitoring screen displayed the image of the crew of Aaron's hive ship all talking amongst each other, before slowly distorting and fading away, as a tall figure in a black suit, with bright green tertiary lighting slowly turned to the person standing beside them. "They are none the wiser, sir." "Excellent... Soon, all the greatest engineers in the galaxy shall be lured to this world... And here on this planet of intrigue... We shall snuff out both them and the threat they pose. Permanently." 3: Escaping from Planet BobPlanet Bob. An unknown world on the far reaches of unknown space, un-explored, un-charted, un-inhabited. Well, except for that last part, as we zoom in on a large base in the middle of an ice lake, a large facility constructed by Captain Shack, Commander W4stedspace, and Doctor Morphologis, created thanks to the hole dug by their mining rig. And right now, the base was not looking so hot. The facility was lined with a tall square shaped outer wall, reinforced with steel plating, and right now, it had definitely seen better days, with massive holes and gaps in between the walls and some sections fully collapsing, as swarms of armored combat drones, big and small, varying in color and armament, assaulted the fortress. Inside the facility, as the entire base shook from tremors and detonations, as dust and small amounts of rocky debris fell from the ceiling inside. The hallways began to collapse and cave in as ceiling lights became loose and began to spark, with bits of the metal ceiling falling. The situation was desperate, and honestly, quite bleak. Within the deepest part of the base was the hangar. The room was brightly illuminated by floodlights connected to generators, the light shining all the way up to the command view deck of the hangar, and in the center of it was a massive spacecraft. Along the side of the ship was the name 'Venator' written in bold red font, because Shack was such a big star wars buff. The ship was painted bone white with red secondary and black tertiary coloring, brightly illuminated at its front aimed right up at the hanger door. The armored plating on the ship was thick and densely packed together, meant to resist even the toughest of munitions and impacts. Several massive hydrogen thrusters were mounted onto its bottom, as well as multiple smaller thrusters on its sides. Those of course, were only the boosters required to actually get the ship into orbit, which would detach when their fuel ran out. The main ship itself was mounted to these boosters, its frame similar to that of the Warden, the crew's dropship, however it was a bit larger and more armored, complete with additional weapons and it's top machine gun mount being replaced with a miniature armored and enclosed turret, designed by Morph, along with having more boosters to allow for space flight and greater maneuverability in atmosphere. Mounted on the very top of the main ship's frame was a large pulsing blue device, a throwaway jump core. As the name suggested, Morph created it as a way for the ship to make a one way jump within a set range and then jettison the burned out core. It was genius, frankly. The crew were currently working on preparing the ship for launch, as Morph was currently on the second level doing some last minute welding and running readings, as the sounds of sparks and grinding filled the air, accompanied by the chorus of explosions and gun fire above them. "Outer wall integrity at twenty five percent. Outer defence turret munitions at eighty percent depletion. Estimated breach of internal defences in five minutes." A feminine robotic voice chimed in over the speakers, as it belonged to TIUS, a back talking sarcastic robotic AI created by the good Doctor Morphologis, as the very annoyed and stressed Doctor responded while he worked. "I know, TIUS! Don't pressure us! Wasted, how is the fuel going? Please tell me were almost ready, I can barely stand another second longer on this godforsaken planet." Morph said, looking down from where he was currently looking to the floor of the hangar, seeing Commander W4astedspace viewing the readout on a long red pipe leading into the thrusters of the rocket, as he turned and gave a thumbs up. "Were at ninety five percent Morph, she'll be ready to fly real soon." "Oh thank god... Captain, how go the last minute calibrations?" Morph said as he looked up and shouted to Captain Shack, who was currently sitting in the front cockpit of the ship, running some final calibrations to ensure the ship was ready, before he slowly climbed out of the cockpit seat and onto the bridge, as he walked to the other side and grasped onto a ladder before sliding down and arriving on the second level. "She's all set, and good timing too, swear I heard a drone impact the damn hangar door..." Just then, TIUS chimed in. "Confirmed, the drones are attempting to ram into the hangar door. Also, munitions for outer defence weapon systems have been fully depleted, and wall integrity is at ten percent, breaching of base via ground level drone forces is imminent. I advise you get done soon before the enemy fully breaches our defenses." All three of the crew proceeded to curse at the same time. "Shit." Just then, a loud ding was heard, as Wasted looked at the readout on the pipe and smiled as he chuckled and called out to the second level. "Alright, shes fueled up, let's get off this damn rock!" Shack nodded as he looked upwards to see R5 equipped with two welders working above him, as he called out. "Alright R5, it's time for the transfer!" R5 let out a series of dis-gruntled beeps and boops. "Don't worry R5, as soon as we reach Federation space and get back on solid ground, we'll get you a new body, one better than the old hunk of junk you got." R5 let out a slight beep of annoyance, seemingly being offended. "I didn't mean it like that! Come on man, just work with me." R5 was silent before letting out a happy beep and a bloop of confirmation as he hovered down next to Shack. As Shack got to work extracting R5's AI core, Wasted turned to Morph and asked him an important question. "Did you get Potatoes on the ship already?" "Yeah, she didn't really resist, in fact, she seemed eager, probably because it's a new body for her. How about that AI you have?" "Oh, who, J.A.R.V.I.S?" "Just Another Rehash of a Very Intelligent System? Yeah, the one that helped you make the Rapier drone that saved our asses when we got back from blowing up that jammer outpost and you hid the entire time. By the way, man why did you keep him secret from us? You couldve told us you had your own AI available, the reason TIUS reacted so badly was you kept a secret from her!" It was then TIUS chimed in. "Actually, I knew the entire time, I was just angry the Commander kept it a secret from the rest of the crew." "Wait, really?" "No, I just wanted to make him feel bad. Besides, it was not hard to trace JARVIS's AI signature from within the base." Cue Wasted facepalming his helmet's faceplate. "Anyways, the Rapier was fitted with a drone transponder that effectively made it invisible to the drones, so I managed to scavenge the transponder of that type 6 we shot down, and attached it to the Venator, so the drone will think that it's a simple type six drone as we slip away. As for JARVIS, I just re-installed him into my suit, he's offline currently to save power." "Alright then, Captain, have you got R5's AI downloaded?" Captain Shack looked up from the now offline recon drone body as he nodded. "Yep, saved onto the suit, so c'mon, were good to go." Morph and Wasted nodded, as TIUS spoke. "I have already downloaded myself into the ship, we are green to go, I shall initiate launch preparations. I have also prepped a total lockdown to ensure the base does not fall into enemy hands." "Alright then, let's get off this planet." Shack said as he began to climb up to third level, the Commander and Doctor following him. As he reached the top, he slowly crossed the bridge leading to the open frontal and back cockpits of the ship, slowly climbing inside the front cockpit as he sealed it shut, locking it as the Commander climbed into the back cockpit, while the Doctor climbed into the open top hatch and inside the rear compartment of the ship, closing the hatch and sealing it shut behind him. As the bridge slowly retracted back, the Captain began the countdown. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five..." As Shack counted down, the thrusters on the ship slowly began to ignite, heating up rapidly as the hangar door began to slowly open. "Four, three, two, one... Ignition!" The ship's thrusters ignited with full force, as the massive spacecraft lifted out of the hangar bay, as it sealed shut behind the rocket, and the base's lights shut down completely with heavy blast doors and barriers covering the main entrances. As the rocket propelled itself upward into the sky, the G force began to impact the crew, but thanks to their astronaut training, they could handle it, as the ship slowly exited Planet Bob's atmosphere. "Thruster sets are out of fuel, jettisoning." Wasted said as he pressed a few buttons in his cockpit, as the thrusters attached to the bottom of the Venator slowly detached, metal cables snapping and whipping around as they fell back down to the planet, burning up in it's atmosphere. "Alright, let's do this, begin charging the throw away jump core-" "Wait, TIUS says she's picking up an unknown signal!" "Confirmed, I am detecting an unknown signal in a system approximately within the jump core's range. It appears to be a distress signal, though it's origin is unknown." The captain had a puzzled look, before making a decision. "Charge the core TIUS, let's go and save the day, getting back home can wait a little longer." "Hell yeah." "Let's do this, Captain! And Morph, if this core makes this ship wind up like the Constitution, it's your ass." And with that, the core began to charge, and after a seconds... The ship jumped, heading for uncharted space. Meanwhile, back on Planet Bob, an unknown figure had been watching the whole launch. A figure wearing a black suit, with a massive hole in their chest. Several drones approached the figure, and made un-intelligible beeping and whirring, before the figure raised its hand, and pointed at the shuttle. The drones beeped in unison, and flew away. The figure was not done with the crew yet... Not by a long shot. Author's Note Hope you enjoyed this little side chapter showing how Captain Shack and the crew escaped planet Bob. Don't worry, next equestria based chapter will arrive soon. Note, in a future chapter, I shall provide more context as to why they had to flee, and show the scene of Wasted revealing JARVIS, but until then, just settle for the context this chapter provides. Also, thanks for reading! 4: Cap'n, The Ponies Are Talkin'!The mood within the hull of the Tigris was quite calm, the fires subsiding as they burned out of fuel and were finally extinguished by either the hulls sprinkler system or fire extinguishers. On all decks, there wasn't really that much hustle and bustle, as some of the crew were currently trying to get a couple hours of rest within their bunks, as ordered by the captain to make sure they were prepared for the hard work that could come tommorow. Other members of the crew, like Castle and Finn, who were currently on the outside of the ships hull, grinding away at loose metal wreckage and scrap that broke off the ship during it's descent crash landing, salvaging the components to use for repairs and construction. Inside, Venom and Owen were seen making some repairs within the Bridge deck, welding broken steel plates back together and reconnecting electrical wires while Captain Jack and Commander Craz walked through the halls of the ship, as Reed walked with them while examining his suits wrist screen. "Well Captain, good news is, we're getting repairs done quite efficiently, and with a good sleep our crew should be able to work better tomorrow, hopefully get a sufficient base of operations up and running." Reed said, as Craz chuckled to himself. "Yeah, everybody needs their rest, even well trained pioneers of the great unknown." Craz then slowly let out a loud yawn, stretching his arms out. "Heh, guess even I need it... Permission to hit the sack Captain?" "Permission granted, Craz, go get some sleep." Craz nodded as he stepped off into an open door leading to one of the crew bunk rooms, closing it behind him, as Jack turned to Reed. "I believe you should get some rest too, Mr. Reed." "I'll be alright sir, I've trained myself to stay up for long periods of time, especially back during my time as an administrative officer. I can handle a couple more hours of activity, and my suit should be able to keep me going with a caffeine injection." "If you say so." Jack jokingly said, lightly chuckling before his radio buzzed and he answered. "This is Higgs, me and Horza just got down repairing some of the damage to the reactor, so the energy leak is plugged and power should start to even out a bit more." "Good to hear, Higgs, keep working hard down there." As Higgs hung up on his end, another link was established. "Bash here, managed to seal the hangar doors again, so nothing can get in through the back door now. Hangar bay itself is still banged up, but nothing too major." "Excellent work, Bash. Now if you could please go help out with bridge repairs, that would be great." "Roger that." As the Captain finished speaking on the radio, he and Reed ascended up the stairwell leading to the bridge, as they entered to see Venom and Owen welding and wrenching away at several screens and displays, some consoles now properly functioning, and the window now being fully repaired as the bridge was sealed off from the outside. Captain Jack decided to take a load off his feet, as he sat down in his chair, while Reed sat down at a nearby console and started typing away. "Nothing like being stranded on an alien planet once again, eh Captain?" "Yep, just like the good old times..." Owen couldn't help but chuckle. "Honestly sir, you could make being stranded on a lava planet a fun experience." Venom slowly nodded, thinking back to the time the crew actually visited a lava planet. "Yep, when this crew's together, were unshakable. Considering all the types of shenanigans and funny moments that happen when were around, I wouldn't have it any other way honestly." "Amen, Venom. Now then, could you please me the wire bolters? I'm almost finished with repairing the weapons control terminal." Venom turned and nodded, as he grabbed one of the many tools on the ground next to him, as he tossed it to Owen, who caught it in his hand. "Thanks mate." As the two worked, Reed was busy writing logs and data manifests, as being a master of organization and logistics demanded documentation of everything. Jack was currently busy staring through the window at the now slowly rising over the horizon. He noted that the sun was moving quite more rapidly than usual, likely another trait of this strange planet. As he sat, his radio buzzed to life. "Uhhhh, cap'n?" "Yes, Castle, go ahead." "Ya might want to come out and see this... Cause either me and Finn are goin insane or... There's talkin pastel ponies out here." At the mention of those words, Jack quickly leaped out of his seat, as he turned to Reed, who nodded and got out of his seat as well. "Got it, stay where you are and wait for me and Reed." "Roger that, cap'n." Jack quickly turned to Owen and Venom, who had overheard Castle on the radio. "You two watch from the bridge and report anything un-usual." They both nodded, as Jack and Reed quickly made their way out of the bridge. Five minutes earlier, Twilight and her friends were slowly trotting along the path through the Everfree forest, peacefully walking through the dark woods, as they slowly approached a large clearing, and a strange and foreign sound began to loudly assault their ears, as they lowered them down, trying to block out the strange sound. It sounded like a griffon scraping their claws along a whiteboard, except louder, and sounding more metallic as it accompanied the clanging of metal and steel. As the party slowly approached the source of the sound, they ducked into some bushes, and slowly peeked out to see a strange, horrifying, and amazing sight. A massive metal construct stood before them, easily matching the size of Twilight's castle, as it's massive hull extended across the entire clearing. It's front appeared to be partially buried in the ground, and it was colored in a distinct red and black coloring on it's hull. Another distinct feature of the ship were a set of large letters on it's side, reading 'Tigris', likely being the unknown vessel's name. From the outside, it appeared the outer hull of the ship was quite battered and damaged, with some holes present in it's armor, light plumes of smoke rising from large fires burning on its rear end. In front of the massive wreck, a bi-pedal figure wearing a strange yellow suit with an unknown symbol on it's shoulder, with a large helmet and visor obstructing their face, wearing a large backpack, and wielding an unknown tool, was seen grinding against a large piece of steel wreckage, as sparks flew all over the place, the piece of scrap being slowly grinded down to its base components. As the unknown being grinded away, the ponies swore they could hear it... Humming an unknown tune as it worked away, ensuring it could see thanks to the lights mounted on it's helmet. "Doo doo doodly doo, salvaging, salvaging, we all love to salvage... Doo doodly doo..." As the strange creature, whom they assumed was a male, hummed away, Pinkie couldn't help but hum with it, as her friends gave her a weird look. "What, it's a nice tune!" As they continued to watch the unknown figure grind away, it soon completely ground up the piece of scrap, as it soon turned to another figure currently grinding another piece of scrap, this one wearing a green suit, and spoke to them. "Aye Finn, ya almost done over there?" "Affirmative, just finishing off this piece here." "Well hurry up, I wanna go inside the ship and catch some beauty sleep, my eyes are killing me." Finn slightly chuckled, as Castle turned back to see multiple sets of eyes staring at him, as he instinctively backed up, bringing up his grinder. "What the bloody hell!?!" The ponies reacted by stepping back in fear, as Finn overheard Castle, as he quickly ran over. "What is it, Castle?" "I swear to fuck I just saw something in the bushes..." "You sure it wasn't your imagination?" "I know it wasn't, I saw em clear as day!" "Well, why don't you go check it out?" "WHY ME!?!" "You saw em, I didn't, you should see if you actually saw something." Castle grumbled something, as he slowly approached the bush, keeping his grinder raised as he was now right in front of the bush, and slowly parted it's leaves, as he looked down to see... A group of small ponies with varying colors, some having wings, some having horns, and even a scaly lizard looking reptile. Now, Castle was about to start his confused scottish screaming, before the purple one spoke. "Greetings!" Now seeing these were TALKING mutant ponies, Castle raised his finger, as if to silence the pony, before stepping back and revealing the ponies to Finn, who promptly made a noise of pure confusion, while Castle put his hand up to his helmet and spoke into his radio. While Castle spoke on the radio, Twilight and her friends just stared at Finn, who was now next to Castle, and staring at the ponies. Fluttershy was currently shaking violently out of fear, Rainbow and Applejack were ready to punch these guys in the face if they came any closer, Rarity couldn't help but feel appalled by their suit's fashion sense, and Twilight felt a sense of bewilderment looking upon them, while Spike thought they looked like something out of a power ponies comic. Suddenly, Finn raised his hand and slowly waved at the ponies, which caused Fluttershy to promptly faint. "Uhhhh... Is she okay?" The ponies looked back to see that it was in fact Finn who was talking, as he looked at the now unconscious mare, as Twilight shrugged. "Yeah, it happens alot." "Ah. Well then, Castle, I believe we have officially gone insane, and are having a collective mental breakdown." Finn said as he turned to the other person, who had finished speaking on the radio. "Yeah, english speaking alien ponies are typically something associated with insanity." The two engineers then looked back to the ponies, as Twilight smiled at them, slowly stepping forward and extending her hoof towards them, as the engineers lightly backed up before she spoke. "Greetings... Unknown alien beings, I am princess Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, and I am pleased to welcome you to our home of Equestria!" She said with excitement in her voice, as Castle and Finn looked at each other, before Finn decided to take the initiative, and lightly shake the Princesses hoof. "Well, uhhh... Name's Finn, Redwood Industries mechanical engineer, and thank you for the uhhhh... Warm welcome, your highness." As he retraced his hand, he gestured to Castle, who briefly nodded before turning to Twilight. "Lieutenant Castle, salvage expert. Ah jeez, I'm talkin to it now..." Twilight slowly nodded, before noticing three more bi-pedal figures rapidly approaching from behind Castle and Finn, two of them wearing red suits while one wore a black suit and what appeared to be newspaper clippings on the inside of their visor as they approached. "Who are they?" "Oh, that's the Captain and crew." Castle said, as he and Finn turned to face the approaching Captain, who had brought along Reed and the woken up Craz, who spoke in an annoyed tone "Castle, you better not be hallucinating, because-" Anything else he was going to say died in his mouth as the group noticed the ponies standing behind Castle and Finn, as Jack took a step forward and looked down at Twilight, who nervously chuckled. "Castle, care to explain what the hell I'm looking at?" 5: Perplexing Pastel Ponies"Ok, so let me get this straight Castle... You spotted these ponies in this bush, and they began talking to you?" Captain Jack said as he eyed Castle from behind his helmet. "Yes Captain." Castle said as he nodded slowly. "Are you high?" "No Captain, I stashed my weed back at base behind the plant pot in the lobby." "I didn't mean- Ugh! Move please." "You got it." Castle politely moved out of Captain Jack's way as he walked up to the smiling purple unicorn in front of him. "You sure it ain't a hologram?" "No sir, haven't tested it." Captain Jack proceeded to turn to Craz. "Craz, pet the unicorn- Or wait, it's got wings so... It's an alicorn I think. Whatever, just pet it." "Why me?" "Because your good at petting things." With a groan, Craz slowly walked over to Twilight, who appeared very confused, as he slowly lifted his hand towards her head and placed it atop it, which Twilight at first attempted to pull away from, but when the scratching and petting started, she closed her eyes and began to enjoy it, letting out a whinny of happiness. "Yeah, it's real. And it feels nice." Craz said as he continued to give the pony the pets. "Craz, you can stop scratching it now." "Make me." Captain Jack would proceed to pull out his pistol and stick it to the back of Craz's head. "Your no fun." Craz said as he withdrew his hand from the ponies head, much to Twilight's dismay. "We didn't come out here to pet unicorns, we came out here to get answers." "And pet unicorns." "Craz, I swear to the almighty Clang I will shoot you dead right here and now." The ponies all audibly gasped at the statement, as Jack realized they were unaware of the fact that the Medbay had regeneration capabilities. "Probably should've said that better." Reed, being the voice of reason, decided to speak up. "Captain, I believe it is best we get away from these... Ponies, and meet back up inside the bridge." "Yes, it would be for the best. Castle, Finn, you keep the ponies busy." "Why us?" "Because you were the first to meet them, now go. Craz, Reed, with me." The Captain and co then proceeded to rush back to the ship, as Castle and Finn turned to the confused ponies. "Where are your friends going?" Pinkie asked as she turned her head. "Uhh... There going to uh... Have a very important meeting that you guys can't go to." "Why not?" "Because uh... Your aliens." "And why is that bad?" "Because we've never met aliens before... Mostly." "Oh, ok!" Confused by the pink pony accepting his logic so quickly, Castle then turned to Twilight, who appeared just as confused as he did. "So uh... Do you guys like salvage?" "What's salvage?" "Allow me to explain..." As the Venator warped into the orbit of the planet with the light of the sun gleaming off it's white paint, the pulsating blue light of the jump core ceasing as it began beeping, it's frame cracking as it's electronics sparked and burst into flames. "Shit, cores about to go critical! TIUS, eject now!" The beeping became louder as the core became more unstable, with bolts of electricity shooting and zapping the hull of the venator leaving small burn marks, before the cables holding it to the ship snapped and let it loose, letting the sparking core drift off into the void before exploding in a burst of blue light. The crew all let out a sight of relief. "Phew... Well, least we know it worked." "Yeah, but it almost blew us to high hell!" "Well, the key word there being almost, because we survived." "Ah sod off doctor." Captain Shack and Commander Wasted both looked out of their cockpit windows with looks of confusion behind their helmets. "Ok what the hell?" "What is it, Captain?" Morphologis asked as he appeared in the camera screen for the rear compartment of the ship. "The sun and moon are both orbiting this damn planet!" "WHAT THE HELL!?! That defies all scientific laws! Well, least it ain't bob, got tired of waking up on that desolate rock every day. Least this planet is more exciting." "Agreed, now get to tracking that signal, Morph." Morphologis nodded and his screen shut off before Wasted spoke. "Captain, we may have a problem..." "What is it, Wasted?" "Unknown vessel just showed up on radar, and were receiving a message from it." "Understood, send it through. Finally about time we got to talk to someone. TIUS, patch it through." As Captain Shack proceeded to answer the message, he came face to face with another engineer. "Greetings unknown vessel, this is the freelance exploration ship 'Last Stand', names Aaron, what can I do for ya?" "This is Captain Shack of the former USS Constitution, member of the Federation Navy. We detected a distress signal after we escaped from our isolation on an unknown world, and have come to investigate. Are you the source of the signal?" "Negative captain, in fact were here for the same signal I believe. Me and my crew came out here to see if we could help, seeing as we were already nearby on a simple scouting mission. How about we investigate the signal together?" "Sounds like a plan, we'll meet up with your vessel and make our way to the origin of the signal." As the signal cut out, the Venator ignited it's engines and sped forward through the darkness, until the light of the nearby sun shined upon the large purple hive ship came into view, leaving the crew of the Venator in astonishment at the design before Aaron linked back onto comms. "Ain't she a beaut Captain? Finest DRF hive ship in the galaxy. Well, former DRF anyways." "I'll say... I've never seen any kind of ship like this before... It's as big as the Constitution was! And excuse me for asking, but what's the DRF?" "Oh, you must've been isolated for a long time, but it stands, or used to stand for, Drone Reactionary Force. Me and my boys were part of them for a bit, fought with RWI for a while." "Wait... Drones? Nevermind... Anyways, are you talking about Redwood Industries? Those militant industrial separatists?" "Yep, that's them. Pretty fine chaps honestly, knew this Captain Jack fellow that's their Rear-Admiral now, actually fought with him once. Though now with the DRF gone, we just took the ship for ourselves and decided to make our own buisness." "Right... Anyways, were coming up on the signal now... And I'm seeing lots of debris." Suddenly, a voice was overheard on Aaron's end of the link. "Aaron, we got unknown contacts on radar!" "Got it, Conrod. Captain, I advise you ready yourself, cause I think were about to get swarmed." "He's right Captain, hostiles are appearing on our radar from all around!" "Damn it, I just built this ship! Defensive maneaveurs!" The Venator quickly powered up it's weapons as it quickly altered it's course to aim at the approaching enemy fighters, with Morpholigis quickly taking control of the top mounted turret and locking on. "Take this, you bastards!" The Venator fired it's rocket launchers and auto cannons at the enemy, hitting and shredding through a couple fighters before peeling off and taking evasive maneuvers. Meanwhile on Aaron's ship, the crew ran to battle stations, taking manual control of the turrets and firing at the enemy fighters from all sides while the front hangar door opened and a swarm of combat drones swarmed out, though they proved inneffective as they were gunned down while the ships weapons did little damage, as the open hangar door left the ship exposed to a fighter commecning a kamikaze attack and barely managing to ram itself inside before the door sealed. The fighter skidded across the hangar floor, the floor collapsing beneath it as it fell down to a lower level before exploding and bursting into flames as emergency sprinklers activated while the crew moved to repair any damage. "We ain't cut out for this kind of fighting!" "I know, Finchy, were gonna have to land!" "Aaron, you get your ship and crew down to the planet's surface, we'll cover your ass and keep these guys off you. If we can't link back up with you, it's been a pleasure to meet you." "Thanks Shack, your a good man for a fed." "No prob- Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" The comms link terminated as the damaged Hive ship slowly descended to the planet's surface, as the Venator turned to face the oncoming horde. "Come at us, ya grey bandits! OORAH!" The Venator charged forward towards the hostile fighters, ready to fight to the death, or at least until they ran out of ammo. However, the fighters made a rapid u-turn around and fled back towards the asteroid field, soon vanishing behind the asteroids, much to the confusion of the Constitutions former crew. "Hey, where are they going?" "Why did they just run away like that?" "Got no damn clue... Maybe they're guarding the source of the signal... Or heck, may just be pirates setting up a trap for random passersby." Captain Shack turned back to Commander Wasted, who simply shrugged. "Welp, guess it's time we follow our new freelance friends down to earth. Or whatever this planet is." The Venator rapidly turned around and boosted at high speeds, following the DRF hive ship into the planet's atmosphere. "Here we go again, boys!" Jumping in from a nearby star system, a small orange and grey spacecraft orbited the planets surface, as two engineers sat in the cockpit of the craft and chatted with each other as they viewed their respective screens. "So Splitsie, you sayin we got a new job?" "That's right Capac, got told this planet has a bunch of untapped resources on it, so were here to extract them and sell them for the big bucks." "Is that all you ever care about, money?" "Yes." "Understandable." 6: Strange TimesAuthor's Note Notice: Story has been slightly re-written, recommend re-reading other chapters before reading this one. 6: Strange Times Splitsie and Capac's ship slowly drifted through the void, propelled only by their thrusters set to low power mode, as a large scanner dish slowly aligned itself with the moon of the planet below, scanning it's surface as the data gathered was displayed on a virtual screen within the ship's cramped cockpit. "Alright, scans show this planet's moon has a large amount of natural resources abundant, including gold, copper, silver, and other good shit. And conveniently, it's all pretty close to it's surface, so setting up a mining operation would be pretty profitable." Splitsie said as he read the data while Capac nodded. "Yeah, considering were the first out here, we get to have it all to ourselves too." "Yep, that's the best part. Alright, now boot up the mapping systems and find us a place to land. Once we touch down, we can set up a base of operations and start mining this moon till it's dry." Capac nodded as he flipped a switch on his terminal, looking at his screen as he mapped the moon's surface, before looking to the planet below. "Ya noticed the sun and moon both orbiting the planet?" "Eh, it's probably some optical illusion, just ignore it." "Alright. But why didn't we just take the carrier here, would've made this easier if we had access to it's equipment." "Yeah, but the Skywarp sticks out like a sore thumb and would draw unwanted attention. That's why were out here, to scout it out and make sure it's safe and secure before we call up TFE. He'll then arrive with the carrier once we get the initial stages of the base set up." "Damn, that's a solid plan." "I am very adept at tactical thinking. Now then, find us a place to land so we get to work." Capac nodded, as he began scanning the moons surface until he located a clear landing zone, and marked it for the navigation system to lock onto, as the ship approached the lunar LZ, with Splitsie rubbing his hands together. "Time to bring me my money!" "Don't you mean our money?" "Great, you ruined the reference." Captain Jack paced nervously around the Bridge as Craz, Reed, and Venom sitting in their seats and awaiting his speech. "Alright everyone, since everyone else is asleep right now and you are the highest ranking on this ship beside myself, I believe it is best to listen to your input on this... Confusing matter. I assume that Craz has briefed you on what we just experienced outside?" Everyone nodded. "Alright, I need to know how we respond to talking magical ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. Any ideas?" "Why don't we attempt to negotiate with them? They are clearly intelligent, perhaps speaking with them would allow us to bridge the gap between species and establish relations between their nation and RWI. Even if they are unwilling to cooperate, understanding them could be key to surviving this foreign world." "A good idea Reed. Craz, what do you say?" "I agree with Reed, mainly because I like patting the ponies." A series of chuckles escaped from the rest of the officers. "Oh for fu- Nevermind. Venom, what's your opinion?" "I honestly dunno sir, I think it may be a trick, could be some kind of hologram meant to lure us. Heck, even if they are real they may be in kahoots with those rouge bandits who shot us down, they may be bandits themselves." "A valid concern, but we won't know unless we investigate. Castle and Finn are currently handiling it out there, so for right now we will tune into their comms and helmet cameras to listen in and watch how it goes." Jack said before turning and pressing a few buttons at a computer terminal, as the center display screen activated and displayed the helmet feed of Castle and speakers broadcasted his voice while Jack sat in his recently fix command chair and watched the show. "Alright, now this, little ponies, is what we call a welder." Castle said as he raised the metal tool high and the ponies made sounds of intrigue. "This little bad boy is an engineers best friend. It can help you fix the smallest circuits and build the biggest battleships." "That tiny little thing can build stuff like that?" Rainbow said as she pointed past Castle to the wrecked Tigris. "Yep, although the Tigris was actually built by welder ships, but that's different. Besides, the welder is not my favorite tool personally. But this is!" Castle said as he chuckled before pulling out his grinder, spinning the blade as the ponies slightly backed up. "Say hello to my little friend, the grinder! This can grind down practically anything, just watch." He said before turning and spinning up the blade as he grinded down a large piece of scrap metal, reducing it to it's base components as the ponies watched in awe. "That is cool!" "Seems a bit dangerous, but definitely handy." "Oooh oooh, can I try it?" Pinkie said as she bobbed up and down and waved her hoof around. "Uhhh... Sure?" Castle said handing the grinder to Pinkie, as she somehow gripped it with her hooves before laughing like a maniac and proceeding to grind down any scrap metal in sight, leaving behold only components as she zipped back in front of Castle, handing him back his grinder and smiling. "How- How in the bloody hell did you do it that quick!?! And with bloody hooves no less!" "Yeah, you would make a great salvager." Finn commented, chuckling to himself before he reached over his shoulder and procured his standard assault rifle, with the ponies staring in intrigue, as Twilight quickly got out a notepad and quickly started making sketches of the weapon and the tools. "Now this is an engineers most trusted method of self defense. The RWI AX-54 Assault Rifle. Capable of firing both in an atmosphere and in a vacuum, one magazine holds about thirty bullets, and it's got solid accuracy and a good rate of fire. This bad boy alone has killed about thirty drone soldiers in total, of course it did nothing against the actual flying drones, but that's why Castle had a rocket launcher." "What's a rocket launcher?" Fluttershy timidly asked. "This bad boy!" Castle proudly proclaimed before reaching over his shoulder and procuring a large rocket launcher, with the ponies slightly backing away in worry and fear, except for Pinkie Pie who stuck her head in the barrel. "Cool! I think I can hear an echo!" "Hey, get your head out of there, this is a highly powerful and dangerous explosive launching apparatus! Or as a man of culture would call it, a boomstick." Castle said before pulling Pinkie out by the tail as she giggled. "Now would anybody like a test demonstration?" Both Twilight and Pinkie raised their hooves, as Castle turned to Finn. "Lemme guess, you need a target?" "Yep." "Alright, gimme a sec." Finn said before quickly drawing his welder, looking to his wrist computer as he projected a hologram of a cardboard cutout with targets on it before constructing it with his welder, quickly backing away as Castle chuckled before activating the targetting sight on the launcher and taking aim. "Alright everyone, get ready for a big boom!" Castle pulled the trigger, as a rocket sailed out of the barrel before impacting the target with a mighty boom, leaving nothing but a crater as the ponies stared absolutely flabbergasted. "And that my friends, is the humble rocket launcher." The hull of the Venator slowly began to heat up rapidly as it entered the atmosphere, searing hot flames washing over it's armor as it began to lightly shake and rattle. "Atmospheric entry commencing, hull stable." TIUS said as Jack let out a sight of relief. "Alright, at least we won't combust and explode before we even reach the ground. TIUS, can you hone in on the signal of those freelancers we helped out?" "Negative, it appears their GPS transponder was damaged in the skirmish, I cannot detect it's current location with the Venator's sensors. We would have to land and construct a much more powerful relay." "Well then, guess we got an objective, because now that we wasted the jump core, we gotta rely on our new friends to get us back home. Hopefully we can cash in a favor for helping them." Jack said as he adjusted the Venators heading, angiling it to where the bottom was taking the majority of the heat and slowing their descent. The flames soon ceased with the ship fully entering the atmosphere as the hull cooled down and the Venator emerged from the clouds over a large mountain range, illuminated only by the moon in the sky. "Alright, try and find us a suitable spot to land, we'll set up camp and in the morning try to get a relay up and running." "Alright, commencing ground reconnaissance." Morphologis said as he activated a camera mounted on the bottom of the Venator from his control seat, engaging night vision so he could properly see the ground. "Seems like were coming over a bit of a barren environment, kinda like a desert. Think I see a clear patch right... Here." Morphologis marked the landing area with a blue beacon as the Venator slowly descended, extending out it's landing gear as it touched and the back ramp lowered while the front cockpits opened. As the crew disembarked, Wasted stretched himself out. "Good to finally be off that rock. Air feels a bit cleaner here to be honest, though there is a bit of sand. And considering the last time sand was involved, I think I hate it." "Ok Anakin." "Ha ha, very funny."
Prologue: Space, The Final FrontierStar System Gaia, Victoria Sector C6. The void of space was dead quiet, no sound to fill the endless expanse of the dark perpetual void surrounding a lone planet within this solar system. But then... A lone vessel slowly drifted into view, its engines burning as the ship slowly came into the illumination of the light emanating from the system's sun, which was for some reason, orbiting the only planet in the system. The vessel bared the red and black color scheme of Redwood Industries, as steel wording on the side of the ship read 'Tigris'. As it slowly burned through the void of space, within the bridge of the ship, could be seen Rear-Admiral Jack Roberts, or simply referred to as Captain Jack, sitting in the center of the bridge, his crew around him, as Lieutenant Reed spoke up from his console, viewing a display of the star system. "Admiral, we have entered star system Gaia of the Victoria sector." Captain Jack nodded in confirmation as he turned to his other officer sitting in the second chair in front of him. "Lieutenant Higgs, report our status." The man nodded before taking a quick look at several screens in front of him. "Sir, were already rigged for silent running on engines, and all systems are operational and standing by. Nothing on comms or sensors currently." One of Jack's friends behind him then spoke up through his helmet radio, his voice speaking clearly thanks to the advanced headsets built into the crew's suits. "Wait one admiral, we got a faint distress signal coming through... Roughly about 15 clicks out... No clear source, appears to be emanating from a large asteroid cluster. It might be the signal that RWI command detected." Jack nods in acknowledgement, as he speaks to commander Craz in the back. "Commander Craz, how about any other ships in the area, getting any other signals?" "Long range scans show no other ships in the surrounding area, and there isn't even any comms buoys around... We are alone out here." "Alright, lets see if we can lend assistance." Castle then happily chimed in. "I sense a potential salvage opportunity then." He happily said in his heavy scottish accent, as Reed spoke in an amused tone. "Stealth already going out the window sir? Don't you remember what happened last time?" "When has this crew ever been stealthy mister Reed? Besides, far as I'm concerned, we should be the only vessel for lightyears out here, maybe the only ship in this entire sector. Helm, set a course." The ship slowly began to turn to the right as the engines ignited, while Craz noticed something as he turned in his seat towards the window. "Anybody else notice that the sun is... Ummmm, how do I say this... Orbiting that planet?" Castle looked to see it, and had a look of confusion on his face. "How in hell is that even possible?" Reed of course tried to explain it. "Most likely a small star wound up in the planets gravitational field and began to orbit it." Higgs then noticed another crucial detail. "Then why are the sun and moon both standing still?" "Wait, what?" "Yeah, look, they aren't even moving! Well, either that, or they are just moving very slowly." The entire crew on the bridge looked to see both sun and moon completely unmoving. Jack was unsure how to react to say the least. "Perhaps this is something we best leave to the RWI science department to understand. Captain Hawk will be delighted to hear about this." Everyone in the bridge nodded in agreement, as everyone proceeded to have small talk. "So Mr Castle, how are the new targeting systems handling?" Reed spoke to his welsh compatriot. "I don't know why, but for some reason the targeting messenger keeps talking about potatoes. Must be a bug." "Maybe it has something to do with the pyramids. But anyways, it's good to have you and Finn back. That whole mess on Monus III with the green drone remnants was chaotic. Good thing we dealt with them before they could become a major problem." "Yeah, tell me about. It's a bloody miracle we survived that shitstorm. Gotta admit, I love salvaging and running Dawnstar, but damn does it feel good to be back in the saddle. Heck, maybe I'll still get to salvage whatever ship is sending the distress signal." "Hate to break up whatever you guys are talking about back there, but were here." Captain jack said as a cluster of large asteroids could be seen on approach, drifting aimlessly through the void as the ship weaved through them and avoided collision. "Alright, can you get a better signal now?" "Affirmative, attempting to fully lock on... Huh..." "What is it, Reed?" Captain Jack said standing up from his seat, Castle seizing the oppurtunity and taking the seat for himself. "He he, mine." As Jack walked over to Reed, he then shared his worried look. "Looks like a green drone signal but... All garbled and messy." "I can't read it, like at all, there is simply no form of transmission signal in our database that matches it. Perhaps it's just a corrupted beacon from during the war?" "Then where the hell is it's source? I don't see anything out here-" Suddenly, alarms began to blare as emergency lights flashed red and put everyone on edge as they quickly turned to their terminals. "Captain, radar just lit up like a christmas tree!" Craz shouted, looking at the radar screen to see several red dots. "Crap, Castle, gimme the seat back!" Jack yelled as Castle jumped from the seat and Jack sat down, quickly readying himself for battle as he grabbed the intercom of the ship and spoke into it. "All hands to battle stations! It's an ambush!" He shouted as everyone on deck quickly ran around, taking seats and engaging control of the defense systems, as the turrets on the outside of the ship activated and began scanning the void. From behind the asteroids emerged several rapidly moving fighter craft, lacking any insignia or paint on them as they boosted towards the Tigris. A hail of bullets and heat seeking missiles flew through the void toward the squadron of unmarked ships rapidly approaching at a fast pace, quickly maneveuring and surrounding the Tigris as they fired rockets and autocannons at the ship. The shields of the Tigris were seen pulsing bright blue and blocking the various bullets and missiles, the shock of the explosiosn still slightly rocking the ship. "Captain, shields are holding, but charge is running low!" Reed shouted in panic, before a lucky rocket managed to hit an enemy fighter in the wing and caused it to spin out of control and collide with an asteroid, as Craz shouted in victory. "Scratch one! Wahoo!" Castle then yelled in pure welsh rage as he blew apart another fighter, watching it's wreckage directly crash into one of its squadmates and knock it off course. "Eat that ya cunt!" Before Castle could continue celebrating his victory, a loud boom rang out across the ship, as Higgs spoke in a panicked tone. "Shields have been breached! Engine four has suffered a direct missile hit! Fires spreading on deck 2!" Captain Jack gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Blast it! Reed, get together a fire suppression and repair crew, ASAP!" "On it captain!" Reed said jumping from his chair and looking to a few of his fellow crewmates. "Craz, Owen, Venom, with me!" He said rushing off down the stairs below deck as his comrades followed closely behind, grabbing fire extinguishers as they descended down into the lower decks. "Castle, whats the status on getting our shields back up?" "Shield generator is heavily damaged sir, can't get it online when were being hit from all angles! At this rate, we're gonna have more bullets in our hull than there are in your average Rambo movie!" "Damn it, you're right, we gotta go on the offensive! Higgs, divert all available power to weapons!" "Understood captain! MAXIMUM POWER!" Higgs said as he tapped a few buttons on his console as power flowed to every gun turret as they began unloading rockets and bullets into the attacking fighters, as they were almost wiped out with the few remainin fighters scattering to avoid being destroying in clumps. "Suck on that, ya bastards!" But his celebration was cut short, as another explosion rang out, and Craz came in over the radio. "They blew open the hangar doors! Barely managed to seal it off from the rest of ship before the whole damn thing got depressurized!" A rocket flew right into the cockpit of a fighter, scoring a direct as the flaming wreckage drifted and impacted the front deck, breaking off a turret and leaving a sizable dent in the armor. "Admiral, engines two and three are critical!" Most admirals and captains would be panicking right now, but not Captain Jack. He had seen his fair share of battles and close calls, and they had molded him into the perfect commanding officer. As he kept his composure, he looked out the window, the green and blue of the planet below catching his attention as he quickly turned to Higgs. "Higgs, set course for that planet, we need to commence an emergency landing now or else we soon won't have a ship to land!" "Understood admiral!" The ship slowly began to turn away while still shredding the enemy fighters coming its way. As it tore away from its enemy assailants, it began to enter the planet's atmosphere. "Sir, the gravity is pulling us down too fast, we can't land without digging this thing halfway into the ground!" "Blast it! Engage emergency shielding!" Captain Jack quickly grabbed the radio on his seat and spoke through the ship speaker system while armored blast shields lowered over the windows of the bridge. "ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT! IT'S GONNA BE A ROUGH LANDING!"
1: Quite a Crash, and It ISN'T Craz's fault!The sound of warning alarms filled the air, as terminals and screens flashed with alerts and warnings. Showers of sparks burst from damaged lights and torn open circuits, fires raged across all decks, the sound of rapid footsteps and paniced yelling can be heard, as Captain Jack slowly opens his eyes, the visor on his helmet being shattered, gritting his teeth in pain from a horrid headache he was having, as he looks to see Castle and Craz standing above him with visors up and lights on, as warning lights flickered on and off above, sparks falling, and smoke filling the air. "Hey, hes waking up! Captain, can you hear us?" Craz spoke, trying to get the captain's attention "Wake the fuck up, cap'n, the ship's fucked!" Castle yelled violently in the captain's face. "Jesus, tone it down Castle! Damn it..." Jack said gripping the sides of his head with his hands. "Well, at least he's awake. Anyways, yeah, shits on fire, Reed and Venom are currently trying to stop engine one from exploding, Finn and Horza have been trying to quell the fires, Owen and Higgs are busy patching holes, and Bash is just crying in a corner from stress." Craz slowly explained the situation to the captain, as both men then assisted him in standing up. "Hooo boy your heavy." "Craz, you're one to talk, Finn and I had to carry your fat arse out of the pub that one time." "I thought we agreed never to speak of it again, Castle." "Aye, but that doesn't mean i'm gonna let you live it down." Castle said as he chuckled, before getting whacked by Craz. As Jack fully stood, he lifted his visor and grasped his head as he groaned. "Fuck me... Head feels like its about to burst..." "Yeah, to be expected cap'n, when we impacted the ground you went flying out of your seat straight into the floor, knocked ya out good. Surprised you don't have a bloody concussion." Castle said pointing to the ground where Jack had been laying to reveal a tiny dent in the floor. "Damn, your helmet is pretty tough, Admiral. Surprised it didn't totally bust open." Craz said as he whistled at the visible damage done to the floor. "Yeah, thanks Craz... Alright, any idea where we are?" "Well, if you would look out the window behind you..." Craz said pointing behind the captain, as he turned to see quite a sight when the blast shields over the windows lowered. The very end of the ship's bow was buried within the earth, and several dents and holes could be seen in the armor. Surrounding the ship would be a staggering amount of trees, as well as tall grass, and in the distance some mountains could be seen, all illuminated by the emanating moonlight above as well as the raging fires burning on the ships outer hull and spreading to the nearby tall grass. "From what our scans show, the planet has plenty of oxygen, so no need to worry about that. Although you could probably tell by the fact the glass is shattered." Jack nodded, taking a sigh of relief as he marveled at the sight. "Gotta say, a better crash spot than most other places we've landed." Castle nodded with a snicker. "I'll say cap'n, least it ain't a frigid wasteland or some desert. Not a single patch of sand or snow for miles." Both Craz and Jack agreed on that one. "Well, whats the damage report?" Craz walked over to one of the only terminals that was still functioning, as he tapped at the keyboard and reviewed the ship's systems, being barraged with warnings and alerts. "Well, all engines are either damaged or totally destroyed, we have multiple hull breaches, our jump drive is thoroughly fucked, weapon systems and shields are down, fires spreading on all decks, mass electrical failures, reactors on the verge of going critical, oh, and did I mention comms are down as well?" Jack audibly groaned out of frustration, as Castle tried to lighten things up. "Aye, least we ain't dead, right?" "Your right Castle, but things are still quite bad. Let's work on getting those fires under control and restoring the electrical grid, after that we fix up the breaches and try to patch up the comms antenna, see if we can get word back to RWI command. Even without a comms buoy in the system we should be able to at least send out a distress call hoping a relay picks it up." Jack ordered to his crewmate's as they both saluted. "Aye aye, cap'n." Castle said as he ran down the stairs, politely passing Reed. "Scuse me, Reed." "All good, Castle." Reed says as he comes up the stairs to Captain Jack. "Good to see your awake admiral, I trust you've been briefed on the situation?" "Indeed Mr Reed, I am fully aware of our current state. Is engine one under control?" "Yes captain, Venom finally got the fire suppression systems working and cooled the engine down. The other engines have been shut down to prevent further damage." Jack audibly sighed in relief, as Venom came running up behind Reed, visibly exhausted as he wiped some sweat from his helmet visor. "Good news, I managed to get engine two partially functional and no longer burning as bright as this worlds sun, but engine three is still thoroughly fucked, and as a Canadian, I can sufficiently say that engine four is currently the hottest thing aboard this ship even after being shut off." Venom said in his traditional Canadian accent. Captain Jack's comm device then whirred to life as Finn spoke on the other end of it. "Captain, fires are now under control, only fires remaining inside are within the hangar bay, and Horza has already begun venting procedure. Recommend keeping your visor down though, it'll be smokey for a bit." Jack was glad to hear Finn and Horza had succeeded, as he congratulated them. "Good work, Finn, now go help Higgs and Owen patch those breaches." "Yes, captain!" As Finn ended the comm line, another opened up. "Captain, I'm done sitting in my corner, and I noticed that the rover we were supposed to have in the hangar bay is gone." "Of course its missing Bash, the hangar door was blown open during the battle!" "Oh right, well anyways, I'm gonna go ahead and work on fixing the door." "Yes, do that, we need to get the ship at least partially repaired by sun rise." Finishing his chat with Bash, he turned back to Craz and Reed. "Gentlemen, you go ahead and assist with repairs. I'll join you soon." They both nodded, as they ran down the stairs while Jack turned back to face out the window, deciding it was time to do a good ol captains log. "Captains log, hooo boy, ain't done of these in a while... Anyways, its been 3 days since we left RWI space, and a couple hours ago we recently arrived in this new system, only to be ambushed by hostile fighters and forced to make an emergency landing. Me and the crew survived with a few minor injuries, however I cannot speak for the Tigris, as it has seen better days. Me and the crew are going to try and get the ship fully repaired before we consider setting up a base on this planet, and hopefully find a way to establish contact with RWI command. However, the worst bit of news, we have almost no bloody idea what attacked us, though considering how we encountered green drone remnants on Monus III, it goes without saying there is a possibility that another rouge cell of the armada operates within this sector." The captain took in a deep breath before continuing. "Thankfully, I have my trusty crew with me. However, due to the uncharted nature of this planet, I am not sure what to expect, but luckily, this planet has an abundance of oxygen in its atmosphere, most likely due to the large amount of forestry and greenery. I must admit, it is quite beautiful, and if it can support plant life, could it support an intelligent species? Perhaps we may finally encounter organic alien life, cause the drones don't count. Anyways, I'm off to patch some holes and fix my visor before helping with the repairs, end log." Two hours earlier... Twilight was currently standing on the balcony of her library, overlooking the entirety of Ponyville, and beyond it, the everfree forest, simply looking over the area with a smile on her face, as she then turned to the stars. Her new castle was a pretty great place for star gazing, as she sat on her haunches and observed the sky. However, something caught her eye... A small shooting star appeared... However, it wasn't a shooting star, and it was getting bigger and closer, on a direct course with the everfree, as Twilight watched in horror as a massive steel object crashed down into the forest, a massive plume of smoke and fire rising from the crash site. As Twilight looked on in confusion and fear, her good friend and assistant Spike ran out to see what the commotion was. "What the hay was that!?!" Spike asked his friend in a panicked tone. "I dunno, but it seemed to crash down deep in the everfree, and I think it's on fire..." "Well, that's worrying... Should we go and investigate?" "Yes, Spike, I think that would be for the best... You go ahead and wake up the others..." As Spike nodded, Twilight turned back to the forest, wondering what had crashed down in her proverbial back yard. High in orbit above the planet, lies a large hulking vessel slowly drifting through space, it's purple paint shining in the suns light and illuminating the ships hull, having a similar design to a bee hive. The vessel had several marking spray painted on the side, one of them being a symbol of a welder and a grinder underneath a skull, similar to a skull and crossbones, the words 'Last Stand' written under them in bold black and gold font. The ship lacked any windows, with the only access point being a large circular hangar door, as it opened in a spiral motion and allowed a small drone to fly inside. Within the vessel was a large cargo bay with loose scaffolding, sparking wires, loose bolts, and creaking metal, along with a few re-programmed drones hovering around, moving cargo. On the ground there were several engineers welding and repairing broken drones, grinding down salvage and scrap metal, and in one case driving a forklift to move large machinery around. At the center in a control center surrounded by screens sat the captain of the vessel, Aaron, along with some of his cohorts. "Feels good to be back in the saddle Aaron, I missed it like this to be honest. No more fighting wars for the DRF, just roaming the galaxy and being care free adventurers for us!" Aaron simply chuckled as he looked to his friend, while he held a crate of salvage scrap. "Indeed. So, Papple, how was your time with RWI?" Aaron asked as he turned to Papple, who was welding a damaged drone. "Quite enjoyable, after the war I joined the engineering corp and helped to fix some of the damage caused during the war. Course, even after I got my old body back I couldn't resist joining back up with you Aaron. I may have been programmed and brain washed to be loyal to the DRF, but you're still a good guy. Speaking of which, how the hell did you survive the battle of the colonies?" "Well, its a combination of sheer luck, and cloning." "Ahhhh, okay. Hey, wheres Finchy?" As he said that, Finchy could be seen riding on his ultimate hover chair creation. "Yahoo, I missed this thing!" Finchy said as he then accidentally knocked BB over the head, who was carrying a heavy crate, as he dropped it on his foot. "Ah bloody hell, piss off with that flying thing before I grind it down!" Hardman and Apathy were watching the display, as they burst out laughing. Conrod was currently working adjusting to adjust the ship's course, when he spotted a signal. "Hey Aaron! Got something here on the scanner." "Whatever it is, it better not be some kind of weird giant alien creature, or I will lose my shit. We already had to deal with one of those last week." Aaron said turning to Conrod as he stood and turned to a communications screen. "Got something on the signal detecter, seems to be a distress signal. Should we investigate?" Drunken Scotsman was currently standing next to him, still trying to scan the signal. "Can you determine the origin?" Aaron asked as he turned to Scotsman. "Nope." Scotsman said in a typical Scottish accent. "Good enough for me, set a course." Ryan was listening in, as he chuckled while slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. "So, were good guys now, good to see." Aaron looked over and deadpanned at Ryan, while Papple and Finchy just laughed, and Habbsy just sighed. "Told ya bringing this crew together was a bad idea, Aaron." Habbsy said, before getting slapped across the face, as the drunken scotsman broke out into laughter. "Shut it, Habs. Now let's go see whos calling for help."
2: Rally the Crew!The sounds of slow footsteps echoed throughout the steel hull of the vessel, the creaking and waning of the metal hull, the strain of constant movement and structural weakness sounding out with audible creeks and groans bellowing within. It was unnerving to an un-experienced crewman, someone who hasn't been in this kind of situation before. That's why it was so calming for Grand Admiral Jack Roberts, he was simply used to this kind of thing, and to him, the sounds of a ship's hull straining and waning was better than it tearing at the seams and breaking apart all around him. The rest of his seasoned veteran crew could agree, having survived practically dozens of crash landings and hull breaches over the years. Of course, that didn't mean everyone was necessarily calm and collected. Remember, they were still stranded on an alien world, with no weapons, jump drive, communications, or form of transportation. They were effectively stranded in completely uncharted territory as well, and seeing as this operation was officially off the records, in other words, a black ops, there was not going to be a search and rescue team for a loooooong time... As such, it was best the crew settle in, as Castle and Finn were currently outside the ship with their grinders, grinding down and salvaging any broken off parts of the ship, because that's what they do best. On the interior of the ship, repairs were still being made, as Venom, Owen, Reed, and Bashful were currently running repairs in the bridge section, welding back together broken and frayed wires, re-fitting displays, adjusting power levels, bolting on new armor plates, affixing new glass windows, and chatting among themselves as they did so. "So you're certain about your decision, Reed?" "Yes, I am certain, the first Starship Troopers is the best, Mr Venom." "Bold words there, Reed. Everyone knows Starship Troopers Two is the best of the series." "Owen, your on thin ice pal, I agree with Reed, the first is always the best." "Bite me Bash, least nobody here likes the third installment, that movie was... Well, it was decent, but still." "Yeah, ya got a point, we can all agree, the third is inferior." Venom said as collective nods and grunts of acknowledgment and agreement sounded out from the crew mates, meanwhile Higgs and Horza were busy down in the lower bowels of the ship, taking readings of the main reactor core. "Okay, so, I would try to look at the reactor readings... If it weren't for these damn errors! Somebody installed a damn Bonzai buddy!" Higgs said as he sat in a chair affixed to a large computer terminal, several screens flashing with alerts and warnings, Higgs trying to clear up some space on his screen by clicking the 'x' button on each of the pop ups, simply causing more to appear as he groaned in frustration. "Damn you Bonzai buddy, why do you curse me with popups?!?" Horza just chuckled, sitting at his own terminal, as he lended his friend some assistance. "Here, lemme divert some computing power to you, the central CPU can take it." Horza says typing away at the keyboard on his terminal, as Higgs looked to see his screen cleared up, now getting clear readings of the reactor's energy readings and power levels. "Alright, reactor is in a somewhat stable condition, relatively undamaged from the impact, power is somewhat regulated, although distribution is utterly fucked due to the electrical network being in tatters. Energy readings are somewhat standard, radiation is still contained, which is a miracle considering we nearly got a direct hit to it." Horza nodded, as he went back to typing at his terminal. "Right, better make sure we don't waste any power, seeing as this reactor is quite strained already. I'll shut down some un-necessary functions, like oxygen production, seeing as we are on an atmospheric planet. Weapon systems are already buggered, so no use diverting power to ammo production. Shield generation is somewhat functional, but no use for it, shut that down... Alright, power seems pretty well distributed for now." Higgs nodded in confirmation, before a buzz could be heard on his comms. "This is commander Craz, the Admiral has ordered all crew to assemble in the bridge for debriefing." Higgs looked to Horza, who had also received the message, as they both quickly stood up and got out of their seats, quickly rushing out of the engine bay. Meanwhile, in the captains quarters, Craz ended the comm link as he turned to Captain Jack, who was currently sitting at his table in his office, which he had won after the long and grueling office wars. "Announcement made, Admiral." Captain Jack audibly chuckled as he held a hand up. "Craz, please, just call me captain, being admiral doesn't mean I forsake my duty as the captain of this wayward shitstorm of crew." Craz chuckled as Jack stood up from his chair, as they both walked out of the quarters and through the halls of the ship. "Yep, heard about all the chaos you guys went through helping Castle, laughed my ass off when I saw him go interstellar in the database!" Both Craz and Jack burst out into laughter as Jack could barely breathe as he spoke between chuckles. "Heh, we had so many catastrophes I couldn't even count them! Praise be Clang I guess." "Praise be. Anyways captain... About what we saw up there, you think they're still a threat, or just a slight pain in the ass?" "I know, Craz, i've been thinking about it too... If the green drones somehow manage to re-organize, then the galaxy might be in danger once again." "Guess we just have to put them in their place again!" Craz shouted defiantly, Jack chuckling as they slowly climbed the stairs, entering the bridge section to see the crew all lined up along the center of the room, as the Captain slowly walked to the very back of the bridge, standing in front of the large window overlooking the forest behind him, his crew looking to him as he began to speak. "Gentlemen, I have assembled you here because I believe it is time we assess our current situation and determine our next course of action. So, first things first, our ship has been heavily damaged due to enemy ambush, and generally the situation is fucked. Repairs are of course running along as planned, thanks to your hard work, and our power is operational at least, but we still have several problems. Our jump drive is currently in a sorry state, our communications systems have been completely decimated, our weapon systems are dysfunctional, and we lost our rover. Seeing as a lack of ground transportation could be detrimental, we shall begin work on a standard RWI Marauder Class rover design." Jack says, taking a step to the side as a large red holo screen appeared, displaying the image of the standard twin-cockpit RWI exploration and reconnaissance rover. As the blueprint was displayed to the crew, audible ooh's and ahh's could be heard. Once everyone shut up, Jack continued. "While this rover project is one of our priorities, our top priority is going to be constructing a base of operations, seeing as operating out of a wreck halfway embedded in the ground is not a good idea. The base will start off relatively basic, and seeing as we are surrounded by trees and the majority of identified ore deposits are deep below us, it is best we build the base underground, complete with an underground garage and hangar bay." Jack says, displaying blueprints of the large base, including room designs and measurements, as everyone nodded in agreement, with Castle and Finn being particularly excited. "Now then, I shall address the elephant in the room, something I am sure all of you are wondering. While I highly doubt the green drones are somehow coming back, especially after we sent the Controller and the Artifact careening into a blackhole, but I don't doubt the possibility are some kind of rouge remnants out there, fighting without orders or reason, just luring ships into traps like the one we encountered in orbit of this planet. The age of the signal indicates it's from a period during the war, so we may be opposing a remnant that doesn't even know they've lost yet." "Of course, we also know that these remnants are somewhat organized as we saw during our second tenure on Monus III, but as far I saw these, it's possible these may not be green drones and only pirates and scavengers using stolen tech. But if they are, they are likely be isolated and alone. So before you go panicking, I believe this is simply a rouge squadron we need to mop up. But if it's something more, this planet could be in danger, and we need to be ready for anything. Regardless, that concludes this assembly, you are all dismissed!" Jack shouted, his crew nodding as they went back to work, with Jack just turning to look out the window out of the ship's bridge, and to the stars. "So, lemme get this straight, you wanna re-brand to the Freelance Exploration Force?" "Yeah Papple, it's the perfect title! We get paid to explore, we'll be living the dream and making the big bucks while doing it!" "Finchy, your insane." "I know. Anyways, how long till we reach that signal?" "It's still quite a while, this ship is slow as shite." "Yeah, fair enough. Wonder if anyone else has picked up the signal..." "Ehhhh, who knows, heck, we might get several other ships arriving considering the power of this signal. Guess we better get there first to call dibs for exploration and salvage." "Yeah, sounds like a plan mates." The green monitoring screen displayed the image of the crew of Aaron's hive ship all talking amongst each other, before slowly distorting and fading away, as a tall figure in a black suit, with bright green tertiary lighting slowly turned to the person standing beside them. "They are none the wiser, sir." "Excellent... Soon, all the greatest engineers in the galaxy shall be lured to this world... And here on this planet of intrigue... We shall snuff out both them and the threat they pose. Permanently."
3: Escaping from Planet BobPlanet Bob. An unknown world on the far reaches of unknown space, un-explored, un-charted, un-inhabited. Well, except for that last part, as we zoom in on a large base in the middle of an ice lake, a large facility constructed by Captain Shack, Commander W4stedspace, and Doctor Morphologis, created thanks to the hole dug by their mining rig. And right now, the base was not looking so hot. The facility was lined with a tall square shaped outer wall, reinforced with steel plating, and right now, it had definitely seen better days, with massive holes and gaps in between the walls and some sections fully collapsing, as swarms of armored combat drones, big and small, varying in color and armament, assaulted the fortress. Inside the facility, as the entire base shook from tremors and detonations, as dust and small amounts of rocky debris fell from the ceiling inside. The hallways began to collapse and cave in as ceiling lights became loose and began to spark, with bits of the metal ceiling falling. The situation was desperate, and honestly, quite bleak. Within the deepest part of the base was the hangar. The room was brightly illuminated by floodlights connected to generators, the light shining all the way up to the command view deck of the hangar, and in the center of it was a massive spacecraft. Along the side of the ship was the name 'Venator' written in bold red font, because Shack was such a big star wars buff. The ship was painted bone white with red secondary and black tertiary coloring, brightly illuminated at its front aimed right up at the hanger door. The armored plating on the ship was thick and densely packed together, meant to resist even the toughest of munitions and impacts. Several massive hydrogen thrusters were mounted onto its bottom, as well as multiple smaller thrusters on its sides. Those of course, were only the boosters required to actually get the ship into orbit, which would detach when their fuel ran out. The main ship itself was mounted to these boosters, its frame similar to that of the Warden, the crew's dropship, however it was a bit larger and more armored, complete with additional weapons and it's top machine gun mount being replaced with a miniature armored and enclosed turret, designed by Morph, along with having more boosters to allow for space flight and greater maneuverability in atmosphere. Mounted on the very top of the main ship's frame was a large pulsing blue device, a throwaway jump core. As the name suggested, Morph created it as a way for the ship to make a one way jump within a set range and then jettison the burned out core. It was genius, frankly. The crew were currently working on preparing the ship for launch, as Morph was currently on the second level doing some last minute welding and running readings, as the sounds of sparks and grinding filled the air, accompanied by the chorus of explosions and gun fire above them. "Outer wall integrity at twenty five percent. Outer defence turret munitions at eighty percent depletion. Estimated breach of internal defences in five minutes." A feminine robotic voice chimed in over the speakers, as it belonged to TIUS, a back talking sarcastic robotic AI created by the good Doctor Morphologis, as the very annoyed and stressed Doctor responded while he worked. "I know, TIUS! Don't pressure us! Wasted, how is the fuel going? Please tell me were almost ready, I can barely stand another second longer on this godforsaken planet." Morph said, looking down from where he was currently looking to the floor of the hangar, seeing Commander W4astedspace viewing the readout on a long red pipe leading into the thrusters of the rocket, as he turned and gave a thumbs up. "Were at ninety five percent Morph, she'll be ready to fly real soon." "Oh thank god... Captain, how go the last minute calibrations?" Morph said as he looked up and shouted to Captain Shack, who was currently sitting in the front cockpit of the ship, running some final calibrations to ensure the ship was ready, before he slowly climbed out of the cockpit seat and onto the bridge, as he walked to the other side and grasped onto a ladder before sliding down and arriving on the second level. "She's all set, and good timing too, swear I heard a drone impact the damn hangar door..." Just then, TIUS chimed in. "Confirmed, the drones are attempting to ram into the hangar door. Also, munitions for outer defence weapon systems have been fully depleted, and wall integrity is at ten percent, breaching of base via ground level drone forces is imminent. I advise you get done soon before the enemy fully breaches our defenses." All three of the crew proceeded to curse at the same time. "Shit." Just then, a loud ding was heard, as Wasted looked at the readout on the pipe and smiled as he chuckled and called out to the second level. "Alright, shes fueled up, let's get off this damn rock!" Shack nodded as he looked upwards to see R5 equipped with two welders working above him, as he called out. "Alright R5, it's time for the transfer!" R5 let out a series of dis-gruntled beeps and boops. "Don't worry R5, as soon as we reach Federation space and get back on solid ground, we'll get you a new body, one better than the old hunk of junk you got." R5 let out a slight beep of annoyance, seemingly being offended. "I didn't mean it like that! Come on man, just work with me." R5 was silent before letting out a happy beep and a bloop of confirmation as he hovered down next to Shack. As Shack got to work extracting R5's AI core, Wasted turned to Morph and asked him an important question. "Did you get Potatoes on the ship already?" "Yeah, she didn't really resist, in fact, she seemed eager, probably because it's a new body for her. How about that AI you have?" "Oh, who, J.A.R.V.I.S?" "Just Another Rehash of a Very Intelligent System? Yeah, the one that helped you make the Rapier drone that saved our asses when we got back from blowing up that jammer outpost and you hid the entire time. By the way, man why did you keep him secret from us? You couldve told us you had your own AI available, the reason TIUS reacted so badly was you kept a secret from her!" It was then TIUS chimed in. "Actually, I knew the entire time, I was just angry the Commander kept it a secret from the rest of the crew." "Wait, really?" "No, I just wanted to make him feel bad. Besides, it was not hard to trace JARVIS's AI signature from within the base." Cue Wasted facepalming his helmet's faceplate. "Anyways, the Rapier was fitted with a drone transponder that effectively made it invisible to the drones, so I managed to scavenge the transponder of that type 6 we shot down, and attached it to the Venator, so the drone will think that it's a simple type six drone as we slip away. As for JARVIS, I just re-installed him into my suit, he's offline currently to save power." "Alright then, Captain, have you got R5's AI downloaded?" Captain Shack looked up from the now offline recon drone body as he nodded. "Yep, saved onto the suit, so c'mon, were good to go." Morph and Wasted nodded, as TIUS spoke. "I have already downloaded myself into the ship, we are green to go, I shall initiate launch preparations. I have also prepped a total lockdown to ensure the base does not fall into enemy hands." "Alright then, let's get off this planet." Shack said as he began to climb up to third level, the Commander and Doctor following him. As he reached the top, he slowly crossed the bridge leading to the open frontal and back cockpits of the ship, slowly climbing inside the front cockpit as he sealed it shut, locking it as the Commander climbed into the back cockpit, while the Doctor climbed into the open top hatch and inside the rear compartment of the ship, closing the hatch and sealing it shut behind him. As the bridge slowly retracted back, the Captain began the countdown. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five..." As Shack counted down, the thrusters on the ship slowly began to ignite, heating up rapidly as the hangar door began to slowly open. "Four, three, two, one... Ignition!" The ship's thrusters ignited with full force, as the massive spacecraft lifted out of the hangar bay, as it sealed shut behind the rocket, and the base's lights shut down completely with heavy blast doors and barriers covering the main entrances. As the rocket propelled itself upward into the sky, the G force began to impact the crew, but thanks to their astronaut training, they could handle it, as the ship slowly exited Planet Bob's atmosphere. "Thruster sets are out of fuel, jettisoning." Wasted said as he pressed a few buttons in his cockpit, as the thrusters attached to the bottom of the Venator slowly detached, metal cables snapping and whipping around as they fell back down to the planet, burning up in it's atmosphere. "Alright, let's do this, begin charging the throw away jump core-" "Wait, TIUS says she's picking up an unknown signal!" "Confirmed, I am detecting an unknown signal in a system approximately within the jump core's range. It appears to be a distress signal, though it's origin is unknown." The captain had a puzzled look, before making a decision. "Charge the core TIUS, let's go and save the day, getting back home can wait a little longer." "Hell yeah." "Let's do this, Captain! And Morph, if this core makes this ship wind up like the Constitution, it's your ass." And with that, the core began to charge, and after a seconds... The ship jumped, heading for uncharted space. Meanwhile, back on Planet Bob, an unknown figure had been watching the whole launch. A figure wearing a black suit, with a massive hole in their chest. Several drones approached the figure, and made un-intelligible beeping and whirring, before the figure raised its hand, and pointed at the shuttle. The drones beeped in unison, and flew away. The figure was not done with the crew yet... Not by a long shot. Author's Note Hope you enjoyed this little side chapter showing how Captain Shack and the crew escaped planet Bob. Don't worry, next equestria based chapter will arrive soon. Note, in a future chapter, I shall provide more context as to why they had to flee, and show the scene of Wasted revealing JARVIS, but until then, just settle for the context this chapter provides. Also, thanks for reading!
4: Cap'n, The Ponies Are Talkin'!The mood within the hull of the Tigris was quite calm, the fires subsiding as they burned out of fuel and were finally extinguished by either the hulls sprinkler system or fire extinguishers. On all decks, there wasn't really that much hustle and bustle, as some of the crew were currently trying to get a couple hours of rest within their bunks, as ordered by the captain to make sure they were prepared for the hard work that could come tommorow. Other members of the crew, like Castle and Finn, who were currently on the outside of the ships hull, grinding away at loose metal wreckage and scrap that broke off the ship during it's descent crash landing, salvaging the components to use for repairs and construction. Inside, Venom and Owen were seen making some repairs within the Bridge deck, welding broken steel plates back together and reconnecting electrical wires while Captain Jack and Commander Craz walked through the halls of the ship, as Reed walked with them while examining his suits wrist screen. "Well Captain, good news is, we're getting repairs done quite efficiently, and with a good sleep our crew should be able to work better tomorrow, hopefully get a sufficient base of operations up and running." Reed said, as Craz chuckled to himself. "Yeah, everybody needs their rest, even well trained pioneers of the great unknown." Craz then slowly let out a loud yawn, stretching his arms out. "Heh, guess even I need it... Permission to hit the sack Captain?" "Permission granted, Craz, go get some sleep." Craz nodded as he stepped off into an open door leading to one of the crew bunk rooms, closing it behind him, as Jack turned to Reed. "I believe you should get some rest too, Mr. Reed." "I'll be alright sir, I've trained myself to stay up for long periods of time, especially back during my time as an administrative officer. I can handle a couple more hours of activity, and my suit should be able to keep me going with a caffeine injection." "If you say so." Jack jokingly said, lightly chuckling before his radio buzzed and he answered. "This is Higgs, me and Horza just got down repairing some of the damage to the reactor, so the energy leak is plugged and power should start to even out a bit more." "Good to hear, Higgs, keep working hard down there." As Higgs hung up on his end, another link was established. "Bash here, managed to seal the hangar doors again, so nothing can get in through the back door now. Hangar bay itself is still banged up, but nothing too major." "Excellent work, Bash. Now if you could please go help out with bridge repairs, that would be great." "Roger that." As the Captain finished speaking on the radio, he and Reed ascended up the stairwell leading to the bridge, as they entered to see Venom and Owen welding and wrenching away at several screens and displays, some consoles now properly functioning, and the window now being fully repaired as the bridge was sealed off from the outside. Captain Jack decided to take a load off his feet, as he sat down in his chair, while Reed sat down at a nearby console and started typing away. "Nothing like being stranded on an alien planet once again, eh Captain?" "Yep, just like the good old times..." Owen couldn't help but chuckle. "Honestly sir, you could make being stranded on a lava planet a fun experience." Venom slowly nodded, thinking back to the time the crew actually visited a lava planet. "Yep, when this crew's together, were unshakable. Considering all the types of shenanigans and funny moments that happen when were around, I wouldn't have it any other way honestly." "Amen, Venom. Now then, could you please me the wire bolters? I'm almost finished with repairing the weapons control terminal." Venom turned and nodded, as he grabbed one of the many tools on the ground next to him, as he tossed it to Owen, who caught it in his hand. "Thanks mate." As the two worked, Reed was busy writing logs and data manifests, as being a master of organization and logistics demanded documentation of everything. Jack was currently busy staring through the window at the now slowly rising over the horizon. He noted that the sun was moving quite more rapidly than usual, likely another trait of this strange planet. As he sat, his radio buzzed to life. "Uhhhh, cap'n?" "Yes, Castle, go ahead." "Ya might want to come out and see this... Cause either me and Finn are goin insane or... There's talkin pastel ponies out here." At the mention of those words, Jack quickly leaped out of his seat, as he turned to Reed, who nodded and got out of his seat as well. "Got it, stay where you are and wait for me and Reed." "Roger that, cap'n." Jack quickly turned to Owen and Venom, who had overheard Castle on the radio. "You two watch from the bridge and report anything un-usual." They both nodded, as Jack and Reed quickly made their way out of the bridge. Five minutes earlier, Twilight and her friends were slowly trotting along the path through the Everfree forest, peacefully walking through the dark woods, as they slowly approached a large clearing, and a strange and foreign sound began to loudly assault their ears, as they lowered them down, trying to block out the strange sound. It sounded like a griffon scraping their claws along a whiteboard, except louder, and sounding more metallic as it accompanied the clanging of metal and steel. As the party slowly approached the source of the sound, they ducked into some bushes, and slowly peeked out to see a strange, horrifying, and amazing sight. A massive metal construct stood before them, easily matching the size of Twilight's castle, as it's massive hull extended across the entire clearing. It's front appeared to be partially buried in the ground, and it was colored in a distinct red and black coloring on it's hull. Another distinct feature of the ship were a set of large letters on it's side, reading 'Tigris', likely being the unknown vessel's name. From the outside, it appeared the outer hull of the ship was quite battered and damaged, with some holes present in it's armor, light plumes of smoke rising from large fires burning on its rear end. In front of the massive wreck, a bi-pedal figure wearing a strange yellow suit with an unknown symbol on it's shoulder, with a large helmet and visor obstructing their face, wearing a large backpack, and wielding an unknown tool, was seen grinding against a large piece of steel wreckage, as sparks flew all over the place, the piece of scrap being slowly grinded down to its base components. As the unknown being grinded away, the ponies swore they could hear it... Humming an unknown tune as it worked away, ensuring it could see thanks to the lights mounted on it's helmet. "Doo doo doodly doo, salvaging, salvaging, we all love to salvage... Doo doodly doo..." As the strange creature, whom they assumed was a male, hummed away, Pinkie couldn't help but hum with it, as her friends gave her a weird look. "What, it's a nice tune!" As they continued to watch the unknown figure grind away, it soon completely ground up the piece of scrap, as it soon turned to another figure currently grinding another piece of scrap, this one wearing a green suit, and spoke to them. "Aye Finn, ya almost done over there?" "Affirmative, just finishing off this piece here." "Well hurry up, I wanna go inside the ship and catch some beauty sleep, my eyes are killing me." Finn slightly chuckled, as Castle turned back to see multiple sets of eyes staring at him, as he instinctively backed up, bringing up his grinder. "What the bloody hell!?!" The ponies reacted by stepping back in fear, as Finn overheard Castle, as he quickly ran over. "What is it, Castle?" "I swear to fuck I just saw something in the bushes..." "You sure it wasn't your imagination?" "I know it wasn't, I saw em clear as day!" "Well, why don't you go check it out?" "WHY ME!?!" "You saw em, I didn't, you should see if you actually saw something." Castle grumbled something, as he slowly approached the bush, keeping his grinder raised as he was now right in front of the bush, and slowly parted it's leaves, as he looked down to see... A group of small ponies with varying colors, some having wings, some having horns, and even a scaly lizard looking reptile. Now, Castle was about to start his confused scottish screaming, before the purple one spoke. "Greetings!" Now seeing these were TALKING mutant ponies, Castle raised his finger, as if to silence the pony, before stepping back and revealing the ponies to Finn, who promptly made a noise of pure confusion, while Castle put his hand up to his helmet and spoke into his radio. While Castle spoke on the radio, Twilight and her friends just stared at Finn, who was now next to Castle, and staring at the ponies. Fluttershy was currently shaking violently out of fear, Rainbow and Applejack were ready to punch these guys in the face if they came any closer, Rarity couldn't help but feel appalled by their suit's fashion sense, and Twilight felt a sense of bewilderment looking upon them, while Spike thought they looked like something out of a power ponies comic. Suddenly, Finn raised his hand and slowly waved at the ponies, which caused Fluttershy to promptly faint. "Uhhhh... Is she okay?" The ponies looked back to see that it was in fact Finn who was talking, as he looked at the now unconscious mare, as Twilight shrugged. "Yeah, it happens alot." "Ah. Well then, Castle, I believe we have officially gone insane, and are having a collective mental breakdown." Finn said as he turned to the other person, who had finished speaking on the radio. "Yeah, english speaking alien ponies are typically something associated with insanity." The two engineers then looked back to the ponies, as Twilight smiled at them, slowly stepping forward and extending her hoof towards them, as the engineers lightly backed up before she spoke. "Greetings... Unknown alien beings, I am princess Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, and I am pleased to welcome you to our home of Equestria!" She said with excitement in her voice, as Castle and Finn looked at each other, before Finn decided to take the initiative, and lightly shake the Princesses hoof. "Well, uhhh... Name's Finn, Redwood Industries mechanical engineer, and thank you for the uhhhh... Warm welcome, your highness." As he retraced his hand, he gestured to Castle, who briefly nodded before turning to Twilight. "Lieutenant Castle, salvage expert. Ah jeez, I'm talkin to it now..." Twilight slowly nodded, before noticing three more bi-pedal figures rapidly approaching from behind Castle and Finn, two of them wearing red suits while one wore a black suit and what appeared to be newspaper clippings on the inside of their visor as they approached. "Who are they?" "Oh, that's the Captain and crew." Castle said, as he and Finn turned to face the approaching Captain, who had brought along Reed and the woken up Craz, who spoke in an annoyed tone "Castle, you better not be hallucinating, because-" Anything else he was going to say died in his mouth as the group noticed the ponies standing behind Castle and Finn, as Jack took a step forward and looked down at Twilight, who nervously chuckled. "Castle, care to explain what the hell I'm looking at?"
5: Perplexing Pastel Ponies"Ok, so let me get this straight Castle... You spotted these ponies in this bush, and they began talking to you?" Captain Jack said as he eyed Castle from behind his helmet. "Yes Captain." Castle said as he nodded slowly. "Are you high?" "No Captain, I stashed my weed back at base behind the plant pot in the lobby." "I didn't mean- Ugh! Move please." "You got it." Castle politely moved out of Captain Jack's way as he walked up to the smiling purple unicorn in front of him. "You sure it ain't a hologram?" "No sir, haven't tested it." Captain Jack proceeded to turn to Craz. "Craz, pet the unicorn- Or wait, it's got wings so... It's an alicorn I think. Whatever, just pet it." "Why me?" "Because your good at petting things." With a groan, Craz slowly walked over to Twilight, who appeared very confused, as he slowly lifted his hand towards her head and placed it atop it, which Twilight at first attempted to pull away from, but when the scratching and petting started, she closed her eyes and began to enjoy it, letting out a whinny of happiness. "Yeah, it's real. And it feels nice." Craz said as he continued to give the pony the pets. "Craz, you can stop scratching it now." "Make me." Captain Jack would proceed to pull out his pistol and stick it to the back of Craz's head. "Your no fun." Craz said as he withdrew his hand from the ponies head, much to Twilight's dismay. "We didn't come out here to pet unicorns, we came out here to get answers." "And pet unicorns." "Craz, I swear to the almighty Clang I will shoot you dead right here and now." The ponies all audibly gasped at the statement, as Jack realized they were unaware of the fact that the Medbay had regeneration capabilities. "Probably should've said that better." Reed, being the voice of reason, decided to speak up. "Captain, I believe it is best we get away from these... Ponies, and meet back up inside the bridge." "Yes, it would be for the best. Castle, Finn, you keep the ponies busy." "Why us?" "Because you were the first to meet them, now go. Craz, Reed, with me." The Captain and co then proceeded to rush back to the ship, as Castle and Finn turned to the confused ponies. "Where are your friends going?" Pinkie asked as she turned her head. "Uhh... There going to uh... Have a very important meeting that you guys can't go to." "Why not?" "Because uh... Your aliens." "And why is that bad?" "Because we've never met aliens before... Mostly." "Oh, ok!" Confused by the pink pony accepting his logic so quickly, Castle then turned to Twilight, who appeared just as confused as he did. "So uh... Do you guys like salvage?" "What's salvage?" "Allow me to explain..." As the Venator warped into the orbit of the planet with the light of the sun gleaming off it's white paint, the pulsating blue light of the jump core ceasing as it began beeping, it's frame cracking as it's electronics sparked and burst into flames. "Shit, cores about to go critical! TIUS, eject now!" The beeping became louder as the core became more unstable, with bolts of electricity shooting and zapping the hull of the venator leaving small burn marks, before the cables holding it to the ship snapped and let it loose, letting the sparking core drift off into the void before exploding in a burst of blue light. The crew all let out a sight of relief. "Phew... Well, least we know it worked." "Yeah, but it almost blew us to high hell!" "Well, the key word there being almost, because we survived." "Ah sod off doctor." Captain Shack and Commander Wasted both looked out of their cockpit windows with looks of confusion behind their helmets. "Ok what the hell?" "What is it, Captain?" Morphologis asked as he appeared in the camera screen for the rear compartment of the ship. "The sun and moon are both orbiting this damn planet!" "WHAT THE HELL!?! That defies all scientific laws! Well, least it ain't bob, got tired of waking up on that desolate rock every day. Least this planet is more exciting." "Agreed, now get to tracking that signal, Morph." Morphologis nodded and his screen shut off before Wasted spoke. "Captain, we may have a problem..." "What is it, Wasted?" "Unknown vessel just showed up on radar, and were receiving a message from it." "Understood, send it through. Finally about time we got to talk to someone. TIUS, patch it through." As Captain Shack proceeded to answer the message, he came face to face with another engineer. "Greetings unknown vessel, this is the freelance exploration ship 'Last Stand', names Aaron, what can I do for ya?" "This is Captain Shack of the former USS Constitution, member of the Federation Navy. We detected a distress signal after we escaped from our isolation on an unknown world, and have come to investigate. Are you the source of the signal?" "Negative captain, in fact were here for the same signal I believe. Me and my crew came out here to see if we could help, seeing as we were already nearby on a simple scouting mission. How about we investigate the signal together?" "Sounds like a plan, we'll meet up with your vessel and make our way to the origin of the signal." As the signal cut out, the Venator ignited it's engines and sped forward through the darkness, until the light of the nearby sun shined upon the large purple hive ship came into view, leaving the crew of the Venator in astonishment at the design before Aaron linked back onto comms. "Ain't she a beaut Captain? Finest DRF hive ship in the galaxy. Well, former DRF anyways." "I'll say... I've never seen any kind of ship like this before... It's as big as the Constitution was! And excuse me for asking, but what's the DRF?" "Oh, you must've been isolated for a long time, but it stands, or used to stand for, Drone Reactionary Force. Me and my boys were part of them for a bit, fought with RWI for a while." "Wait... Drones? Nevermind... Anyways, are you talking about Redwood Industries? Those militant industrial separatists?" "Yep, that's them. Pretty fine chaps honestly, knew this Captain Jack fellow that's their Rear-Admiral now, actually fought with him once. Though now with the DRF gone, we just took the ship for ourselves and decided to make our own buisness." "Right... Anyways, were coming up on the signal now... And I'm seeing lots of debris." Suddenly, a voice was overheard on Aaron's end of the link. "Aaron, we got unknown contacts on radar!" "Got it, Conrod. Captain, I advise you ready yourself, cause I think were about to get swarmed." "He's right Captain, hostiles are appearing on our radar from all around!" "Damn it, I just built this ship! Defensive maneaveurs!" The Venator quickly powered up it's weapons as it quickly altered it's course to aim at the approaching enemy fighters, with Morpholigis quickly taking control of the top mounted turret and locking on. "Take this, you bastards!" The Venator fired it's rocket launchers and auto cannons at the enemy, hitting and shredding through a couple fighters before peeling off and taking evasive maneuvers. Meanwhile on Aaron's ship, the crew ran to battle stations, taking manual control of the turrets and firing at the enemy fighters from all sides while the front hangar door opened and a swarm of combat drones swarmed out, though they proved inneffective as they were gunned down while the ships weapons did little damage, as the open hangar door left the ship exposed to a fighter commecning a kamikaze attack and barely managing to ram itself inside before the door sealed. The fighter skidded across the hangar floor, the floor collapsing beneath it as it fell down to a lower level before exploding and bursting into flames as emergency sprinklers activated while the crew moved to repair any damage. "We ain't cut out for this kind of fighting!" "I know, Finchy, were gonna have to land!" "Aaron, you get your ship and crew down to the planet's surface, we'll cover your ass and keep these guys off you. If we can't link back up with you, it's been a pleasure to meet you." "Thanks Shack, your a good man for a fed." "No prob- Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" The comms link terminated as the damaged Hive ship slowly descended to the planet's surface, as the Venator turned to face the oncoming horde. "Come at us, ya grey bandits! OORAH!" The Venator charged forward towards the hostile fighters, ready to fight to the death, or at least until they ran out of ammo. However, the fighters made a rapid u-turn around and fled back towards the asteroid field, soon vanishing behind the asteroids, much to the confusion of the Constitutions former crew. "Hey, where are they going?" "Why did they just run away like that?" "Got no damn clue... Maybe they're guarding the source of the signal... Or heck, may just be pirates setting up a trap for random passersby." Captain Shack turned back to Commander Wasted, who simply shrugged. "Welp, guess it's time we follow our new freelance friends down to earth. Or whatever this planet is." The Venator rapidly turned around and boosted at high speeds, following the DRF hive ship into the planet's atmosphere. "Here we go again, boys!" Jumping in from a nearby star system, a small orange and grey spacecraft orbited the planets surface, as two engineers sat in the cockpit of the craft and chatted with each other as they viewed their respective screens. "So Splitsie, you sayin we got a new job?" "That's right Capac, got told this planet has a bunch of untapped resources on it, so were here to extract them and sell them for the big bucks." "Is that all you ever care about, money?" "Yes." "Understandable."
6: Strange TimesAuthor's Note Notice: Story has been slightly re-written, recommend re-reading other chapters before reading this one. 6: Strange Times Splitsie and Capac's ship slowly drifted through the void, propelled only by their thrusters set to low power mode, as a large scanner dish slowly aligned itself with the moon of the planet below, scanning it's surface as the data gathered was displayed on a virtual screen within the ship's cramped cockpit. "Alright, scans show this planet's moon has a large amount of natural resources abundant, including gold, copper, silver, and other good shit. And conveniently, it's all pretty close to it's surface, so setting up a mining operation would be pretty profitable." Splitsie said as he read the data while Capac nodded. "Yeah, considering were the first out here, we get to have it all to ourselves too." "Yep, that's the best part. Alright, now boot up the mapping systems and find us a place to land. Once we touch down, we can set up a base of operations and start mining this moon till it's dry." Capac nodded as he flipped a switch on his terminal, looking at his screen as he mapped the moon's surface, before looking to the planet below. "Ya noticed the sun and moon both orbiting the planet?" "Eh, it's probably some optical illusion, just ignore it." "Alright. But why didn't we just take the carrier here, would've made this easier if we had access to it's equipment." "Yeah, but the Skywarp sticks out like a sore thumb and would draw unwanted attention. That's why were out here, to scout it out and make sure it's safe and secure before we call up TFE. He'll then arrive with the carrier once we get the initial stages of the base set up." "Damn, that's a solid plan." "I am very adept at tactical thinking. Now then, find us a place to land so we get to work." Capac nodded, as he began scanning the moons surface until he located a clear landing zone, and marked it for the navigation system to lock onto, as the ship approached the lunar LZ, with Splitsie rubbing his hands together. "Time to bring me my money!" "Don't you mean our money?" "Great, you ruined the reference." Captain Jack paced nervously around the Bridge as Craz, Reed, and Venom sitting in their seats and awaiting his speech. "Alright everyone, since everyone else is asleep right now and you are the highest ranking on this ship beside myself, I believe it is best to listen to your input on this... Confusing matter. I assume that Craz has briefed you on what we just experienced outside?" Everyone nodded. "Alright, I need to know how we respond to talking magical ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. Any ideas?" "Why don't we attempt to negotiate with them? They are clearly intelligent, perhaps speaking with them would allow us to bridge the gap between species and establish relations between their nation and RWI. Even if they are unwilling to cooperate, understanding them could be key to surviving this foreign world." "A good idea Reed. Craz, what do you say?" "I agree with Reed, mainly because I like patting the ponies." A series of chuckles escaped from the rest of the officers. "Oh for fu- Nevermind. Venom, what's your opinion?" "I honestly dunno sir, I think it may be a trick, could be some kind of hologram meant to lure us. Heck, even if they are real they may be in kahoots with those rouge bandits who shot us down, they may be bandits themselves." "A valid concern, but we won't know unless we investigate. Castle and Finn are currently handiling it out there, so for right now we will tune into their comms and helmet cameras to listen in and watch how it goes." Jack said before turning and pressing a few buttons at a computer terminal, as the center display screen activated and displayed the helmet feed of Castle and speakers broadcasted his voice while Jack sat in his recently fix command chair and watched the show. "Alright, now this, little ponies, is what we call a welder." Castle said as he raised the metal tool high and the ponies made sounds of intrigue. "This little bad boy is an engineers best friend. It can help you fix the smallest circuits and build the biggest battleships." "That tiny little thing can build stuff like that?" Rainbow said as she pointed past Castle to the wrecked Tigris. "Yep, although the Tigris was actually built by welder ships, but that's different. Besides, the welder is not my favorite tool personally. But this is!" Castle said as he chuckled before pulling out his grinder, spinning the blade as the ponies slightly backed up. "Say hello to my little friend, the grinder! This can grind down practically anything, just watch." He said before turning and spinning up the blade as he grinded down a large piece of scrap metal, reducing it to it's base components as the ponies watched in awe. "That is cool!" "Seems a bit dangerous, but definitely handy." "Oooh oooh, can I try it?" Pinkie said as she bobbed up and down and waved her hoof around. "Uhhh... Sure?" Castle said handing the grinder to Pinkie, as she somehow gripped it with her hooves before laughing like a maniac and proceeding to grind down any scrap metal in sight, leaving behold only components as she zipped back in front of Castle, handing him back his grinder and smiling. "How- How in the bloody hell did you do it that quick!?! And with bloody hooves no less!" "Yeah, you would make a great salvager." Finn commented, chuckling to himself before he reached over his shoulder and procured his standard assault rifle, with the ponies staring in intrigue, as Twilight quickly got out a notepad and quickly started making sketches of the weapon and the tools. "Now this is an engineers most trusted method of self defense. The RWI AX-54 Assault Rifle. Capable of firing both in an atmosphere and in a vacuum, one magazine holds about thirty bullets, and it's got solid accuracy and a good rate of fire. This bad boy alone has killed about thirty drone soldiers in total, of course it did nothing against the actual flying drones, but that's why Castle had a rocket launcher." "What's a rocket launcher?" Fluttershy timidly asked. "This bad boy!" Castle proudly proclaimed before reaching over his shoulder and procuring a large rocket launcher, with the ponies slightly backing away in worry and fear, except for Pinkie Pie who stuck her head in the barrel. "Cool! I think I can hear an echo!" "Hey, get your head out of there, this is a highly powerful and dangerous explosive launching apparatus! Or as a man of culture would call it, a boomstick." Castle said before pulling Pinkie out by the tail as she giggled. "Now would anybody like a test demonstration?" Both Twilight and Pinkie raised their hooves, as Castle turned to Finn. "Lemme guess, you need a target?" "Yep." "Alright, gimme a sec." Finn said before quickly drawing his welder, looking to his wrist computer as he projected a hologram of a cardboard cutout with targets on it before constructing it with his welder, quickly backing away as Castle chuckled before activating the targetting sight on the launcher and taking aim. "Alright everyone, get ready for a big boom!" Castle pulled the trigger, as a rocket sailed out of the barrel before impacting the target with a mighty boom, leaving nothing but a crater as the ponies stared absolutely flabbergasted. "And that my friends, is the humble rocket launcher." The hull of the Venator slowly began to heat up rapidly as it entered the atmosphere, searing hot flames washing over it's armor as it began to lightly shake and rattle. "Atmospheric entry commencing, hull stable." TIUS said as Jack let out a sight of relief. "Alright, at least we won't combust and explode before we even reach the ground. TIUS, can you hone in on the signal of those freelancers we helped out?" "Negative, it appears their GPS transponder was damaged in the skirmish, I cannot detect it's current location with the Venator's sensors. We would have to land and construct a much more powerful relay." "Well then, guess we got an objective, because now that we wasted the jump core, we gotta rely on our new friends to get us back home. Hopefully we can cash in a favor for helping them." Jack said as he adjusted the Venators heading, angiling it to where the bottom was taking the majority of the heat and slowing their descent. The flames soon ceased with the ship fully entering the atmosphere as the hull cooled down and the Venator emerged from the clouds over a large mountain range, illuminated only by the moon in the sky. "Alright, try and find us a suitable spot to land, we'll set up camp and in the morning try to get a relay up and running." "Alright, commencing ground reconnaissance." Morphologis said as he activated a camera mounted on the bottom of the Venator from his control seat, engaging night vision so he could properly see the ground. "Seems like were coming over a bit of a barren environment, kinda like a desert. Think I see a clear patch right... Here." Morphologis marked the landing area with a blue beacon as the Venator slowly descended, extending out it's landing gear as it touched and the back ramp lowered while the front cockpits opened. As the crew disembarked, Wasted stretched himself out. "Good to finally be off that rock. Air feels a bit cleaner here to be honest, though there is a bit of sand. And considering the last time sand was involved, I think I hate it." "Ok Anakin." "Ha ha, very funny."
