July, 1084

The Space Race between the Changelings and the Ponies are coming to an end...

At the last days of the race, the Changelings gave in everything they'd got...

That includes Cosmos 22A7, the best global surveying satellite CNSA have...

Any losses during this period of time would be considered a critical damage to the CNSA...

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July 12, 1084
Badlands Launch Site
17:55 PM
Final Test Flight
Subject: 'Spektr' Manned Spacecraft
Crew: Nork Clickbug

The blazing hot sun shine its light down to the sands of the Badlands, the intense heat formed waves down the ground, casting mirages that made this land looked far more desperating than it looks. Although it's afternoon, three hours before sunset, in one part of the desert, were the launch site of the CNSA; no creature cared about the intense heat, one due to the fact that their ancestors have been living in the Badlands, second being the big day; the final test flight of their newest manned spacecraft before entering service.

29 years ago, the CNSA launched the world's first artificial satellite, starting what's now called the 'Space Race'. However, despite the fact that the Changelings gained the upperhand of launching the first stallion-made object in orbit, the ponies had caught up with them by landing the first stallion onto the Moon. Desperately wanting to regain their place, Queen Chrysalis rushed the CNSA into the project of designing a more advanced version of the Vostok spacecraft, as the craft that would be carrying their cosmonaut into their upcoming space station 'Mir', which would be operational no later than 1086.

As the result, 'Spektr' is the final outcome; replacing the older Vostok rocket with the improved version Soyuz, and adding a new cargo module and the Instrument-service module, of course al all new crew module with a new automated, radar-based system called Kurs to dock with the future space station. After the long process of testing, the Spektr spacecraft is coming to its final testflight into space and return.

Nork Clickbug had never been this sweaty all his life, although himself had been to the LEO several times in the Vostok spacecraft, but this time he's flying the top spacecraft currently developed, and this test flight would determine the place CNSA would be in the space race. Now locked onto his seat, strapped by the belts, with a helmet twice the size of his head, Nork began the launch procedure.

"Onboard system switching to onboard control." Nork reported as he flicked the switch on the control panel.

T-minus 5 minutes and counting.

"Ground measurement system activated by RUN 1 command," Nork looked at the indicator, "Control, launch key is cleared for insertion."

He then checked the area between his helmet and the space suit.

T-minus 2 minutes and 30 seconds. (Skip some time cuz I'm not into details.)

Inside the tanks of the four liquid-fuel boosters strapped around the first stage of the Soyuz, nitrogen flooded into the tank, slowly completing the pressurization process, every fuel tanks on the Soyuz are experiencing the same process. 15 seconds later, all ground filling of oxidizer and nitrogen to the launch vehicle are terminated.

T-minus 1 minute and counting.

The first umbilical tower separates from booster, Nork, in the capsule took a deep breath, the spacecraft slightly rumbled due to the separation of the umbilical tower, he then switched on the internal power, and waited for the final launch sequence.

T-minus 40 seconds and counting.

Nork shuttered at the sudden disconnection of the ground power supply umbilical to third stage, which shook the capsule, suddenly, with no warning, a felt chills speeding up his spine, "God damn it, let's hope for the best..." Nork muttered, but that bad feeling is still on his head.

T-minus 20 seconds and counting.

In the control tower, the launch group are scrambling on their computers and control panels, a changeling with a pair of glasses on peered at the launch timer, "Alright, time to work," he nodded at the launch command officer, "You know the drill." The Launch command officer then twisted the key, now with the final launch command given, the mission control officer wiped off a bead of sweat on his forehead.

The second umbilical tower separates from the Soyuz.

T-minus 10, 9, 8...

The first stage engine began to blow out gases, and turbopumps at the flight speed.

6, 5, 4, 3...

Main engine starts! flames engulfed the launch pad, as the boosters ignites.

2, 1, and lift off!

As soon as the refueling tower finally separates, the Soyuz roared as it begin to raise. Nork felt the intense rock inside the capsule, he looked up, as if he's seeing through the roof of the capsule, where the launch escape tower is located.

The Soyuz begin to tilt for the procedure of entering LEO, and that's when error occurs.

Just as the mission control officer sighed in relief, the launch command officer brought the temperature of the control chamber down to below zero.

"Four engines on the left booster failed to ignite, she's losing thrust!" Every creature had their eyes printed on the screen of the camera pointing at the Soyuz, and from the live recording, they saw the four sources of flames are missing one, and the Soyuz is clearly not happy about it.

"Restart the engines." the launch command officer is now flooded with sweats, this failure can be critical, not only he'd lose his job, but the entire nation would be blaming this on the team.

"I can't! The angle of the Soyuz has been turned to the direction where signal would not reach!" The launch command officer cried, "activating crew escape system!"

By this point, the entire Soyuz is tilted at a 90 degrees angle, and the malfunctioned booster began to spray fuel everywhere, unfortunaly this occurred while the engines haven't been cut off. The boosters could explode anytime.

"Damn it! automatic crew escape system failed to operate!"

Meanwhile, in the capsule of the Spektr. Nork felt the rocket's terribly wrong direction the moment it starts to occur, the escape tower didn't ignite. Nork can feel his heart rate rose to an exploding speed as he immediately began the manual activation of the crew escape system. With a switch going off, the side of the crew escape tower burst into flames it pulled the entire nose cone out along with the crew modules, however, due to the position of the malfunctioned Soyuz right now, the entire nose cone is stuck.

"Com' on girl, get the hell outta there..." Nork cursed under his breath as he tried to steer the nose cone out of the way, "the escape tower's fuel's not gonna last long, let's get off this shit!" Finally, Nork felt a nudge on the spacecraft as the nose cone went off the rest of the rocket, he was knocked back onto his seat by the sudden force of acceleration. The escape tower, along with the nose cone was pulled away, seconds later the engines of the escape tower was cut off, a thud was heard when the crew capsule was released from the nose cone, with the activation of the parachutes and the short ignition of the rocket engines, the capsule hits the ground. However, due to the sudden change of speed. the capsule had a bumpy land, resulting in Nork hitting his head hard onto the side of the capsule, and the shock had knocked him out of cold...

A year and four months layer...

Nork sat on the bench behind the prison bars, looking up at the white sealing, and sighed. After the failed test flight, he was questioned due to the fact that he's the one experienced the entire accident. However, because of this special period of time when the ponies aren't exactly the best friends of the Changelings, any disaster and critical errors would result in the suspicion and lock down of any creature related to this situation.

Of course, Nork was one of those suspects, and his career ended as soon as the court hammer went down...

He looked to the sealing's corner, where a small drilling hole was left over during its construction moons ago, the lights are getting dim, nigh falls. Nork, with a small piece of concrete he got from the crack in the corner, scratches the wall; already at least 30 marks. Nork felt his eyelits began to fight over the control to shut them down, just as he's about to go black, he heard a light 'cling' on the metal bars, his eyes shut open and saw an officer in front of his bars with a clipboard.

"Nork Clickbug?" he asks.

"You got him right here." Nork replied, "Court again?"

"You're getting back to the air." The bars opened and the officer tossed him the clipboard, on it lies a paper with CNSA typed on it. And the words on it ignited a spark of hope deep down of him...

Author's Note

Alright guys, first chapter finished, any comments or critisms are free to be spoken out in the comment area. By the way, teh Changeling Kingdom's gonna be a bit like USSR. As for its opponent y'll know who that was...