Man, Mare, Machine

Crnl Gd-2: Have the reports all identified similar circumstances?

Sct-1: Yes sir, the planet has been confirmed to be terra. It has multiple climates and native wildlife.

Crnl Gd-2: Intelligent life?

Sct-1: Multiple intelligent species confirmed. Confirmed even split between peaceful and militaristic cultures.

Crnl Gd-2: Multiple? That is quite rare. What are the recommended plans?

Sct-1: One moment, info being patched-through right now, please confirm passage.

Crnl Gd-2: Confirmed, twenty-two plans recovered.

Sct-1: Full transfer confirmed.

Crnl Gd-2: Have the votes come in yet?

Sct-1: Yes sir, plan seven earned a twelve-percent lead, it has also been confirmed acceptable by 87% of voters for other plans.

Crnl Gd-2: Continue to transfer any further biological data you find.

Sct-1: Yes sir.

The various delegates gathered within their meeting halls. The halls themselves were just individual rooms on different ships, meant to allow the delegates to establish meetings without wasting time with travel. One by one, the holograms of the various men and women blipped into the meeting hall of the G.E.A. Artemis, filling the room with a pale silver light. Each of their forms conveyed an air of pride, easily recognizable even as their figures twitched and flickered in the light. The council was not an actual formal organization, they had no government and held no elections for office. Entrance to the council required one of three things: The first was recommendation by another council member, a method rarely adopted due to the relative unfairness of such an act. The second was mass-recommendation by people of authority, people like generals, dignitaries, and other influential figures. The third and most common method was from a citizen campaign. Citizen campaigns tended to be slightly unruly, usually flooded with requests for inclusion of every slightly influential person among the citizens, regardless of qualification. Luckily, these requests were commonly shot-down before any momentum could be built. There hadn't been any new council members for over five years, a good sign in their eyes. It meant that nobody was desperate to kick them out of their positions any time soon.

The representatives bowed to each other before taking their seats. One of the delegates, an older man, stepped forward. He was the oldest council member, maintaining his position for over twenty-five years with relative ease. His hair was more gray than black but his eyes still showed a clever, wily spirit. He was also the captain of the Artemis. "Ladies, gentlemen, I believe we are all aware of the current situation. The last mission update you received should have been from scout-one, update number twelve."

The other delegates all gave a nod. Although quite comfortable with each other, interruptions were often very poorly received until the speaker was done.

"Excellent, then I shall serve as main speaker for this meeting. Colonel Alexander, your ship had the highest percentage of citizens who would not consent to the plan, have pacification efforts been successful?"

"They have been calmed down sufficiently, chances of rioting commencing are negligible."

Another one of the figures rose from her seat. She looked to be in her mid thirties, although her demeanor would paint that of a much more mature woman. She wore a comfortable dress of blue which reached the floor. When she rose, several of the other members shot their eyes towards her with slightly more-than-normal attention. "What about you, Jeremiah? Have your scouts reported anything out of the ordinary?"

He gave her a wrinkled smile, flashing a set of large, white teeth. "Nothing of note, Angelica, they know what they are doing."

She nodded and returned to her seat, sitting quickly and immediately becoming a perfect example of quiet dignity once more.

One of the delegates stepped forward, this one a very broad, tall man. Unlike when Angelica rose, his movement caused the other members to hardly bat an eye. "The reports were not quite as clear as I would have liked, while the scouts investigating the equine-based civilizations have been feeding solid reports concerning their customs, there remains a noticeable drop in intel concerning the militaristic civilizations."

"I assure you, the intelligence is strong. The more aggressive races have almost neglected their cultural development to the point of stagnation. Most of the races live in a tech range primarily comparable to the human medieval era while they remain within the classical, if even at that." He punctuated his responses with slight silliness, lending a feeling more akin to talking to a slightly crazy grandfather than to a decorated political figure.

"How can such a gap exist?" He asked with slight bafflement. Such extremes were not actually not that rare, a similar situation could even be seen when compared to development of human civilizations. The odd part was the immense lead of one race in particular above the others.

"We suspect slightly xenophobic tendencies caused by a slightly above-average period before the different races established first contact. As such, idea-sharing has suffered. It's all in the report."

"Yes, thank you." The large man returned to his seat.

This meeting was to continue for at least an hour more, new races were a delicate matter, a delicate matter that was handled very differently depending on who finds them first. No gap in information could exist that would compromise greetings. Strictly speaking, there was no strong legislation outlining what could or could not be done with a new race, the classification of any new species was always left to the first qualified crew to investigate them. Qualified did not always mean magnanimous, however.

"General coat color seems erratic. Some subjects that appear related share similar colors, as the farmers do, while others are only tangentially related. Genes for coat color must be extremely varied." One of the scouts droned into a recorder from his perch. He had been dead-dropped over three days ago and had been making updates around the clock that entire time. Finding an adequate vantage point had been more difficult than intended, he had needed to adjust after discovering that some of the equines possessed wings. They swarmed the sky all day, doing this or that. It made a comprehensive view of the town much too dangerous so he had been slowly edging the town in a half-crescent, usually moving a few yards before observing for several more hours.

He didn't mind the waiting, in fact he appreciated it. He had always found a strange wonder in being surrounded by nature. He especially liked moments like this, times where he had been still for so long that the wildlife itself had forgotten about him, considering him just part of the landscape. He certainly wasn't any greenhorn scared of action, he had been to battle, but it had only made him appreciate these kind of moments more.

He only made noticeable noise when he adjusted his position. Other than that, the forest had surrounded him completely. His recordings made no noise, his suit was designed to not allow sound to escape without his input so he didn't have to worry about talking too loud. He didn't carry a weapon, after general satellite surveillance, scouts were not allowed to bring them. Even if they couldn't defend themselves as well as some of the other units in direct combat, scouts could handle themselves, even if that sometimes meant retreat.

"Scout-one, come in." Squawked the static-laced voice in his ear.

"Scout-one here, what is it Guardian?" He responded to the interruption while trying to keep as much disappointment out of his voice as possible.

"Natives heading toward your position, flyers in group, suggest adjusting position."

"Affirmative." He climbed the tree he had previously been standing near, using the elevation to adjust his position without leaving a silhouette in the tree cover.

"(I swear! There's a creature in the woods!)" Yelled a voice past the tree cover.

"(Really Rainbow Dash, monsters?)" Questioned another voice. "(I know that you've gotten into stories only recently but you really can't let them adjust your perception of the real world.)"

The scout  watched as he crouched in some bushes that covered a small alcove he had dug, had he been seen? How on Earth had he been discovered, he couldn't think of a time where he was less than five-hundred feet from an equine. Maybe he hadn't done a good enough job applying camouflage and accidentally let the sun reflect off him? If that was the case he was going to sock himself for his stupidity, although he doubted that was actually the problem.

"(Now Twi, I don't think Rainbow's tryin' ta fool us, she don't look like she's lyin' to me.)"

"(I'm more worried that she really *does think this monster is real.*)"

They had searched around his hovel without success, they clearly hadn't been given a very good description of what to look for.

"(I *know it was here, it must just be hiding. I say we try to wait it out.*)"

"(Rainbow, if you think you're going to get us to stay out here all night then we're going to have to disappoint you, and besides, do you even know what you are trying to wait out?)"

"(Indeed dear, I don't want to stay in this filthy place any longer than is absolutely necessary.)"

"(Fine, see if I care. But when I show-up tomorrow with an awesome monster you all have to admit that I was right.)"

"(Just go to bed Rainbow, please.)" Groaned the lavender mare in the group. "(I promise, if anything comes up again, we'll gladly help out however we can, just promise me you'll go to bed.)"

"(Fine, but we're coming back later.)"

They dissipated, each leaving for their own homes. The scout stayed in his makeshift hovel. Sure enough, less than two hours had passed before the cyan mare returned. She searched for almost an hour before finally giving-up, it was lucky that she had started her search a few yards too far, else she would have found his hideout for sure, regardless of camouflage. He had to admit, there was a small bit of glee in his mind as he watched her search without success, it was like beating someone at hide-and-seek, but the other player had wings and backup.

He decided it wasn't safe to stay on this side of town anymore, he would have to switch-over to the opposite forest or abort his main mission and stick to the deeper portion of the woods until it was safe. Neither option was particularly appealing, but duty calls.

Jeremiah continued. "The drop-pods should deliver our messages to the various leaders of the races simultaneously. After we have established greetings, we are met with the first choice, how do we establish our presence?"

"Simply assembling the fleet above their planet would be foolish, it would scare the simpler species and make us look like warmongers to the rest." Intoned Angelica.

"Would it?" Asked Alexander. "They wouldn't even know what the ships are, how would they know their purpose?"

"Experience isn't required in a matter like this. When they see the gigantic metal figures looming above them, their instincts will lead them to the same conclusion."

The broad man rose again. "We can't send the drops without having at least one ship in orbit."

"Not quite." Asserted Jeremiah. "The scouts have a transmitter, standard-issue. They could serve as a holographic communicator."

"Are we even sure that we can understand each other?" Questioned Angelica.

"The language doesn't seem too complicated, we have a few vocal samples but we'll need more if we want the translator to be able to pin anything down. I've sent some of the advanced scouts to the edge of smaller towns to procure more samples."

The broad man shot from his seat. "Jeremiah! You are in no position to pass aggressive scouting without notifying us."

He simply returned with a calm, grinning smile. "I'm sorry Marco, it was necessary to act while we still had the night to work with, I want to avoid complications as much as you do."

"Just don't let them do something foolish." He muttered as he slumped back into his seat, not actually planning to argue.

He gave a deep laugh, stretching the wrinkles on his face. "Dear Marco, where would our fleet be if it wasn't for the occasional act of recklessness?"

Scout design: