“Ugh...” he said, slowly picking himself up off the floor of the pod. His mouth felt dry and his stomach was completely empty; about a quarter of it in a yellow-gray puddle on the floor next to the cryo-pod. His entire body aching with disuse, he slowly stood up and found he could no longer see.
“Computer, status report”
“Current status of body: Screamer
state: critical
Eyes at 10% effectiveness
Plasma Caster: 5% effectiveness
Internal factories: offline
On board batteries: 10% capacity
Maneuvering nodes: 0.25% effectiveness
External armor: compromised
Internal superstructure: heavy damage
Artificial limbs: .75% effectiveness
Mental facilities: Exceptional
Primary power conduits: damaged
Secondary power conduits: compromised
Tertiary power conduits: Satisfactory
Internal Organs: Stable
Purification Systems: Off-line
Immune System: Off-line
Status of ship: Ark
External Armor: Compromised
Shields: Off-line
Weapons: Off-line
Sensors: Online
Reactor: Online
Computer Core: Online
Life Support: Compromised
Artificial Gravity: Offline
Primary Power Conduits: damaged
Secondary Power conduits: Satisfactory
Tertiary Power conduits: Compromised
Quaternary Power Conduits: Offline
Primary quantum core: Offline
Secondary Quantum Core: Online
Sublight Engines: Offline
Hyperspace Engines: Offline
Primary Radiation shield: Offline
Secondary Radiation Shield: Online
Internal Superstructure: Satisfactory
Point Defenses: Damaged
Main Mechwarrior Repair Depot: Online
Maneuvering Thrusters: Online
Communications Arrays: Damaged
System Status: Satisfactory
WARNING: SHIP HAS BEEN BOARDED, EMERGENCY CRYOSTASIS THAW INITIATED”
“Think you can lead us to the Repair Depot, I think we could all use it”
“Audible and visual directions will be given once Thaw has completed, standby”
“I feel like hell, the least you could do is hurry”
“I am going as fast as is safe”
“And my batteries might run out by then”
“Ship is on minimal power until boarders are dealt with”
“What about internal defenses?”
“Most of the intact defenses are in this section, remaining defenses are insufficient to deal with intruders”
“And the crew?”
“The remaining crew have been captured and are held planetside, you four are the only friendlies on this ship”
“great, just great”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Once you're done thawing them out, activate the closest internal defenses to them and prep the depot for use, I want you to guard that depot until we are repaired”
“Affirmative”
“How long have I been out”
“Omega Lance has been in Cryostasis around this planet for 1,353 years, 5 months, 2 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes and 53 seconds”
“Holy hell, no wonder we're so badly damaged, what happened to our pods?”
“Pod locks and hinges failed, emergency procedure stated to keep subjects in stasis until crew or self-repair procedures could circumvent or repair the damage”
“Obviously something happened that prevented them from completing their task”
“Correct, the natives on the planet Biome 02 are extremely xenophobic, and an incident aboard a human airliner involving their capital's tower pushed them into war, there was no warning, as the captain put it, until the shots started coming”
“Just like 9/11/01”
“Yes, the means were the same but the target was different”
“What caused it to crash”
“Sabotage”
“What?”
“The maintenance crew was bribed to 'overlook' a cracked impeller blade, made worse by a unicorn repeatedly striking the impeller with his sword”
“What did he look like?”
“White coat, blue mane, the locals call him Blueblood”
“That son of a bitch”
“The sabotage was found out only after the airliner crashed, by then it was too late to repair the damages it caused, the locals firmly believed we were planning an invasion and made the decision to conquer is before such a thing happened”
“And we didn't stand a chance...”
“We did not, our technology was being influenced by the radiation the locals emit”
“And so we were forced to fight hand-to-hand”
“In which they excelled at, not to mention they had the range advantage”
“Obviously you found a way around it”
“Affirmative, unfortunately I need neutronium, a resource only found on this planet, to immunize your team”
“How much do you have right now?”
“Enough to make you immune to the EMP effects of an average one, their rulers are a different story”
“Much more powerful?”
“Their power is that of an average unicorn, but multiplied by a factor of ten to the ten-thousandth”
“So their EMP is that much stronger?”
“Correct”
“Damn, well, gonna see about avoiding them for now”
“I am currently working on improving the EMP shield, but I lack the neutronium required to fully protect you from the effects of being in their immediate area and will require frequent absences from their presence”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, I took the liberty of upgrading the hardware and software of you and your team's bodies, but you need to access the depot to acquire the upgrade”
“And our mechs?”
“Having nothing to do for over a thousand years gives you quite a lot of time do make any improvements, and when your an AI such as myself, you get quite a lot of time to take the mechs apart, and put them back together while also scanning the parts for any way of improvement”
“And?”
“I believe that the Lunar body orbiting the planet has sufficient materials for me to continue researching; it is filled with unknown elements”
“Ok then, once we're done, can you maneuver the ship into an orbit around the moon?”
“Already done so, I will make sure that your plasma caster is modified to cut into the Lunar surface to collect samples, do not worry, I will reset the frequency of it once the samples are retrieved”
“Couldn't you do this... I don't know... before you woke me up?”
“I have been limited on resources, and I have already attempted to mine on the surface”
“What did they bring back?”
“Interesting results, something on the surface is preventing wireless transmissions from reaching the drones there, I have preprogrammed several of the remaining ones to mine the moon, those are the ones that came back with samples”
“So, we clear this ship out, you set us down on the moon to collect core samples and set up a base camp if possible, while also magyver some way to send a transmission down there?”
“That is the current objective for you”
“Alright, we'll need a few Signal Buffers set up for orbit around the moon, a scanner, and a wireless transceiver for ground-work”
“The requirements are being prepped and loaded into a shuttle. Once the intruders are taken care of the shuttle will be ready for launch”
“Excellent...”
A few minutes later
The cryo-pods housing the rest of Omega Lance opened up, one-by-one, letting their occupants fall to the floor with a dull clang. Sponge, Smear and Server were all groaning and mumbling, but the shuffling of feet alerted him that they were awake, even if he couldn't see them. Smear was the first to say anything, her statement puncuated with "what the fuck happened to us?" apparently she could also see, and her next question was directed at him "Screamer, what happened?"
"The computer told me that we've been in stasis for over a thousand years"
"And it didn't think to wake us up?"
"I was programmed not to break any of the following rules: Individuals in-"
"Yes, yes, I get it, you can't break any rule that would endanger the lives of anyone aboard without one of your protocols being filled. So, what is it? reactor containment breach? boarding? the vessel falling apart?"
"The ship has been boarded by the locals of Biome 02"
"What did we do to make them mad this time?"
"A faslely-accused terrorist attack was made on their capital city on date 4/15/4513"
"And?"
"An airliner carrying several hundred ponies, including supportive diplomats that were making their way back to the capitol, the plane was sabotaged by a pony called Blueblood, he bribed several of the maintenance workers of the airliner to overlook a crack in the impeller of the engine intake, where he jammed into and started rocking his sword back and forth to widen the crack, the impeller exploded from the forces propelling it and the airliner crashed into the capitol"
"Oh, great, so what happened after that?"
"The ponies went to war with us, the radiation they emitted worked very similar to an EMP, our technology was defeated very quickly and they forced us into conflict with ancient projectile weapons and fixed blades"
"To which they slaughtered us"
"Precisely"
"And now a thousand years later they came here to finish the job"
"Correct"
"Care to explain why we're nearly falling apart?"
"The cryo pods were meant to preserve you, but being in there for so long had reduced the effectiveness of the fluids until it was better to remove them entirely"
"How long were we not preserved?"
"305 years, 2 months"
"And you never thought to replace it?"
"I was replacing it, but the fluid decays with use and over time, something that would've been fine had it been fresh fluid, but this ship has been in space for over 3,000 years, the fluid had lost its potency while the crew was on the planet"
"And since there's very little to be frozen in us, we rusted and dry-rotted"
"Yes"
"Fuck"
"The mechwarrior repair depot is still online, I will guide you to it"
"Any chance that the parts are still good?"
"The materials to make the modules is still in good condition, and the modules themselves are kept well-preserved in case you were to need them within 15,000 years"
"Well, no sense in wasting time, lead the way"
"Commencing light and audio guides, activating internal defense systems"
"Good, well, come on people no sense in wasting time!"
