Remnants

by Newname234567896532

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Human
Length: 6310

An Earth colony ship arrives at a suitable colony after over 150 years of space flight. The line to earth is dead, several crew members were lost in the landing and things are about to get worse.

Spore-251 "The Blind Goldfish" arrives at a suitable colony after over 150 years of space flight, but this planet is already inhabited. The remnants of humanity must juggle the morality of their colonisation with letting their species die. The latter prospect becoming increasingly more likely each day; the line to earth is dead, several crew members were lost in the landing and things are about to get worse.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-11 08:57:16 UTC

The Arrival

SHIP LOG>>

SPORE 251- BLIND GOLDFISH

YEAR 2397 AUG 15 01:23

MISSION CLOCK |11|3|267| [D/M/Y]

RUNNING SYSTEMSCAN>>

-0%

--2%

---30%

----67%

-----80%

------96%

-------100%

SYSTEMS AT: 89.306666666666666666666666666666666666667%

SUMMARY:

-REACTOR: [99.76%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-CRYO STASIS: [96%]

-LIFE SUPPORT: [99%]

-SHIELDING: [89%]

-HULL [98%] {MAINTAINANCE SUGGESTED}

-COMMS [23%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-NAV [100%]

-SOLAR ARRAYS [100%]

-WARP [100%]

ACTIVATING LIFE SUPPORT

-4%

--14%

---21%

----50%

-----80%

------99%

ACTIVATING "SKELETON THAW"

-0%

--23%

---39%

----61%

-----88%

------100%

AI IDLE>>

Captains log, August 15 08:12 2397

Waking from deep freeze never fails to make me ache all over. Jean, Harry and I were thawed and cared to by the medic-bots seven hours ago. We have arrived at auxiliary target B. I hope to god that this one’s habitable... Harry has set about getting our reactor shipshape again while Jean and I try to hail earth using the Silky Dagger as a signal booster. Our main comms are still down, the fire tore it to pieces and twenty years cryo hasn't changed that.

Captain Louise Parker signing out.

Head Mechanic Log, August 15 08:13 2397

Hate cryo, shit gets into your bones! Gotta fix up the reactor, very minor vent fault but given another year or two it's likely it would have blown have blown half the Goldfish into the nothing, not to mention the other half. Should be done in a few days.

Captains log, August 17 12:03 2397

Thank all that's holy! Our second auxiliary planet is green! Going to have to scan its atmosphere yet, but it looks promising.

addition: Strange readings from the star and moon of the planet, and it seem to originate from our prospective planet, odd.

Captain Louise Parker, out.

Captains log August 25 07:55 2397

Gas analysis can back breathable! Mostly nitrogen and oxygen, a little High O2 wise but perfect for colonisation!

addition: scanners indicate settlements, we are going to send out a rover and have a look, then we thaw the rest of the crew.

Personal Log August 25 17:03 2397

Damn thaw stings like hell! Excited for landing, finally. 150 years of being ship bound will do that to you I suppose. I just realised I'm 182 years old... Makes me feel like a dirty old man when I borrow those porn files from George. Gonna get me some kip, we pull into an orbit tomorrow.

-Green

Captains Log August 28 18:22 2397

Getting images from rover 6, Jean hooked it up so the signal goes through the Silky Dagger before being sent to us, the comms situation is getting tedious. Images were distorted from more than just the relay between ships; we speculate it has to do with the strange readings we have been getting from the planet. Inserting video...

Video>>

Smoke rose slowly from the large crater, nearby grasses had been burnt from the heat the rover generated from entry, a large tree was rent in two by the objects careening path downward. Rover 6 began to exit its entry pod before slowly bringing its thrusters to a burn; it was propelled several meters into the air where it hovered steadily. Its exterior was the bright pink of plasrantinium, the alloy would be near indestructible in any environment. The landscape where the Rover came down was largely hilly fields with many rows of trees blanketing them for a great distance. Most of the nearby trees were either toppled or burning. The rover began to move higher until it could see a small settlement in the distance, marked by smoke. It rocketed a further hundred metres into the air and wrapped light about itself rendering it effectively invisible from the ground. Tilting its rear two foot wide thrusters it began to hover toward the alien settlement. The country changed little as the meter long vessel hovered forward; small creatures ran frantically amongst the bare orchards below. The camera zoomed in vastly; three quadrupeds, varying vastly in size, were running through the rows of trees toward the smoking crater. The rover soon lost interest in the ground dwelling quadrupeds in exchange for a peculiar rainbow streak heading with insane speed toward the crater. Arriving at the scarred earth the object slowed to a halt. It was another of the quadrupeds, this one bore wings however and was hovering above the "landing" site. The rover, after observing the creatures’ interactions for a further three minutes twelve seconds, decided on investigating the nearby settlement. The invisible craft once again angled its thrusters and moved swiftly through the skies. It arrived after twelve minutes flight Although smoke rose from the township it was clearly not that of an industrialized civilisation, simple chimney smoke was all. The rover took a further half hour of footage before slowly turning away from the conglomeration of multicoloured aliens and toward another settlement in the distance.

Footage Ends>>

They're horses! Multicoloured ponies! Crewman Green laughed so hard he was sent to the infirmary, I'm ordering security to investigate his quarters for illicit substances. Because we have exhausted our other two options in regard to colonies this planet will just have to make way for humanity, scans have begun for a suitable landing site. The line to Earth is dead; our communicators are FTL and should’ve easily reached them by now. I fear for Earth, it seems the Federations fear was indeed realised and the Traxon Empire invaded. No luck reaching any other spore ships either, we will leave the silky Dagger in orbit to act as a satellite for our ground operations.

Captain Louise Parker, out.

Captains log August 31 07:00 2897

Planet has been scanned and scouted thoroughly from up in the ship and via Rover 6. The "Ponies" seem to be the dominant species on the planet, but several others have also been observed. It can also be noted that the pony population can be categorized into three subspecies: Dominant Quadruped Species 1 A (DQS-1a) the first observed species, it makes up roughly 50% of the population, they possess no significant features. DQS-1b, second observed subspecies, this version has a set of wings and possess strange spatial manipulative capabilities in regard to the meteorology of this planet. they make up 25% of the population. Strangest yet is DQS-1c, this subspecies possess remote spatial manipulation, NATURALLY! It's not even limited at moving things; these creatures seem the most dangerous. Our plan is to engage in negotiation once we have landed. Speaking of which, our LZ is nearby our rovers initial landing spot, bare fields devoid of settlement actually hide huge levels of aluminium and other useful metals. Nearby a hillside will offer a good place to set up our solar panels and the fact the land is flat means building will be easy. We have disconnected our warp drive, it will stay in orbit for now, re-entry commences in thirty minutes. Crewman Green has been confined to cell-1 in aft of the ship after marijuana was found in his pillow case. The drug is now under lock and key in security.

Captain Louise Parker, out.

The Landing

Adrian Green sat glumly atop the small cot in his cell, a small one by two meter affair. He could lie down straight but he had no space to move about. Adrian briefly contemplated trying to convince his guard to let him out again, but discarded the notion when he realised his only worldly possessions were illegal and confiscated, or utterly worthless to anyone else but him. He decided on small talk instead.

"You excited?" he asked with rather convincing faked enthusiasm. He gaoler turned from whatever it was she was reading and gave him a once over. She contemplated replying for a moment and eventually did so. She ran her hand through her shoulder length chestnut hair, she sympathised with the chubby delinquent. She herself having smuggled a carton of cigarettes on board, but couldn't forgive him the time he had taken from her.

"Very." was all she said before going back to her E-book. Dejected, Green began to pout; his gaoler didn't even raise her head. Sighing he reclined once more on the hard fabrics of the cot. A minute later the PA began to make an announcement; the stern voice of his captain began to fill the corridors.

"We are now entering atmosphere, prepare yourselves for a bumpy ride." Green grinned and sat upright, bracing himself against the walls of his cell. The ship began to vibrate with friction and Green felt a lurch as artificial gravity was switched off. His warden fell off her chair, rather painfully judging by her liberal usage of unsavoury adjectives in direct reference to some unknown mother. Suddenly an enormous explosion rang throughout the ship, fire jumped out the vent nearest to Green, startling him beyond reason.

"Christ on a bike!" he exclaimed queasily "the hell was that!?" His warden got back to her feet as a siren began to sound, the PA crackled to life once more, as if in answer to his question.

"VTOL Two has blown! Section B has been sealed by bulkheads, all crew members in section B abandon ship; you are losing oxygen!" Captain Louise' voice contained no hint of fear, that didn't reassure him. Green began to grip the cell bars.

"Get me out of here!" He screamed at the stumbling woman outside of his cell. This was section B! She mumbled something incomprehensible and fumbled her key card in front of the reader. As the emergency system was active the cell opened instantly. The security guard was already out of the room, by the time a grunting Green vaulted clumsily out of his cell. He glanced about the room. On one wall were several lockers of equipment. One hung open; a single slag pistol was on the upper shelf, two magazines accompanied it. Figuring it may come in handy crashed on an alien planet, Green quickly grabbed it, made sure its safety was on and jammed it into the waist band of his grey cargo pants; he put the clips into his pockets. Satisfied, the janitor ran quickly out of the room, his shaved bald head sweating. He made several turns down the sterile white of the corridors, illuminated with a red light from the alarm bulbs. He was out of breath by the time he arrived at the escape pods, he paused to catch it but found the air was horribly thin. One of the two pods had already launched. Gasping now, his lungs burning for oxygen, Green stumbled into an escape pod, punched the launch button and collapsed onto the soft, padded floor. The Escape pod was of a dull grey colour, much like the ship it was leaving behind. Unlike the escape pod that had already launched this one had no pilot (conscious anyway) and its AI fell victim the fact that it was launched in atmosphere. It tumbled erratically through the air, heating up significantly, spinning uncontrollably. At one point it was both upside down and backwards then reverted to its normal position in less than four seconds. Green, oblivious to his peril was tossed about the soft tube. It wasn’t an entire minute before the Janitor came to. He realised what was happening faster than most would have given him credit for and promptly grabbed the nearest seat belt fluttering about the twenty man escape pod. He waited until the ship had flipped once more and let gravity take him toward the front of the craft. Alarms began to sound and Green could feel the pod heating, and gravity slowing. How fast were they going!? Now at the pilot seat Green pushed aside some of the loose objects floating about the air, MREs mostly. Grabbing the control stick Green attempted to remember just how these things operated. A small 3-D display showed that the pod was headed toward a mountain and very quickly. He looked about for the entry thrusters, and turned them to "stabilise" he was pretty sure that would work. By now his shirt was stained with sweat colouring it dark grey. His trousers slowly mimicked his shirt in colour, much to his shame, as soon as he saw the stabilisers were blown off. Whimpering in fear he simply pulled the controls in every way that seemed helpful. The escape pod had slowed greatly by the time it finally crashed but it still hit the ground too fast. Dust was shot many metres into the air and the gun in Green's pocket fired. He landed a full thirty minutes before the other pod.

~

"Damn it you fuckwit!" someone screamed. Harry ignored the cry at held the controls grimly.

"Green was still on board!" a muscled blonde woman yelled angrily at him, her security armour glowing red in the lights of the ship.

"To hell with Green, we were running out of air damn it!" defended a burly man at the back of the seven meter interior. Harry had had enough.

"Well we can't turn back now can we!?" he roared, piloting the ship with small grace. "We will come down over five hundred kilometres north of where I'd like, and your bickering ain't helping me change that!" he added. The thermals were giving him no small amount of trouble. Harry clicked on auto pilot and turned his rather plush swivel chair to regard those who had joined him in the pod. There was George, a scrawny fellow in charge of basic maintenance. The security guard that yelled at him previously, sitting right behind him, face red with rage (and oxygen starvation). A burly man he had seen only thrice before, but he knew as an engineer, sat at the back. His dark skin was slick with sweat from the run he had made to the pod. Another woman, this one he knew personally from maintenance. She was a short tempered girl with dirty brown hair cut short above her ears. She lay unconscious beside the last, a lean fellow in charge of cloning systems, Harry knew him better as That ginger arse hole from sector D.

"Bottom line folks," he began ominously to his fellows, "we can barely get a proper angle from how we launched. We are coming down in the snows, so I hope you packed warm." The horrible attempt at a joke fell flat. Other than the angry security guard they were all dressed in the same grey shirt and trousers.

"How’s the goldfish?" George asked worriedly, ignoring the horrible joke. Harry turned about in his chair and attempted to hail the larger ship. Nothing. He tried the Silky dagger, no dice. He reported this to the others. He decided against turning back to those sullen faces behind him and instead kept an eye on their decent.

~

"We lost VTOL 2!" screamed a terrified man beside Captain Parker.

"Keep it together," she called out as she walked to the PA microphone, "What's the damage?" she asked calmly yet sternly in her authoritative voice to the man who had yelled.

"Something caught in VTOL 2 and it exploded before we could shut it down.” He took a breath and continued shakily, “Section B is losing air, fast, and bulkheads have already closed." The man’s captain nodded and activated the microphone.

"VTOL Two has blown! Section B has been sealed by bulkheads, all crew members in section B abandon ship; you are losing oxygen!" She ordered sternly. Crewmen and women scrambled frantically to compensate for the fact they were missing a landing engine. She walked to her terminal, nestled in the corner of the ten meter long crescent shaped bridge. It was four meters wide at its broadest point before curving along the hull for five meters in both directions. Once she reached her terminal she brought up scanners and security cameras. The idiot Janitor she caught with an enormous stash of mary-jane was "sprinting" through the corridors. She watched him a moment before switching cams, trying to see if anyone else was left is that section, one fellow, desperately slapping at the flames consuming his body and a security officer swinging into an escape pod. Grimly she sealed the burning mans room entirely, as well as the room adjacent to it. She dumped all O2 in the room he was in, watching the fire die. Quickly she pumped as much air as she could back into the room, in order to stop him asphyxiating; it took less than a minute. He wasn't moving, and the room was still slowly losing air as the vent system had been damaged, but he might yet live. Might. She turned back to the idiot, who was still running despite his overweight frame. C'mon tubby... she silently urged. The filled pod launched, rocketing away from the starboard side of the ship. She watched intently as the janitor fell into the nearest escape pod. It launched two seconds later. She looked up at her bridge to find she had left the situation in capable hands as everyone seemed calmer. They must have seen to the issue and stabilised her ship. That or they had suddenly come to terms with their own mortality and had resigned to their fates. She glanced at the escape pods. The monitor reported the first was headed shakily downward, while the second was tumbling crazily. She groaned angrily at this, escape pods were independent from their mother-ship to stop boarders crashing them into the planet from a commandeered bridge. Leaving her console she walked calmly to the pilot and stood behind his shoulder. Watching the 3-D display of the Goldfish made it evident the ship was coming in too fast. This was not going to be a pleasant landing.

She returned to her console, sitting down this time, and strapped herself in.

The Clearing Smoke

The smoke rising from the newly formed crater was enough to deter most, not one scientific unicorn however. Twilight Sparkle, baby dragon in tow, was clambering up the crater to examine the landing site of the third object to fall by and on Ponyville this week. The first had been an empty shell, badly burnt and charred, but otherwise intact. Strange markings had adorned its side, of which she could back no progress toward understanding. The inside was mechanical and made of the same bubblegum pink as its exterior. Although she had searched, she could not find the flying object detailed to her by Applejack. The unicorn furrowed her brow, cresting the rise of the crater was difficult, spike clambered up with far greater ease, a direct result of his claws and reptilian nature. His violet body was short and chubby however, so she still managed to keep up.

"Can't you just teleport us up?" He groaned irritably.

"There’s no telling how stable the rim of the crater is, you might hurt yourself." Twilight explained compassionately the dragon groaned and continued to climb. It took them a further thirty seconds to crest the rim of the crater, upon doing so they gaped in surprise. There lay an eight meter long tube made of sort of metal, it was crumpled, burnt and otherwise damaged, but there was no mistaking it. This was a vehicle.

"Spike," twilight said slowly "take a letter..."

~

"Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!" sobbed the badly injured janitor as he sat, bleeding, on the floor of the escape pod. Why had he taken the gun? It was the worst idea that had ever graced his foolish mind-and that said a lot. He had attempted to bind his wound with one of the medical kits lying about, but couldn’t get any further than opening the box before the pain in his shattered wrist stopped him going any further. After abandoning the attempt he crawled in agony to the pilot seat, he needed fresh air, it was too hot in here! Gurgling in pain he collapsed two metres from the release switch. He lay panting for a minute before struggling to his feet, fire washed through him. His arm felt as though it were a black hole and all matter were rushing into it, crushing him in the weight of pain. Grimly gripping the wall with his good left arm, Adrian examined his wounds. His right shoulder was dislocated and his right wrist was bent perpendicular to the rest of his arm. Bone was protruding from the compound fracture; he fought the urge to retch. His left thigh was bleeding where he had been shot by a point blank slag pistol. Green knew he would die of lead poisoning if he left it too long. He took a single step and collapsed in pain. Roaring his agony he clawed his way up the pilots chair, gripping the seatbelt and armrests with grim determination. Agonisingly he reached up and opened the pod doors with three shaky button pushes. He was delirious with pain now and wasn't thinking through his actions, which meant he did not consider exotic fauna tearing him to pieces after they entered through the now open door- all he could think of was to get outside. He tried to get to the open hatch but fell less than a foot from the pilot seat. He fought unconsciousness knowing it would mean his death, but succumbed to his pain after a three second struggle.

~

"Status!" demanded the angry captain of the now landed colony ship. Crewmen lay strewn across the floor, but she paid them no heed. The slim captain was fearful of the damage done in the crash, but her hard features gave no hint of this as she looked sternly at her pilot.

"Section b is caved in, two escape pods have been launched, we have numerous injuries and I spilt my damn coffee all over my pants!" was the squeaky reply from her pilot. He was a small man with little in the way of looks going for him; his pen line moustache gave him an idiotic look rather than the suave one he was going for, his crooked nose aggravating the perfectionist in her and is poor haircut embarrassed those who knew him. Louise unlatched herself from her chair and leapt spryly to the deck.

"Order all able bodies to assist the wounded to the med-bay, have maintenance check the reactor, send a rescue team into section b and get security to secure a perimeter fence about the LZ. Go!" Her orders were quickly relayed by the comms officer, Jean, standing by the PA.

Louise quickly aided her crew to their feet, she was distraught by their injuries and comforted by their devotion. Most had stayed standing working to ensure a safe landing, lugging them to medical was reward enough she decided. She began dragging one crewman by his shoulders; he had a nasty looking head wound and was out like a light. As the captain slowly made her way through the halls of her ship she observed numerous bruised crewmen, tending to the more serious injuries among them. The lighting was damaged in some parts of the ship, flickering on and off, making navigation through the object strewn halls hazardous. Most of said objects had fallen off shelving and now rolled on the ground aimlessly. A few dazed crewmembers were slowly picking them up-before she rerouted their manpower. It took her far longer than usual to arrive at the medical station of the ship; the unconscious man slowing her down. The wounded were already piling up in the large med-bay. Stretchers lined up against the walls, about thirty in all, around half were full.

"How many injured?" Captain Parker inquired in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, dragging her burden onto an empty stretcher.  The tall doctor looked up from his wrist mounted computer.

“With that one included: seventeen.” The doctor (whom she knew as Elmer) drawled slowly. Louise winced, that was a lot of casualties.

“Have we had any dead yet?” She enquired, regretting the responsibilities of her position.

“Not yet.” He stressed the yet. She took the hint and left him to get back to work.

He merely grunted and returned to the equipment manifest he had displayed on his wrist computer.

Louise walked among her crew offering comforts to those who were lucid. Of the seventy five crewmen at least 17 were injured and over half a dozen jettisoned by escape pod. That left her with around fifty crew members to take on the most difficult stage of colonisation-she could really do with a smoke right now. She snapped out of her reverie and slowly returned to the bridge, aiding crewmembers as she went. Let none say she was a woman of inaction. She finally completed the walk and returned to a calmer bridge with a mere three others present. Ignoring their queries she accessed her terminal and ran a system scan.

RUNNING SYSTEMSCAN>>

-0%

--6%

---33%

----54%

-----84%

------97%

-------100%

SYSTEMS AT: 69.6575%

SUMMARY:

-REACTOR: [97.76%] !!!!!!!IMMEDIATE SERVICE NEEDED-SYSTEM CRITICAL!!!!!!!

-CRYO STASIS: [87%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-LIFE SUPPORT: [72%]  !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-SHIELDING: [88%]

-HULL [90.5%]!!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

SECTION-A: 99%

SECTION-B: 56% !!WARNING-HULL BREACH!! !!WARNING VTOL 2 MISSING!!

SECTION-C: 99.5%

SECTION-D: 98%

SECTION-E: 100%

-COMMS [22%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-NAV [100%]

-SOLAR ARRAYS [88%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-WARP [MISSING]

The captain of The Blind Goldfish took a deep breath and stood up straight. This was bad but for all she knew earth was nothing but dust and bones, they would have to persevere.

The smoke rising from the newly formed crater was enough to deter most, not one scientific unicorn however. Twilight Sparkle, baby dragon in tow, was clambering up the crater to examine the landing site of the third object to fall by and on Ponyville this week. The first had been an empty shell, badly burnt and charred, but otherwise intact. Strange markings had adorned its side, of which she could back no progress toward understanding. The inside was mechanical and made of the same bubblegum pink as its exterior. Although she had searched, she could not find the flying object detailed to her by Applejack. The unicorn furrowed her brow, cresting the rise of the crater was difficult, spike clambered up with far greater ease, a direct result of his claws and reptilian nature. His violet body was short and chubby however, so she still managed to keep up. The dragon paused.

"Can't you just teleport us up?" He groaned irritably. She had considered this but explained her reasoning against the idea.

"There’s no telling how stable the rim of the crater is, you might hurt yourself." Twilight explained compassionately the dragon groaned and continued to climb. It took them a further thirty seconds to crest the rim of the crater, upon doing so they gaped in surprise. There lay an eight meter long tube made of sort of metal, it was crumpled, burnt and otherwise damaged, but there was no mistaking it. This was a vehicle.

"Spike," twilight said slowly "take a letter..."

~

"Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!" sobbed the badly injured janitor as he sat, bleeding, on the floor of the escape pod. Why had he taken the gun? It was the worst idea that had ever graced his foolish mind-and that said a lot. He had attempted to bind his wound with one of the medical kits lying about, but couldn’t get any further than opening the box before the pain in his shattered wrist stopped him going any further. After abandoning the attempt he crawled in agony to the pilot seat, he needed fresh air, it was too hot in here! Gurgling in pain he collapsed two metres from the release switch. He lay panting for a minute before struggling to his feet, fire washed through him. His arm felt as though it were a black hole and all matter were rushing into it, crushing him in the weight of pain. Grimly gripping the wall with his good left arm, Adrian examined his wounds. His right shoulder was dislocated and his right wrist was bent perpendicular to the rest of his arm. Bone was protruding from the compound fracture; he fought the urge to retch. His left thigh was bleeding where he had been shot by a point blank slag pistol. Green knew he would die of lead poisoning if he left it too long. He took a single step and collapsed in pain. Roaring his agony he clawed his way up the pilots chair, gripping the seatbelt and armrests with grim determination. Agonisingly he reached up and opened the pod doors with three shaky button pushes. He was delirious with pain now and wasn't thinking through his actions, which meant he did not consider exotic fauna tearing him to pieces after they entered through the now open door- all he could think of was to get outside. He tried to get to the open hatch but fell less than a foot from the pilot seat. He fought unconsciousness knowing it would mean his death, but succumbed to his pain after a three second struggle.

"Status!" demanded the angry captain of the now landed colony ship. Crewmen lay strewn across the floor, but she paid them no heed. The slim captain was fearful of the damage done in the crash, but her hard features gave no hint of this as she looked sternly at her pilot.

"Section b is caved in, two escape pods have been launched, we have numerous injuries and I spilt my damn coffee all over my pants!" was the squeaky reply from her pilot. He was a small man with little in the way of looks going for him; his pen line moustache gave him an idiotic look rather than the suave one he was going for, his crooked nose aggravating the perfectionist in her and is poor haircut embarrassed those who knew him. Louise unlatched herself from her chair and leapt spryly to the deck.

"Order all able bodies to assist the wounded to the med-bay, have maintenance check the reactor, send a rescue team into section b and get security to secure a perimeter fence about the LZ. Go!" Her orders were quickly relayed by the comms officer, Jean, standing by the PA.

Louise quickly aided her crew to their feet, she was distraught by their injuries and comforted by their devotion. Most had stayed standing working to ensure a safe landing, lugging them to medical was reward enough she decided. She began dragging one crewman by his shoulders; he had a nasty looking head wound and was out like a light. As the captain slowly made her way through the halls of her ship she observed numerous bruised crewmen, tending to the more serious injuries among them. The lighting was damaged in some parts of the ship, flickering on and off, making navigation through the object strewn halls hazardous. Most of said objects had fallen off shelving and now rolled on the ground aimlessly. A few dazed crewmembers were slowly picking them up-before she rerouted their manpower. It took her far longer than usual to arrive at the medical station of the ship; the unconscious man slowing her down. The wounded were already piling up in the large med-bay. Stretchers lined up against the walls, about thirty in all, around half were full.

"How many injured?" Captain Parker inquired in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, dragging her burden onto an empty stretcher.  The tall doctor looked up from his wrist mounted computer.

“With that one included: seventeen.” The doctor (whom she knew as Elmer) drawled slowly. Louise winced, that was a lot of casualties.

“Have we had any dead yet?” She enquired, regretting the responsibilities of her position.

“Not yet.” He stressed the yet. She took the hint and left him to get back to work.

He merely grunted and returned to the equipment manifest he had displayed on his wrist computer.

Louise walked among her crew offering comforts to those who were lucid. Of the seventy five crewmen at least 17 were injured and over half a dozen jettisoned by escape pod. That left her with around fifty crew members to take on the most difficult stage of colonisation-she could really do with a smoke right now. She snapped out of her reverie and slowly returned to the bridge, aiding crewmembers as she went. Let none say she was a woman of inaction. She finally completed the walk and returned to a calmer bridge with a mere three others present. Ignoring their queries she accessed her terminal and ran a system scan.

RUNNING SYSTEMSCAN>>

-0%

--6%

---33%

----54%

-----84%

------97%

-------100%

SYSTEMS AT: 69.6575%

SUMMARY:

-REACTOR: [97.76%] !!!!!!!IMMEDIATE SERVICE NEEDED-SYSTEM CRITICAL!!!!!!!

-CRYO STASIS: [87%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-LIFE SUPPORT: [72%]  !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-SHIELDING: [88%]

-HULL [90.5%]!!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

SECTION-A: 99%

SECTION-B: 56% !!WARNING-HULL BREACH!! !!WARNING VTOL 2 MISSING!!

SECTION-C: 99.5%

SECTION-D: 98%

SECTION-E: 100%

-COMMS [22%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-NAV [100%]

-SOLAR ARRAYS [88%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-WARP [MISSING]

The captain of The Blind Goldfish took a deep breath stood up straight. This was bad. Very bad.

~

Snapshot had not only been knocked out of the sky, he had dropped his camera; the second was an unforgivable offence. So it was with great anger he slowly wobbled to his hooves, the ultramarine pegasus glared at what had caused him to crash. It was over a kilometre long, bright silver and smoking heavily, it had reduced the once grassy hill it had landed on by a good foot of height and had sent a great deal of top soil into the atmosphere. He was shaking now; he had dodged death today, no question about it, that thing could have hit him. The monstrosity was over a kilometre of bulging tubes and cylinders. The top seemed more solid; it was coloured dark blue-a lighter shade than his- and was covered in strange foreign, letters. Orange lights lit along its side, dim in the sunlight and blue electricity danced along its length. Shakily grabbing his camera the pegasus stallion lifted into the air and snapped some photos. The front of the thing was two thirds wider than the back, giving it a tear-drop shape one hundred meters across at its broadest point. Four enormous... cylinders were positioned on it, two on each side, one to the front one to the back. The forward right of these cylinders was utterly destroyed, thick black smoke rose from it. Fire danced gaily with the erratic blue sparks that erupted from the many cables jutting from the torn metal frame, like arteries and veins of some great injured creature. He snapped another photo. The side bearing the damaged cylinder had been charred and crumpled from the explosion and he could see inside of the metal monstrosity. He hovered a moment before deciding to investigate further, he was an adventurous stallion by nature.  Cautiously, he flapped his way into the glowing red opening by the charred mess that had once been one of four enormous tubes. It was once adorned with many flaps and foreign letters like its counterparts, now it was charred black and glowing red.

The inside of the thing stank of sulphur and the walls were plastered black from the explosion. This is a building! He realised with sudden clarity, where were all the ponies then? Frightened he hovered nimbly through the once white halls. He entered the first room he encountered; its door was blown inward and would not forbid him access as the others soon would. Inside was a room filled with damaged metal furnishings and strange black panels. He approached the least damaged of the latter, shielded behind a jutting cupboard-now mangled and devoid of contents. It flickered with a rainbow of colours before scrambling grey then returning to random colours once more. It was so beautiful he snapped four pictures, despite knowing he could do it no justice with a camera. Looking about the dark room he decided that the ponies living here must be pegasi, as everything was incredibly high and tall. Snapshot left the room and continued down the hall for several minutes. Suddenly lights flashed blue, startling him out of the air, and a strange voice began shouting through the halls. It spoke it a garbled alien language, seeming to demand unknowns of him. Snapshot screamed and flew faster than he had ever flown in his life, he knew to stay would be death. He was out of the hallways in less than a minute.

Snapshot was shaking too badly to keep flying for long and lowered to the ground after a small distance was put between him and the fifty meter tall steel behemoth. Suddenly, distant red lights began to flash at the things tapered rear and before he could do anything a ramp dropped down. What emerged was terrifying. Giant beetle-like wagons rolled out, accompanied by four towering creatures made of metal. Swallowing, he crept as close as he dared before snapping three photos in quick succession. Up until this point the strange machinations had been slowly turning in circles, pointing long narrow metal bars as they scanned the landscape. He couldn't make them out clearly so he crept closer through the foot high grass. Snapshot crested a rise in the earth and realised too late that he was outlined clearly against the horizon. He froze and quickly tried to scamper backwards but he was spotted instantly. One of the monsters let out a cry, pointed at him and the others swung around too. It began to shout at the cowering pony a hundred meters away, gesturing at the ship and then Snapshot, then the horizon. The terrified blue pegasus flew off so fast he awoke to a torn wing muscle the next morning.

Beneath their helmets the security guards grinned. The four foot tall equine had been so flighty that they hadn't needed to fire a single warning shot.