Chapters Oliver Aldair walked down the streets of Donegal, passing various shops, restaurants and hotels. How did it come to this? A month ago he had an entire jumpship at his command. Now he had nothing but a bag of bits and his pride. It began to rain, chilling Oliver down to the bones.
He walked into some bar that was empty except for a couple groups of stallions sitting round some tables. They looked up at him as he entered then muttered amongst each other. Oliver paid them no thought and walked up to the bar.
“Gimme the strongest thing you have,” he said as he sat down. The bartender nodded and walked away. Well wasn’t this fun. Sitting in a bar alone paying for liquor with severance money. He looked around and saw one of the groups staring at him. They noticed and quickly went back to muttering to each other. Oliver rolled his eyes and picked up the drink that had been served to him. He drank it one gulp, and looked down at the glass with a sneer.
“Can’t make a drink to save his life,” he muttered. He didn’t really want to go back out into the rain but there wasn’t much to do here. He paid for the drink and got up to go.
He walked by the group once more; they stared as he walked by. He reached the door and walked back out into the rain. He had barely walked 3 metres before one of the stallions burst out and trotted after him.
“Captain Aldair! Wait!” The white unicorn turned to look at the young stallion.
“Yes that’s me. Leave out the captain from now on though.” He sighed deeply and looked down at the floor. ”What do you want?”
“Sorry sir, I heard about the loss,” he said, a pained expression on his face. “How bad was it?”
“I lost 7 men in that fight. I took a gamble and led them right into an ambush.” The stallion gasped “I was officially suspended from duty, but at that point I just resigned.” He looked down at the pavement. “What do you want?”
At this the rest of the group walked out of the bar. “We want to recruit you. For our unit,” came a voice from one of them.
“Have you been listening the whole time?” They simply nodded. He thought about this offer. Recruiting a jumpship captain who essentially killed off an entire lance of mechs. What were they playing at? “You guys serious?”
They looked at each other before nodding at him. One produced a flyer and a pen from his jacket pocket. Shielding it from the rain he quickly wrote on it and hoofed it over.
Oliver quickly read the heading out loud, “Equestria Royal Guard. Mercenary corp.” He folded the flyer and tucked it away with his magic. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
The group nodded and walked away, except for one, the one who first came out. “Honour to meet you,” he said holding out a hoof.
Oliver took it and shook. “Likewise.”
The stallion saluted him before saying “Hope to see you soon.”
Oliver woke up in a hotel room, the sunlight streaming in through the window. He looked at the little clock on the bedside table. 8:33AM, fuck it was early. He was too tired to do much so he simply shut the curtains with his magic and went to sleep again. When he woke again the clock read 10:48AM.
“That’s better,” he said out loud before getting up. He proceeded to brush his mane and tail; both dishevelled from sleep, put on his jacket and get out of the room. He walked downstairs his mind full of things to do but first and foremost breakfast. As he walked down the road he spotted a small café. He entered the building and waited to be seated. A young waitress came over “Table for one?”
“Yes,” he said beginning to follow her. He got seated in a corner and proceeded to order a coffee. He looked inside his jacket pocket for the flyer.
He read it over looking at the recruitment options. “Mech pilots, engineers, medical assistant,” he said out loud. The last one caught his attention, medical assistant, he could do that! After all he had the necessary training.
The waitress came by with the coffee, “Here you go,” she said placing it on the table. She noticed the flyer, “What are you reading?”
“Recruitment flyer. Got it yesterday,” he said sipping his drink.
“Is that the Royal Guard thing? They’ve been in town a few days now, never knew they were recruiting.”
“Yes it is. Have they been in here?”
“Oh yes, only the privates and such though. The officers usually prefer the bars.” She trotted away, smiling.
Oliver grinned and returned to the flyer, reading over the necessary requirements. Medical training, completed it years ago in school, earned a doctorate. Mech combat training, completed when joining the military. Experienced space travel, 5 years as a jumpship captain, pretty sure he fulfilled that criterion.
That looked to be it; he tucked away the flyer and finished his drink. The waitress returned with the bill and left with the empty cup. Oliver paid for the drink and left the café. He was going to, well, he didn’t know. He pulled out the flyer again and looked it over. On the back was the small writing in pen, “26, 51, and 84.” Co-ordinates to their location he guessed.
He searched his pockets for his GPS (His jacket pockets were full of old military hardware). He pulled it out and punched in the numbers. The machine did its work and located the position. “2 and a half miles south east?!?” He groaned and began trotting in the general direction. The journey was fairly long but eventually he arrived at what looked to be a dropship.
He walked up and was met by a pair of guards lounging about outside. “Hello?”
They looked up and walked towards him. “What are you doing here?” said one of them in a sharp tone.
Oliver simply pulled out the flyer and hoofed it over. They looked at it and before long nodded. “Very well head inside.”
Oliver nodded and walked towards the large ship. He looked back and saw one of the guards talking into a radio. He ignored it and walked inside. The ship was quite big and had many corridors leading off from the entrance. He stood there wondering which to take when he saw someone trotting towards him through a corridor on his left.
A young mare with bat wings and fluffy ears walked towards him. Bat ponies, this should be interesting.
“Aldair?” said the young mare as she approached.
“That’s me.”
“Follow me please.” And she began walking down another corridor, two to the right of the one she came from. Oliver followed closely examining his surroundings. Large ship, heavily armed and considering it was a mercenary corp probably a mech bay around somewhere.
They arrived at a door which the young mare who hadn’t given her name quickly opened.
They walked into a room; it looked a bit like a lounge. The mare produced a pen and paper from her pocket. “Fill this out. I’ll be back soon.”
He walked over to one of the tables and sat down. Looking over the sheet he ticked the boxes, filled in blanks and wrote down sentences. He finished in about 10 minutes. He placed the paper on the table and looked around. The room was fairly barren apart from the few tables and chairs that adorned it.
He lounged about until the mare returned a full 15 minutes later. “Finished?”
“It’s all filled out,” he said pointing at the paper. She quickly retrieved it and read it over. “Wait here.” She said as she left the room.
He got up and walked around the small room. It screamed recruitment centre, propaganda posters everywhere, flyers much like the one he received, the logo of the corp everywhere, the list went on. They probably just used this as a lounge when not recruiting.
He was examining one of the posters when the mare returned with someone else. Another mare, who was given a pen and paper like him and was told to fill it out. The guide left and the two were left alone.
She promptly raised a hoof and waved “Hello!”
Aldair waved back “Hi! New as well?”
“Yeah, got the flyer yesterday, you been with this corp long?”
“No, I just hoofed in that sheet about fifteen minutes ago,” he said gesturing at the recruitment form.
“Oh, well I better start filling this out!” she said, grasping the pen in her mouth and beginning to write.
Oliver chuckled and went back to looking at the posters. The guide came back and took the mare’s form. It then occurred to him, he hadn’t asked her name.
“Sorry I never thought to ask, what’s your name?”
“Starlight, and yours?”
“Oliver, Oliver Aldair.”
She immediately started thinking, “Strange name, could have sworn I heard it before somewhere.”
Oliver decided to jog her memory “Jumpship captain, 5 years of service, was suspended after a decisive loss against the Draconis
Combine?”
She perked up “Yeah that’s it! Sorry about that by the way.”
He simply smiled “It’s not your fault, wish I could just forget about it though. What did you do before joining?”
“I was with the military, 3 years of service on the front lines.”
“Impressive! What kind of mech did you...” but he was interrupted by the guide coming back and telling both of them to follow her.
They walked down the long corridors, not seeing anyone walking by at all. Must still be enjoying leave he thought. They arrived at a lift; they got inside and went up, all the way up.
They arrived in the bridge where they were welcomed by the captain “Welcome! You two have been accepted and will stay aboard for 2 days until we return to the jumpship All Dawn. Feel free to explore the ship, rest in your cabins or head back into town, just be back for lift-off. Now follow Miss Moondust here to your quarters.”
The guide now known as Moondust gestured for them to follow her back into the lift. They went a few floors down to the crew quarters. It was fairly large for a mercenary corp, corridor after corridor of rooms. Moondust didn’t stay that long though; she simply gave them each a piece of paper with a door number and a keypad code scrawled on them before heading back into the lift.
“What’s your room number?” asked Starlight “Mine is 48.”
Oliver looked down at his own piece “Its 54.”
“Great we’re close to each other!”
Oliver raised an eyebrow “That’s good?”
“Well, we’re friends aren’t we?”
“Yeah I guess so,” he said with a grin.
“Great! So see you later!” and with that she trotted off down the various corridors looking up at the signs.
Oliver just followed her until he lost her round a corner. He looked up at the signs above his head, they weren’t very helpful. With difficulty he found his room and punched in the code on the keypad.
The door opened to reveal a very nice (and dusty) room. He simply frowned and got to work cleaning it up. A couple spells and some elbow grease later the room was spotless. He looked around admiring his work and his eyes fell on a dresser. It occurred to him that he didn’t have any clothes to wear but knowing how military ships worked they should have… - he opened the dresser - recruit fatigues! A few pairs of them and also some fairly casual clothes.
He got changed into a recruit uniform which he thought looked much better than the ones the Federated Commonwealth gave him. He also noticed a small patch over his left torso bearing the universal mark for someone in medicine, as well as another one for mech pilots.
He looked around the room some more, opening drawers ETC. All he found was a recruit training manual, an itinerary showing the schedule for new recruits and a clock that he placed on his bedside table; it read 3:16 PM. He decided to take a nap so he lay down on the bed (Not all that comfortable). He quickly fell asleep but he didn’t sleep not for long.
He awoke to someone bashing on his door. “I’m coming! Give me a moment!” He looked over at the clock, 4:11PM. He got out of bed with a groan and opened up the door.
“Hi!” said Starlight. “Wow those look good on you!” she pointed at the fatigues.
“Hey Starlight, thanks.” She looked pretty good in hers as well but he didn't say so. “What do you want?”
“I thought maybe you might like to look around but if you want to go back to…”
Oliver quickly interrupted “No! It’s fine, let’s see what we can find shall we?”
They trotted down the corridor towards the elevator. They walked inside and hit a random button.
They went down and when the doors opened found a dimly lit corridor. They followed it all the way to… “A mech bay!” exclaimed Starlight.
“I thought they might have one. Let’s see what they’ve got.”
They passed various mechs and mechanics who greeted the pair with a wave. Many kinds of mechs were in here. Ravens, Atlas’, Dragons, Cataphracts, Centurions they had a little of everything!
“Oh look that’s the same one I piloted with the military!” she pointed at a Cataphract.
“Wow a Cataphract! Haven’t seen one in a while. Our jumpship mostly piloted lights and mediums.”
“Well that’s my first choice when I get my own mech.”
They continued to walk and examine all the different mechs in the bay, talk to some of the mechanics. Some of them when they saw Starlight winked at Oliver to which he would just smile back at them.
“Want to get something to eat?” Starlight asked.
“Don’t see why not. Where do we go though?”
A mechanic who overheard them answered that. “It’s on the third floor, can’t miss it.”
They thanked him and walked back to the lift and soon found themselves in the mess hall.
The pair talked all through their meal about their lives in the military and back home with their families. It pained Oliver to think about his parents; both had died when he was fairly young but he kept that part from Starlight and only talked about his school life and his brother.
When they were satisfied they got up and walked back towards the lift, this time though going back to the crew quarters.
On the way back to their cabins there were quite a few ponies returning to the ship who welcomed them with a simple hello or a hoofshake. They came to Starlight’s cabin first which she opened promptly. She walked inside and gestured for Oliver to follow.
Eyebrows raised he walked inside
She shut the door behind him and she then sat on the bed. “Thank you, for everything.”
Oliver didn’t move “Your welcome, just doing what anypony else would do,” he said with a smile.
“No pony has been so nice to me. You know for a suspended officer you’re a real gentlecolt.” She got up and kissed him on the cheek. “Good night.”
“Good night,” and with that he walked out the door. He stood in the hallway for a good few minutes thinking about what just happened. He only snapped back to reality when a passing colt noticed. “Are you alright recruit?”
“Yeah fine.” He walked to his cabin, opened the door and collapsed on the bed. He lay awake for a good thirty minutes thinking about everything. He never really had friends. His childhood had been fairly lonely, no friends he had only his brother. Now he had a great friend (a filly at that) it was all so confusing.
Eventually he pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and drifted off to sleep.
“Send them in.” Oliver commanded.
“We can’t sir, there are too many mechs around that area.”
“Our orders are to take the planet, command is up my ass about how we’re ‘wasting resources’ or ‘taking too long’. I said send them in.”
The corporal sighed, moved over to a small console and transmitted the orders. “It’s done sir.”
“Good let’s watch the show.” They watched as the mechs moved through the forest and one by one the seven slowly turned to zero. The cries for help were ignored and the dropship flew off towards the jumpship.
Oliver woke up with a start. He rolled over to see the small clock, 9:48. He threw back the covers and got up. His usual routine was different due to the lack of personal items. Instead of brushing his mane he desperately patted it down, unfortunately a few areas just stuck up despite his efforts. It would do, he just hoped it didn’t look too stupid. He got dressed and walked out of his room towards the mess hall.
There weren’t many ponies up so the journey was fairly uneventful. He walked in to find a few ponies eating breakfast. Some of them waved, he noticed that the ones who did were the ones who had recruited him. He waved back but didn’t sit near them.
He sat down at an empty table in the corner. Not feeling too hungry he just got a glass of water. He sipped his drink watching
the various ponies coming and going. None really came over to talk but he didn’t mind.
He wondered what to do today; he still had today and tomorrow to do whatever he wanted. He decided to head back into town to buy a few things, he was gonna be here a while, why not make himself comfortable?
He walked into town with a bag full of bits, and left with a pair of saddle bags full of tat. A flask, a few books, a hairbrush, a razor blade, a small mirror, some casual clothes, a pocketknife and some other things. He trotted back to the ship to deposit his things before doing anything else.
A few ponies passed him on the way back. A few waved, a few shook hooves and a few just walked right by without so much as a passing glance. The guards were sitting there but they just took a look at his uniform before going back to whatever it was they were doing.
He walked into the lift and went up to the living quarters. The doors opened and Starlight ran right into him. “Oh, sorry. Hey it’s you!” she said with a small giggle.
Dusting himself off Oliver smiled, “Yeah it’s me. Going to breakfast?”
“Yeah, where did you get those?” she said gesturing to the saddlebags.
“In town, I thought I would need a few things,” he said pulling out the flask and taking a drink.
“Good idea, I should probably do some shopping. Anyway I’m gonna go eat, bye!”
“Bye!” he called as the lift doors closed. He walked back to the cabin and unpacked everything he had bought, putting it in its rightful place.
He quickly pulled out the mirror and looked at his mane. There were tufts sticking up everywhere! No wonder Starlight kept giggling. He quickly brushed it down and checked it over before walking out again. He walked back down towards the lift. He got in and went back down to the mech bay.
Another trip around the bay was entertaining but the second time is never as fun as the first. He then looked up and saw the many walkways that allowed people to actually get into their mechs. A short lift ride later he saw the many open cockpits of the mechs.
He quickly looked around, no pony in sight. Over the side of the walkway, no mechanics. With a squee of delight he quickly chose a centurion and hopped in.
The controls were the same so he just quickly remembered what everything did. He only stopped messing about with everything when the voice of another pony said “What do you think you’re doing?”
Oliver quickly hopped out of the mech and began to explain, “Sorry couldn’t help myself.”
The rather tall unicorn looked him over and quickly checked the inside of the mech. “You’re new, so I’ll let you go this time, fortunately this one is assigned to you anyway.”
Oliver had a really big grin on his face “Really? They sure brought it in fast.”
“It was a spare in case anyone’s was destroyed or damaged. But we read over your files from the military and it said you piloted these, so I got you transferred to my lance and had this mech assigned to you.”
“Well great! Nice to meet you, your name would be?”
“Captain Iron Venture.”
Hearing the word ‘captain’ Oliver immediately raised a hoof into a salute.
“At ease, forget about the salutes for now, I’ll see you around,” and with that he turned and walked back towards the lift.
He looked back at the mech and examined the controls once more. A few things were out of place but seeing as the mech was his he could do whatever he wanted with them. The hours of tinkering went by and at the end of it Oliver had optimised his controls, programmed weapon groups and may have slightly singed his mane.
Closing the mech’s cockpit he wandered back to the lift wondering what else to do. He had yet to find a med bay so he walked around looking for some pony to give him directions.
He eventually bumped into a young stallion. “Sorry can you tell me where the med bay is?”
“1 floor down, might as well follow me though, I’m heading down there.”
“Alright, lead on.” Oliver had never been the type to ask questions so he simply followed the stallion into the lift and later, into the med bay.
They were greeted by the entire staff, a few nurses, a doctor or two and the officer. The others got back to their duties but the officer stayed put.
The stallion Oliver had walked in with was given something he wasn’t able to make out before the officer turned to him.
“You must be Oliver, I’m Ray the officer here,” he said holding out a hoof.
Oliver took it and shook “Nice to meet you sir.”
“Sorry I can’t stay and chat but I have things to do, I’ll leave you to explore and introduce yourself,” he said walking out the door.
Many hoof shakes later Oliver had learned the names of everyone in the bay. He looked around, admiring the technology. It had been twelve years since he had last been in a place like this, he felt like he had to learn everything again!
After a while he decided to get some dinner, he walked out with a wave at the staff. Almost all of them waved back (It wasn’t a big room).
He journeyed back into the town where he found a nice little restaurant. He walked in and was seated. He looked around not seeing anyone from the ship. The waitress came back and took his order, while he lounged about in his seat.
The day had been very eventful, a new mech to play with, met the new lance captain, met the new medical officer. Seeing as tomorrow was the last day Oliver thought about what else there was to do on the ship.
Nothing came to mind so he decided to stay in town for the night and return to the ship in time for lift off. The meal came and he ate quickly as he still had to find a place to sleep.
He walked into the cold night air quickly looking for a hotel. He found the one he was at before and checked in. He went to bed and fell asleep quickly.
The next morning was quite crappy to say the least. Rain came down hard onto the windows without any sign of it stopping. Oliver woke up refreshed and nightmare free but the rain brought down his spirits quite a bit. He didn’t like the thought of walking through that all the way back to the dropship.
But he got up anyway, put on a coat and walked out of the hotel. The rain soaked through the light clothing, freezing him. At least the cold droplets woke him up better than any coffee could have.
Charging through the storm back to the ship was a difficult feat considering the amount of rain and wind. The guards instead of sitting around outside were standing inside just enough to keep out of the rain.
He ran right past them and collapsed onto the cold metal floor just beyond. They helped him up and took him into a small storage cupboard before returning to their posts.
The room was warm and sheltered from the wind so Oliver simply sat there shivering until the cold was gone. He got up slightly warmer but still soaked through. He walked back to his quarters dripping wet and shivering.
He entered and threw off the wet clothes and quickly dried himself off. He climbed into bed; the warm covers quickly stopped him shivering. A few minutes later he climbed out and got dressed again.
Just then the intercom came alive “All crew to mess hall, all crew to mess hall, launch imminent.” Well he was a crewmember so he got his saddlebags and walked in the direction of the lift. Many others were coming out of their rooms and taking the lift down.
Pretty soon a huge crowd filled the mess hall and the captain quickly read through a list of names. People shouted ‘here’ as the captain went through the long list. A few names he recognised, Starlight, Venture, Ray. Eventually Oliver’s name was called out and that ended the list.
Immediately after the roll call the captain talked into a radio. The ship rumbled and blasted upwards, the engines had ignited and they were going up into space. About 20 minutes later the ship slowed and was docked.
They all flocked through the large main entrance and instead of the vast plain they saw more corridors. He had no idea where to go so he simply followed the crowd and came to the crew quarters. He guessed they were all the same so he walked towards room 54 and punched in the code.
Luckily the door opened up to reveal a much larger room. He unpacked quickly and examined this one as well. More pairs of clothing in the drawers, more furniture and a much comfier bed. He quickly lay down and rested.
A banging on the door stopped him from resting. “Can’t I get some quiet?” he muttered to himself. He opened the door and Starlight hopped in. “Hi!”
“Hi Starlight. How’s it going?”
She never got to answer as he began to experience a familiar feeling. Nothing seemed to have happened but Oliver felt sick. Starlight groaned “We jumped! I think I left my stomach behind.”
Oliver laughed “Well in a few weeks we get to do it all again.”
Starlight quickly turned “I think I better go lie down. I’ll see you when I don’t feel like vomiting.”
“Bye,” he said as he quickly shut the door. He felt sick as well but he had kind of gotten used to it being a jumpship captain and all. He lay down on the bed again and quickly fell asleep.
Aldair woke up in his new bed casually getting up and going through his morning routine, get dressed, brush mane, leave.
The ship was much bigger than the dropship which also meant it was much harder to navigate to where you wanted to go, in his case the mess hall.
“It’s a freaking maze in here,” he grumbled to himself. He walked around the metal labyrinth looking for some sort of exit.
He found the way back to the docking collar where he had come in but it seemed that it wasn’t the exit. Eventually he found another pony leaving his quarters.
Aldair simply followed him through the many passageways and corridors, remembering which turns to take to get back.
He followed the pony to the mess hall which was pretty empty. He sat at a small table in the corner and pulled out his small flask. He took small gulps and looked around the place. A few more tired ponies walked in and got drinks, no one that interesting though.
Capping the flask he attached it to his belt again and walked towards the exit. The day had begun and he had nothing to do. He thought of exploring the ship himself or heading back to his quarters and messing around with his stuff. But he thought of another idea.
A pair of stallions walked by and went down another corridor, he simply followed them, he had nothing better to do and besides, maybe they would go somewhere interesting.
He followed quite a ways behind. They were talking but he was out of earshot and could only pick up small bits and pieces of what they were saying.
“Have you……… yet?”
“No…finished…time.”
The pair turned a corner and couldn’t be heard any longer. Oliver closely followed and came to a big set of doors. He opened them and saw a large room with a few ponies sitting around in various places.
There were a few desks and tables and a couch littered around the place. The room in whole looked like a storage bay but it had been ‘redesigned’ to be a lounge of some kind. One of the ponies he followed noticed him come in and waved.
“Hey new guy! Why don’t you come and have a seat?” he said gesturing to a small desk chair. Oliver walked over and sat down.
Somepony looked at the guy who had invited Oliver over “Why invite him over?”
The red pegasus glared at the joker “Shut it you.” He looked back over at Oliver “What’s your name?”
“Oliver Aldair,” Oliver said.
“Nice to meet you Oliver, I’m Flare.” Flare was a red pegasus who had an orange and yellow mane. He seemed fairly young (barely out of colthood) to be a mech pilot but he seemed to be the only friendly face there.
The other ponies around began to introduce themselves as well.
Another pegasus spoke up, “Cobalt, nice to meet you.” Cobalt didn't seem too happy, he was the one who had made the joke.
Another winged pony spoke up but the wings were that of a bat pony “Grey Dawn, welcome to the guard.” For some reason that welcome didn't seem very warm.
Oliver started to feel a little outnumbered with all these pegasi when he noticed a unicorn sitting in the corner of the room.
“Nick Drezary, your new lancemate.” Nick seemed nice enough but not as energetic as Flare was.
He quickly looked around and saw no more ponies. “Nice to meet you all.”
Flare looked back to him “Anyway, since you have no idea where to go for anything on this ship I’ll give you a tour.”
“Really?” Oliver asked. He was kinda irritated but Flare was right, he had no clue where anything was.
“Sure why not! Should be fun!” Flare hopped up and flew over to the door.
Oliver followed closely behind and the two walked around the enormous jumpship examining everything. Simulators, Med bays, storage rooms you name it this ship had it. It was a Star Lord class jumpship and they were quite large so the whole tour took an hour or two.
“Well I think that’s pretty much the whole ship, that was fun!” Flare laughed
“Great well thanks, I can take it from here.”
The pegasus nodded and flew down a corridor and was soon out of sight. Oliver decided to make his way back to the simulators. He had seen all the tech but never got to try it out.
As he made his way inside the room another pony was there. “Morning Oliver, well you’re here, that saves me having to find you, let’s see what you got.” Iron said as he gestured towards the simulator.
Oliver quickly hopped over and got in. While the simulators were not exactly military grade they were pretty close. They had good controls and a good HUD.
He was given a mech at random. “A TBT-5N, been a long time since I piloted a Trebuchet.” He said to himself. “Never had been a fan of missiles.”
The simulator loaded up and he got set straight into combat. Two targets only one of him, although they were quite damaged. They were far away but were closing fast. He quickly found the lock on reticule and aimed it at one of them. “Come on, come on.”
As soon as the reticule turned red he fired a volley of 30 missiles at the Centurion. The 30 impacted but didn’t destroy the mech. He fired another 30 and this time the mech slumped over and hit the ground. He focussed on the other mech now but it was too close now. It was firing lasers at him and Oliver responded by doing the same.
Focusing on the engine the lasers cut away at the small amount of armour that was left. Meanwhile his mech was taking hits as well. The small mech ran circles around him targeting anything it could hit. Finally with a lucky shot Oliver tore apart the last bit of the mech and it slid across the ground in front of him.
Knowing simulators this was just the start. They give you a fully operational mech and give you mission after mission until you can’t go any further, which for Oliver was around 6 rounds. About an hour of attacks, defences and a combat drop later, Oliver had earned both a good score and had impressed the captain.
“Not bad not bad, could be better though.”
“It sure has been a while. I’m quite rusty.”
“Well than you should get some practise in. Be here tomorrow around oh shall we noon? The rest of the lance wants to see you.”
“So just you Nick you and somepony else.”
“So you met Nick? Try and beat his score on this thing, I dare you.”
“Who’s the third?”
“Oh you wait and see,” the captain said before walking past him and out of the room.
“Well I better get to work,” Oliver said as he walked towards the machine.
Many hours later Oliver walked out of the room hungry and tired. He had been there for god knows how long and had only improved his score by a miniscule amount.
Returning to the mess hall was easier but it still wasn’t easy. “I need to map this place,” he grumbled. He arrived, got food and sat down. Nothing seemed particularly interesting at the moment. Only a few ponies sat around either drinking or talking to each other.
Finishing his meal (which was surprisingly alright for military food) he got up and walked to the door. The doors however opened to show Starlight. “Hey Ollie! Where you been.”
“Ollie? I think I prefer Oliver Starlight. Anyway I’ve been exploring a bit, meeting new people. I’m meeting the rest of my lance tomorrow.”
“Really? I only met one of my lance. I can’t remember his name. Anyway I expect you’re going to bed?”
“Yeah, I spent all day in the simulators. I can’t remember the last time I was this tired.”
“Right. Well I’ll let you get to it!”
“Thanks, good night Starlight.”
“You too Oliver.” And with that the door slid closed and Oliver began walking back to his room. At least he could remember this route.
He hopped into the room and slid the door closed behind him. He undressed quickly and hopped into bed. He lay there thinking about today, a few new friends, a good simulator score and a basic knowledge of the ship.
Tomorrow would be a test, the lance there with him watching his every move, and who was the third member? All these questions would be answered tomorrow so Oliver’s answer to that was to go to sleep.
Oliver woke up as if his eyes were pinched shut, “Gaah,” he said bringing a hoof to his face. “Note to self, don’t stay in a simulator all day.”
He rolled out of bed onto the floor where he lay for a minute or two. The cold metal woke him up slightly, enough for him to get up and check the clock. The time was 11:48; his ‘test’ was in a few hours.
Leaving the room and following the route he remembered he wound up in the mess hall again. He grabbed a tray and sat at a table. Slowly going through his meal he saw a familiar face.
The pony who recruited him grabbed a tray and looked around for a seat. Oliver waved him over and the young colt sat down. He did look young, barely past 19 at most. The earth pony had a white coat and a short, cropped mane.
“Hello again sir,” he said beginning his meal.
“I told you stop with the sir, I’m not a captain anymore. Anyway what’s your name?”
“Sorry sir, my name is Orion sir.” Oliver put a hoof to his face hearing the ‘sirs’.
“So Orion, what do you do on the ship?” Oliver asked curiously.
“I’m the life support technician, I deal with the air and water etcetera.”
“Interesting, anything planned for today?” Oliver had never really considered all the little details that were required on a space ship. Heating, water, waste, air, gravity, they all had to be taken care of.
“Not much, I just have to take a look at some of the machines, how about you?”
“I have a meeting with my lance in an hour or so,” he said rising to go. “I guess I’ll see you around Orion.”
“Bye!” Orion called after him.
Oliver stood at the doors to the simulators for a good few minutes before walking in. There were only 3 of the 4 members of the lance, including himself. Iron saw him come in and waved. “Hello Oliver, you might as well get in your simulator as the other recruit isn’t here yet.”
“What do you have in mind?” Oliver wondered what the captain had in store for 2 recruits.
“We’ve set the simulators to your preferred mechs, it was my idea to have a little duel between the two rookies.”
“A duel? Seems fun.”
“Hop in, we’ll start when she arrives.” Iron gestured towards the simulator.
“She?” Oliver had an inkling of who he would be facing.
Hopping in the simulator he started it up and checked all the systems. Sure enough they were set to his Centurion 9A. All basic weaponry, at least the variety should work at all ranges. Missiles an Autocannon/10 and some lasers.
Oliver sat there for a good 10 minutes before the computer began the simulation. It was a small map, nowhere to really hide.
He thought about what he should do and if he had guessed correctly who his opponent was, he would know the mech and how do avoid it.
The Centurion lumbered around the battlefield until finally another mech contact appeared. The mech type confirmed his suspicions as to who he was against, it was a Cataphract.
Starlight was his opponent? It wouldn’t be easy, she knew how to shoot. Almost on cue a PPC shot whizzed by missing his mech by inches.
“Come on, lock on already!” The missile targeting systems weren’t working like they should. Instead he just fired shell after shell at the Cataphract each one hitting home.
The Cataphract was fighting as well though. Starlight was a very good shot, she was hitting leg and arm actuators with good effect. Both mechs kept shooting and quickly both mechs were heavily damaged. That was when Starlight made a fatal mistake. She fired a PPC shot and her mech overheated and shutdown.
“Now’s my chance!” He thought charging the crippled mech and delivering the final blow to the Cataphract’s engine. The mech toppled over and the simulation ended. He hopped out of the pod and was met with smiles.
“Nice work, that was a close match,” Iron said patting him Oliver on the back.
Starlight hopped out of her simulator and trotted over with a slight frown. “Not bad. You lucked out there though.”
“I wouldn’t say luck but whatever.” Oliver chuckled; it wasn’t ‘luck’ that she fired a PPC shot while on very high heat levels.
“Well you both did above our expectations. Good to have you in the lance,” Iron said smiling.
“Well I’m gonna get back in the simulator, I need to practise more,” Starlight said hopping over to the simulator and getting in.
Iron left quickly leaving Oliver and Nick. Nick had seemed very… quiet compared to the other two; although it pays to be the strong and silent type. He seemed nice enough though. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around more often Oliver, bye,” and with that Nick left and Oliver was alone.
He sat there for a while scratching his head wondering what to do next. His eyes wandered over to the simulator again, “No, not again.” Eventually he decided to go to the med bay. He had gotten one half of his jobs out of the way, now it was time for the other half.
Half an hour of navigating his way around later Oliver wound up at the med bay. It was pretty much deserted inside, nopony in sight. The place was amazing though, all the new equipment was overwhelming. Oliver hadn’t worked as a doctor for years now, all his knowledge was probably a bit outdated. Examining all the equipment made him think again, a LOT outdated.
He was looking at one of the machines in the corner when, “*Ah-HHHEM*.”
“That was one very over-the-top throat clearing.” Oliver thought to himself. He whipped round to see a pony standing in the door frame.
He was a rather large unicorn, glasses sitting on his muzzle. He looked fairly old, past fifty at least. He wore a brown suit and tie under his lab coat and was reading a data pad.
“Hello there.” Oliver asked nervously. “I’m Oliver.”
“Oliver…hmm…ah-hah! The new assistant! Nice to meet you,” said the doctor, holding out a hoof.
Oliver took it and shook, “You would be?”
“Forget the pleasantries for now,” he said waving a hoof as to dismiss him. “I need to find that report or I’m dead, I left it in here somewhere.”
Oliver picked up a small pile of papers he saw earlier. “Are these what you’re looking for?”
The unnamed doctor looked up and grinned “Yes, that’s them! Well, I can see this partnership working well. Welcome aboard!”
3 weeks later
“Get me that file, 3rd from the right,” commanded Oliver’s superior, Wildfire. He lived up to the name, very frantic at times only stopping when completing his task, he was nice enough though.
“Maybe I should have paid attention to the word ASSISTANT when I took this job.” Oliver muttered under his breath. “Fetching files, reports and tools for some guy who can’t be bothered to walk 3 STEPS TO THE LEFT!” he shouted the last bit out loud.
“What? No I said 3 from the right! Are you okay today?”
“Yeah I’m fine, here’s the file,” Oliver hovered it over to a table nearby and slammed it down, a large bang echoed around the room.
The pony almost jumped out of his seat after the bang. “I didn’t even know you could make a noise that loud with a folder, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Oliver spat. He didn’t want to be questioned endlessly by a trained psychiatrist, he had to do something. “I’m fine, honest. I’m just going to go now.” Oliver walked towards the door and it shut in front of him, narrowly missing his muzzle.
“Oh no you don’t, you are going to tell me what’s wrong, right now.”
Oliver groaned and sat down quickly thinking of a lie that might sound plausible. “I’m just a little tired that’s all.” His mind screamed at him, That’s the best you can think of? Come on think of something!
“Tired huh? I think you’re lying.”
Oliver wasn’t surprised but he kept to the story, “I am not, and I doubt you could prove it.”
The officer smiled, “Oh but I can. You were in almost 2 hours late. I think you got more sleep than usual.”
Dammit! he thought. Think of something else, quickly ! “Alright, I’m not feeling too well.” Once again his mind exploded. Yeah that’ll work, if the pony interrogating you wasn’t a doctor!
The officer raised an eyebrow, “Not feeling well? Let me check something.” He quickly tapped on a datapad and examined it carefully. “Nice try, but you’re fine according to this,” he said waving the datapad. Oliver could just make out that Wild had just run a full scan on him and had turned up nothing.
Gaah! How many tricks does this guy have? Oliver thought wildly. “I…uh…I’m,” he was out of ideas except for one. Leave.
Once again he attempted to leave the room and this time the officer let him. He just sat there shaking his head as Oliver walked out of the room. That’s one awkward situation dealt with. He thought to himself.
The ship was due to jump today and Oliver wanted to be ready for that to happen. He always found preparing for the jump was better than quickly holding onto something and feeling sick afterwards.
He went to the mess hall where he ate very quickly. He wanted to get the food through his system before the jump made it extremely…unpleasant.
He then went to his room and lay down on the bed, muzzle stuck in one of the many books he had gotten back on Donegal while waiting for the inevitable jump. The book he was reading certainly caught his attention as he didn’t even notice the familiar feeling of jumping till it was too late.
He felt kind of sick but once again he was used to the feeling and it faded quickly. He continued reading the book, fully immersed in the story, ignoring everything around him.
Oliver wound up sitting in the corner of the mess hall a little after 8:00. He sat there drink in hoof and fiddling about with a pack of cards. He looked around the room, there weren’t any groups but out of the corner of his eye he noticed somepony looking in his direction.
He didn’t give it another thought however and began to play solitaire with the cards he had been shuffling in mid-air for about 15 minutes. He had gotten halfway through the diamonds and clubs when the pony he had seen before sat down in front of him.
“Hello,” he said. Oliver placed down the 5 of spades and then looked up from his game to see the pony better. Fortunately it was somepony he recognised.
“Evening Cobalt. Everything okay?” The white pegasus looked off towards the wall, a pained expression on his face.
“Nothing you need to know about,” he said still refusing to make eye contact.
This seems to be taking a familiar turn . Oliver thought remembering the events of that morning. But unlike the officer, Oliver had a few tactics. “Alright, it’s none of my business anyway,” he said returning to his game and finding the card he had been searching for.
Cobalt looked up eyebrows raised. “You’re not going to ask what’s going on? Some pony you are.” Oliver smiled getting just the response he wanted.
“So you were expecting a reaction? I thought you didn’t want to talk, or were you just attention seeking?” Oliver had learned these patterns of behaviour before.
Cobalt sat there staring daggers at him while Oliver continued looking for the 8 of diamonds. “Why are you here then?”
“I was a little bored, I saw you with the cards and thought hell, why not.”
Oliver was a little surprised, in the short time he had known Cobalt they had never really talked. “You want a game then?”
Cobalt nodded “I bet I could beat you easily.”
The unicorn smiled, “You bet? Put your money where your mouth is then, 50 bits says you win.
Cobalt returned the smile “50? Bit low, shall we say 100?”
“You’re on.”
The night stretched on as the two stallions drank, played and laughed the hours away. He didn’t know if it was the alcohol that had helped him win or if Cobalt was just generally a bad player but Oliver walked, no, stumbled away 100 bits richer with a passed out pegasus on his back.
After dumping Cobalt outside his cabin Oliver went to the med bay to find something for a headache. He didn’t really need it now but he definitely would tomorrow morning.
Heading into the bay Wildfire was sleeping or at least he seemed to be. His chest was rising and falling deeply and his eyes were closed but that didn’t mean he was asleep. Just to be sure he quietly walked along to the cabinets and grabbed the bottle he identified as headache medicine.
Just then Wild spoke, “Don’t take that.”
“Why should I?” Oliver was fairly sure the alcohol was talking here.
“Because that,” he pointed at the bottle, “is a muscle relaxer. Unless you want to flop about for 2 hours tomorrow morning I suggest you put that back.”
Oliver squinted at it and realised that it was indeed what he had said. He quickly put it back and grabbed the correct bottle.
“That’s Cynocin, eat that and you’ll be in pain for a while. You should only use that for certain sicknesses.”
Third times the charm , he thought to himself when he picked another bottle.
Wild looked up then looked back down “There you go. Get some sleep, you’ll need it tomorrow.”
Oliver thanked him and left the room hoping for a good nights sleep.