The Ashes We Make

The Ashes We Make Ch.2

By: TankFodder

Klaxons sounded throughout the Phoenix,  reminding everyone of the impending doom that they were hurtling towards. Micheal Hughes, the Chief Engineer, was attempting to coordinate his teams so that they could defuse their ship, or at the very least, stop it from exploding until they finished crashing, and then look at it in full. Unfortunately, the warheads that lined the hull were designed to not be defused. After all, they couldn't have the Cylix capture the ship and “return to sender”, now could they?

The Captain's intercom buzzed and flared to life, “Sir this is engineering, we've managed to convince the ship not to explode just yet, but if you jostle a bomb too hard, it get's rather unhappy, know what I mean?”

Commander Floyd cleared his throat and touched the intercom to speak, “Keep it short, Hughes, do your job, and let me do mine.” He turned to the bridge comms officer, “And you! Turn off that damn broadcast, we have enough troubles as it is without pissing on the locals before we even meet them!”

Canterlot Palace

Luna snapped back to reality “Sister, we need to organize a response to this, it doesn't sound like we have much time,”

Celestia nodded, and turned to the court, “Court is closed today and tonight. Guard captain, have your ponies escort these ponies from the castle, and organize a group of your best to scout that thing's” she looks out the window, at the fiery trail falling through the sky, “crash, understand?”

Luna spoke once more “Perhaps we should contact Twilight Sparkle and her friends? The Elements of Harmony may be useful in this crisis.”

Celestia shook her head, “Not yet. They are still young, and I do not want them exposed to this if it can be helped.”

Luna smirked, “I can understand why, but, you must admit, trouble does have a way of finding your student and her friends.”

Ponyville

Rainbow awoke to the sound of screaming and the sight of a massive metal object flying overhead. No, not flying, falling, was her first thought. Her second was, oh, that is not something to dismiss and take a nap over.

Twilight watched in growing horror as the meteor (why did she still think of it as that?) flew overheard towards the Everfree Forest. She could hear a distant booming as it landed. “Spike!” she shouted, “stay here! I'm going out.” She then rushed out to find her friends. Together they could find out what had happened and warn the Princesses before something really horrible happened.

Couldn't they?

The *Phoenix*

The ship careened over a forest below, before slamming into the ground and digging a several hundred meter-long trench, throwing up dirt and dust, and knocking aside anything in it's path. Anyone inside who was not braced, and many of those who were, were flung about by the impact. The ship was designed to have as much cargo space as possible, while maintaining an sleek profile to aid in speed and stealth. Crew comfort and survivability had been a secondary concern, leading to injuries and casualties on every deck as fragile flesh met unyielding steel in the cramped corridors. Finally, the massive beast slid to a stop, and the survivors struggled to recover and organize to prevent further disaster.

Somewhere near the Crash-Site

Cough* “What? Where the hell am I? Where's the ship?” Pfc. Martinez had been posted by the main cargo door, but then the cargo door had been ripped in half as the ship had hit... something, and he had been flung outside. He tried to stand up but his Armored Combat Exoskeleton-Heavy had been powered down, and it was too heavy to move without power. He looked at the top corner of his visor and blinked twice.

System Rebooting, stand by...

…

…

Online;

Warning, hydraulic joints are damaged, mobility will be impaired;

Armor integrity compromised;

SMG-05X Offline: ammunition feed obstructed;

Flammenwerfer M3X Offline: fuel line punctured;

LRAD Mk.4k9X functional;  warning, acoustic focus damaged, LRAD functioning at 70%

GP-60X Offline; shot loader obstructed

Battlefield Control Network not detected, attempting to establish LOS tight-beam connection with nearby allied forces...

…

…

Allied forces not detected;

Mobility impaired. Allied forces not detected. Most of his suits internal weapons were offline or damaged, and his rifle was nowhere to be seen. Soo much good news. And on top of it, he hated the heavy variants of these damn suits. They 'restricted mobility' enough as it was, and he had requested a light suit, but noooo, “you won't need a light-variant in the cramped confines of that ship, we are only equipping the crew at all in case the ship is discovered and baorded.” Damned desk-jockeys. The extra armor had probably saved his life, though. He let the diagnostic finish, and stood up, joints hissing and creaking, to assess where he was. Which was face-to-face with a group of very, very angry looking cartoon horses.

Although, that was and impressive beard.

Outskirts of the Everfree Forest, near the crash-site

Scout-Sergeant Thunder Beard was having a very bad day.

First, an alien face had appeared from the horn of Every.Single.Bucking.Unicorn that could send magical messages, and had proceeded to threaten Equestria with annihilation, and then to call the princesses 'demons' to top it all off. Next, he was told to gather a squad of scouts, and go straight to the source of it all, a huge metal bathtub that fell out of the sky. Alone. With any reinforcements we-e-e-ell behind them and a small town right in harms way. Oh yes, and don't forget, the Elements of bucking Harmony live there. If they got hurt, the Princesses would take it very personally, and his was the only guard unit from here to Canterlot to take the blame. He looked at the crater, watching the two-legged things scurry about from the tree he was standing in, his wings outstretched to keep balance. Suddenly, one of his scouts flew up beside him and saluted,

“Sir, I've found one just a couple hundred meters into the Forest, it's alone, and it doesn't look conscious, you should check this out.”

“Good job, keep an eye on it, don't engage it by yourself.” “Aye sir,”

Thunder smiled, thinking that maybe this mission wouldn't end up with him kicking moon rocks around. He then turned, and hooted loudly. After a few moments, seveeral Pegasi appeared from the brush around him, and paused, waiting.

“Cloud Skipper has found a potential prisoner, we're moving to extract it, after that, we are getting the buck out of here before the... whatever they are figure out that we've got one of them. Form up on me, and keep it quiet.” With that, he leapt from the branch and flew towards the location Cloud Skipper had indicated.

Scout-Sergeant Thunder Beard was having a very good day.

Phoenix Crash Site, On the Outskirts of the Everfree Forest

Of the 346 crew members, barely a hundred managed to regroup outside the crashed vessel, with some of the rest confirmed dead, and most missing, as the thin armor on the vessel had crumpled in large sections, cutting off entire decks, and the cargo hold had been breached, albeit a small breach. The Captain had survived, and was organizing a base of operations around the crash-site. Groups of Marines in ACE-H suits had set up a perimeter, and were fortifying, the missing crew members forgotten, as well as their original mission. But the vessel's true cargo lay heavily on everyone's minds, and they moved with a desperate knowledge that No One on this planet must gain possession of the crash-site.

A group of people huddled around a table in the center of the human camp

Stacy Vinters, the former navigator of the ship stared incredulously, “So you mean that we effectively declared war, on the entire planet, from the moment we hit atmosphere?”

Micheal Hughes, the Chief engineer of the former ship, cleared his throat, “we-ell, we didn't say we were going to fight them, so much as annihilate them and everything they hold dear. With a super weapon that they may or may not be able to comprehend.”

“Now is not the time to be a smart ass, Hughes” growled Lt. Brook Tyl, who happened to be the highest ranking survivor among the marines who made up the security detail.

“Quiet all of you.” Commander Henry Floyd, the Captain of the ship and leader of the mission, joined the huddled Officers. They stopped their conversation and turned to him. “Right, now, we are maintaing a rather fragile position, so I need a report from all of you, what are we capable of?”

Vinters brought up a holographic map, “well sir, according to our charts, we have no idea where we are.” she closes the map “whatever happened when we jumped, hurt our navigational ability and the crash finished it off by damaging or destroying most of our sensors, scanners, and com links.”

Floyd turned to Engineer Hughes “speaking of which, what happened during the jump?”

“well, sir, uh.. I don't actually know.”

Two Months Ago, Aboard the Pheonix Docked over Earth

Micheal Hughes and two other men can be seen working on the ship's experimental new engine.

“Micheal, I don't think this is a good idea, this engine is already unstable enough as it is. And besides, the ship's supposed to be  the fastest ever built already.”

“Oh don't be such a baby, I've been planning these modifications since I saw this beauty, it'll improve it's performance and I get the spiritual highlight of my career”

“but you helped build it in the first place!”

“And now I'm making it better, besides, this mission is going to be a one way trip, and I am not going out in a,” he shudders, “stock vehicle!”

Back in the Present

“But I lost contact with one of my men during the jump, and then the engine shut down.”

“And do you mind telling me how we completed our jump without the engine?”

“partly momentum, partly scientific theory that no one here has a chance of understanding. The engine were a mostly untested design that someone high up thought would be a good idea.”

“huh,” Floyd turned to Lt. Tyl “how are your Marines? How secure can we make this site?”

She saluted, and spoke “My men didn't take as many losses because we managed to get everyone suited up before the crash, but even at full strength I wouldn't have enough men to cover the whole perimeter. The ship was automated to reduce crew requirements, and so we have a light cruiser with the crew of a corvette and the armament of a freighter. Top it all off with most of our officers down, so cross your fingers and pray the most dangerous thing we have to face is stuff you'd see at a Renaissance Fair back on Earth. But considering we managed to broadcast a death-threat to the wrong planet at all, I would consider that unlikely.”

“I see. All right, everyone, how about cargo, do we have any vehicles? How are our supplies?”

Hughes pulled a datapad out of his pocket “lucky for you, Commander,i have a cargo list right here, lemme see, Gunships? Nope. Dropships? Nope. Tanks? Nope. APCs? Not a one. Trucks? Nothing. Jeeps? None. ATVs? Nope. Bicycles? N--”

Brook interrupts him “Hughes, we're stranded on a unknown planet, whose entire population probably wants us dead or gone. Take it seriously.”

“Only for you, dear Lady Brook. Oh wait! We DO have enough explosives to crack this planet in half.”

“...”

“Oh, all right.” Micheal turns to Henry “Sir, the engineer corps got beat up pretty bad, being that we were in the more 'volatile' section of the ship. But, I've got a bunch of geeks with a lot of expertise, and a ship full of robotic machinery just waiting to be turned into automated defenses, given some time.”

Floyd sighed. “It's good to hear some good news, such as it is, but it's worrying that it's coming from you, Hughes.”

“That's what I'm here for, sir.”

An armored marine runs up to the group and saluted Tyl, “Ma'am, you wanted a report on our current supplies.”

“Go ahead soldier.”

“Ma'am, no one planned on our current circumstances. We barely have enough food to last a week, and that's if we lower the rations everyone receives. We need to find a source of food and water and find it fast. Also, we don't have enough material for shelters. As such, I would like to volunteer to lead the first foraging party, ma'am.”

“What's your name, corporal?”

“Petrov, ma'am. Kyle Petrov”

“Sergeant Petrov then, pick some men, and get to it.”

“Aye ma'am. Thank you ma'am”

“Sergeant!” Barked Henry, “You might want to head south and east around the outskirts of this forest, we passed over some kind of township when we were falling. See if you can get any aid from whoever lives there. Peacefully if you can, but remember, at least until we permanently disable the Phoenix, this ship, and it's crew come Absolutely First, understand?”

“Of course sir, don't fire unless fired upon, that never gets old.”

Outskirts of Everfree Forest, near Ponyville

“It's ok, I'm here,” Fluttershy did her best to console her terrified animals, even though she was nearing panicked terror herself. But what was that? She thought to herself. A trail of fire had flown over Ponyville, and over her home, and she heard it crash somewhere on the outskirts of the Everfree. Moments later, a group of royal guards had teleported in front of her house and asked if she was alright.

The pegasi had flown towards the crash, and the unicorns who had teleported them had galloped toward Ponyville.  She thought that maybe she should pack her things and go to Ponyville, at least until she knew what was happening. “Oh, no, I couldn't just leave all my animal friends here. All alone and terrified, with who knows what was in that crash out there, I just couldn't” she shook her head to emphasize her resolve, before remembering no one was around. With a last “oops, hehe,” she turned around and went inside.

Author's note: This was finished a lot faster than I thought it would take. And I really didn't think it would be  half again as long as the last chapter. I initially wanted to keep to one update a week, or two at most, but this is all new and exciting, so I'm writing as I get ideas, and update times will probably vary until I find a comfortable pace.

And now about the actual story

Wow, that was not what I had planned here, but then, my whole outline is kind of a pathetic, flimsy thing in hindsight. Writing is... different than I expected, not hard, per se, but a lot different.  Oh well, it did the job, I have some actual characters now, and an oncoming train-wreck of a plot, so I am content. Or, I will be, right after I fix that opening sentence. And that dialogue. sigh, never mind.

I still need an editor, by the way, so pm me if you're interested. And, of course, ya'll's comments are always appreciated.

I don't own MLP:FIM, etc. etc.

Edit: I'm going to cut back on these irrelevant author's notes, check my profile blog if you give a rat's about that kind of info