FTL: Faster Than Light

Jon looked up from a final bit of console fine-tuning- specificallysmacking the side of the console with a wrench until the readings were the right colours (His eyes weren't green, for the Founders' sake).  He really did have no idea how it worked, but so long as it kept working the same way, he was surprisingly okay with that.  Anyway, what had caused him to look up was the message from the other ship, the one with the computer voice. They seemed... well, if not exactly sorry, then at least polite. He wondered how the lieutenant would be handling the problem. He didn't quite like interacting with machines, they lacked a certain... creativity, necessary to get along with ponies like Jon.

Jon then turned to Star, matching the stallion's grin with one of his own. "Glad to see you, Star, congrats on being the first to report for checkups. Say aah." He manipulated the scanners and healing thingies, checking for and repairing the minor damages Star had incurred. A bit of smoke inhalation, mild oxygen deprivation, a couple bruises and a slight consuccion fixed themselves up quickly, and Jon gave him a bit of an energy boost as well. Another four points secured for science-magic. Jon lifted his goggled gaze back up to Star. "Aand, there we go. How you feeling?"

Viridian has just pulled the last burned-out fuse when Razor sends her message. Turning her head to spit out the busted fuse, she plugs the new one in. "I think I've just about got the shields up, deliciously violent one. Burned out a helluva bunch of fuses when the buffers went but just gimmie a sec..." She reaches over and flips the breaker, completing the circuit and listening to the generators hum with newly-revitalized health. "OK, Cap'n Back, shields are coming back now. They'll be back to full power in a few seconds."

"I understand this, Momus. It's just Cheshire's way of talking to ponies." Wild Card responded calmly through his now turned on voice transmitter, before hearing the robotic sounding voice through the ship's PA. "Well they sound pretty nice about the whole thing." "Lower life-form could have been left out though." He commented to himself, before setting his transmitter to communicate in return to these alien beings via the pilot's console.

"This is Navigation Officer Wild Card of The Solar Eclipse... and uh... yes, assistance would be greatly appreciated." Wild said, faltering halfway through his sentence purely because he didn't exactly know how to talk with a space-faring race who, by the sounds of it, knew a lot more about it than Equestria did. Hearing Bronze's voice over the comms was another welcome relief in more ways than one. Though one word from the alien communication struck him as confusing, as well as Razor it seemed. "Excuse me, but what is this 'armada' you mentioned?" He then asked, thinking about why the aliens had wondered why they were apparently heading in the direction of this armada.

"Information: The Armada, as referred to in Engi databanks. Also known as The Rebels, The Oncoming Storm, The End of Days, The *Expletive Redacted* Ships. Elaboration: a large armada of ships of superior firepower and weaponry sweeping across the charted systems." The machine voice remained monotone and calm as it read off the information.

"Well, I can see a lot of stars. And not the space kind." Bronze grunted to Torchlight as she tried to haul herself to her hooves, her bronze, mechanical left foreleg clattering against the metal grille on the floor as she tried to do so. "Right, well... this is problematic."

"Addendum: sensors indicate damage to the lower life forms' engines preventing continuous FTL travel. Suspect interception by The Armada inevitable." The voice from the other ship echoed again. "Action Proposed: this vessel can offer partial repairs to FTL systems. Query: permission to enter the lower life form vessel."

"Can someone explain to me what this thing is saying?" Razor asked, sounding rather annoyed. "Wild, any signs of activity? Archon, Star, any sign of them arming weapons?" She asked, obviously not totally trusting their intentions.

She made a decision. "Wild, tell them they have permission to come aboard. Torchlight, take Bronze back to the med bay then get back to the O2 room. Star, go down to the engines with Diamond; if these guys turn out to not be on the up and up, you protect those engines and Diamond, got it?"

Razor herself grabbed her laser rifle and proceeded to the medical bay. "Wild, you have the helm. Star's guarding the engines, I'll guard the medbay."

"Aw yeah. I mean ahh?" He said, opening his mouth? That's what he'd normally do when he went to the doctors. He just watched what Jon was doing, not knowing a single thing the did, but it kept his curiosity up. He also tried to keep an ear out to listen to what the aliens were saying. Something about FTL...I'll leave that to the engineers. He thought, looking back at Jon as he asked his question. "Better. My head doesn't hurt as much."

He reached a hoof up to his earpiece to answer Razor's question. "I'm currently in the medbay, Razor. So I have no clue about the aiming weapons thing." He said before he pulled his hoof away. "Anyway, thanks doc, but I think I should get back to the weapons room." He said turning towards the door before he paused to listening to his new orders. "I mean the engines room." He quickly walked out the medbay back through the weapons room. He reached a hoof up to his earpiece again. "On my way to the weapons room right now, Lieutenant. Sit tight for a few moments Diamond." He spared glanced at Archon as he passed before he walked through the two empty rooms that eventually lead into the engines room.

Once in the engines room, he looked at Diamond and made sure he was perfectly fine. He then grabbed his rifle that his wing had been holding this whole time and rested it on his shoulder. "Well then Diamond...We get to see aliens and I get to do my job happily." He said with a smile before standing guard, waiting for the aliens to come on board.

"Hey, Medbay, Weapons, I suggest moving away from the doors and not being in the pathway between Broom Closet Nanbā One and Broom Closet Nanbā Two. And have a hold on any loose objects. I wish to be the first pony to really stretch his legs in space." Momus spoke into his radio, a smirk growing on his face at his own little personal joke, "Also, it may be because Diamond hasn't already opened his door on his own, so I'm going to help him realize that the doors are, in fact, operational. Also, it might have to do with boredom" And also I need to make sure that the smelly unicorn knows that his precious wrenches are now mine.

And with that, the pony-who-was-not began to tell the doors to open for his quick jaunt through the ship. He intended to cross over in the weapons room, so as to approach the engine room from starboard and not have to cross through atmospherics on his way there.
After a few moments of making sure all the doors along the way were actually told to be open, and then, he ran.
Through the medbay, they'd likely only see a blur of whiteness pass by, followed swiftly by a gust of wind. He did not bother to acknowledge Torchlight, Bronze, Jon, or Lieutenant Razor, though it was unlikely that he would be missed. He had, after all, been kind enough to provide at least 10 seconds of warning, minimum.
Provided that he would manage the initial feat unscathed, he would continue on into the central hallway, and from there into the weapons room. Archon would also not receive any sign of acknowledgement from the blur of fur, and was unlikely to be able to do much about it anyway.

However, upon reaching the door to the engine room, Momus Filias would come to a dead stop, glancing in through the now-open door. "I must not have been listening while I was playing doorman, well, hello there, Mister...uhm, your name escapes me now, but you're looking lovely today. What brings you to the Nanbā Two?" he gave the thestral a small smile, before looking at the unicorn, and sprouting a more morose, emotionless line drawn across his lips, "You. Why'd you make the ship hit the odd-talkers' ship? Don't you know how to keep these engines running right?"

Diamond looked up at Star. "Oh, the doors are open." He hastily closed the notebook and put it away. He looked Star up and down, then a smile crossed his face. "I think the leftenant knows my taste in stallions; exotic, muscular, and in uniform" Not to mention the ear tufts, those are always fun. focus! We're about to make contact with an advanced race and all you think about is your new boy toy? Well yes, thestrals are lovely and fluffy...And they bite! But it's kind of nice. "I'm thinking that being the first Equestrians to meet other life is great, and we may even get home and-"

And then Momus appeared in the doorway. Diamond's headache intensified. "Momus, I don't run the autopilot, nor do I choose if we hit things or not. Now then, I was just having a personal moment with Star here. He was assigned to protect me while working with the people that Wild crashed us into. You were not assigned to m-" Diamond's headache intensified, he could hear whispering, like the thoughts of other ponies, and his body began to heat up. He felt a strange sort of comfort, passion, agitation, and possessiveness towards Momus Not NOW! "Momus.....g-get a-w-way from m-me! Now! Y-you are int-interrupting my work, I w-will report you t-to the l-leftenant! Now g-get out!" Diamond stood all the way up to his full height, his horn almost touched the ceiling. He was gigantic compared to the other two ponies in the room. "Momus. Out. Now."

"As far as I can tell, there are no signs of hostile intent." Archon reported, his attention still on the radar and the controls. Although he didn't find anything to suggest that they would be attacked, he was acutely aware that his ability to gauge the level of danger was limited only to the external weapons systems. And if they were coming aboard, they may well be in even greater danger than they could handle. And all the external weapons systems would be useless against a boarding party.

Well, maybe I can threaten to blow up their ship. Archon thought gloomily as he gazed at the control panels, waiting for... something to happen.

Torchlight inwardly groaned as he saw Bronze's prosthetic leg clatter on the floor as she stood. Wonderful. Looks like I'm carrying her, he said to himself. "Well, I guess I'm carrying you. Hang on." he said. He then used his magic to lift her high enough so he could place her on his back. Razor was right, she was not light. His first thought was that his older brother was better suited for this sort of thing, and could probably carry her and her leg with ease. He soon grabbed the bronze leg in his magic and started making his way back to Med-Bay. "Please don't complain. It'll be easier for the both of us," Torchlight then said.

When he arrived at the Med-Bay, he said, "Special delivery, I gotta get back to the oxygen room." He placed Bronze, and her bronze leg on one of the beds and made his way to the oxygen room, ready to take on anything that tried to come.

Wild Card listened intently to the data on the "Armada", or "The Rebels" as they were known as well, and frowned at the mention of them having superior firepower and the concept of "sweeping" across charted systems didn't look like a nice one either. "Nice enough to not say the expletive." "Would have sounded amusing with the robo-voice saying words like f-" The pegasus silenced himself before he continued on any further, swiveling around idly while turning on his comms to talk to Razor.

"Well basically autotune aliens are saying they can detect the fact our engines are knackered and as such can't let us do continuous FTL travel." "Plus the Rebels finding us is apparently inevitable if we don't fix them, and that sounds rather bad from what they told us." Wild informed the thestral, stopping his spinning with a hoof and poking at the console again, allowing him to talk with the aliens again. "You have permission to come aboard. We await your arrival and gladly thank you for your assistance." He responded happily, turning off his transmitter and sighing, though never taking his eyes off the radar just to be certain nothing else was out there as well.

"Acknowledged. Commencing teleportation to lower life form vessel in T-minus six seconds." The voice replied over the radio. Exactly six seconds passed before the first of three pillars of green light erupted into being in the engine room; the "pony" before Star and Diamond could only vaguely be called such.

While the Engis had the same basic shape as the ponies, they had no manes and no visible tail, nor did they have any sort of indicator of race, no stronger build for earth ponies, no horns and no wings, they were ponies stripped down to the bare basics, colored all in grey with a grid pattern going along their entire bodies and a single green eye in the center of their "face". The one that appeared in the engine room briefly acknowledged Star and Diamond with a tilt of it's head before immediately opening the panels to the main controls and getting to work.

A second pillar of light erupted into being in the co-pilot's seat next to Wild Card; the engi that appeared was identical to the first and again gave only a tiny acknowledgement of Wild's existence before it set to work apparently taking scans of everything on the ship with their own sensors.

"Star, Wild, talk to me. What are these things doing?" Razor asked over the radio as she watched Bronze be attended to by an automated scanner checking for any further damage beyond the concussion. Razor herself kept her rifle levelled at the doors in turn, obviously not ready to fully trust yet.


"Assessment; the lower life form vessel has suffered damage that cannot be repaired while space bourne. If the lower life forms wish the Engi can enact temporary measures to restore FTL flight capabilities for a short duration." The voices all spoke as one, so that even though it was directed at the pilot Star and Diamond also heard their engi say it.


A third pillar of light erupted in the shield generators, a third engi stepping out and greeting Viridian. "Viridian, got an energy spike in the shield generator, was that you? The engi didn't say anything about going in there." Razor said. The engi who had appeared before Viridian appeared a slightly different color, colored a rusty brown compared to the sleek grey of the others. An additional pillar of light alongside it dropped off what looked like a cryogenic escape pod.

"Message; this lower life form pod was retrieved by this units vessel during reconnaissance. It was deemed that it should be returned to the lower life forms." The Engi said before teleporting off again.

"Did these things just dump their garbage on our ship?" Razor asked, sounding a little annoyed. "Viridian, I don't trust them enough to open that pod in any essential systems; Viridian, take that pod to one of the spare rooms and see if you can open it up, if it's hostile you neutralise it, with lethal force if necessary." Razor ordered. "And be careful." She added in a softer tone.

She restored the rough "commander" voice when she talked to Torchlight. "Torchlight, do us a favor; grab a spacesuit and check the exterior of the ship, if we've got any hanging debris you remove it, got it?" Razor commanded before checking back in. "Star, Diamond, Wild? These things on the up and up?"

While Star and Diamond were being left in the dark slightly, on his screen Wild could see that the Engi had already produced a 14% efficiency improvement compared to the readings since their crash.

"Momus..." The voice sounded croaky and was obviously Bronze, forcing herself to focus. "Momus, my utility belt is on the console. There's some adrenaline shots in there, mind bringing it to the medbay?" She asked. "And please don't pull that dashing blur thing again, I've already got a headache and we can't keep all the doors open constantly anyway."

Star stared at Diamond, his mouth wide open. Had this pony really just said that? "Uhhhh...." Was the only thing he said as he continued to stare. He had no response to something that caught him completely off guard. After all, what was he suppose to say? That's great? No that would have probably implied that he liked being called exotic and muscular. He unconsciously took a step closer to the door.

Unfortunately for him, Momus appeared in front of the door. How did he get here so fast? He turned his gaze over to Momus, then back to Diamond. He looked between the two ponies for a moment. "Uhhh..." Momus just said he was looking lovely... Are these two hitting on me or something?! This has got to be some kind of joke... He thought, shaking his head. He listened to the two for a moment before Diamond made it very clear that he had a headache.

He opened his mouth to say something to Momus, but he was cut off when a voice said something about six seconds. "Wait what?" He said, forgetting to pay attention to anything around him. He jumped back a "pony" appeared in the engines room. "Bah!" He yelled, raising his rifle. He stares at the...uh...pony, seeing it tilt it's head before opening the panels. He heard Razor's voice and reached a hoof to his earpiece to respond. "Umm...I have no idea. I shoot things, lieutenant. I don't know anything about engineering, plus I...have another problem to deal with..." He said, looking back at Momus and Diamond.

He took his hoof away from his earpiece. "Diamond, keep an eye on this...pony. If anything happens yell." He said before trotting over to Momus. He bent his head down to grab his rifle in his mouth before pushing Momus out of the room and down the hall to the door gently. "Momus, I suggest you should go back to the door controls." He said, his speech somewhat muffled through his grip on his rifle.

Once he had sure Momus was somewhat away from the engines room, he trotted back to the room before Razor found out he left Diamond alone there. He sat down and watched the engi work, taking his rifle from his mouth. He held it at the read incase the engi did anything and he had to shoot him. He also really hoped Momus didn't come back, or else he might just shoot himself with his own rifle.

"Ugh, on it Ma'am," Torchlight said. He did not like hanging out in dead space. Still, he had orders to complete. He made his way through the weapons room and out to the airlock on the starboard side of the ship. He got on one of the spacesuits, depressurized the room with the panel by the door, and opened the airlock. With the suit's magnetic boots, he was able to exit and start walking along the hull of the ship. Of course, he closed the airlock behind him.

"This is Torchlight, I'm out on the hull of the ship. Please don't forget that I'm out here if you're going to use the FTL drive," he said over the comm. He certainly could see damage to the hull, especially towards the front of the ship. The front in general was a mess, but there weren't many outer hull breaches, and most of them were small breaches. There was one particular breach on the port side where it was obvious that was where the ship hit whatever they had hit the hardest. "Lieutenant Razor, we have a large outer hull breach on the port side of the ship. A bad hit there and either the shields room or the security room could be breached. I'll continue my sweep out here."

Momus found himself quite perturbed by the chain of events that unfolded right in front of him. Perhaps the most stunning event was the fact that he touched me! He really touched me! With his hooves! Right on my barrel! The...that...that lovely little...peasant! How dare he!? How dare he touch me without permission!
After that little episode of royalty, Momus decided that the only proper course of action was to take a few breaths and consider what these feelings emanating from his chest area and making him feel very unhappy really meant. This, of course, required a period of sitting on his butt in the absence of any other pony, and a good amount of resting his chin on one hoof for good measure. He certainly felt agitated, but it didn't seem to stem from the fact that the pretty thestral was gone—it felt more like the fact that the thestral had decided to return to the funny-smelling unicorn was the problem.

Aha! That had to be it. He was just jealous that the funny-smelling unicorn had his thestral's attention. It certainly wasn't any kind of misplaced and heretofore utterly ignored urge to own the unicorn and make him do whatever he wanted him to—those kind of thoughts were utterly disturbed and disgusting—nor was it some irrational desire to see that strange-smelling freak with the biggest of smiles on his face. That was just weird. It was all because the thestral had chosen the strange unicorn over him, and that meant there was only one way to deal with these feelings:
Ruin this lovely relationship before it could begin. I'll just have to wait for the unicorn to be alone, turn into the thestral, tie him down, and then I'll just...have my way with—get out of my head!

Before he could continue plotting the demise of his romantic rival who he had no homosexual thoughts or fantasies about whatsoever, however, an annoying buzzing decided to enter his ears and mutter something about consoles and belts. Considering he could not, in fact, open all the doors between point A and point B from here, he was forced to do one of two things. Ignore what was essentially a direct order from a mare who sounded hurt, which would be a big hit to his repute and probably get his thestral mad at him. Going through the engine room while the unicorn was seducing him was also clearly out of the question. Therefore, there was really only one thing that could be done.
So through the weapons room, into atmospherics, and to the console he went, at far more than a respectable pace, but also one that didn't involve being followed by storms of wind or ramming headfirst into any doors. Nay, he had to stay slow so he could stop, tell the doors to open, continue through, make the doors close, and only then could he be on his merry way through the shit.
It was a miracle that the sheer slowness of this monumental task did not kill him.
And then he had to walk all the way back to the weapons room before he could skip up to a slightly higher, yet still not-fast-enough gear, just to acquiesce to the rather extreme demands of the cripplemare.
So, understandably, after going through the whole process of plotting his perfectly well-deserved vengeance, and then being essentially forced to be someone's delivery colt, and then, they had the audacity to do it slowly, by the time he returned to the medbay, he was not a particularly happy stallion. In fact, he was a very, very annoyed stallion, who wanted nothing more than to grab a unicorn, bite him in the neck, drain him of his will and then steal the most precious moments of the poor stallion's life, leaving him nothing but a senseless pile of pleas—I don't want to do that kind of thing with a smelly-unicorn like him! Why can't I be a normal changeling with normal changeling feelings!?
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

Archon kept his gaze on the radar. Hunched over - and on a side note, with a burnt back - as he was, he was beginning to ache. Most of the time he'd be rushing all over the weapons room to fire all the weaponry the ship had at incoming aggressors, but... now there was nothing to do but stare at a screen and hope that the other ship didn't pummel them to pieces. Because as things stood they probably were fully capable of that.

He sighed heavily, sitting back for a moment, then sitting upright when his back reminded him that it was burnt. He rubbed his eyes, realising that he hadn't blinked in quite a while. Then he noticed a sullen Momus enter the weapons room through one door and out the other. For the first time in the past five minutes he began to wonder who had had the bright idea of putting the weapons room in a position where anypony who had to get from one end of the ship to another would have to go through the room. Then again, he reflected, it wasn't likely he'd notice even if someone ran through the room at top speed, providing he was focused on the weapons.

"Wilco, oh captain my captain," Viridian replies with a similarly softened tone. "Based solely on the exterior, it appears to be exactly what these 'engi' claim it is: a cryogenic escape pod in full operation. It has all the markings to have been from a ship in the same general model range as ours so it could very well be..." She takes a breath and sighs, frowning. "OK, hauling the stupid thing to the spare room. Wish the critter who handed it off decided to stay and help me haul it but, yanno, one-eyed aliens are alien." She heads down the hall to a utility room, retrieves a dolly system for hauling heavy and large objects by a single person, and rolls it back to the shield generator.

"OK, simple enough..." She aligns the dolly and pulls the straps out and around to encompass the cryogenic pod. Tugging on the straps to ensure that it will stay, she tilts the dolly up and rolls the entire affair down to one of the spare rooms. She then closes the door behind her, opens the doorway access panel, and removes one of the push fuses so the door can no longer be opened from inside. Finally, she undoes the straps and moves the dolly to a side, out of her way. She opens up her comm. "OK, I'm leaving this on an open channel so you can come save my plot if this thing turns out bad," she informs Razor. "Starting up the thawing and opening sequence..." she says, pulling the switch that does this. "...now." She then moves away from the pod and watches it as the internal system thaws out the occupant and opens up.

When Bronze had been brought into the med bay, Kings was in the middle of testing the sensors.  When the blur that might have been Momus had gone by, the scanners had gotten changeling readings.  Now, that was entirely possible, but still.  They might just be broken.  The scanners were returning nothing on Kings, but that was to be expected.  No imagination, these machines.  They beeped when Bronze entered, adding her as a new patient and registering Torchlight as a returning patient.  With a sigh, Kings closed the scanner controls, and started the healing process on Bronze.  As per usual, any minor distractions, pains or minor injuries started fixing themselves up, oxygen returning to the bloodstream and minor concussions slowly healing.  The leg, however, was too old an injury for the healing to do anything.  The doctor heard that the adrenaline shots were on the way, and smiled.  The could have a few(Kings made another mental note, to check the supplies), to help ponies get back on their hooves in battle, but it was always good to save the bay's supplies.

Them Momus entered again, with the belt, and the scanners registered changeling again.  The same changeling.  Kings raised an eyebrow.  So the scanners weren't broken.  Kings would have to talk with him about this.  Figure out whether or not he should let the rest of the crew know.  But anyway, how to handle the present situation?  When Kings spoke next, their voice was a bit different.  Less masculine, but not too feminine.  Entirely androgynous.  Combined with the fact that Kings had left his makeup off, it was near impossible to determine a specific gender.  "Ah, thank you, Momus.  If you haven't got anything specific you have to do, stick around a bit.  I want to talk to you."

Diamond watched Star's mouth fall open. He smiled. "I was only joking." And despite his headache, he heard a buzzing over his earpiece. Something about one of the battle cub-and then there was a pony looking creature in the room, it immediately began repairs on the FTL drive. Then Star pushed Momus out of the room, and Diamond's headache began to go away.

"Um....." There was really nothing to do, so Diamond went to a spot near the door and lay down. The strange pony was doing temporary repairs, nothing to worry about. Except for Momus. There was something explicitly wrong when Momus was around, something that Diamond couldn't put his hoof on. Whenever Momus was around, Diamond felt like giving into the whispers and submitting, letting his mind go blank, embrace the pleasure of servitude, and let the pain go away, let it melt away and just act on the will of another. That sounded wonderful. No pain, no memories, nothing, just a blank slate for another to impose their will on and a life of pleasure for himself to enjoy. He knew he had felt the feeling before, but he couldn't place it.

Diamond shook those thoughts out of his head right before Star got back. He patted Star on the head. "I was joking, it's something I do to all of the guards I get assigned to me. Most of the guards I end up with are Lunar Guards, since the normal Royal Guards are busy during the day. Most ponies in Canterlot refer to them as exotics, since they haven't been seen since the night of Nightmare Moon's sealing. Most Nobles can't get enough of them, they make very popular personal guards and.......escorts. I just think you look good in a uniform."

Wild Card was slightly startled at the beam of light appearing in the seat once occupied by the drone known to Wild as Little Bleep, and followed after by the very strange sight of the Engi. 'Reminds me of Terror, only he has a tail... and two eyes, if you can call those black holes eyes.' He thought idly, letting the alien carry on with its work on the pilot console, hoping it wasn't going to do anything to compromise it and instead stay by its word and help them.

"Well Razor, the one next to me is just... scanning the console and such." "Probably to see what the problems are specifically." Wild responded to the thestral mare, watching the Engi with interest and slight awe. 'Holy crap we've made contact with alien life. Like, eye to eye sort of stuff.' He thought to himself, before listening to the conclusion the aliens made. "We would all be grateful if you could do that. Thank you." The pegasus said in response to the Engi's proposal, sitting back and just keeping an eye on the alien, not really taking any notice of anyone else's actions on the ship as all seemed to be pretty calm for the moment.

“Ugh… I’ve always hated this part.” Ampera groaned, mumbling to herself as she rubbed her head with a forehoof. “Wait a second… I’m alive! Holy shit!” she laughed to herself, legitimately surprised the accident that claimed her vessel hadn’t taken her down with it. “Best pilot in Equestria my ass.” she complained, hitting the door of the cryogenic escape pod. “I swear, if he survived… I’ll electrocute the bastard myself!” She cursed, causing the air around her to crackle with electricity as she unintentionally released some magic from her horn.

“Damn it! Calm down, Amp, calm the buck down!” She chastised herself in panic, the last thing she needed was to break the bloody escape pod, and expose herself to outer space--- Which is of course, why she smacked the door of the thing once more, cursing the unfortunate set of circumstances which made it so she found herself in this situation. “Go to space, they said! We’re tired of supporting your lazy ass---- It’s a perfectly safe way to make a living, they said! Damn it!” Another punch….

It was then that the door began to open. “Celestia’s Flaming----- I BROKE IT! I’M GOING TO DIE! DAMN IT!” she yelled as the crackling died down, the percieved threat of death apparently enough to stop her uncontrolled outburst of magic.

Ampera sat there, eyes closed tightly as she expected to be met with the harsh coldness of space, and her death. Seconds passed… And nothing. “No violent decompressions… I’m okay! Yes! Screw you, universe!”  She exclaimed joyously. She then noticed the pony in front of her. “Who the hell… Erm.” She coughed. “Where am I?” She asked it, cautiously stepping out of the pod.

"Viridian, give me an update, what's going on in there?!" Razor demanded, clearly ready to leap from her seat, rifle in hand and start shooting the room up if Viridian was in danger. The thestral calmed herself again and turned the radio on. "Viridian, dear, could you please let me know what's going on?"

Both engis that had been working on the ship suddenly straightened up and spoke in unison. "Alert: mantis vessel detected in this sector. Likelihood of hostility; 97.68 percent." They said in their monotone voices. "New mission parameters; the lower life form vessel has been repaired to acceptable status, the Engi shall now engage retreat protocols."

The beams of light returned and quickly zapped away both Engis.

"I heard that! Wild, give me an update, what's going on up there. Archon, what are the Engi doing?"

On the external cameras the Engi ship lingered only a short time longer before their ship jumped away in a slow fade of light. Thankfully their own ship's FTL was apparently working at 105% efficiency according to Wild's readings.

"Kings, Momus, can you man your stations?" Bronze asked as she got up unsteadily to her feet again. "I get the feeling we're going to need to jump soon."


"Torchlight, unless you're feeling REAL confident in your ability to hang on I'd get back inside. We jump asap." Razor ordered. "Everyone on their posts, Archon, Star, if anything gets within 50 feet of us you turn it to rubble, got it?"

"I think I just found you a birthday present, love." Viridian says jokingly to Razor on the open comm circuit, looking at Ampera. "She's a unicorn, sort of cute, very alive, and based on the amount of current that was coming from inside the pod, she has a very electrifying personality. She even comes in a box that you can unwrap, although you might want to whack her first."

Viridian grins at the unicorn as Razor announces a general quarters. "Viridian Rain, engineering officer, TMS Eclipse," she says pleasantly. "We're sort of a lot beat up right now and you appear to be a warm body, despite having come out of a cryogenic pod, so you're coming to the shield room with me and being an obedient minion until our captain decides what to do with you." She replaces the fuse and opens the door behind her. "Chop, chop, alerts going, no time to waste with thinking or getting up to speed."

Diamond watched the Engi disappear, then heard the aliens mention something about a 'Mantis'. That wasn't good, and then he heard the whole 'Get to your stations' lines that he read in sci-fi novels all the time. Except this was real, this was a serious situation. Taff! I think Star has a position to be at! Diamond stood up and attempted to push Star. "Out with ya! You have a station to be at!"

He had forgotten how heavy thestrals could be if they didn't want to be moved. He gave up trying to push Star. "Please go to your station?" Diamond said as he finally gave up and walked over to his 'station' and he summoned his tools.

Star looked at Diamond. "Erm...Suuuurrreee. Whatever you say." He said, not quite sure if he should trust the unicorn. His ears flopped a little when he was patted on the head though. He listened to Diamond as he explained why thestrals were...exotic. "Haven't been seen since Nightmare Moon's sealing my flank." He muttered, a low growl escaping his throat. He'd have to educate Diamond after everything was calm.

He watched as the engi stood up and said something about hostility and retreat. Then the engi went away. He then heard Razor shouting orders over the comlinks. Luckily for him, his orders were to keep things away. So that had to mean go back to the weapons room and leave Diamond in here. And as he thought that, said unicorn tried to push him out of the room. He could only stare at Diamond. "Errr..."

He reached a hoof up to his earpiece. "You got it Razor. I'll blast them to shreds if they get near. And Wild if you use the FTL try not to crash into anymore ships." He said, smiling like a goof. He then got up, taking his rifle in his mouth, and ran back to the weapons room. Once inside, he hopped on his chair and put his rifle aside. "Alright, Archon. What do ya need me to do?"

Archon snapped back to full attention as something on his radar began to change, and drastically this time. The weapons systems realigned themselves on his command and he quickly swept them about, waiting for something to happen, only for the Engi ship to warp out of the area before his eyes. They were retreating! Had they even finished repairs properly yet? 'Acceptable status' didn't exactly scream of optimal performance to him. And that optimal performance was something they might well need, if they were truly going to be confronted by this 'Mantis'.

"Lieutenant, the radar indicates that the Engis have jumped out of this sector." He reported. "And a new ship has arrived, too. Presumably it's this Mantis they were talking about." He kept his weapons pointed it that approximate direction, but yet again didn't lock it on yet; on the very small chance that they were not hostile he didn't want to provoke them.

Then Star arrived and asked him what he should be doing. Archon allowed his attention to deviate momentarily from the controls. "Anything you're good at. I'd ask you to man the weapons systems but if you don't have the expertise then don't worry yourself with it. Just do whatever you can."