This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead or fictitious, places, real or fictitious, and organizations, real or fictitious, is purely coincidental and is in no way intended, except for the My Little Pony stuff.
My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro. I own the story, Chuck, Rosalie, the Federation of Nations, the Nightmare Mk 1 and Mk 2, the Redemption and every other craft you read about in this story.
Captain's Log
Year 12 of Defection
- Today is the twelfth anniversary of the defection of me and my crew from the fleet. Fortunately, some of the other vessels joined me, thus forming our little fleet of run away. Whatever tensions there was twelve years ago are now gone. I heard from one of the other ship's captain that they were holding a ceremony to commemorate the battle that followed our defection, mostly to honour the fallen fighter pilots. And like each year, it will be hard for me. I miss you, Jenny.
Captain Charles 'Chuck' Manning walked down one of the several hallways of his ship, the Redemption. Today was the anniversary of the defection and the battle of the defection, as the crew called it. But for Chuck, it was one hard day.
Each year, he would isolate himself in his living quarters, forbidding anyone to enter. He cried himself to sleep, thinking of all the brave men and women that died in the battle. Of course, they were all fighter pilots, and most were renowned for their recklessness. But Chuck had another reason to cry himself to sleep.
One of the pilots was his daughter. Jenny 'Nightmare' Manning, one of the best pilots the whole fleet had. A test pilot on top of that. Test pilots were well known for their recklessness, but also for their craziness. Chuck loved his daughter a lot, and when she declared that she would fight in one of the prototypes, thus making all the test pilots go out there, Chuck tried to stop her, even though he knew better.
Bringing a hand to his neck, Chuck felt the medallion his daughter gave him when she was younger. Inside the medallion were the pictures of those he loved that were now gone, mainly his wife Rebecca and Jenny. He opened the medallion to look one more time at the two women of his life before he reached the bridge where he would break the tradition by making a speech and broadcasting it to the entire fleet he now was in command of.
Chuck closed the medallion and stopped. Beside him was a viewing bay that showed the stars far away. But he was not really seeing the stars. He was seeing his reflection in the glass. Despite being only 43, his hair was already all grey due to the stress of running a fleet without causing it to fall apart like what happened twelve years ago. Even though he was tired, and the dark bags under his eyes confirmed it even if he kept saying the opposite, his green eyes showed a determination rarely seen among crew members. Only one other crew member had been known to have a similar determination in similar green eyes. And Chuck was proud of her, even if she was dead.
Chuck hated his uniform, finding it to formal for his taste. Being born on a farm in the American Midwest in a family of farmers from the middle class didn't help either. The navy blue uniform was fitting him nicely, allowing him all the freedom of movement he liked. Pinned against his chest were his two medals and his name and rank. Before being captain of the Redemption, Chuck was a fighter pilot. He had received the golden wings of honour and bravery after defeating an invasion force almost all by himself. In the battle, he lost all of his squad. The other medal wasn't really a medal of honour or something like that. It was an honorary medal given to veterans of the war against what was still called The Invaders due to a lack of any proper name.
Smoothing his uniform, Chuck took a deep breath before typing something on his command bracelet. The sliding door in front of him opened silently, revealing the fully manned bridge. Chuck let out the breath he took and walked on the bridge.
"Captain on the bridge." One of the younger crew member said in a thick British accent.
All the crew stopped working and saluted their captain before returning to what was occupying their shift. Chuck walked all the way to his chair and sat down.
"All stations, report." He said.
"Shields are at maximum, sir." A woman called.
"Weapons are fully operational." A man called.
"Long range communications are slightly disrupted, but she be back to fully operational in a few minutes, sir." Another woman, this one younger, called from the communication station.
"Sensors?" Chuck asked.
"Nothing on scan, sir. A few space pebbles, but that's it." A man called.
"Communications are back online, sir." The woman at the communication station said.
'Here goes nothin'.' Chuck thought as he cleared his throat.
"Prepare a general broadcasting over all channels. Fleet only."
"Yes sir!"
Chuck took a deep breath.
"Attention all crew. This is Captain Charles Manning speaking. As you may all know, today is the anniversary of our defection, and the anniversary of the battle that followed. Most of you know I suck at speeches and formalities, and I won't correct you. For twelve years now we have been running away from the Fed Fleet, and I am fed up of that. No pun intended."
Some crew members on the bridge giggled at the pun that was clearly unintended. Chuck smiled as he felt the atmosphere become less tense.
"You all may be aware that we recently founded a new planet that can sustain life. I won't annoy anyone with the techno-babble that comes with it. We are going to explore that planet, and if it proves right for us, we settle there and get ourselves some families. I wish you all a good day. Captain Charles Manning, out."
Chuck immediately went back to his quarters as fast as possible to avoid any questions. Of course, no one would actually ask him anything until the next day, but Chuck knew he threw a bomb at his crew. They were all home sick, and his declaration was just what they all needed. It was exactly what HE needed.
Down in the hangar bay, five test pilots were having a great time together. Several empty bottles of beer were scattered around the fighter on which they were sitting. They were silent ever since they heard the captain's speech.
"Ya think we'll finally have a planet ta call home?" A male test pilot asked.
"Hope so, bro." Another male test pilot answered.
Still silent, Rosalie 'Shockwave' Petit nodded absent mindedly. She had reddish-brown hair she kept short and grey eyes. She was still missing her best friend Jenny. She was then brought out of her thoughts by a waved hand in front of her.
"Hey, Shockwave! Why don't you smile, Pretty Face?"
"Stop calling me that, Crazy Bill."
"What? Shockwave, or Pretty Face?"
"Pretty Face, you moron!"
With that, Rosalie punched Bill 'Crazy Bill' Brown in the guts, making him fold in two with pain. The others laughed lightheartedly, eventually bringing Rosalie out of her mourning.
Chuck was woken up by his command bracelet. He looked at the small screen and saw an alert. Opening the alert report, he frozen, sweat appearing on his forehead.
'CRAP!' He thought as he quickly got up and put his uniform on.
He then ran to the bridge were there was a frenzy Chuck knew all too well. The pre-battle frenzy.
"Sensors report."
"A few minutes ago, around twenty small vessels came out of a hyperjump signature, followed by a frigate-class ship. The frigate-class ship is known, and from the Fed fleet. A support frigate. However, we have no information on the small vessels. We think they are fighter size, but we might be wrong." The man at the sensors said.
"Alright. Send the alert message to all pilots. And activate Fleet Command." Chuck order.
"I am always active, captain." A metallic and monotonous feminine voice called from the bridge's speakers.
A few seconds later, a hologram of a woman in her early twenties appeared in front of Chuck. Fleet Command was the AI responsible for fleet movement coordination with fighters.
"Alert message has been sent captain." Fleet Command said in her metallic and monotonous voice.
"Good. And stop talking in a monotonous voice. It's annoying." Chuck replied.
"Fine." Fleet Command told Chuck in an exasperated but still metallic voice.
Several crew members chuckled at Fleet Command's antics. It was well known that Fleet Command on the Redemption had been created by Rebecca Manning, Chuck's wife. It was also common knowledge that Fleet Command, unlike the other Fleet AIs, had a personality of her own, and hated being refered to as 'it'. And since she had been programmed with some inspiration drawn from Jenny's favourite cartoon character Pinkie Pie, things could get interesting. She also prefered to be called by the name Crystal.
"Thanks!" Fleet command said to no one in particular.
"Who are-"
"Don't ask. Better let her be." Chuck interrupted the young man who tried to understand what had happened.
Rosalie was waiting for her squad to arrive. Her helmet was down on the dashboard of her Nightmare Mk 2 Heavy Interceptor while she was sitting in the cockpit. She was making the final verifications on her flight suit when the nine other members of her squad came in the hangar. She smiled and put her helmet on, connecting the air supply to her helmet's breather.
Once they were all in their Nightmares, Rosalie signaled the hangar's control tower they were ready to take off.
"Roger that, Sky-leader. Please stand by."
The Sky squad was one of the four ten-fighter squads on board of the Redemption. Rosalie was the leader of the Sky squad, thus the Sky-leader call signal.
"Sky squad, you are clear to take off."
"Roger that. Taking off."
Outside her Nightmare, the maintenance crew was hurrying to safety as the air was now gone and the Nightmares were about to take off. Rosalie took a deep breath. She then talked over the squad's comm system.
"Alright, guys. We're going out."
Rosalie smiled as several cheers came back to her. She put the throttle of her fighter to takeoff mode, and her Nightmare slowly went forward towards the open space. Once outside, she accelerated to combat speed, and took a left turn, flying along the heavy cruiser Redemption. Near the bow of it where the remains of the Federation of Nations insignia. It had been painted over shortly after the battle of the Defection. An alarm then brought Rosalie back to what she had to do.
"Okay. I'm picking up several signals up ahead. Assume tight delta formation." She said over the comm.
Several agreements were said, and the ten Nightmares were now in a tight V-shaped formation with Rosalie as the head.
"Sky-leader, enemy vessels are 1.5 kilometres away from your position. Expect an attack as soon as you are spotted." Fleet Command Crystal said.
"Roger that. You heard that guys. We'll chop up some Feds."
Chuck was watching the holographic tactical display showing twenty small red symbols, one bigger red symbol, and thirty small green symbols identical to the small red symbols. Over the small green symbols were the call signals of each fighter in combat.
"Sensors report."
"No new signature, sir."
"Good."
"I'll keep you updated as soon as there is something new on the sensors, sir."
"Sky-leader, engage the enemy at will." Fleet Command Crystal said.
"Roger."
The small Federation vessels were close enough to start gathering intel on them. From where she was, they didn't look like fighters. One of them then turned to face her, and she saw it was actually fighter, probably a new scout model. The scout opened fire on Sky squad.
Rosalie dodged the red energy bolts aimed for her. She then realised that they could not win in a formation. She was about to order a dispersion when Fleet Command Crystal had beaten her to it.
"Sky squad, split up."
Rosalie smiled and her squad split up. She began to chase a scout, powering up her magnetic canons. She shot several volleys of three rounds, each hitting bull's-eye. The scout blew up, pieces going in all direction. She avoided the debris and shot another scout down with the main weapon of the Nightmare Mk 2, a twin energy cannon with a fast firing rate.
The fight was almost over. Most of the scouts were destroyed, and the support frigate was in a poor condition. The two other squads then came.
"What took you so long?"
"For your information, we took off from the other side of the ship."
"Just destroy that frigate while my squad finish to exterminate the scouts."
Chuck was looking at the now almost red-free tactical display.
"Well, that was easy." He said
'Almost too easy...' He thought.
"Hyperjump signature detected. Several capital ships signals are coming from 2 kilometres away from our fighters."
"Issue retreat order."
"Yes, captain."
The thirty green fighter symbols then slowly came back towards the Redemption. But they seemed too slow.
"Move the ship to intercept our fighters, then issue a retreat order to the rest of our fleet. Tell them to join us at the new planet."
Three voices answered Chuck. The Redemption began to move to meet the thirty fighters. The retreat order had already been issued, and all of the run away fleet had already made a hyperjump. Once the thirty fighters were properly docked and the hangars closed, Chuck issued his orders.
"Initiate hyperjump to coordinates 15.36 and 72.05."
"Yes, sir."
A blue window-like hyperjump portal appeared against the black space in the viewing bay of the bridge. The ship began to accelerate towards it, and went through it, disappearing from conventional space and from the Federation's sensors.
After several hours of travelling, the Redemption finally ended its hyperjump. It appeared beyond a moon orbiting a blue-and-green orb similar to Earth.
"Current coordinates do not match input coordinates. We have misjumped."
"Scan the planet. We misjumped near an Earth-like planet. We just discovered a new planet."
After several seconds, the scan's results came in.
"Rocky planet. Strong magnetic field similar to Earth's. Slightly larger than Earth. Same rotational speed on its axis. Same tilt of the axis. Presence of water. Presence of oxygen. Presence of wildlife. Here some mountain ranges, which might indicate tectonic activity. Oxygen levels are slightly higher than Earth's. No sign of pollution. Signs of civilization. Huh..."
"What?"
"Well... Apparently, the civilization down there is at the equivalent of us in 1400-1500. However, there are signs of electricity. And hydroelectric dams."
"Atmosphere composition?"
"Similar to Earth's. Only difference is the oxygen levels."
"We will send an exploration crew on the surface."
"Yes, sir."
"I want seven volunteers for the mission. And put the ship in orbit around the planet. Halfway between the planet and its moon should do the trick."
All the crew on the bridge nodded and went back to what they were doing. The department of science was already aware of the planet, and they would want three scientists to go on the surface and analyze everything. Plus three soldiers to protect them in case of hostile activity. Plus a spot for anyone who wants to take a vacation. Chuck smiled. He already knew someone who would love to go down.
As Chuck turned a corner, he bumped into Rosalie.
"Captain, I want to go on the surface."
"Okay."
"I know I am not a ground soldier, but I really want to see something new."
"I said okay. Now go and prepare yourself."
"Yes, sir!"
Rosalie then ran back to her living quarters. Chuck smiled, and continued his way to his own living quarters.
Twilight Sparkle, the newest Princess of Equestria, was observing the moon through her telescope when a strange metallic object appeared out of nowhere near the disk. She looked at it through her telescope, but she couldn't see anything.
After several minutes of examining, the object began to move. It placed itself between the planet and the moon, then stopped moving. Twilight was contused, and decided to send a letter to the Princesses. But as she went back to ask Spike to make and send a letter to the Princesses, he burped a letter. Twilight caught it with her magic and read out loud.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle
We have seen a strange metallic object appear near our moon. We thought it was a teleportation spell at first, but there was no residual magic near the moon. We then decided to ask you to investigate this strange object and report your findings to us or our sister.
Luna"
"Looks like you won't sleep for another few days at least, Twi."
"I know, Spike. And I was about to ask you to get a letter to the Princesses about that object. I wonder what it is?"
Twilight looked up at the moon where there was a more reflective spot. From there also came a blinking red light. She let out a sigh and prepared everything so she could monitor it.
Hey there! I hope you enjoyed. Before I end this chapter, I would like to say something. I will need OCs to fill in some spots in the fleet's crew for both the run away fleet and the Federation fleet. I will also need pony OCs to have some variation. Put your OC in a review with its name, race (pony or human), nationality (if your OC is a human), age, gender, rank (if military) or occupation, affiliation (if human (either the run away fleet or the Federation of Nations fleet)), a physical description, a personality description and some backstory. I hope to have many OC entries, and if your OC doesn't appear in the next chapter, it might appear in a future chapter. Also, I will keep the OCs that I choose a secret until they appear. See you next time!