Eyes on The Horizon
by Calex Winteridge
First published
A World War Two era Destroyer and 90's Destroyer go missing and end up in Equestira
On January, 31, 1944, the Uss Boston and the rest of Task Force 58, were sent to aid on the raids on the Marshall Islands for in the invasion of Kwajalein. The Mission was a success, on the Third of February, United States Forces claimed the islands and marched on. But, on her way back home the Boston disappeared! Where did the Boston go? A 13,600 ton ship can't just disappear... or, can it? And in this case... is it the only one? What if they meet the future of naval warfare, and had to work with them?
4/20/15 Made feature story
Engine Trouble (Re-written)
Earth, January, 31, 1944
10:20am
After the battle on Marshall Islands, our work was done; we had nothing left to do. We had laid down suppressive fire on the beach and allowed the Marines to land and perform their raids. The task force and I were ordered to head around the little string of islands and head for Japan to aid the front line troops. Upon leaving the safety of the islands, however, everything seemed to fall apart around us.
The radar equipment shut off, and our communications went offline. We tried dozens of times to fix our problem, we even tore the whole radio room apart to find a loose wire or burnt fuse, but to no avail. We couldn’t find the problem. The surrounding ships in our fleet had already been silent before the radios died and somethings telling me that maybe we should have been communicating beforehand. Maybe then we could have heard all the radios cut out at once.
However, we could still use our search lights to communicate through morse code, and soon the rest of the ships caught on. Unfortunately, they were having the same problem we were. It's been like this for over an hour now, and still, nothing has improved, our navigation systems also crapped out on us a little while after that. The only thing we had left was our on board phones, connecting the ship from bow to stern, and even those would cut out from time to time.
It was quiet, too quiet for me and the other sailors on the bridge. Maybe even the whole ship felt the press of sudden isolation, I didn’t know. After we left the Islands behind, I ordered full deck patrols and everyone to remain at their stations until we find land. We knew something was up, but we didn't want to admit it to ourselves.
The silence of our floating beast was eerie to say the least. The sudden banging of doors and talking startled me each time it happened, cause all I could think about was an enemy ship ripping through our hull and sinking us. Plus, our only hope to call for backup, is gone now, so if we're attacked, no one will find us.
The only sound I have to comfort my sanity with,was the sound of the engines, deep within the ship. But even those are starting to wear me down. The ship rocks back and forth in a hypnotic way, soon I begin to get a little sick and I start swaying with waves as if my bones turned into mush. But, seeing my foolishness I pull myself together and grab hold of the control panel in front of me, I didn’t want to look like a fool in front of my crew, it wouldn’t be good for moral.
The Bulkhead of the bridge was closed at the time, I wanted to put as much around me as humanly possible so that I could probably survive a blast from an enemy ship.
Someone knocked on the bridge door.
"Captain, permission to enter?" A voice came from the other side. Jumping a bit I turned around to the seal and stare. Realizing its a voice not a shell, I calm my nerves.
"Permission granted, come on in." I said waving my hand at the door. The doors locks turn and snap out with a metallic clang. A man steps in wearing a long sleeve shirt with his cloar pushed down, a dark blue pair of jeans, black leather belt with a silver buckle, and black shoes on. He was our communications operator His face was cleanly shaved, and his sailors hat is in his right hand. Sweat drips from his forehead and down his face, and hair is in complete disarray while a cigarette burns slightly in the right corner of his mouth. He salutes after putting his hat in the other hand, and I return leaving the panel and move to him. He continues in as the door behind him slams shut.
“Captian our navigation systems are running again, it should fix itself in a minute or two up here. Other than that, the rest of the equipment is still showing blank, We’ve called for more hands to help with any repairs, but for now, I suggest we keep moving forward, the islands are a long ways away, that will give us enough time to fix her up." I nod and point out the windows.
“Japan will come soon enough, right now, you need to fix our shit before we get caught blindsided by an enemy attack. Which is why I have to ask you this question, why didn’t you just phone up to the bridge and tell us this?” I ask in an annoyed tone. He looks over at our telephone bolted on the wall and picks it up. His mouth frowns.
“Because, the ship line is down, when we called for more hands, the damn thing shutdown, it’s one thing after another, Captain.” He said hanging the phone up with anger.
Putting my arm down, I head for the door and open it up with a grunt. “Then you best bet down there and fix it before we are fucked.” I say waving my hand out the door. he comes over to me and salutes,
“Aye aye Captain, but I can’t guarantee anything.” He says after I return it. After I could say something else, he’s out of sight down the stairs. I shake my head. ‘One thing after another...’ Before I could shut the bulkhead again, A light twinkles in the corner of my eye. I turn to look at, it’s one of the search light on the other ship. “L-O-O-K, A-H-E-A-D.” it slowly spells out, I head out on the the platform just outside the bridge that connects with the stairs down and look ahead, gripping the rails as I watch.
Whiteness I watched as it rolled over the sea in a mist of mystical nature. Where did it come from? It wasn’t there a minute ago. From in the wheelhouse I hear a voice calling to me. I whip my head around to the voice and towards it only to find it belonged to the wheelman.
"Captian, it stretches for miles, we have no other option. We have to head on in." All the sailors in the room at the time were all looking at me with eager eyes, waiting for my answer. I weigh my options. Either we wait here and die, or we could go in there and get lost. The answer was obvious.
“Sailor, push on at 30 knots. Check the navigation equipment regularly and keep me informed, ill let the other ships know of my decision via morse code.” The sailors all let out a chorus of, “Aye ayes!” and jumped to work. I turn back to the platform and signal the lightworkers on a upper level to relay my message. They follow my orders and begin to flick the light at the neighboring ship. I turn around to the white wall of fog and grip the railing and watch as it grow closer with every second. I could feel the ships speed increase as the waves grow stronger and rougher as the bow cuts through them. But, as we go on our way, I can feel in my gut that maybe this wasn’t a good idea.
10:25 am
We had been sailing in the mist for what seemed like an eternity. We lost all visual contact with our sister ships and were now officially sailing blind. My gut feeling began to resurface when the ship began to slow from 30 knots to 25 knots and continued to drop. After really noticing this change I sent one of the bridge hand to check on the engine rooms and report the problem. With the phones out, it was going to get much harder to communicate. After nearly seconds after the sailor left my sight, the ships slammed to a stop. I was flung to the control panel and felt as the metal collided with my rib cage and spine, as my skull smashed down on the panel, knocking all the air out of my lungs and forcing my forehead to bleed profusely. I saw the blood trickle down my nose as my head burned like fire and stung like hell. The ship shook violently as I heard the sound of alarms going off in my ringing ear drums.
Pulling myself off the metal floor, I looked outside and down towards the bow. The ship creaked and sputtered as she quaked. It felt as if she was going to explode. But instead, something much different happened. The bow of the ship began to glow and slowly start to move back towards the rest of the ship, consuming the first gun turret instantly. I pushed myself off the panel and with my remaining strength that wasn’t knocked out of whack, I bolted for the door. But, as I did the glowing reached the windows and soon everything faded to witness, then darkness.
Equestria, East Coast, August, 30, 2013
10:30 am
Twilight and her friends were gathered around at the shore. Twilight levitated a large brown book bound in gold trimming and she read it quickly flipping pages and remembering everything without even trying. The book was about advanced spells, the spell she was going to cast was about bringing objects from other worlds to theirs. This special book was given to her from Princess Celestia in an assessment to test her power. She told her to report when she was finished.
"So Twilight, Are you almost done? I can't believe i'm saying this but, I can’t wait to see you perform this spell, I mean, think about it, objects from another world! That is totally awesome!" Rainbow Dash said as she hovered over head, looking out over the shore side. Pinkie pie butted in.
"Oh, oh, oh! Maybe there will be aliens! And if they're friendly, we can all make friends!" She said as she beamed from ear to ear.
"Oh, my, I couldn't even imagine meeting a real life alien, I mean, that could be very scary, but, fun, maybe." Said fluttershy as she stood next to twilight looking out upon the ocean.
"And if they're the fightin type, I'll giv'em somethin ta fight about!" Said applejack as she spun around and delivered a kick to a tree witch chopped in half.
"Don't worry girls, I'm pretty sure, this spell doesn't work on living things. Only random objects." A mixture of sad and happy cries came from the crowd. Rarity was sunning next to her eager friends, "Maybe, what might come through might, could be clothing and I could start a whole new clothing line on them." Rarity said as as she moved up and over to the rest of the group.
After a few more seconds of reading, Twilight slammed the book shut. "Alright girls, I'm ready stand back because here we go."
Saying that her horn began glowing a light purplish color. It stayed this way for a good amount of time until she built up enough energy to create a giant ball of untamed portal energy, twilight struggled to keep the ball in form, sweating shaking and working up a storm. Finally with one big push the ball of energy shot out over the ocean until it stopped and grew into a very tall and square wall. At first nothing happened it just made a very strange sound that mimicked a growl. Twilight getting up noticed this and began looking through the book seeing if she did it right, but she did, so then she was very confused because after five minutes wait, nothing happened still. That's when the ground began to shake as all of the birds in the trees flew away and the waves on the beach got rougher and for the first time ever, in Equestrian history, the storm clouds moved by themselves toward the portal wall.
The ponies tried their hardest to stay up right with the ground shaking in controllable. Without warning a large beam of white light shot across the sea as a big mass began to form in the water. As it formed, the six mares to barely could, make out any details over the pure light shining out of the portal entry. When it was all over the clouds moved back into place of where they were before. And the waves stopped and the portal closed. But what was in it's place was totally worth it.
Missing In Action (Re-written)
10:35 am
My vision faded back slowly, my ears screamed in pain and my head throbbed in agony. I found myself laying on the cold steel floor of the bridge. Through the fog and double vision I looked around the bridge. The sailors were scattered about, some were nursing wounds that had been inflicted upon themselves that leaked thick streams of blood that stained there work uniforms. Unfortunately, others were laying on the ground, just like me. Hopefully, knocked out and not dead.
I pull myself off the ground, turned around and slumped down onto the control panel. I feel a arm come under my shoulder and pick up my chest as I cry out in a new found pain that I hadn’t felt before. The pain in my chest burned like raging fire and stung like a thousand hornets had used my chest as target practice. It drained the blood from my face, turning me pale and sent violent flashes of shock to the far regions of my body.
I get turned around as the arm prods and grips the wound causing my sight to flicker and my hearing to fade in and out. My vision was blurry, but I could still make out the outline of a sailor with bandages in his right arm. I feel a cool gust of wind pass over open skin. I look down to see an enormous gash in my chest, my suit was torn from one side to the other and it was soaked in blood, it trailed down the rest of the black coat.
We toss about for a few seconds as he takes off my captain's uniform and undershirt to get a better view at the wound.
The sailor yells something, but I can't understand him and begins wrapping me in the bandages that he had in his arm. My blood beats into my eyes everytime he wraps around me, the unrelenting pain burns uncontrollably, it almost makes me want to throw him off and beat him senseless.
But I can feel it, my own blood dripping away from my being. My life slowly flowing away down my shirt and onto the the floor. I move my hands to put pressure on the wound to help stop the blood flow out of fear that, if I die, I won't be able command or see what happens to my crew, and that is unacceptable.
After multiple passes with the bandages, the blood stops and I regain my sight, but the pain only subsides a little. For right now, I was happy, the wound has stopped killing me, and has given me control over my body to command once again. The sailor soon begins work on my forehead taking out another clump off bandages.
I look around the bridge, Not much had changed structurally, besides a blood smear here and there. The alert bulbs near the ship line phone were flashing, communications, engine room, mess hall, hospital, living quarters, everyone and their mother was trying to get through, to I don't blame them, I would be scared shitless if the whole ship just started shaking uncontrollably and white flash of light consumed them.
I needed to get to the phone and know what's going on, so that I could help as many sailors as possible. Lives are at stake.
After the bandages around my head were tied up tight I move up and hold myself by pushing on the controls. But as I do the pain comes back like knives and daggers are digging into my muscles, lungs, and bones. It shoots up and down my body nearly sending me to the ground again. I had never been this fucked in my life, until now.
"Sir, please, relax. We can't have you injuring yourself anymore, you're already fubar as it is. The wounds are still in critical condition, the chest wound is a centimeter deep, and you may or may not have a concussion. The more you move, the worse it’s going to get.” Said the sailor who helped me.
He was from the hospital down within the ship. His shirt was light blue that was cut off at the waist by a black belt with a golden buckle. He wore grey pants and a pair of brown shoes. On his head was a helmet with a white circle and a red cross that was strapped up tight around his jaw. The pocket on his shirt had his name stitched on. “Seaman Apprentice Doyle”
With my disgustingly weak voice, I spoke out to him.
“Doyle, I understand the condition of my wound, but I need to command my ship,” I say to the Corpsman as I lean up. But, the sailor pulls up a stool, and puts me in it. I wanted to object, but my body felt to weak to stop him.
“Captain, no need, we’ve sent for Vice Captain Richardson, he’ll be here in a minute.” I nod once. and dismiss him with my hand brushing him off towards the others who needed him more.
10:37am
After a little while of anxious waiting, Vice Captain Donald Richardson came up from behind me and gave a whole hearted salute. His uniform was like mine in every way, from the golden ribbons, the black cloth, besides his rank difference.
“ Vice Captain Richardson, reporting for immediate duty, Captain.” I saluted back as best I could and pointed over towards the still blinking phone.
“Richardson, man that phone, I want you to tell me what each department wants, understand?” He turns around takes a quick glance at the phone, looks back to me and nods.
“Aye aye Captain.” Quickly turning around again, he rushes to the phone and picks it up while pushing the Communications button.
“This is the bridge, Vice Captain Richardson speaking, covering for the Captain, listening…” He said as my eyes wandered around to the other sailors. I watched them bustle about bumping into each other trying to reorganize everything. I taught them well.
“Captain, communications says they’ve lost all links with the task force and any command centers land side, all systems are showing green and no problems have been detected. They’re requesting orders.” He said placing his hand on the phones mouthpiece. So, we’re truly alone now. This isn’t going to end well. Quickly I spit out my orders.
“Tell them to keep trying to make contact, try every frequency they can use, and run every diagnostic they have.” With an aye aye, he relayed the info, and went on to the next one, engine room.
“Captain, engine room says that all equipment is working correctly, requesting orders.”
“Tell them to move ahead, at 25 miles per hour and keep her steady, we’ll head north.” Nodded he relayed the info and went on.
10:50am
After checking in on every department, I came to the conclusion, that me and everyone else aboard this ship, is practically, fucked. Though weapon management and the hospital had little bad things to say, the navigation team, really screwed me over. We have no idea where we are, all land masses that are supposed to be within eyesight right now, are not, plus the water color of the ocean we are in, is slightly lighter than normal. Putting us in unknown water. I had relieved Richardson of his duties for my stamina returned to me and I could take over. The ship now rests at a comforting 25 miles per hour, and we’re heading north, like I had requested.
After talking on the phone I logged onto the PA system an ordered general quarters.
I asked all available hands to head to the armory and suit up with life vests and helmets and for them to equip M1 Garand rifles and a spare clip. Right now sailors are posted outside the bridge, two on each side. I hated having to do this to them.
They’re tired, they don’t want to fight anymore, they often roam on this ship, with their heads hung low, and tears in their eyes. Each day the morale of the ship just continues to drop. Every day were out to sea, the longer this war will drag on. They pray for this war to be over, they yearn to go home and see the smiling faces of their families. They’ve lost combat buddies, friends, even brothers, and yet, they look to me for hope. They look for the words that will save them all. The words that’ll set them free from this watery hell. “The war's over!.”
But the only thing I can do, is look into their sorrowed faces, and shake my head. I let them down, and let myself down. That’s why I try every day and every night to keep the USS Boston at 100%. We arrive at the battle ground ready to fight, we kick ass, we pull out and head to the next, rinse and repeat. It’s the quickest way to win this war, and to be quite honest, we continue to lose men no matter how we fight.
Day after day the body count continues to rise from the damn Japanese zeros that swarm our ships, and chop us down like grass. I look over my men as they scramble to arms each day, they scream and holler at the enemy planes as they gun them down.
They scream out of pure hatred towards the enemy, cursing with heartache and rage. I often see them shaking with grief after they leave the guns, tears streaming down their cheeks. Cause through the screaming, and the bullets flying, and the shells hitting the deck, they still hear the cries of their buddies dieing, I hear them dieing. The screams stain my soul, leaving an imprint of agony deep into me. Everytime I close my eyes I see the faces of those who are no longer with us.
Each time, I think it’s my fault…
“Captian! The spotters got something!” Through the intense silence of the waves comes a voice. I whip my head around to the voice. It was one of the sailors on the right side of the bridge. I sprint over to him as he moves out of the way. I pull up to the railing and look out over the ocean. A hand points to a small golden object in the distance.
“Here sir,” The sailor says giving me a pair of binoculars. I yank them up to eye level and adjust to the perfect quality. What I see really gives me a run for my money. A golden chariot, being pulled by two alabaster horses with wings, dawning golden battle armor. They carry a large white horse with a horn and wings with a multi colored mane that waves in the wind behind her. About four miles out.
“Captian! Requesting orders!” I hear from behind me. I look out from the binoculars to the bridge, where an officer has his hand on the phone.
I didn’t know what to do...
Author's Notes:
This chapter has been re written, so don't be surprised if it doesn't match up with the next chapter
Missing In Action part 2 (Re-written)
10:39am…
Equestrian Shore…
The six elements stare out into the ocean at the giant metallic object that had appeared in the water. It was something they had never seen before. It was massive, bigger than any of the buildings back in ponyville, but not a big a the canterlot castle. They watch as it seems to float and rise and fall with the waves.
“That thing is massive! Twilight, what is that?” Rainbow Dash said as she hovered over her head.
“Uh, sugar cube, did ya’ll mean to do that? Cause, judging from it’s size, ya’ll didn’t mean to do that.” Applejack said as she gestured towards it. Twilight didn’t answer. She was too busy flashing through the pages of her spell book, looking for an answer.
“Nononononono, this isn’t happening what did I just do? I must have miscalculated or something?!” Twilight said frantically as page after page was flipped forward and backward. After a few minutes of flipping and re-reading over passages Twilight was ready to cast a counter spell that could send the enormous object back where it came. But by the time she was finished and had returned to her friends the object had moved.
“Twilight, that, thing is moving! It’s going towards Manehatten, we have to stop it.” Rainbow Dash said revving up her wings and darting out towards the mass in the waves. That was of course until a pink maned yellow furred pegasus grabbed her by lightning fast.
“Rainbow no you’re not doing that again! Remember the dragon?” She said as rainbow dash calmed down and stopped struggling against the force of her embrace.
“She right! Ya’ll never gonna be able to fight that thing! It’s just too big for you!” Applejack said as Fluttershy lowered embarrassed friend to the ground.
Rarity nearly jumped on to Twilight with full force grabbing her with her fore hooves.
“Twilight, darling, you must think of something quick, lives are at stake here, especially my business. Manehatten is home to some of my biggest customers, if they’re gone, i'll be out of a job! Plus thousands of ponies could get hurt by that, thing! What would princess do? This could be the,...” Rarity was cut off by everypony at the same time say her signature catch phrase out of annoyance of her ability to bend time and space to quickly pull a couch out of thin air and bawl on it. Rarity looked around out her friends, whom all had the same look on their face, the, ‘yes we knew it was coming face.’
“What? I really mean it! This is a serious matter!” She pleaded to her friends, who weren’t buying it.
“Well, Twilight, Rarity does have a point, what would the princess do? Maybe we could send a letter to her and tell her what happened, if you want to I mean…” Fluttershy said as she slowly approached the contemplating student.
“Good idea Fluttershy, er, Rarity. I’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia immediately, the rest of you have to tail that, thing, i’ll send the Princess looking for you.” The five element barrers got organized with their saddle bags and other things they brought with them, and soon after Twilight began writing to celestia with the help of spike, they were already tailing the grey beast.
“Dear Princess Celestia, Upon casting the spell you had given me earlier this week, something has come up that I did not intend to create. I am located at the casting area you marked on my map, but the rest of my friends have left me to pursue the object I have brought to this world for it has shown signs of life, because it is heading towards manehatten harbor. I request your appearance at once for we cannot contain it ourselves. Signed, Twilight Sparkle.”
With the letter on its way via spikes magical letter fire, twilight gave chase after her friends.
10:40am…
After catching up with her friends Twilight Received a letter back from the Princess, indicating that she was on her way with two armed guards. She relaied this info to her friends who were relieved, knowing that their leader was getting involved, but Rainbow Dash had other ideas.
“Twilight, do you really think princess celestia can take on that thing with only herself and two guards? I mean look at it, it’s huge, it looks tougher than anything I’ve ever seen!” She said with a worried expression while pointing at the monster that moved quickly through the water.
Twilight placed a hoof on her chin and contemplated the odds,while using her magic to whip out her spell book once again.
“Rainbow Dash, I really don’t think Twilight would contact the Princess and only tell her to bring two guards if she thought she couldn’t handle it.” Rarity said as she moved next to Dash and getting her attention.
“Well actually, rarity, I didn’t ask for any specific guards, I just asked for her to come and view the situation, before we made any choices.” Twilight said looking into the spell book while trying to piece together an answer to the problem.
“Yeah, sugar, Twilight has a point, we can’t be jumping the barrel on this one, we have to plan this out, make sure we can handle it before we tackle it.” Applejack said chiming in.
Twilight looked up from her book and put her hoofs on the ground while levitating the book back into the saddle bag. After the book slid inside the bag, she pulled out a pair of black binoculars and pointed them out towards the grey mass in the water. Twilight looked through them as she adjusted the resolution to get it just right.
“Your right Applejack, we do need to plan, so lets see what we are dealing with.” Twilight said as she began to look over the ship.
The mass looked as if it was made out of steel or iron, and its platforms were made of wood. Railings stretched the entire length, only stopping for what looked like entrances to the first deck. In the center of the mass was a huge amount decks and buildings with windows and doors. Two large poles extended from the mass that blinked at the top, along with two circular tubes that leaked a large trail of smoke that extended into the sky. On the front of the mass was two numbers. 69.
On top of the front section looked to have two massive boxes that had three poles extending out of them, with a smaller box behind them with two poles. As a matter of fact these smaller structures were tacked on all over the mass, the front, back, and the sides. Upon looking closer to the front of the first buildings with platforms, she saw a row of windows with a platform on the outside of it. With stair like structures leading from it.
Upon looking closer at these decks, Twilight spotted some sort of creatures moving about. They were bipedal creatures that wore blue clothing along with back shoes on their fore hoofs. But they didn’t have hoofs, instead they had talons, like a griffons claws, but they looked fleshy. They had little fur, the only fur she saw was a thin layer on their suspected heads. On the “heads” of the creatures wore helmet like casings, some with goggles, some with red crosses on them, and some with neither. They wore orange vests over the blue clothing. This vest seemed to puff out a lot. Some didn’t have helmets, some wore white caps instead, or nothing at all. After a while of looking, Twilight began to see a recurring theme with the creatures.
As they flooded out of the beasts insides via the doors, they all held the same wooden looking contraptions in their talons. They were long pointed sticks that had a grey barrels coming out from the tip. At the waist of the alien beings were a black belt that held a brown case that looked like a smaller version of the big one. She couldn’t see what it was until one of the beings whipped it open and pulled out a silver like contraption.
Twilight was at a loss of words. These were alien beings from an alien world, and they were heading towards one of their cities with unknow intents. She didn’t know where they came from, or who they were, the only thing she knew was that, the following days would be stressful.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later after princess celestia flew over head towards the ship that Twilight finally understood what they were. The matching uniforms, the sharp sticks, the cannons on the front and back of their ship, it all made sense.
“Sweet Celestia! That thing isn’t alive. It’s a ship! A giant ship!” Twilight said lowering the binoculars. She turned to her friends quickly as they turned to her, all with looks of shock and terror.
“But it’s not just a ship! It’s filled with aliens, and those aliens are armed, they’re soldiers! They have weapons on board that ship!” The whole group gasped. Rainbow Dash got up off the ground and hovered above the group looking out towards the princess.
“Oh no the Princess! She has no Idea, come on Fluttershy, we have to warn her!.” She said as she took off at lighting speeds towards the chariot. Fluttershy gasped and shivered as she took flight as well.
“Rainbow Dash! Oh, fiddlesticks.” She said as she gave haste towards her hot headed friend. Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Twilight watched as the two followed the doomed Princess.
“Please hurry…” Twilight said as she watched, powerless.
A Royal Pain (Re-written)
10:55…
Equestrian waters…
I watched as the chariot grew closer and closer to the ship.
“Captain, orders!” Came the lieutenant again. I turned around and ran into the wheelhouse and looked out over the bow at the main battery cannons. We have to make them stop, and what better way to do it, than with a little deterrence. I motioned for the phone, I had an idea. Receiving the phone I relayed my orders.
“Attention fire control room, train turret one and two, to longitude set 009, elevation set 002. Adjust to the approaching target, stand by for orders.” I said after clicking the fire room button.”
“Aye aye Captain. Weapons are locked and loaded ready to fire, training guns now.” After he spoke a metallic drone came from the front of the ship, I watched as our six main cannons turned slowly towards the port side, all the sailors on the main deck evacuated immediately. After turning they slammed into place and adjusted to the chariot, the gun barrels lifted into the air and tracked the target.
“Guns are aimed, ready to fire, window of opportunity, two minutes.” The phone came back. I turned back to the phone.
“Aye, stand by.” After hanging up, I redialed and called the port side 5 inch cannons.
“All turrets port side, train weapons 90 degrees east, and take aim at the target, then stand by.” After the phone came back with an aye aye, I heard the guns turn quicker than the main cannons as they also trained the barrels at the target. I gave the phone back to the sailor and ran out to the deck again and grabbed a megaphone from a sailor and placed up to my mouth.
“Attention unknown aircraft, you are entering our air space, I am ordering you to halt your moment towards us, or else I will open fire on you.” As I said this I heard the five inch guns ready up with the sound of their guns cocking. I held up my hand to stop them from firing. As I look up from the gun below me,I noticed that the object has stopped moving.
“Good, they speak, or at least understand english,” I look out over the men on deck, with their weapons aimed at the target. “All hands stand down and stand by, they’re willing to negotiate.” I look back to the horse in flight as I raise my megaphone again.
“Okay, now hear this! If you can understand us and are will to talk, peacefully, please remove any weapons you have and then you will be permitted to move!” I yelled out. As I did this, another horse arrived next to the chariot. It was Blue with a Rainbow mane, and it seemed to be talking to the larger one. I figured the bigger one is some kind of ruler. They talked for a few minutes, then a second pony arrived at the chariot. This one had a pink mane and yellow fur. The blue one turned to the yellow one and talked to her as well. While they did that, I noticed the chariot dropping two long objects into the ocean. Before they hit the water, I got a glance at them, two spears with shiny tips and wooden handles.
“Alright, so they don’t have guns.,Good; good that’s what I want to see.” I said under my breath. I looked through the binoculars again, to see if I could spot any other weapons on them. Luckily after looking them over for about a minute or two, I couldn't find one.
Nodding, I let the binoculars fall onto my neck by its strap, and I pulled up the megaphone once again.
“Okay, now hear this! Thank you for complying with our demands, I will allow you to move up closer, but slowly, I don’t want to see any quick movements, or else I will open fire, and your friends may come along as well. Just keep them in sight!” I ordered to the horses. They all seemed to look at each other as they communicated. A few seconds later the blue and yellow horse fell behind the white one, and the chariot began to move closer.
The sailors around me began to move closer with their weapons drawn as if they would intimidate the horses from doing anything drastic. I could only assume it was working. They were a few feet away when I heard someone talking. It sound very feminine and young, like a schoolgirl or something along those lines.
“Fluttershy, stop shivering! You’re shaking me!” It wasn’t the big horse, her mouth didn’t move, so it must have been one of the two behind her. I look over at the sailors that stand next to me, they eyes level with the sights, fingers close to the triggers, their helmets block their eyes, cast a shadow over their face. The stance of a killer, the second world war taught them well. The chariot was inches from the balcony when they decided to slow down to a stop.
I look down to myself, covered in blood and bandages with scars and gashes showing everywhere. I was not in any position to talk in my current state. But, they came to us, and their has to be a reason.
As they came to a stop, I placed my hands on the railing and leaned in. Grinning with my teeth, I started the white horse down, trying to look at intimidating as possible, so they wouldn’t even think of doing something stupid. The horse I stared at had a
multi-colored mane, white fur, and wore golden hoof covers, she also donned a golden crown on her head.
I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or topped out on drugs, but these talking horses weren't a figment of my imagination, and to be honest, they had some explaining to do.
“Good evening, miss,” I said in a soft voice. I watched as her eyes widened up as one of her hoofs raised up, as if she was surprised, “Welcome to my ship, I guess you can I’m pleased to meet you.” Her hoof lowered as I leaned up from the railing placing my hands on my hips.
“Yes, good evening to you as well, I’m Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, the leader of the land behind me.” I look behind her to the mountains, and nod. I look back to her and decided to apologize for coming to her land and possibly scarring thousands of civilians.
“Okay, good, some form of royalty. Ma’am, I would first like to say, I’m very sorry for our intrusion on your waterways, we did not mean to come here-” Before I could continue, she raised a hoof and stopped me. I froze mid sentence, as the sailors raised their guns to fire, when I stopped them.
“You need not apologize for your presents here, this is not your fault, it is mine.” Hearing this I moved in closer to the railing and moved my head closer to her as the men around me lowered their guns in disbelief.
“Wait, you brought us here? Why?” I asked a little louder than normal. She closed her eyes and pointed back towards the shore.
“One of my students, caused a rift between two worlds, our world, and your world. But something unplanned happened the rift grew too big, and accidently pulled you through.” I nodded slowly, still listening. The men around me began whispering and murmuring to themselves, passing comments about the horses.
“Well, can you send us back?” I ask quickly. The men around me stop talking and look back to the horse. Looking back to us, she slowly shook her head no.
“Sorry, as of right now, I cannot, I need to document this accident and re evaluate it so we can found out what went wrong, then we can send you back once we figure out how.” She said the men around me gave a chorus of displeased sighs.
“How long will this take?” I asked worryingly.
“One year, or more.”
Meet The Future (Re-written)
11:05am...
Equestrian waters...
We talked for a good while. After about ten minutes of conversing we had reached an understanding. After showing my kindness in conversation, Celestia told us about a harbor that wasn't far from where we were and she allowed us to stay there until they could send us back. Unfortunately I wasn't able to talk to the voices that I heard behind her, for when she left down toward the harbor, so did they.
I walked back into the cabin and called down to the services ward. I asked for my old jacket to be cleaned and repaired while my second one is to be brought up to the cabin. After hanging up the phone I turned around clockwise to see my men resuming their positions on the panels and gauges, with pissed looks on their faces. I could see where they were coming from, I didn't want to be here either.
They already miss their families and friends and country, and to be told that you're not going home for another year, can destroy you. To be honest with myself, I miss my home too. I dream about it every night. The streets I walked on, the friends I laughed with. Hell, even my old job I miss. But this setback won't destroy me.
"Alright sailors, this is going to be a very, very long stay. I know some of you are angry, and saddened at the princesses news, but. We can't let this, problem get in our way. Keep your heads held high, and your spirit higher, you'll be home in no time. And hey, maybe when we get home after a year, the war may be over, then we can all truly go home!" After saying this, they looked over at each other, and began talking with their expressions until they all turned to me and saluted with a hearty, “Aye aye!” At this display, I smiled as a sailor walked through the door, with my jacket in hands.
I move over to him and pick it up, while giving him my old one. With a thank you and salute, he moved back out and down the stairs into the ships insides. Throwing on my new jacket with pride, I whipped around to the control panel and pointed my finger at the golden dot in the distance.
“Men, follow that pony!”
USS Harry E. Yarnell
Earth, Somewhere in Atlantic Ocean...
6-7-98, 11:12pm…
A light gets turned on in a dark room as Captain Charles Nelson enters his personal quarters as the ship rocks back in forth in the icy atlantic sea. He moves past his dresser picking up a small stack of blank pieces of paper and a black ballpoint pen. Turning his head he looks over at a table at the foot of his bed that stands right under his portside window. Walking over to it in the cozy light of the bulb, he slides a wooden chair out from underneath the table top and sits down. Taping the papers bottom edge twice, he lays the neat stack of papers on his desk. He looks up from his papers and out the window. Across the way is the lights and waves of the USS Kauffman carrying Rear Admiral Thomas D. Paulson, the commander of his destroyer group. Smiling he looks back down while removing one of the papers from the stack and putting the pen down at the top.
“Dear Susan,
It has been quite a while since I had last written to you. This I know, and I’m sorry for that. It’s just, BALTOPS '90 is right around the corner and since were entering the ports of Poland that we haven’t been in since 1927, I wanted to make a good impression. The men on my ship have been cleaning and fixing and organizing everything before we enter the port tomorrow. But, now since nothing needs to be spit shined anymore, I gave most of the men, free time, and well. Lets just say ACDC could get a sponsor off of us they play it so much. Damn walkmans… Any way, I may not write to you again for a while, and when we make landfall I’ll send this letter off as quick as possible. So until then, I lov---”
As I go to finish my letter to my wife, something abruptly stops me. In a blink of an eye I’m thrown from my chair and into the foot of my bed as the rest of my torso flies on top. After regaining my breath that had been knocked out, I stand up from the floor and watch as everything begins to shake violently. I stumble over to my cabin door as I un lock the hatch and throw it open. I look down the long metal corridor as I see a sailor dressed in woodland BDU stumble to the wall and onto the floor. I move out of my room and over to him to help him up, before the end of the hallway behind him, turns completely white.
The light is blinding me as I move closer to the sailor. As he sees me struggling to get to him, he opens his mouth to talk, that is of course until he looks behind him and screams in terror at the approaching wall. Immediately he jumps up from the ground and begins moving towards me. We grow closer together and so does the whiteness, until everything goes dark.
Equestrian Shoreline…
11:13am…
As the friends watch the two mighty power converse, Twilight begins to feel strange and maybe even weak. It started out as nothing but as time grew on, she began to feel tired, sick, out of breath, and even began to sense a depletion in her bone strength. As the Princess flies off and her friends give a sigh in relief, Twilight collapses. The first one to notice is Pinkie Pie. With a smile on her face she turns around to congratulate the student, when her smile falls into a look of despair.
“Twilight? Twilight!” She screams in horror as her friend fall to the ground. Everypony else looks back in fright as they dash over to help their fallen friend. They begin grabbing at her limbs trying to stand her up.
“Twilight! Are ya’ll okay?” Applejack asks in terror as she picks up her friend by the one arm while rubbing her hoof. Pinkie grabs the other front one and picks up Twilight by the chin. In a slurred voice Twilight speaks up over her friends.
“E-e-everpony, w-watch out…” The ponies look at each other in confusion, but as Twilights eyes light up as white as snow and glow once more, they scatter in different directions and hide behind trees and rocks scattered into the woods around them.
Twilights horn glows again just like before as the clouds gather out to sea as another white wall forms. Through the earth rumbling and the waves crashing against the shore line, a second ship falls into Equestrian waters. As Twilights spell powers down, she does as well and falls back to the ground, knocked out cold. Her friends gather around her and exchange glances at each other before looking out to sea to find yet another ship had landed.
“Great… not again.” Comes Rarity.
Meet The Future Pt.#2 (Re-written)
11:10am...
Equestrian waters…
I slowly open my tired eyes to hear the sound of running feet. My blurred vision prevents me from seeing much, but through the haze, I see four men running towards me. I try and push myself up from the ground, but as I try, the sailors reach me and help me up. They hold me up by the arms while my vision comes back slowly. When it does, I see two sailors standing in front of me wearing their PASGT uniforms.
“Captian! Are you hurt?” I hear the left one say. I look over, and nod my head. He looks at the right one as he looks at him. They exchange looks before they look back at me.
“Can you stand?” The right one asks. I again nod as the arms let go as I feel my body come back to life. The two helping sailors walk out in front, give me a good look over and salute. Following their example, the two in front do the same.
With a weak arm, I return it, before it falls to my tie and fixes it. I dust my uniform off as my body returns to normal health. After straightening my tan over coat, I look behind the sailors to where the one who had fallen was last seen. He wasn’t there anymore. Looking back to the confused men, I stiffen up my chest and speak.
“Well, we gonna stand here all day, or are we going to find out what the hell happened.” I said from left to right. They nodded with an “Aye aye,” and they move aside to let me pass. I start off in a hurried walk as they follow quickly behind. By the time I had reached the bridge, I had received the status report for the ship. Luckily everyone was fine, minor casualties. I throw open the cabin door to see that, like every sailor I had passed on the way here, the ones in the bridge had their PASGT uniforms on too. They talked and shifted about, taking control of the ship.
“Alright, talk to me, what we got?” I ask, walking over and re taking the helm. The room becomes silent as they begin looking at each other, as if they weren’t sure how to talk. Soon, one of the sailors turn around and begins to talk.
“Well sir, the assistant captain has ordered general quarters. The security teams have swarmed the ship and have found no signs of an enemy. The only thing we’ve seen was, the ship off our portside.” I look portside as I leave the cabin to the platform, and sure enough, a giant ship loomed in the distance. A pair of binoculars was pushed into my view.
I look down to see who gave them to me. It was one of the sailors from the two spotting teams, he looks like he was no more than 24 years old. Thanking him, I lifted them up to my eyes and looked out towards the mystery ship. I started at the bow, getting a good focus and working my way back.
This ship was old, it had three main tri-battery cannons, just like the Missouri. It’s ID number was small, unlike ours which was big. It didn’t have modern equipment like us as well, I would guess it was probably mid second world war. It’s super structure was massive, and it bristled with anti-air guns. To top it all off, the stern of the ship housed what looked like a recon plane set up, something that hasn’t been mounted on a ship since world war 2. I lean out of the binoculars and look around me, puzzled, like I was searching for a an answer. I look back at the sailors who were now surrounding me gripping their M-16’s. They wore mixed faces, some scared, some confused.
All the sailors on the lower decks also looked out towards the ship, just like me.They were just as confused, like me. I didn’t have an answer, so I looked back, trying to find one. This time I zoomed in on the superstructure. I watched in awe as if what I was seeing was a dream, sailors marched about with their rifles drawn. But, something was off about these men, they look different. They looked out of place, they looked older, but younger at the same time.
I watched a particular sailor standing guard outside the bridge. His helmet, weapons, clothing, gear, was old. But some how, they looked new. His helmet was a World War Two ballistics helmet, his gear was merely just a belt with ammo pouches sewn into it. His top was a light blue shirt, and his pants were merely dark blue jeans. His boots weren't really boots at all, they were black leather shoes.
His uniform was strange, as if he stepped back in time to world war two, I laughed at the thought of him being a war re-enactor. But, my laugh died quickly when I saw his weapon.
“M1 Garand…” I whispered softly. What did this mean? That light, the shaking, the blackout, that ship? Did we travel back in time? Einstein said it was possible, but he just wasn’t sure how. Did we finally do it? Can we go back?
I zoomed out and looked at the other sailors on the ship's superstructure. They wore the same attire, further proving my point. I watched for a good while, until I began noticing something strange. The sailors on that ship, were watching us, just like we were watching them. It got to the point where I looked up at the bridge again, and saw their captain walk out. He looked at me, and then was handed a pair of binoculars from another sailor, just like we did. I looked out in fear as his eyes, met mine.
“Holy shit…” I said out loud. The sailors closest to me looked in wonder as I took a step back from the railing.
“Sir, what’s wrong?” Came a sailor that walked out in front of me. I pointed towards the ship and looked at him dead in the eyes as I spoke.
“We… have gone back in time… and that ship… is looking at us. And I don’t like this one bit.” They all seemed to stop moving about, as if they were frozen in time. The ones that weren’t looking at me, slowly turned my way with gaping mouths. Their faces drooped down in awe as others began laughing while the remaining ones just looked at me. Suddenly, one of the sailors stopped laughing and looked towards the ship, pointing as he spoke up.
“What in the hell are you talking about? Sir, have you been watching Back to the Future again?” His hand fell to his hips, “or are you just screwing with us?” I look at him angered eyes and his hands fall down to his sides while everyone else around me continued laughing. Soon, he began nudging the sailors to stop, and after about 30 seconds, everyone was quiet again. Regaining my posture I give the sailor the binoculars and pointed towards the ship.
“Why don’t see for yourself.” After saying this he snapped around towards the ship and looked out. Five seconds later, his mouth dropped.
“Holy god… the captain is right.” The men who were still smiling stopped and looked at the befound sailor. He slung the binoculars around his neck and turned around, straight as a stick. Following his example, the others around his did the same.
“We’re sorry to doubt you sir, Awaiting orders captain.” After saying this I heard footsteps run off behind me. I turn around to see the bridge regaining it’s staff as they begin preparing the ship. They throw on their caps and headphones, while other rearm with their rifles and vests and rejoin me on the platform. I thought for a moment, searching for my next move. Finding my move, I whipped my head around and entered the cabin again.
“Men, set course for that ship. We’re going to meet them,” turning my head the sailor mounted near the intercom I pointed to him, “Get the weapons room on the line, tell them to take up arms.”
“Aye aye captain!” He turned around and dialed up the weapons room and relayed my message. A few seconds later, he turns around and looks at me.
“Which weapons sir?” I turn to him slowly and walk over to him. With uncertainty in my actions to arm up, I grab the phone in my right hand and put it up to my ear. I think long and hard about my next action. This could kill us, crossing two timelines together let alone attacking them. But I guess there was no other way out. I take a breath and speak into the phone.
“All of them…” And with that I slam the phone down and retake the helm.
New Friends (Re-written)
11:20am…
Equestrian Waters…
“Wow, that ship is amazing,” I gasped. I watched as the men swarmed the decks carrying strange futuristic looking weapons, and donning strange helmets and vests. Their uniforms were a patchwork array of green, brown, and black, and they wore black tall boots that had their pant legs stuffed in. The vests themselves seemed to be split up into two parts, a main bulky part, then a throwover bandolier. I was able to figure this out when I saw that, some of the men came out of the port holes not wearing the bandolier part, yet still donning those rifles. The helmets looked strange as well. They didn’t look like ours, they seemed more streamlined, and sported the same patchwork colors as the uniforms.
“Sir, can you spot any weapons on the decks?” Came a voice behind me. I looked behind to the sailor who spoke. It was one of the spotters.
“I didn’t see any, here you take a look.” I said passing the glasses to him. Gladly taking them he took my place on the platform and looked back out. I turned around and headed back into the cabin, the shade of the ceiling cooling my head off as I retrieved my cap that was sitting on a chair. After sliding it on I turned around and looked to the sailor manning the phone. I pointed at him, getting his attention.
“Radio engine control, tell them to halt.” I asked. With an “Aye aye,” he turned around and dialed up the engine room. I walked past him back and onto the balcony just as the spotter turned back around and started to call for me.
“Captain, I think I got something.” He said as I came up behind him. He handed me the binoculars and pointed towards the suspected bridge of the other ship.
“What did you find?” I ask putting the scope up to my eyes.
Before he could answer, I saw what he was referring to. Staring back at me, on his own railing, surrounded by his own sailors, was the Captain of the unknown vessel.
“I think he’s their captain.” Came the sailor next to me. As he spoke I watched the suited man stumble back in shock, as he looked at me. He began moving his lips, speaking to the ones around him. Then he pointed towards me. Everyone around him, to my surprise began laughing hysterically. I raised a brow as I put the scope down.
I heard footsteps behind me as I gave the binoculars to the spotter. I was soon joined by half a dozen sailors, armed with M1 Garand’s. I look to them and they look at me. The looks on those mens faces gave me my next course of action. I could read them like a book, they didn’t have to ask the question, their tired worn faces, stained with fatigue and loss. How they clutched their weapons with fear and hatred. How they stood there, hunched, broken, tired. I nodded.
“We’re not to engage that ship, let them come to us.” I said. They all sighed in relief as we watched in awe as the mystery ship began to move. I turned around to the men around me and crossed my arms, trying not to upset the bandages.
“Okay, regroup at your stations, reorganize, and keep all eyes on that ship.” They saluted and fell back to their stations, with a jump in their step. I made my way back into the wheelhouse and grabbed the intercom. Taking a deep breath, I flicked it on and spoke loud and clear.
“Attention all hands, this is the captain, I want every security team reorganized and posted at your stations. I want every available body topside and armed and every deck weapon stocked and ready to fire. If this is our final stand, then I want everyone to know that you’ve served your country well, and you deserved better than this fate. We couldn’t have seen this coming, so please don’t blame yourself, or anyone for that matter. If this mystery ship wants to fight we’ll give them a fight they’ll never forget. Remember, arm and stand by, wait for them to fire first.”
I was about to hang up, when I felt something else surface. Something that needed to be said. “Oh and, just one more thing to remember, we’re going home.”
With that I turned it off. Exiting the wheel house again, I look down to my belt as I throw open my coat. Clipped to my belt is a holster with a Colt .45 semi automatic handgun resting inside. I throw open the guard and whip it out pulling it up to chest height with both hands. With my right eye I check it for dirt, rust, or any imperfection. Seeing none I pull out the magazine and yank back the slide.
As I do this a bullet flies out of the gun. With a quick hand I stuff the gun and the mag into my right hand and catch the rogue bullet with the other. Smiling at my stunt, I slide the bullet back into its home and slam the mag back into place. I grin as the music of the slide cocking and chambering a round fills the air around me, only to be replaced with dozens more.
I look down to the lower decks to see my men cocking and reloading the weapons that they took from the armory down within. Everyone was up here, cooks, engine room men, doctors, and countless others. Some donned M1 Garands, others donned Winchester Model 1912’s, not sure why the shotguns, we mostly used them inside for close quarters. But I did say every man to a gun. Most had helmets on, but some didn’t. I looked back up to watch the ship.
It had truly turned right towards me as it broke waves, speeding closer to us. Suddenly I heard the metallic drone of our deck guns spinning to life. I look towards the bow as our main battery cannons turn towards the incoming ship. I look to the stern and see the third one spin and lock into place. As the big guns stopped, the smaller 5 inch anti air cannons began turning as well. I look as they all begin to spin back towards the ship and follow it.
Soon, every sailor had turned their attention to the steel beast as it came closer. The only thing I could hear was the silence of the waves as the ship approached. My heart raced, my palms began to sweat, my hands shook holding the steel firearm.
The vessel began to turn so that it was lined up with mine as it grew even closer. When it was merely meters away, I stormed off the deck with sailors in my wake and made my way down to deck level. I jogged down a maze of stairs as the second ships deck began to pull up alongside ours. Reaching our deck I whipped up my sidearm, re gripping it again with both hands and follow the ship with haste.
I go to turn to see it’s main structure just beginning to pass me, but instead I stare at what looks like a crowd following along side us on the second ship. They were chasing us. At the head of the chasing group, was the man who I saw on their bridge, it was their captain. They were doing what we were doing.
Before long the Mystery ship stopped, and as it did, so did I. I turned and faced the deck of the second ship with my pistol at the ready. Just as I stopped, the group following us, reached us at the same time and stopped, and turned to look at us.
My mouth threw open, my eyes focused, squinted, then focused again. For staring at me was the captain, face to face, merely feet from me. Soon, more of his men began surrounding him, all of them donning their weapons and vests. Then from behind me I hear the running of feet and before I know it, two dozen sailors crowd around me with their weapons ready, staring back at the ones looking at them.
Then silence, no more running, no more waves, no more engine noise, no seagulls, no cocking of weapons, no metallic drones. Just the smell of sea water and metal. We seem to stare at each other for an eternity, waiting for someone to move. I gripped my gun harder as I heard someone speak up. It was a disembodied voice, and it came from the second ship.
“So, uh... you guys friendly, or what?” I pan from the captain to where the voice came from, and so did everyone else, even the men on the other ship. They lowered their weapons and began looking around themselves in idiotic confusion. Just like them, my men lowered their guns and look towards them, moving their heads to spot the one man. Unfortunately, nobody found him, but they did find something. They found the answer, because it came from me.
Throwing my 45. back into it’s holster and throwing the coat over top of it again. I place my hands on my hips and speak up over the awkward silence.
“Depends, who are you guys?” I ask. Everyone on both ships looked at me in wonder, even their captain. I reposition myself so that I’m facing him dead on. Then he catches me off guard, through my men and his men staring at each other in this tence show of strength, he smiles and holsters his gun.
“Well, you speak english, specifically american, so I would assume you guys are United States Navy?” He asks. Hearing him say United States Navy gave me hope that we could work together, and keep the peace between us.
“Well, you're right about one thing, I am american, but are you US Navy?” I ask in return with my own crooked smile on. With the tenseness loosening in the air, we could finally breathe easy.
“Yep, your US Navy alright, and so am I. Glad to see a friendly face.” He says as some of his men leave back into his ship. As do some of mine.
“Like wise, anyway stranger, how about we meet on the same ship, so we can talk more formally?” I ask. To my surprise, the men who left on his side came back with long steel cross beams that could span between us.
“I was about to ask that same question. Men lay it out.” Following his orders with an, “Aye aye,” They held the board across the valley between us as I motion my men to lay it down to help them.
After a few seconds of coordination the beam fell and created a bridge between us. The Captain began crossing with a team of sailors behind him. My men quickly moved as his boots hit the deck. His men followed up behind him and soon they all faced me, two on each side. Following his example, my men did the same. Now I could finally get a good look at the strange uniforms they wore.
The designs on the uniforms were crisp and wavy. They seemed to be used for forest areas. Their boots rode up their legs, till about mid way up their shin, they were shined jet black and glimmered from the sun. Along with that, a pair of hard looking covers were placed over their knees, and tightened making the uniform tight around that area.
Along with that, right above the pants was a green belt that seemed to be wrapped around their hip. Some of the sailors had canteens strapped on theirs, and others had holsters for pistols. Above the belt was their vests. They were bulky and sported the same forest camouflage like the rest of their uniform. But what stood out was that, the bandoliers on top of it went from their shoulders all the way down to the bottom of the vest and stopped. Then it stretched around them to the back where it connected to the top again, holding the whole thing together. On the part that stretched around, housed all their ammo holsters.
At the end of their sleeves were their hands. But their hands had some black cover over them that encased all their fingers, gloves. But, these hands held the greatest piece I’ve ever seen.
It was a long black looking battle rifle. It had a pistol grip, and a long curved magazine in front of it. It had a large triangular stock that stuck right out back. Above the mag and trigger was the body of the gun, then above that was a triangular sight. In front of all this was a long smooth grooved hand grip, at the end of that was another triangular sight that stood up straight and lined up with the rear sight. After the second sight was the actual barrel that stuck out another few inches, then ended with a interesting looking muzzle break.
With the streamlined helmet that they wore strapped onto their chins, this whole get up was incredible. I stood their mouth wide open as me and my men eyed them up like candy. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. After staring for a while, I shook my head in stupidity and regained my composure, as did my men. Looking back to their captain, I saw a sly looking grin on his face. With a small laugh, he crossed his arms.
“Like what you see?” He said as the sailors next to him grinned too. Hearing the coy in his words, I could tell it was a joke and laughed along. After I stopped, I began to lay my cards out on the table.
“Well, I’ll be honest, your uniforms, guns, and your ship, are very impressive. I haven’t seen this kind of technology in my entire life. Who are you?” I asked.
He uncrossed his arms and put them behind his back in a proper order. “We are the United States Navy, and I am Charles Nelson, captain of the USS Harry E. Yarnell.” He said motioning towards the vessel next to us, “Who are you?” He asked turning his attention to me again. I was dumbfounded, they were the US Navy? But, they didn’t really look like us, they looked foreign. But, they were speaking perfect english. I stuttered, but I came out with an answer, that caught him and his men off guard.
“We, are the United States Navy, and my name is Captain John Carson, and you’re standing aboard the USS Boston.” Charles face dropped dead, he looked as if he had seen a ghost. The men on either side of him, put on the same face.
“Oh my god, you… you’re shitting me right?” He said pointing a weak finger at me. I nodded no.
“No, no, no way! You’re the phantom ship!?” He asked. I looked at my men in confusion, and they returned the look. Turning back to the befound captain I shrugged my shoulders.
“I have a question for you, John, what day is it?” Charles asked. Not trying to waste time, and suspense, I quickly answered back.
“January 31st, 1944, why?” I asked still not seeing the problem.
“Impossible,” He turned to one of his men and talked into his ear, even though I could still hear him, “The battle report said that, the captain had a scar across his chest…”
Hearing those words, I found it necessary to throw open my coat, and reveal my chest wound to him. He didn’t see this at first, but when one of the other sailors did, they pointed towards me and got Charles's attention.
When he looked at my chest, I knew something was up. So I asked him.
“What? What’s so important about my chest wound?” I asked eager to get an answer. Charles shook his head and placed both hands over his face, and whipped down, clearing his sweat.
“Well, John I’m going to be honest, we know about you. We know about your ship, we also know the damage report.” He said placing his hands on his hips. How did he know me? I don’t know him, unless, he’s from a different time.
“Wait, so you know about us? How?” I asked closing my coat again.
“Because, we’re from the future. 1998 to be exact. We have reports and documents about a ship that mysteriously disappeared from sight, and reappeared ten minutes later, that was missing fuel, ammo, and a few men. The captain was interviewed, and said that they were taken to another world, where they met a ship from the not so far off future. When he was asked about names, he couldn’t give any. Thus the ship was held by the US government in a secret location, for further notice. The name of that ship, was the USS Boston.”
Well, I wanted answers...
Heartache (Re-written)
Author's Notes:
Small chapter this time.
11:20am…
Equestrian Waters…
After our crews had “formally” meet with their guns aimed at each other at a hair trigger stand off, me and the other captain walked along the port side of the Boston. With my hands held behind my back with dignity we strolled as he kept up right alongside me. After a long silence, I spoke up.
“So, Charlie… I’m sure you can guess, but, I still have a lot of questions for you.” I asked him as the waves and seagulls echoed around us. The wind began to pick up slowly and brushed my uniform around.
“Yes, yes I know. But, I’m not sure that I or my crew can tell you certain things, I told them to keep their mouths shut about the future. But, what possible threat could it have If I told you certain things?” He said after a long silence. I nodded in understanding.
“I see. Well, maybe you can tell me about, culture, or something along those lines? Like what’s music like in the future, or what does America look like?” I ask waving my arm gently around urging him to talk.
“Well, music has changed I can tell you that for free. Music now and days, is the bomb!” He said nodding his head with a wide smile on his face. I wasn't sure what he meant, by the bomb, was that good, or bad?
“What does that mean?” I asked I asked looking directly at him now. He looked over at me with the same look.
“Wha- Oh, right, that means it’s awesome…” He said. I shook my head in more confusion.
“Uh… it means… swell. Yeah swell!” He said snapping his fingers. Now I understood.
“Oh, okay, I get it. You should have just said that.” He shook his head, “Anyway, what does it sound like?” I asked as we exited the shadow of the superstructure. Suddenly, Charlie stopped. I stopped and turned around to look at him. His hands were on his hip, and he seemed to be looking around.
“Uh, okay…” He said scratching his head, “I’ll have to get back to you on that one, but, I’ll show you some how.” He said putting his hands behind his back.
Nodding to him he came back to me and we continued walking. Passing the second main battery, he began telling me how the world of the future looked, most of the time, I didn’t believe him. The cities and their lights, to the automobiles we drive, to our airplanes. To new fuel sources like diesel, and nuclear fission, electricity powered by the sun and wind. I just listened to him as he went on, and on, and on! But not once did he talk about our military, or war in anyway. When we reached the small anti-air gun on the bow right behind the anchor chains, I stopped him. A few of my sailors and his were talked while they leaned on the gun. Before we got to them though, I stopped, and so did he.
“All of this is good and all, but, what about our military? Is it still, well, big or are we still at war?” Charlie seemed to cringe a bit when I said big.
“I don’t think I should tell you, but, like I said, what harm could we do, I just want to warn you, if I tell you, this could create a butterfly effect.” Before I could ask him what that was, he did it for me.
“The butterfly effect is if, I tell you something, about the future that you influenced, like, you have a kid, but you don't know you have a kid now, and then you decide not to have a kid because I told you. Then that kid in the future, will disappear from reality, and the future will be changed, forever, it’ll be like, he never existed.” After hearing this, I just sort of stared at him, not sure what to say.
I mean I understood, but then I didn’t. What does that mean about us? Could we be altering the universe, or something like that? Would we even know? Do we even exist? I just shook my head.
“Alright, I guess that makes sense, I guess, so, what happens?” I ask, as we stop to lean on the port side railings. Clapping his hands together he faced me directly firmly planting his foot to the deck.
“Alright, here we go… We win world war two.” He says to me.
I look at him with the straightest face and smile. I knew we would, we would pull through, no matter what. It’s our undying nature to do so, and so we did. All the tears, the sweat and blood. The heartache, the suffering, it’s all going to be worth it.
“I knew it!” I holler in pure excitement. I push off the railing and throw my hands in the air with my hands in fists, “Thank the lords above, I knew we would!” I turn back down to the smiling sailor and run up to him, wrap my arms around him, and hug him. With all my emotions flowing I didn’t even pay mind to the sailors watching us, for at that very moment, I began to cry.
“I knew we would go home, no war is endless, especially mine!” I said while locking him in a death grip. The war would end, my men could rest easy, we would go home, I would see my home town again, and everyone can see their families and friends. I wouldn’t have to worry about the Japanese ever again.
Pushing off of Charlie, I gave one fist in the air, before I calmed down and rested on the railing again.
“So, what happens after we win?” I ask waiting for more good news. But now his smile had dissipated.
“We go to war again. In Korea, then the Lebanese intervention, the Vietnam war, the Dominican civil war, the invasion of Grenada, the invasion of Panama, the Gulf War, the Somali civil war, the Bosnian war, and now the war in Kosovo. When world war two ended, another war took its place, then another, and so on. A wise man once said, the more things change, the more they stay the same, because, war, war never changes.” With him done talking, my mouth just dropped open in a awe.
I was speechless, absolutely speechless. My war ends, but the war never stops? Why would god spare me, for the lives of others. Why? Why must we fight more, and for what. My war, was to be the end all, be all war, why must it go on? The heartache will never stop, maybe for me, but for my country, its sons and daughters, their heartache will come, and won't stop like me.
I drop to my knees, as new tears begin to fall. My breath becomes hiccup like as I begin to cry, like a child.
“Why?” I whisper loudly, “Why won't it stop, why must it go on, and for what?” Now, everything but the sound of tears fill the air around me. I didn’t understand, I don’t think I ever will, or ever should. I had so many questions. Most of which were, why? Through the sobbing, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up to see Charlie kneeling in front of me.
“John, these wars are horrible, yes I know, I’ve seen some of them up close, and they’re nothing like your war. Every war is fought for some reason, it’s just that, some are fought for better reasons, and your war, is that good reason. America might not be able to stop its interventions in your future, but think of it as this. Your war, is last meaningful war. Your war affected the world in a whole. My wars, do not. Sometimes I have to stop and think, what we’re really fighting for, and I couldn’t find an answer. Maybe sometime in the twenty first century, all these war, might end and America, and everyone else, can rest easy.”
Mistakes Made (Re-written)
11:45am…
International Equestrian Shipping Yard...
As Princess Celestia and the two elements began their descent from doing business with the humans, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took off from the back of the chariot and landed first and waited for the princess to do the same. When the wheels hit the concert and they stopped turning she quickly disembarked and headed for the chariot lead pony. Upon reaching him she told him to leave and gather shining armour and ask him to report here with a platoon of guardsmen.
When the first one left the chariot and went towards canterlot, she spoke to the second, ordering him to gather his squad and set up barriers street side to keep back civilians so the humans could arrive in peace. After he saluted and left, Celestia went back to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash whom were almost standing at attention next to each other near the rear of the chariot looking out towards the ocean, as if they were soldiers.
Celestia walked up to them as she too watched the horizon for the ship they had seen and spoke to. As she got close to them though they turned back to her and stepped aside, making room for her to stand between them. Celestia reached them and sighed heavily, taking in the salty sea air through her snout and letting it out through her mouth.
"Uh your majesty," Came Fluttershy to her left. She looked down to her, "What are we going to do with those, things?" She asked in a timid voice as part of her smooth pink main dropped in front of her right eye.
Celestia understood why she was scared, though that's just how she was, how her persona was made to be, she could feel the same fear. This is the first time this had happened in their history. She wasn't sure how to ease her of her stress so she just shook her head and sighed.
"Fluttershy I wish I knew myself, I've never had to deal with this before and quite frankly, I really wish Twilight was here so I could try and make some sense out of what happened with her spell."
From her right came another voice, belonging to Rainbow Dash.
"Twilight's back with the rest of the group, and they are hopefully making their way up here by now. I hope, the last thing we need right now is any more complicated things to happen." She said as Celestia and Fluttershy turned to her. She was right.
12:00am...
Fifteen minutes went by from when they landed and already Celestia had about twenty yard workers come up to them and greet them, not to mention the countless other civilians as well. Though it was nice to mingle with my subjects Celestia thought, it didn't help that she was worried about these humans, what had she done to their world, to their world. She couldn't imagine what their had done to their world.
"Your majesty," Came a deep, yet youthful voice from behind her. Celestia nearly jumped from the sudden noise. She and the two next her turned around to see that, along with a whole group of guards was the captain of the royal guard, Shining Armor. Celestia smiled and walked up to him, as he lifted a hand to make her acquaintance. She happily obliged with lifting her hoof to him and him kissing the top in greeting.
"Pleasure to see you again captain, it's been awhile since I had to call you out to anything." She said as he looked at her with attentive eyes. He chuckled and nodded once.
"Yes, yes it has. If feels good to be out of the castle. No offence your majesty." He said with a another chuckle. "Anyway, what am I and my platoon being called to?" She nodded and turned to look towards the sea.
"We have visitors coming, lets just say very foreign, and I need this place locked down with every entrance blocked off to keep the ponies back the visitors in the yard. I would also like if you could have your squads send out an aerial surveillance system to keep an look out for their ships. Understand?" She said making direct eye contact with him again. When Celestia finished he saluted and turned around to his troops who immediately snapped to attention. With a commanding voice he spoke out."
"Okay I want a ground squad and a air squad, ground squad you're with me second squad you are to to keep the air space above us secure."
As if by magic the platoon separated into two groups one group filled with unicorns and earth ponies, and the other filled with pegasi. Both groups had twelve ponies in each. He continued to talk and gave both squads names naming one group Alpfa, and the other one Bravo. He dismissed them and they went into action immediately.
12:30am...
Guard ponies trotted about the ship yard armed with spears and crossbows as a fence was erected behind them separating their section from civilian interactions. The yard workers were dismissed and told they could have the week off as the visitors would be using their facilities.
As time went on Princess Celestia and the two elements began to talk about local gossip, as they had nothing better to do. Little did they know, the problems that were coming their way.
"Your majesty!" Came a guard from behind the group at the waterfront. Celestia turned around and looked a a earth pony guard they looked as if he had seen a ghost.
" Yes? Is something the matter?" She asked as he trotted in place. He nodded quickly.
"Yes! The other elements have arrived and there appears to be wrong with Twilight! She isn't moving." The two friends whipped around to look at the guard as if he were joking. "A medic was on stand by and he said she's been plunged into a magic induced coma." Celestia and the two beside her approached the guard with urgency.
"Where is she?" Rainbow Dash demanded. The guard turned his head and pointed his hoof towards a giant white and red building in the skyline of manehatten.
"She's on her way to manehatten hospital, the rest the the elements are with her, they also asked of the remaining elements to come to the hospital." He looked back to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. The two looked to the guard then to the princess whom was already looking at them.
She nodded in approval, and as quick as a lighting bolt, the two raced off with the guard in their wake. Celestia however turned back around and walked back to the waterfront and looked over the ocean with one thing on her mind.
'I did this.' She thought, 'Why didn't I wait till much later, I knew she wasn't ready for that test yet, how could I have let this happen? Now, I've jeopardized Equestrias main defense force, were defenceless.'
An Iron Bird (re-written)
12:00pm...
Four Miles outside Manehatten…
As we walked along my ships wooden deck, feeling the waves, push us back and forth slightly, me and Charlie began to let loose and talk to each other, on a personal level. Questions like, if we had a family, or where we lived. He said he had a wife named Susan, and they lived in New York, alone. I didn’t have a family, besides my mother and father, no wife, no children. The only thing I had that was mine was a house outside Philadelphia.
We kept on talking and walking for awhile about the future and the past, and before we knew it, we were back where we started, at the cross beam. We had spent a whole thirty minutes just talking about our social lives, and now we were behind schedule. To make things worse my men and his men were completely out of order. Some of his men were on my ship, and mine were on his. I had to meet the Princess at the harbor, it had slipped my mind!
I stopped walking and so did Charlie, he turned to me with a confused look on his face.
"Charlie, I’m not sure I mentioned this to you, but we aren’t alone on this world, there is whole another race of beings waiting for me at some harbor in that direction.” I said pointing my right hand at the distance, “But I forget where!” I panicked. My first interaction with other worldly beings and I fucked it up. “Is there anyway you can find out where we're headed?”
Charlie looked me with disbelief and laughed a small bit. " Wow, no shit, aliens, wow, just wow. First I meet you, then I find out I'm a mark in history, now aliens? This is really fucked up isn't it?" I shook my head, now realizing the lack of reality in this situation whole mess, I wasn't sure how any of this made sense, but, time must go one, I knew that for sure, I won't end here. At least I hoped.
"But, to answer your question..." Charlie seemed to look around for a moment, then he whipped his head to the tail of his ship. A smiled appeared on his face, then he turned around.
“Sure thing just give me a minute.”
12:45pm…
After a lot of re organizing, shouting, sweat and confusion, my men had left Charlie's ship and his men had left mine and, before I knew it we were ready to go everyone had rushed to their stations and re armed. But, before Charlie left to fix my problem, he handed me this small handheld radio, I wasn’t sure how it worked but he said, I’ll hear his voice and then hold the button to talk. After I agreed, I returned to the bridge and ordered my men back into positions. Now I wait here with this device in my hand. I waited for what seemed like an eternity before I heard his voice come over the device.
“John, this is Charlie, you copy me?” I Jumped a small but, rubbing my bandages against my wound sending a small shock, surprising me. I looked at the device, there was a button on the side and I pressed it in which made a beeping noise before I answered.
“Yes, I copy you," I said with uncertainty in my voice, "what are you doing about our problem?” I asked quickly. Ilet go of the button, which then the device made another beep.
“I’ve gathered my flight teams, and they are preparing the bird, shouldn’t take much longer.” Bird? What the hell is a bird? I mean, of course a bird, but like a plane, or what? I had no clue, what he meant, till I began to hear a low but noticeable noise.coming from the left of the cabin, I put a hand to my ear, it was coming from outside.
The sailors on the bridge, one by one, began turning their head toward the noise, some looked at each other, while other began to move towards the bulkhead to our left. I soon followed them. It became louder, and louder as we got closer. As we reached the threshold, I began to hear and feel the wind waving around. I felt it rocking in my stomach, and chest as if someone were pushing me over and over. I quickly escaped the cabin, only to grip the railing to my right and look out towards the tail of Charlie's ship. My mouth dropped in awe. As if flapping it’s wings to fly like a moth or a bird, a giant steel beast was being unchained from the back of his ship.
It was grey, and had four blades on the top of it, the nose looked like the cockpit of a plane, and the tail showed similarities as well. But it had no wings, yet as I watched in disbelief, it began to take off vertically, straight up into the air, with no issues. It gained more altitude, as a door on the center slid shut with the aid of a man inside. Suddenly, there was a shift in tone in the sound of blades, and the beast, turned mid air, pitched forward, and took off leaving the wind in our face and my hat off on the deck.
“Holy mother of god, what the hell is that?” I said out loud. I looked over at Charlie's bridge, and I saw him staring back, with a whole squad of sailors. He picked up his talkie, and I heard his voice clear as day say.
“That John, is the future of aviation, and the solution to our problem.” I quickly picked up the device almost desperately and pointed, to the now distant machine and called back over the talkie,
“Yes, but , what is it really?”
“That is a Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk Helicopter.”
“Okay, what is a Hellacoptar?”
“A helicopter is a type of aircraft which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. Those things on the top. This then allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, hover, and fly forward, backward, and laterally.” I put the talkie down after that ramble and just turned and looked at the now speck in the distance. I tried to take in what he said, but I just couldn’t. Planes, I got that logic, this, this was something completely different.
“Explain it to me later, cause I still don’t get it, for now we follow it.” I called back on the device.
“Aye aye, I'm going to pull a U-turn, and join back up with you, you pull out first, we can catch up.”
“Copy that, see you at the docks.” I called back turning around to the cabin in a rush. No more talking for now, that time is over. Now it’s time for action.
Search & Rescue (Re-written)
1:27pm…
Equestrian Shoreline…
The harbor once filled with life, noise, and hustle and bustle, was now empty of any equestrian made vessel, dock worker, or civilian. It made the usually busy work place seem eerily quiet and desolate. Guards moved about the place in groups of two, keeping the place secure, and unbelievable quiet. Though the place was empty, besides the guards, the princess could still hear talking. But instead of normal ponies, it was coming from her own soldiers. They talked about how this extreme caution was unnecessary, others disagreed with them saying it was perfectly reasonable.
The princess, in her mind wasn't taking any chances. She wasn't sure what these beings were capable of. She had a fighting force on land, plus air surveillance, and the civilians had been evacuated from the area. She had everything ready for them, now it was all about waiting.
Waiting and seeing what they do.
A few more minutes passed her by as she watched the Un changing shoreline, looking out for the gigantic grey hulking mass. She was about to call her chariot and search for it when from behind her a voice called out. The voice seemed distant as if what she heard was an echo. It came from above her, so as she turned around she looked up to see one of her guards pointing out toward the distance.
Without hesitation she pumped her wings and took off towards the guard to see what she sees. Feeling the air rush past her felt much better than just sitting on the hard concrete for what seemed like forever. Reaching the guards height, Celestia recognized the guard pony it was Sergeant Aurora Dust.
She was one of the air patrol ponies for the second tier of the castle. She was one of the guards that kept tabs on the princess the most, besides shining armour. Celestia liked her, she was the first rise for morning roll call, and the last to retire to her bed.
Aurora handed her a telescope. It was black with a brown leather strap. It looked almost new, still having all the original grooves.
"Look over the treetops at one o'clock." The Aurora instructed. Doing as she said Celestia positioned herself so that she was facing twelve and looked out over at one. With a little of focusing and adjusting she found what the she saw. The scope was a little hard to focus but it was easy to make out objects, and what she saw made her do a double take, she didn't believe what she saw, she wasn't sure if it was the humans, or something else.
It was a gigantic grey dragonfly that was moving as fast as a Pegasus. For right now she couldn't hear it, but she could tell by the way it flew over the treetops, it had a mighty force behind it.
"Celestia, we could strike that thing down right now, just give me the word and me and my squadron will act immediately." She turned to see Aurora saluting as her wings kept her up straight. Celestia thought for a moment, then she shook her head no.
"No don't engage, but here's what we're going to do instead. Gather your fireteam, and come back to me, i'll send you out when I see fit. You're going to tail that thing, and follow it.” As Celestia said this she began to catch a small sliver of the noise coming from the machine, it sounded like something she had never heard before, she watched as the trees parted ways as it flew over them. But, just as she saw it, it stopped coming towards them. Instead it began to fly parallel to the docks for a moment or two, then began to turn back to the way it came. Celestia turned back to the guard, and hurried her off.
About five minutes later she returned, this time with three others Celestia told them to make contact with the ships, or whoever, then report back to her about their findings.
1:18pm…
Over the ocean…
“This is Blade one, radio check over.” Called the pilot over his radio on board the helicopter. The Hawk was about ten minutes out and was making great time. On board along with the pilot was a team of SAR’s and a co pilot. They had followed the shoreline and watched the sand from the banks below them fade away, and watched as trees took their place. They were traveling inland more they could tell from the beaches all but disappearing and being replaced by forest. Soon, they were flying over the trees.
“This is command, Blade one we copy you, radio connection sounds good, we’re gonna go ahead and acquire a target for you guys to hunt down, over.” Came the radio back,
“Copy that command, standing by.” They echoed back as the sound from the chopper became the only thing they heard for a while. The sound was deafening as they continued into uncharted land.
“Blade one we got and ID for you to find, over.” The radio came after a long silence.
“Copy that HQ, send info now, over.”
“Okay, what your gonna be looking for is a bright white winged unicorn with a flowing rainbow mane, got that Blade one.” The radio called back. The pilot and copilot looked at each other, through their visors gave each other this look of disbelief.
“Uh, command, you wanna send that by again, our connection might not be as good as we though over.” The pilot called.
Almost instantly, they answered back. “No, connection’s fine, you heard me right, a white winged unicorn with a flowing rainbow mane, this is coming from the captain of the Boston, that's what he saw, so that’s what you got to find, you copy over?” The pilot shook his head, and the SAR team was looking at each other now.
“Understood, we’ll keep an eye out for that, anything else this, “great” captain told us to find?” They radioed back.
“Affirmative, also be on the lookout for a large city, Intel says, it’s called Manehattan, over.” The radio called. The pilot rolled his eyes, and the SARs looked back outside.
“Yeah, okay copy that, Blade one out.” They called re focusing on the land in front of them.
Though doubt and confusion swept the minds of the Choppers crew about the legitimacy of the second captain, they did have a mission to do so they continued on, without talking to each other, trying not to usher forth a conversation.
1:24pm…
“I got something on my scope,” came a SAR on the right side of the Hawk. “It looks like a city, it’s huge, I think that’s the one.” A Sailor next to him looked through his and agreed.
“He’s right, it kind of looks like a old version of New York.” He came over the radio.
“Copy that, radioing back now, and changing course.” Said the pilot. The chopper swung to the right and turned so that the city was in view of the pilots.
“Command, the is Blade one, we got a large city here, looks like the target, continuing with the HTV, the horse thing, over.” The co-pilot said over the radio.
“Copy that Blade one, are we heading the right way, over?” The pilots looked at each other then outside their windows. the pilot saw the sea off in the distance, and then an empty port at the foot of the city. With a little calculating, and remembering he called back on the radio.
“Affirmative, you are heading the correct way, just keep following the shore, you’ll find it behind the forest, over.”
“Copy that, focus on the HVT now, command out.” Said the radio before silence again. this time the co-pilot turned around to the SAR’s and talked to them over the radio.
“Keep an eye out for any white unicorns guys.” He said almost as if he were joking. But upon him saying this, one of the SARs looked out of his scope and pointed quickly.
“Their I got it at two o'clock over the trees!” The one next to him spotted it too, and confirmed.
“The co-pilot looked too, and in disbelief, he watched as the being watched them. He turned back quickly to the radio and called command.
“Command, the is Blade one, we got the HVT in our sights, and can confirm this, awaiting further orders.” He said.
“Copy that Blade one, you can come on home, just follow the shore back, Command out.” The radio called back back. With a swift motion the Hawk began to turn quickly, first to the right a bit, the all the way to the left as it went into a 180 degree turn back towards the ships. The SARs shut the doors and sat back in their seats and locked the doors.
“Good hunting boys, we’re heading back, I guess that captain ain’t crazy after all.” Called the pilot. One of the SAR’s called back to him after fastening his belt,
“Maybe it’s not him that crazy, maybe we're all insane.” He said as the rest of the SAR’s began to laugh nervously.
The rest of the ride back was quiet, besides the sound of the rotors above them.
1:27pm…
Equestrian Shoreline…
“Okay the Dragon, is turning back, Aurora, go now, and remember do not be detected, fly low and far behind them.” Celestia said as the ponies saluted her and took off into the distance. after they we’re out of earshot Celestia began to think against this decision, what if they’re attacked, and she isn’t there to help them, what would be her public opinion in the minds of her subjects. She floated back to the ground, next to Shining Armour as he saluted her. Upon landing on the ground she went up to him bowed and sat next to him. She asked him a question as a cloud of despair surrounded them both.
“Shining, did I do the right thing?” She asked as he joined her on the concrete. With a little thought he nodded.
“Yes, I would believe so, I saw it too, and as you said, no pony has seen that thing before, for all we know, it could be plotting against us right now.” He said matter of factly. With this reassuring voice in her head now, Celestia calmed down a bit and recollected herself.
“Right okay, Shinning, if those guards don’t return I want you to scramble the rest of her squad and get them out their to find them, understand?” He saluted.
“Good.”
The Iron Wall (Pt.1) (Re-written)
2:15pm…
USS Boston…
My eyes had been fixed to the port holes in front of me for, what seemed like an eternity. My hands tightly grasped the control panels like clamps, and my arms were stiff like a planks of wood. My bandages were re tightened to keep my wounds from re opening, though, I must've gotten used to the pain, because I couldn’t feel it any more. My eyes darted from the shore line on my right, back to the ocean in front, and then to the Yarnell. The scouts came to me every ten minutes to give me a an update, so far, nothing to report. Nobody was watching us from the shoreline, no one was flying around us, and still no sign of the helicopter.
“John, do you copy, this is Charlie, over.” Whipping my head down to the radio in my right pants pocket, I quickly grabbed it and yanked it up.
“Yes, I copy Charlie, where the hell is that helicopter? Over.” I chattered back.
“Blade one is about ten minutes out, give them some time, they found what they were looking for, and now comes the wait. Over.” The voice box came back.
“Yeah, copy that. Boston out.” As I said this I stuffed the radio back into my pocket, and re focused on the ocean ahead. The sailors around me shared the same look I donned. The look of apprehensiveness, the wait, the silence, it was getting to us again. It was the calm before the storm, and nobody liked it.
But then, the silence was cut, by a whistle, it came from the right of me. It sounded familiar, like I had heard it before. I turned my head slowly to find a sailor bobbing his head to his music, that he was making with his lips. Then it hit me, I DID know this sound because it wasn’t a sound, but a song. Then of course I wasn’t the only one on the bridge who heard the sailor. I knew this because from the left, came a voice, it sounded, happy, for once it sounded happy. It was low, but it was loud at the same time.
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, and we'll all stay free.” Then just he stopped, I heard someone tapping their boot on the ground, and just like that, it spread like a disease. It gained volume as more people joined in.
“Praise the Lord and swing into position, can't afford to be a politician, praise the Lord we're all between perdition, and the deep blue sea.” Soon the whole bridge was singing like, a bunch of schoolboys on summer break. Smiles on every face, including mine, they sang and danced... and laughed.
Laughter… Something, I had not heard in a long time. Ever since we left for the pacific tour, it was all, hushed tones, and dampening moods, nobody had ever been this happy before now, and it was sure as hell refreshing to hear, let alone witness.
Let’s just say, if happiness could fuel this ship, we would never need a pit stop ever again. Not in a million years. The situation were in, seems hopeless, but we will never loose hope.
“John, JOHN! Do you copy? Over!” I heard the radio in my pocket speak up over the music, and quickly, the voices fell silent. Everyone stopped singing and looked at me, and looked at them.
I pulled it out again, “Yes, we copy over.” I said in return.
“Blade one is in trouble! Their being tailed by a squadron of ponies, they are requesting permission to engage, over.”
“Oh shit!” I said. I heard the helicopter closing in. I ran outside and so did everyone else. I pulled out my 45. and everyone else whipped out their M1’s. I saw Blade one, and I saw the ponies, and they saw us.
“Negative! Do not engage, their acting in self defence, we’re here as guests, no need to go shooting the locals!” I yelled back.
“Copy that, Blade one is coming in for a landing, out.” Just as he said that the helicopter flew overhead towards the rear of the Yarnell. As it flew over, the ponies tailing it landed on the bow of my ship, and got into a defensive stance. I yelled down to them as the helicopter came in for a landing.
“You there! State your intentions and organization, otherwise you will be detained for illegally boarding a US vessel.” As I said this a team of Military Police officers surrounded them on the bow and aimed their rifles at them. When I said this, the one who I could only assume to be their leader stepped forward.
“We are the R.E.A.F. the Royal Equestrian Air-Force. We’re here to identify the UFO you are harboring. Now, state your intentions!” It yells back.
Nodding to it request I spoke back.
“We are the U.S.N. United States Navy, we were brought here by accident, and are on our way to rendezvous with Princess Celestia, your commander! You may know as Humans?” I asked back. The lead pony looked to the left ponies, then to the ponies on the right, then they all nodded together in agreement.
“Understood! We will accept this and give you and escort to Manehatten Harbor. Please follow us.” They said. With a few flap of their wings the ponies darted into the air and hovered in place, then slowly, they flew out in front of us. The MP’s stood down, and soon, we were on our way, but of course, not without nearly starting a war between the two of us.
I sighed in relief as they turned around, rolling my head rubbing my neck,
“God, this needs to happen less often,” I look around to the sailors around me and they were talking amongst themselves, “Okay come on, get back to work, let's not forget we're professionals when we need to be exactly that.” They all jumped and ran back into the cabin and jumped back onto their controls as they checked and re checked everything.
“Charlie, do you copy?” I said after I pulled the radio up to my mouth. A slight pause ensued.
“Yeah, yeah I copy, over.” The radio came back. I nodded and pointed to the squad of ponies out in front of us.
“Follow them, they're taking us to the harbor, you copy?” I said back.
“Yeah, roger that captain, see you on land, Yarnell out.” I again stuffed the radio into my pocket. I jumped into a step as I headed back into the bridge, as I did, I began issuing orders. I ordered general quarters to be taken off, but men to patrol the ship, armed. I told to keep the ship at 22 knots, all the way to shore, then drop it to 15 when we saw skyline. I issued the medical bay to keep on treating the injured from our entry, if they weren’t already. Then I asked all guns to face front, or back, depending on their side from mid ship, and within five minutes, and a whirl of mechanical sounds, all the guns were in position.
I gripped the controls again, as the sun came out of the clouds and shown its golden light into the room. A new dawn had come, and I could feel it, deep within me, something was coming. But whatever it was, it could wait.
3:00pm…
USS Boston…
Time had passed, slowly for me, but for everyone else, maybe not. We continued to follow the squadron of ponies along the shoreline until they darted off and disappeared behind the tree line ahead. That could only mean one thing, we were here. The ship broke the waves as the skyline of the city came into view. It was a giant grey mass that came out of the trees, it grew and grew into bigger buildings as they shot up into skyscrapers.
It reminded me of New York, it was an almost picture perfectly replica. Manhattan had the hustle and bustle of a large downtown city, the sounds of cars passing, the constant movement. The lights, the sights, the people and celebrities. The pure essence of the American Dream condensed into one city along the eastern seaboard. Even the statue of liberty, the proud symbol of America, out on Ellis Island.
I guess it was funny, and maybe even a tease that their city, looked just like mine, almost down to every detail. I marveled at the sights, a few boats floated around away from the shoreline. As we passed the tree cover a whole pack of seagulls flew past us and headed towards the harbor.
New York Harbor had lots of large freighters, passenger ships, war ships, and others, moving about in and out of their waters. People walked about on shore, in a constant struggle to keep the goods moving, the cargo in land, and shipments across sea. It was hell on earth. But here, from what I could I see through my specs, their harbor was cleared out. Was it because of us, or maybe they just didn’t have that much cargo to move about, doubtful.
“Okay were in their waters, let’em know we're here.” I said out loud in the cabin.
“Aye aye Captain.” Came a few voices. A scuffle ensued and a few seconds later, the ship shook as it let out a deep and ear shattering moan. It was the ship's horn and it was beautiful, it said in a few brief seconds that, “we were here, and were ready for anything,” and that’s exactly why I loved it, also because, only one thing in the world can make a sound like that and that’s a Warship. After our echo waved through the air, a second one came. It sounded higher in pitch, and it wasn’t ours, it was the Yarnell’s. They taken lead ship as they came out from behind our shadow and let the whole city get a full view of their ship.
Our speeds lowered to a more respectful speed as we approached the shore. The Yarnell positioned itself in front of us, smaller ship first was the rule. Suddenly my scouts told me, in a rush, that the princess was approaching us in a rush. I ran out of the bridge and ordered the other to take my place. When I got outside, the princess was right next to us, flying to our speed, and hovering in place. I realized why she was here, and that reason was the whole second ship that I brought with me.
“Okay, before you say anything, I know you know that, that ship wasn’t with us, when we first made contact. He came, later, after you left, I’m not sure if you knew or not.” I said with my palms out.
“That explains a few things,” Celestia said after shaking her head in an annoyed manner, “ No I wasn’t aware of this second ship, and I’m not blaming you for it’s appearance, but I must tell you this now, that second ship, is the reason one of my students is in the hospital.” I recoiled back a bit I squinted my eyes and went over that sentence again, and again. Before I could ask why, she told me.
“From what I can tell, Twilight, whom is my students name, was caught in a magic feedback loop, that sent her into a coma when she brought the second ship her by accident. So, I must warn you, that some ponies may not warm up too you, like how I intended.” I went over this again, and again in my mind, ‘okay, okay, this can work, just don’t do anything stupid, and we should be okay,’ I said to myself.
“Okay, noted Princess, thank you for the info.”
The Iron Wall (Pt.2) (Re-written)
September 15th, 2013...
Equestria, Manehatten…
POV: Captain John Carson
7:37pm…
The nightlife of the Equestrian city was quiet, due to their being no cars, and noisy trains rocketing around. I decided to take a walk and enjoy the peaceful night. I watch sailors and ponies alike walk up and down the pier, as if we were always here and had not just arrived a few weeks ago, I found it strange but I guess ponies must be prone to change. We’ve been here in Equestria for a few weeks now, and the human and pony population have begun to mingle, because of the lack of language barrier. To keep myself busy, I talk to as many ponies as possible to keep my men and Charlie's men informed about the cultures, religions, and norms of Equestria.
Hell, I even set up a group of four sailors for this, they're called the equestrian archives team. I gave them each a pencil and pad of paper, and told them to record everything they learned about, and every wednesday we would meet and discuss the things they found interesting. All new information would go into a book that I would have on standby at every meeting.
I’ve learned about mostly everything so far, the two princesses, the sisterly war, Nightmare Moon’s imprisonment in the moon, the 1000 year solar empire, the return of Nightmare, and the six elements of harmony. The population seems to embrace the sisters as gods, due to their high understanding of magic and their involvement in the changing of day, and night. They view the six elements and the ponies who wield them as their main line of defense, besides the royal guard. The ones who wield them are Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle. All of which have their own element, loyalty, honesty, generosity, laughter, kindness, and finally magic. It all sounded a little far fetched for me, but then again, so do talking rainbow colored horses.
Walking down the boardwalk watching the sea roll over the sand of the beaches, I listen to voices of humans and ponies talk, exchanging stories of their sea adventures or daily lives. Most of the talking came from the human sailors mostly because, Equestrians are good listeners, and are easily impressed. With hands in my pocket I walk alone going over the copious amounts of information in my head. I wonder how the rest of the human world would react to this, especially in times of war. We wouldn't be able to comprehend such a land if this situation were the other way around. So, let's hope that never happens, ever. My wounds from our entry into this world have pretty much healed up at this point, thanks to some Equestrian forms of magical healing spells, of which I was completely against, if Princess Celestia hadn't done it herself. It felt, and looked strange, like my body was being flushed out, cleaned, and repaired right before my eyes. But afterwards, I felt better than ever.
I looked from the sea to the buildings on my right, the lights coming from the windows and signs lit up the night drenched pier, and those who walked on it. They were little shops that sold many different things, but mostly ale and other spirits. I found it actually surprising that a place like this, could still sell alcohol, let alone so much of it. I looked into one building in particular, one that had a group of Charlie's sailors sitting at a sea side window that looked out over the beach.
“The Rusty Hull Tavern” It said in curvy bold red letters with an anchor for the T in tavern. I guess what surprised me was the sailors that sat inside it were laughing away while enjoying a drink. I felt that it looked out of place, like they weren't supposed to be their talking to ponies and drinking, it didn't look right. But regardless, they were making the best out of the situation at hand.
I made my way to the door and pushed it open, the rustic atmosphere taking over from the cool dark night. The tavern was mostly built from wood with iron rivets holding things together. Lights hung from the ceiling keeping everything bright. And the sounds of piano music serenaded the room in the most humblest way possible. It felt cozy, warm, inviting.
As the door shut behind me one of the sailors that were sitting by the window, turned around and shouted, “Captain Present!” and almost instantly they all shot up out of their seats and turned to me and saluted. Returning the greeting I saluted back and followed it up with a, “At ease.” after the sailors returned to their talking and drinking I made my way to the bar that was past the rows of tables that had ponies drinking, smoking, laughing, and watching, me.
Most of them were male, they wore traditional sailor clothing, striped shirts, dixie cup sailor hats, and white dress pants. Others were part of the royal guard, who wore their armor with and without their helmets. I made my way to the counter and took a seat on one of the stools and almost immediately a bartender pony was right in front of me.
“Good evening their Mr. Human captain sir, what can I get you.” The pony seemed young, but just young enough to work at a place like this. He had a high pitched tone in his voice, which was choppy to say the least. He had his brownish blonde mane pushed up into a curl above his forehead and the rest of the mane hung down to the right of his neck. His fur was a light grey and his eyes were a deep green. He wore a white undershirt and black vest with red bow tie. His name tag was presented right on the left side of his vest. Dalmore was his name.
“Hello there Dalmore, I’m doing fine, but, don't call me Human, call me John.” I said back, resting my right arm on the counter and leaning in. He almost seemed surprised that I “guessed” his name, but then he realized he wore it every day.
“Oh okay then, uh, what are you going to have?” He asked.
Shit… how was I going to pay for this? I didn’t have any money, let alone Equestrian money, nor should those sailors I saw earlier.
“Wait, I don’t have any Equestrian made money, nor should they, how did they pay for their drinks?” I ask thumbing over to the group at the table behind me.
“Oh, well, the owner of the Rusty Hull said that any human that walks through that door would be good for attracting customers, so he said to let any human drink, well, for free.” He said as he cleaned a, already clean glass mug that was underneath the counter that he pulled out. “And from the looks of things, he was right, ever since humans came in here, our sales have gone up 48%.” He stated.
‘Hmmm, risky business tactics’ I thought. “Very well. So what is on the menu?” I asked looking at the wooden hanging list of drinks and prices behind him.
“Well, the more expensive drinks are off limits unfortunately, because we would be losing more money than we would be making, but everything here is yours.” He said lifting up a white menu with black lettering. The list wasn't to big, but it had a decent amount on it. Things ranging from Cider to grape juice, wine, fruit punch, and just water. So after deciding I sat back and watched the ponies talk and laugh away.
For about ten minutes I sat at the counter sipping away at what the bar called a Special Cider and listened to the music of the piano that a pony played with her hoofs. But as time went on certain words I kept hearing stood out to me, more than others. Especially one word in particular. At first when I heard the word, I almost turned around to who said it, then another pony said it again in a different place, then it came again. Finally I turned around to one sailor sitting at a table that was the closest to me. He wore a full dress uniform with the Equestrian flag embroidered on his left shoulder. He had a white and gold bandanna tied in front of him and tucked under his collar.
“Wait” I said, sticking out my hand, getting him to stop. He stopped talking and looked at me with a brow raised. “Did you just say Missouri?” I asked almost petrified that he actually did.
As I say that, half of the people in the bar room, stop talking and looked over at me, with blank faces, others with confused looks. Soon the rest of the quieted down, even the human sailors stopped talking and looked over at me. The entire building seemed to go silent of the course of 20 seconds. They all seemed to look at me.
“Uh yeah, we're talking about a ship that we saw that has become sort of a new legend of the sea, it appeared the same time you humans did. You see, I'm part of a scouting unit for the Equestrian Navy and I was sent to find the ship that others are calling, ‘The Iron Wall.’ otherwise known as Missouri. I just returned from the scouting trip and we just spotted it off the coast of Saddle Arabia. Why?” He asked as the human sailors began to get up from their seats and come over to me.
I looked at them, and they looked at me,
“The USS Missouri, oh my god, if you're telling the truth then, oh god… this isn't good.” Said the leader of the group of sailors. He sat down at an empty chair and put his patrol cap on and leaned it over his eyes in despair.
“If that ship is sailing around Equestrian waters, it’s bound to be confronted by pirates.” Said another pony at the same table as the other one.
“That's not the worst part,” I said, “The Missouri, is armed with 9, 16 inch main turret guns, almost 13 inches of reinforced steel of armor, enough ammo to kill a nation, and enough fire power that if anyone, or anypony finds it. They’ll become the king of the sea.
“So, what you're saying captain is that-” A sailor began to say before I cut him off by standing up.
“We need to find that warship before anyone else does.”
Author's Notes:
Ah, its done another so long. Hopefully you peeps have fun with this one, expect another chapter "soon"
More Than Friends (Re-written)
September 15th, 2013...
Equestria, Manehatten…
POV: Captain John Carson
7:50pm…
I hustled the Equestrian Scouts and the Sailors out of the bar and marched off towards the general direction of the princess in a hurry. Wherever this ship was it needed to be found before it’s discovered by somebody else and comes back to bite us in the ass. The Equestrians know these waters better than anyone else, and luckily we have the speed, and firepower to get us their. The only thing I needed was the green light from the Equestrian Government and I would be after that ship like stink on shit.
“You said the Missouri was last spotted off the coast of Saddle Arabia correct?” I asked one of the scouts.
“Affirmative, last known position was twenty clicks off the harbor of Fakhur. Heading west towards hostile waters. The hostile waters are patrolled by pirates of the Forgotten Griffon Empire. We’ve tried to get Griffonstone to help us, but, they’re kind of stubborn.” He said as we reached the docking area of our ships.
“Well, we are going to have to get them on our side in order to try and persuade those pirates to stay away from our ship, which means we need to be diplomatic about things.” The whole group came to a stop underneath a dock light. The scout looked up at me and gave me a nasally laugh.
“Yeah right, nobody from the L.O.E.N. has ever had a successful meeting with the Griffon Empire since, well, since I’ve been alive. So, about 30 years.” He stated.
“Well if they won't listen to the League Of Equestrian Nations, then maybe they’ll listen to a third party negotiator, the Human Race. The Equestrian Empire and the US Government aren’t technically allies seeing how we don’t have contact with my superiors But I guess, me and Charlie, being the highest rank here, we’ll have to be, Earth’s representatives. I wouldn’t normally appoint myself to that task, but, we have no other option.” I said outloud to the whole group. The Human sailors looked at each other, gave each other looks and faces, then looked back towards me and nodded.
“I think our captain wouldn’t have a problem with that, sir.” One of them said back, then another one moved up from the crowd, “But you might want to ask him yourself.” His eyes darted around me, as did the rest of the sailors, and then snapped to a salute. I turned around, and saw Charlie walking over to me, with a upset look on his face. Getting closer, he saluted back to the sailors and walked up to me. From the look on his face, I figured he knew the news too.
“Yeah, so, you know to, right?” I asked pulling him closer.
“The Missouri, right?” He said in a whisper.
“You don’t need to whisper, everyone knows, I was being honest with them, this ship could give anyone the upper hand.” I said.
“And it’s not just that,” Charlie says, walking past me and joining his crew mates. Suddenly the pony sailors went into a bow, turning around I saw princess Celestia, and Luna. Their manes seemed to glow in the night as they walked closer.
“This could alter human history if that ship goes missing, specifically American history, if what Charlie said is correct, that another ship is wandering around our world's waters.” She said bowing to her subjects. After the ponies leaned back up, one of them walked to the Celestia and nodded.
“The human tells the truth, a massive metal ship has been spotted off the coast of Saddle Arabia.” He said handing her a piece of paper from a saddle bag he had on. Celestia quickly read it over and nodded. “Then we must find it at once.” She says in a commanding voice.
“Yeah, and John here has an idea on how to do that.” Came one of the sailors behind Charlie. Everyone looked at me, ponies, and humans alike. ‘Gee, thanks for giving me the spotlight their buddy.’ I thought.
September 15th, 2013...
Equestria, Manehatten, USS Boston, Intel room…
POV: Captain John Carson
8:45pm…
“So, just that i'm understanding this clearly, you want to talk to the King of Griffonstone to see if you can have aid in looking for the Missouri by having them try to keep the Griffon pirates off you, and you are now, by, popular vote, Earth’s representative.” Princess Luna stated. She sat at the far side of the table, that me, Charlie, and Celestia sat at. Intel, and radar equipment surrounded us and a few lights hung from the ceiling, keeping the room lit, barely.
“Yeah, that’s about it in a nutshell.” I said. Charlie leaned up from his chair and looked over at me.
“Why do you get to be Earth’s representative?” He asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
“Well your guys said you would be okay with it, so I figured it would be okay with you.”
“I mean it is, cause, I don't think I could handle that much political baggage, but, can you handle it? That's the real question.” He said slowly crossing his arms, and cocking an eyebrow.
“Well, I do have a way with words, I took a public speaking class in college, and I aced it, so…” I said, once again shrugging my shoulders back at him .
“I didn’t, so, knock em dead, I guess…” He said nudging me in the right arm. The Princesses looked at each other, then looked back to me with a bit of a questionable state.
“Well, because we are short on time, these arrangements must be implemented. Captain John Carson, due to popular vote, we will now acknowledge your title as, Representative of Earth.” Came Princess Luna.
“Indeed, welcome to Equestria Mr. Ambassador.” Came Princess Celestia. She extended her hoof across the table in a gesture, that I figured out was the, ‘shake my hand.’ I met her hand and gave it a firm shake.
“Pleasure to be here.” I said with a smile.
I never realised until now, how deep I was. I guess time had just fallen away. Maybe because this place looked so much like home, or my crew mates and their unearthly positive attitude, or something else. But, just now I had realized what I had done. I just signed up for a wild goose chase, hunting down one of the most influential ships in human history, while subsequently becoming the man that would speak for the entire human race, in one afternoon. I had let my presence known on this planet, I don’t know what might come of our involvement in Equestrian history, but, I better make a good impression. Otherwise, there goes the human race’s only chance of winning the people of this world.
After the meeting, the princesses left the ship to gather their armed forces, while me and Charlie just sat their in the room. I placed my hand over my face, and slowly dragged it down,sighed and leaned up in my seat. I went over the information in my head that had been given to me in the past few hours. It was a bit much for just one person to handle, but, I had to do it, it was my job now. Suddenly a voice derailed my train of thought.
“You need an outfit…” Came Charlie, “One with a cape.” He said putting his hand on his chin, as the gears in his twisted head began to spin around.
I just looked at him, as if to just ignore what he said. But then, the thought of a new uniform sounded better by the passing moments. I looked down to the torn dirty black captain's dress that I had been wearing ever since I had gotten to this world. I then remembered I didn’t have a spare suit, for, unknown reasons.
“Yeah, okay sure, we’ll have to talk to the princess about that, cause we obviously don’t have the resources to make one.”
September 17th, 2013...
Equestria, Manehatten, USS Boston, Main Captain's Quarters…
POV: Captain John Carson…
7:45am…
I sit in a wooden chair, leaning on my desk looking out the porthole, that overlooked the alien ocean listening to it as it sloshed up against the hull of the ship. The sea was calm today, the sun had just come up. It shone thru the window and lit up the room. I sat their writing in the journal that I had supplied myself with for the archive team. I wrote down the names of nations, and the people who ran them, friends and enemies of the Equestrian Empire, and other sorts of organizations recognized by the L.O.E.N.
Yesterday I got an escort into Manehattan to meet with the greatest tailors in the entire country, including one of the Element bearers, the element of generosity.
The ponies seemed reluctant to make my acquaintance and were honored to be making me a new uniform for equestrian politics. So after I had explained my predicament, they went right to work, taking measurements and gathering supplies. After they told me I could leave I went to exit the workshop until I remembered the white bodied and purple maned name was. Rarity, she was friends with the pony that had been forced into a coma due to the magical discharge she gave off due to the three ships coming through.
So, before I left, I came to her and kneeled to her, and expressed my apologies, and asked her if she needed anything, I, and the rest of the humans would help her in any situation regarding her friends health. With a smile and a small tear in her eyes, she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me into a hug. She whispered something in my ear, that has kind of made me feel, strange.
She said, “Thanks for being so generous darling.” We talked for a little bit about her hospital visits, and how each one gets worse and worse, not seeing Twilights eyes open. Each time she goes, she is terrified that, twilight may never wake up. I assured her that she will, and to let her be at rest for now, until the time is right.
It wasn't until much later when I realised I had made a friend with one of the most famous ponies in Equestria, whether Equestria knew it or not. Without Her, or Twilight, Equestria was officially defenceless. Their Royal Guard could only do so much and the Princesses Could be overwhelmed. Without us, this nation couldn’t stand against a hostile force, let alone a battleship.
Which is why, getting the Griffons on our side is such a big deal. Cause, from what I know about them, they have talons, which is how they can hold things, hold weapons, hold firearms.
I leaned back in the chair I sat in, and looked up at the ceiling, in a bubble of thought.
“If I can ally the Ponies and the Griffons again then maybe, we have a chance at getting that ship back, and giving Equestria a new form of deterrence, the Griffon Empire.” Because the way I see it. If the Ponies give the supplies, then the Griffons can put the supplies to use, keeping both nations safe.
“Let's just hope this works.” I said leaning back down and writing my plans in the book before closing it. As the hardcover of the book meets the paper within it and the leather strap is placed over it and locked, a knocking came from the bulkhead from behind me. I turned my head, and said loud enough for them to hear me,
“Come in, it’s not locked.” The door clanked open and in stepped Charlie, and Rarity. I was surprised to see them both up this early. But it’s what Charlie held in his hand, that made me truly wonder, it was a suit. From what I could tell, it was mainly white, but I couldn’t see behind the plastic wrap it was covered in.
“Here it is, sir.” Charlie said with a smirk. Rarity looked up at him with a puzzled look. Quietly she asked him,
“Sir? Aren't the both of you the same rank, or did I miss something I should have remembered?”
“No no no, it’s a joke…” He said circling his free hand around in circles.
“Oh okay then, I’ll have to learn human sense of humor then.”
“Yeah, we’re weird like that.” Saying that he pulled out from behind him, an officer's hat. After looking it over after I got it in my hand, it looked very extravagant with white, blue and gold colors. It’s rim was black and had a gold trimming, and in the center had a white and gold globe, that I could only assume was Earth. The majority of the hat was white, with blue and gold strips above the gold trimming.
Charlie extended the suit and hat out towards me,
“Well? Try it on!” He laughed.
Taking the suit, I could tell it had a bit of weight to it. It wasn’t like a normal suit, it had other things with it, I could feel them. I could definitely feel boots, but I wasn’t sure what else.
“Fine, be right back.”
7:55am…
“Wow… I uh… wasn’t expecting this much.” I said outloud while I was still in the bathroom while Charlie and Rarity waited outside for me. After the whole thing had been put on, I just sort of looked in the mirror. Well, the suit was white, but maybe not the way I was expecting. The jacket came down in the back into a cape that parted in the middle, the shoulders housed a pair of golden epaulets that came down halfway to my armpits. A blue velvet chest band came from the left of my epaulet and came down to about the mid section of my torso on the right side. White and gold military tassels hung down from the left epaulet. The uniform came with a pair of long white gloves that came over top of the sleeves of my jacket, and the boots were made of leather, and came halfway up my shin. My pants were white, just like the rest of the jacket, but a pair of golden stripes went up and down it.
“Gezz guys, I’m surprised you didn’t give me an eye patch to go along with it.” I said through the thick walls of the bathroom.
“Oh come on it’s not that much. Just let us see how you look!” I heard him yell back. I just shook my head, and went along with their little fantasy.
“Okay, here I come.” I said back. I opened the door and exited the bathroom.
A New Form Of Trust (Re-written)
September 21th, 2013...
Equestria, Manehatten, USS Boston, Main Captain's Quarters...
POV: Captain John Carson…
8:15am…
The conference at the LOEN couldn’t have gone any better. The Equestrian and Griffon government’s have decided to work together until we’ve located the Missouri and have it returned to an Equestrian port. After that, they’ll hold another conference on what to do with the Griffon Pirates, but until then, any Griffon Pirate that is seen on open waters is fair game for engagement. Though everything went according to plan, I still can’t help but feel like the talks went a little too well. There were barely any objections, and all the votes that were ordered were almost completely swung to one side, our side. I don’t know why, it just didn’t feel right. It was all going a little too, “according to plan,” for my taste, so, after we left the conference, I made sure to keep an eye out for suspicious activity. I even went and appointed Lt. Junior Grade Dale O’Maley as head of a small recon group that would keep an eye out for anything strange that might happen to us on our mission.
Dale is a good man, and an even better sailor. I trust him, not that don’t trust anyone else, but, I trust him for this job, and this job only. Once he set himself up with a small team, I gave him his orders, in person, on the bridge of the Boston.
“If you spot anything, and I mean anything, out of place, not put away, or not same way you left it, you report it to me, or the Vice Captain, understood?” He saluted, turned, and headed from the bridge, his team following behind him. Let’s just hope it’s my nerves, and not something serious, because the last thing we need right now is a saboteur among us. Our mission is to begin, ASAP. I have ordered my men to stay on alert at all times, and be ready to leave port at any moment. We secured a head count and made sure everyone was on board earlier today, right after breakfast.
I look to my watch underneath my tan on duty uniform, it was nearly 8:00 in morning, we were to set sail at 0830, and be out crawling along the southern shore at 0900. I still remember our game plan. Charlie, Me, and the Princesses, formulated a plan of attack. It went like this…
We will leave the Manehatten port at 0830 hours today, with me taking the role of lead ship. We are then to head south on bearing 1-8-0, and trail along the coast until we reach Saddle Arabia. Once we arrive, we are to hold our position outside of their main capital city, and allow a group of Equestrian scouts to search the main capital for a, “contact,” that has visual proof of the Missouri passing through the area. Once that is complete we will follow the lead, apprehend the ship, and take it back to port. Simple on paper, but complicated in practice. I leave my quarters in my tan captain's uniform, my tie pinned to the dress shirt, my day caps black rim shined to perfection, and my dress shoes freshly polished.
“Attention all hands, this is final warning, prepare for departure in 15 minutes, please head to your assigned positions immediately and report to your superior if you have any questions, that is all,” A voice said, coming over the ship's announcement system. It echoed through the halls as sailors passed by me in a variety of uniforms, Medical personnel, weapons control staff, communication officers, everyone rushed about heading to their departure positions, men manning weapons, and others taking note of supplies. I made my way to the upper structure of the Boston, entering the bridge. Sailors stood about, talking over maps, holding charting equipment, they talked and ordered each other around. And their in the center orchestrating all of it was Vice Captain, Donald Richardson, he turned around and watched me as I entered through the bulkhead.
“Captain on deck!” He shouted. All heads turned to me and dropped what their were doing, becoming straight and uniform. They all saluted with pride, the room buzzed with anticipation. I nodded,
“At ease men.” They all lowered their arms and stood with their hands behind their back. Richardson stood forward in front of me.
“Course is charted sir, and Charlie has given me the okay, he’s ready to depart. Engines are holding and ready, all weapon systems are online, and the scouts are reporting calm seas and open skies,” He beamed with pride, “We couldn’t have picked a better day to start our mission,” He was right, I had to agree with him, the perfect day, the beginning of the end.
“Yes, you’re right Vice, gentlemen, today begins a new page in human history, a page that must never leave Equestria, I hope you’re all prepared for that” I walked with hands behind my back to the center of the bridge, all eyes following me, all confused over what I had just said. I was about so say some more things that I’ve had sometime to think about. Some might even say, I’ve had forever to think about. I turn around and pick up the Ship phone and turn it general. Now everyone on board the ship can hear me.
“I hope you men, have made peace with the Ponies, and Charlie's sailors. For what happens in Equestria must stay in Equestria. Our world must not hear of our exploits on this planet. When it is our time to leave we will do so quickly and efficiently. When we leave we will have our memories wiped and and our lives restored, because god knows how much damage we’ve caused back on Earth already. Humanity must be saved from itself, from us. This whole thing was never meant to happen, so we will act as if it never did. Now I know, some of you may not be okay with this, and I understand, before now I may have made some friends, some very close to me. But I give this warning to everyone, don’t get attached. We are here professionally, and we will leave professionally. The bonds we make here must be temporary, if not, non existent. Because when it comes time to leave, we must do it then, and now, to limit our time here in this world as much as possible. Of course I'm not implying the Equestrians have been unkind to us, but. I am implying that Earth's timeline must be restored as quickly as possible,” The men around me looked at each other, all nodding together in agreement.
“Don’t just do for yourself, do it for your grandchildren, and their grandchildren. Let them live just the way they are right now, unchanged and unbroken,” I look around at the men on the bridge, their faces all drawn up in smiles and hearty grins, arms crossed or weapons in hand.
“We hold the fate of the world in our hands gentlemen, let's bring it back together. That is all, prepare for departure god bless us, and god bless the United States of America,” I hung the phone back onto the wall, as a chorus of claps came from everyone on the bridge.
“Well spoken sir!” Came the Vice. I nodded as I took the helm. A sailor entered the bridge and stopped at the doorway,”
“The Equestrian Forces are on board sir, orders?” I looked over at him and gave him a slight nod,
“Excellent, show them to their quarters, and get them squared away, we’re pulling away.” He saluted and exited back the way he came. I turned back to the bridge forward windows as I looked out over the bow.
“Engines, set course east, bearing 0-9-0, half speed,” I requested. A voice came from behind me,
“Aye aye Captain!” I picked up the hand held radio next to me and flicked it on.
“Charlie, do you read me, over?” I asked, a short pause came, then he answered.
“I read you, how did your speech go?” He asked.
“It went well, I think, I hope, did you say what I told you to say?” I asked back. He came back with a laugh in his voice,
“Yeah, message received alright, are we pulling away?” He asked. I heard the engines of the Boston rev as if he told them to,
“Yes we are Captian, yes we are, we are exiting bearing 0-9-0, East until we exit the yard, then we’ll head south on 1-8-0, remember the plan?” I asked.
“Yes, yes I know, trust me I know,” He came back with annoyance. I had drilled our combat plan into his head about a million times since the LOEN conference. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.
“Good, now hold it close, this mission, I want it over ASAP, I just wanna make that very clear,” I said back.
“Yes, I got it! Don’t worry, this will be a cakewalk, trust me,” I nodded, and gave a little chuckle.
“I’ll hold you to it Charlie, I’ll hold you to it,” I said back. I rested the radio back onto the consul and watched as the Boston picked up speed as it turned away from port. I half to admit, though our relationship is professional, Charlie knows how to make it not that, in many ways, yet still get things done. He amazes me like that, he speaks softly and with such drollery, yet when the time comes, he acts, just like me.
And I think it might be growing on me.
Author's Notes:
IT'S BACK BABY
LETS GET IT ON!
~ Calex Winteridge
The Hunt, Is on
It took a few minutes, but eventually the ponies were roaming around the room like it was nothing, checking out the weapons behind the chained doors of the armory walls.
“Wow, this is a lot of stuff, and you said everyone on board has at least one of these, uh… guns?” Asked a purple Unicorn. I looked over to her across the room.
“Yes, mostly everyone on this ship carries a weapon,” I point to the weapons as I sound off their names, “M1911s, Browning Air Rifles, Thompson Machine Pistols, and one of the more deadly fire arms, the Trench Gun.” I turn around to see the six of them closely examining each gun.
“Interesting, really I mean it, these are pretty cool, for alien weapons but, uh, how do they work?” Asked a rather unimpressed Rainbow maned Colored Pegasus. I looked over to her with a smirk on my face.
“You really want to know huh?” She shook her head as twilight looked up at her and looked over at me. She hoof palmed and shook her head.
“Follow me.” Saying this I motion for them to follow as I walk down the room to a door with a huge lock on it. I take out the keys again and find the correct one. I slid it in the lock and turn it. It clicks open. I push the door open and turn to my left to flick on the light switch. The lights flicker to life illuminating the room. It was the firing range. I walk over to the the first booth.
“Whats this place?” Came a rather excited voice from the back. I turn to find a bouncing pink pony.
“This, is the firing range.” I say as I reposition myself.
“Alright, this is gonna be loud, try to pay attention.”
I slid my colt out of my holster, It’s silver sights reflected of the light of the room. The sights was completely spit shine clean, it’s brown pistol grip was clean and fit perfectly in my hand. I rose the gun to my eye and looked down the sights. I extended my arm to their full length and put my left hand around my right hand, thumb resting on top of my other. The gun felt right, perfect sights, perfect weight, perfect shape. I turn back to see all the ponies looking at my raised weapon.
“Like I said, this is gonna be loud, so, cover your ears.” They do as I ask and cover their ears, but keep their eyes on the gun. I turn back and aim down the sights looking at the target on the wall in front of me. My finger slides from the resting position and relocates to the trigger. I close my left eye aim down the sights. My finger tightens and finally the trigger is pulled, unleashing ear piercing BANG. The recoil wasn't a problem for me so I take the gun down and slid it back into my holster. I look down range at my target, theres a hole straight the center. I laugh at my accuracy.
“Still on point, so what do you think of that, alien weapon, Dash?” I look over to find a Jaw dropped Pegasus looking at the bullet hole.
“DEAR CELESTIA, THAT WAS LOUD!” screamed a purple unicorn. I cover my ears to shield them from her voice.
“WHY ARE YOU YELLING!” I scream back. She gives me a confused look.
“WHAAAT?”
“NEVERMIND!” I scream back and throw arms down. Suddenly the sound of running feet approach the doorway, a man rushes in the door weapon in his hand.
“What the hells going on! I heard gunfire!” Came Charlie holding the pistol with a pirm grip.
“Nothing! I was just showing the ponies what a gun is.” He holstered his gun and looked over to the group of startled ponies and laughed.
“They thought it wasn't going to be loud huh?” Now I laugh.
“Nope. I told them to cover their ears.” Applejack was the first to snap out of it.
“So, they all sound like that?” She asks motioning toward the armory.
“Yeah, but not all are the same frequency, some are louder and some are lower.” Charlie looks over at the target on the far wall of the room, and raises a brow.
“So, you did that?” He asks pointing to the steaming hole.
“Yeah? What about it?” I ask crossing my arms, He chuckles back.
“Nothing, I’m just saying that, I can do better.” He now crosses his arms and looks back at me. The ponies took hint at the rising conflict and begin to shift to the back of the room, but Fluttershy is already at the far corner of the room shivering.
“Heh, heh heh, prove it.” My voice shifts from playful to serious as my stare focuses in on his. A smile appears on his face as his brows lower. He quickly whips his hand right hand around to his holster and grips the handle on his pistol and whips it out, and then extends his arm to it full length and pulls the trigger. All of this was in one fluid motion as the gun fired sending a different round down range. It hit the target.
What really surprised me was that, he was still looking at me, he didn’t even aim. I focus on his gun, a jet black pistol with a different looking handle and grip, the back sights were illuminated with two green dots. The whole gun looked foreign to me.
“This, is a beretta M9 semi-automatic pistol, it fires a 9mm round, the future standard model used by the United States Military.” He says showing off the gun by spinning it on his finger.
“What happened to the M1911?” I ask looking down to my own. He rolls his eyes and chuckles.
“Don’t worry, we still use it, it’s just not standard issue anymore.” Putting a finger to his chin and rolling his pupils upward like he’s looking at his forehead. “Actually, some soldiers prefer the 1911 over the 9mm, fancy that.” I look down to my, now proud looking gun, and spin it on the trigger and slip it back in it’s holster.
We exit the firing range, ponies in tow, and make our way to the top deck, the sun never looked so bright. I shield my eyes from the light as I move over to the port side and look over the city infront of me. I heard Charlie talking behind me, but I didn’t pay much mind. Charlie’s footsteps camp up from behind me.
“You know,” He started as I look over my shoulder, “I envy you, john.” Now I turn around and lean backwards.
“Why’s that?” I ask, now interested.
“You, get to command this,” He turns to his right and extends his arm to the main battery cannons. “Get to command that,” taking his other arm, pointing to the Yarnell. I look behind him as the ponies talk amongst themselves. “A missle cruiser.” I raise an eyebrow.
“Da’ hell, is a, Missile Cruiser?”I ask now almost standing at attention. He looks at me dropping his arm.
“Wait, I never showed you did I?” He asks getting closer to the Gangway. He’s stopped by a familiar face. Celestia was walking up and must have overheard us, and she’s still wearing her helmet.
“Show us what Charles?” She asks, sporting the same, questioning expression I am right now.
“Yeah, show us what?” Now facing him face to face. We stared at the man as he quickly glanced between me and the princess.
“Jesus, follow me.” He said walking past the princess down the Gangway. We followed in suit as he lead us to the Yarnell. The gangway leading up I looked over the side to the dock below as the ponies were gathering around by the bottom. We walked on to the deck of the Cruiser, the ship felt, just like mine. The same color, wooden decks, swept clean, flags flying high in the harbor sky as the American flag stood upon the rest like a beacon light. we continued until we reach a, strange looking mounted gun. It was gray, like the ships paint, it held what looked like rockets in special holders. It looked, so, strange to me.
“This,” Placing his hand to the bottom section. “This, is the RIM-67 Standard Missile Launcher. This baby can fire a Missile at Land, Air, and seaborne targets. It’s amazing what this thing can do.” Celestia moved closer.
“What, what does it do?” she said inspecting the rockets. He crosses his arms and leans back on the base.
“Well, those missiles right there can be fired off the ship and target an enemy, and destroy them with brutal force.” God he’s full of himself. Celestia backs up from the launcher and puts a hoof to her chin and begins to tap slowly.
“So, what size ship are we talking here?” I didn’t notice it before, but behind the princess, Twilight was taking notes, she must have been here the entire time.
“Well, it can destroy almost any size ship, it’s just the bigger it is, the longer it’s going to take. But, if it’s some sort of long boat, like the vikings, one should do it… this is a missile were talking about, an explosive, airborne, projectile.” He said looking over to the princess again.
“Come on, i have more to showcase…” saying that, he motioned with his right arm and walked off, again, we followed. He showed us some many new things, some were so foreign I could literally feel my brain melt out of awe. He went in this order,
One, ARSOC Heavyweight Sub destroyer
Eight, RGM-84 Harpoon missiles
Six, 12.75 in. torpedo tubes
and maybe the most strange looking…
Their, Two Phalanx CIWS “Mini Guns.” That was an understatement.
As the tour finished, twilight had at least Five scroll tucked away into her sack and me and everyone else was at a loss of words. Reaching the gangway once again, Charlie leans on the railing.
“So old timer… what do you think of the new navy? No more battleships, just us, cruisers and destroyers.” I look over to him and shake my head and laugh a little.
“I ain’t old yet…” I say joining him on the railing.
“Heh, right…” He says back
12:45 pm…
So, are we ready?” Asks the princess with a raised brow. Me her and princess luna join us on the bridge of the Boston as we're poisoned outwards towards the open sea that lay before us. The Yarnell’s the same way. I look over to the Yarnell’s bridge as I can see Charlie doing the same thing I’m doing, looking at me back. He sends over a thumbs up and I send back the same.
“Yep. Lets get a move on, oh by the way where’s the elements?” I ask looking at the princess.
“Right here.” Came A rather eager and heroic voice. It was Twilight. I could feel a smile appear on my face as I motion with my arm and point my finger towards the open water in front of me.
“Lets do it! All engines, ahead full!” I say to a sailor, “Aye aye captain” Our horn blares right above us as I could feel the ship lurch forward. Another ship horn sounds off after ours as the Yarnell begins after us. The search has begun. The search for a ghost ship that worth more than money can buy. A ship that, if used correctly, can level a whole navy. A ship, that holds a small space in our American hearts.
We, are on the hunt, for the “Mighty Mo.” Looking over to the future ship and back to mine, a sudden spark of pride shined, as a song pushed it's way into my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acnt3r6z5ns
"50 years from me to him, and can still kick ass."
The First Stop
9/12/97...
Eqestrian Seas…
1200 hours
“Attention all crew members, this is your captain speaking, keep your hands close at arms, we are now in enemy territory, when we fall under attack, man your stations.” I click off the radio and slip it into the holster.
I pivot on my left heel and walk out of the wheel house and now stand on the balcony of the bridge. I rest my arms on the surprisingly cold railing and cross my legs. I look out over the open water in front of me. To my left, the Yarnell was slightly ahead, breaking the calm waves as the ripples hit my own and cancel out. Down below me foot steps mixed with hoof steps echoed off the iron walls of the ship. The wind picked up as the seagulls flew above me as they swarmed around the two ships. I take off my captain's cap and grip it in my left hand as I lean closer to the railing, taking in everything around me.
The beauty of the open crystal clear and sky blue waters, the smell of the salty sea as the waves push the intoxicating smell up towards my nose. The motion of the ship as it bounds through the water as it feels stuck in place as the waves pass underneath. It is always a grand feeling, the feeling of the ship sailing along as it’s lazily push by the current of the sea. A voice spoke behind me.
“Beautiful, isn't it.” A soft but proud and regal voice spoke up. I turn to find Celestia walking up the stairs behind me. I turn around and stand up and fit my cap back on my head.
“Very, ma’am, the open waters calling to you as you sail into the unknown, nothing much like it.” She moves closer to the railing I was leaning on and looks herself.
“Yes, you’re quite right. I always loved the sea, it’s endless nature, it’s hidden world below. every bit about it is grand. But, I am loyal to the sun and it’s bright beauty.” She says while looking over to me as I find myself lost in the oceans waves. I snap back when I hear her stop taking.
“Uh, yes, the ocean is beautiful, but without the sun, it’s beauty would be for nothing if you couldn’t see it.” I look over to celestia as I see her face grow from happy, to worried.
“Whats wrong, you seem troubled?” I ask placing a hand on her shoulder blade. She looks back up to me and open her mouth but nothing comes out. She closes her mouth and looks around like she lost her words, then opens her mouth again.
“This ship, we are searching for, why, why is it dangerous?” I remove my hand from her shoulder and grow a shocked look on my face.
“Uh, princess…” I start to say as I point to the main battery cannon of my ship. “You see that?” She follows my finger and looks at the triple gunned 8in. barrells of the weapon.
“Yes, why?” I lower my arm and place both on her shoulders, “Just imagine those, but, two times bigger.” Her eyes widen. “The Missouri, has nine of those, and more, she has more shielding than me and the Yarnell combined, she is the ultimate killing machine. If she were to fall into the wrong hands, they would destroy me, you, and charlie.” Her eyes are now full like the moon. “And then, they’ll go for land next.” She then puts a hoof to my mouth.
“I understand, I understand completely, we need to find it, NOW.” She turns to walk off but I stop her, by putting my hand on her shoulder again.
“I know, we just need some time and enough clues to lead us to her resting place, trust me princess, I won’t let any harm come to you and your ponies, you can count on me, to god and my country, I won’t sleep, until I find that damn ship.” She smiles and looks over the yarnell. “And if, IF, anyone has taken her, I won’t stop until the thieves are brought to justice, i'll catch em so fast their heads will spin.” At that last note she laughs a little.
“Thank you John, I knew I could count on you.” Now it was my turn to smile.
“It’s my honor princess.” I take a bow as I say the last part. She walks off down toward the lower decks. I pick myself up and resume my position at the railing. I look over to the bridge of the yarnell and see Charlie doing the same, except, he was looking back at me. He waves, I wave back. He points ahead and I look.
He’s pointing slightly to the right and I couldn’t see so I enter the wheel house and come out the other side. I saw what he was looking at. A large land mass maybe even a continent. It looked different then Equestria. It was flatter and covered in sand, the buildings were made out a different brick. It kind of looked like some eastern country, like Iraq or Iran. I run back to the other side and try to talk to him. I point behind me and raise a brow then point to my ship then his then again point to the coast. He Nodded. I gave him a thumbs up and enter the wheel house.
“Attention, this is our first stop, that country over there, lower speed, turn hard to port, and prepare to dock.” I barked to the sailors on the bridge, “You,” I pointed to a sailor. He saluted, “Go down into the deck and gather the elements and the princesses, were going to need them to dock.” He salutes again and runs off. I shift over to the P.A. system and flick it on,
“Attention, all Marine personnel, report top side for docking, bring your weapons. Attention all remaining sailors aboard, remain on high alert, I’m stepping off.” I switch of the Mic and walk over to a chair in the corner of the room, a holster and revolver lay on the seat. I click it on and make my way down to the lower decks once again and arrive just in time to see Charlie and his own Marines, Preparing some sort of life raft.
Five minutes have gone bye and the Boston and the Yarnell have reached the reef of the main land, we can't go any further. My Marines are fitted with their rifles and pistols and, so is Charlie’s. I wave to him, he waves back, I point to the raft and then point to my marines, then me. He understands, he shakes yes and launches the raft, Maines in tow. The raft was some sort of, motorized lightweight craft. It skipped along the waves toward the Boston as my men prepped a ladder on the side of the of the ship, to sort of meet them halfway.
Then, I hear it again, the whooshing of the propeller blades, of the Hawk. It takes off from the rear and begins to fly over toward us. The marines from the Yarnell arrive under the ladder and my marines begin to load. But when they see and hear the chopper, they begin moving faster.
“Hey, John!” Charlie yells up. I lean over the edge and call back.
“What?”
“That chopper, is for you and some of the ponies, you know, the one’s who can’t fly…” I look back to the elements and the princesses and nod a little in understanding.
“Okay, Ill let them know.” I back off from the railing just to see the last of the Marines exit the deck. I make my way over to the the group, they all look over to me with wondering eyes.
“Okay, so, listen up. The Yarnell has sent us a Hawk, the Black Hawk, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, rarity, and Twilight are getting in, the Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will fly along side, along with the princesses, Okay?” They starting looking at each other as the sound of the chopper grows closer by the second. Then they all look back and nod, “Yes.”
“Good, get ready.”
“One question…” Came a voice in the back, it was rarity.
“Yes?” I say fixing my eyes on to hers.”
“Is it safe?” She asks as her eyes pan back and forth nervously. First I was at a loss of words, I quickly searched my mind for any kind of info I was told about it. Finally I came out with a half-assed answer,
“Ehhh, sure?” My face said it all. It said, ‘I don’t know.” and she saw it. She then grew a little uneasy as the chopper appeared overhead.
“Well, it looks safe ta’ me, so, I ain't got no problem with it.” Said Applejack as she moved up closer to me.
“Yeah, Charlie nor John would put us into any danger.” Came Twilight.
“Yes, you’re right, I would never put you in harms way.” I said reinsuring. The chopper began to ascend closer to the deck and it and a large door were nearly parallel. The door slid open and revealed a Marine, he waved us over.
“Alright, lets move it!” I said making my way against the current of the Helis blades. I jump in and take a seat, followed by, Applejack, Rarity, and then Twilight. As everyone got situated in there seats, I signaled for them to close the door. As the chopper lifted, I felt the g-force as the current of gravity felt stronger. I lean over to a window and see Rainbow and Luna on my side, below them, the Raft took off after us as it flew along the water.
It took as about three minutes to reach land, as the chopper landed a huge weight was lifted off me as I suddenly felt like a feather, as did everypony else. The sudden lift of gravity felt strange, but of course it was my first time in a chopper. The door slid open and the Marine got out and signaled for us to follow. We came out in suit, we stepped off together and crowded around the marine. Then the door behind us closed and the chopper took off. The princesses and the pegasi land next to us, and the raft of marines arrived on shore.
After the raft was pulled ashore and the marines were ready to move, we began the short walk toward the town Charlie spotted off shore. As we walked I looked at Charlies marines, and then back to mine.
They looked so different, there weapons were black and longer than my my mens weapons. Some had different looking parts like tubes or handles and scopes. Part of me kind of liked them, the other part feared them. The walk there felt longer than it had to be, it was because the sun was beating so hard down upon us, it felt like we weren’t moving at all. But eventually, we reached the sandy entrance of the city.
“Alright everyone listen up, we need to go in here and find the local sailors, they are the one’s that would know if the have seen our ship, Princesses, can you find the city capital and ask for shipping records?” I ask. Luna stepped forward, a little annoyed.
“Who put thou in charge of us?” Luna said with a glaze look in her eye. “You are nothing more than a sailor, a man of the sea. If anyone should be in charge it should be me and my sister. So, if you think your more important than us? Thou are mistaken.” First I was taken off guard by her hostility, I didn’t expect her to reject my command. Then I wanted to punch her dead square in the face for giving me lip Now it was my turn to be the cocky one. I put on my best death stare and looked right into her eyes.
“Because, it’s a human made ship, and plus I know who to ask, and where to find additional information, you be lucky you have me, I know how a sailor thinks. So sorry to impose but, if you have a better idea then, please speak up.” Everything fell quiet from a few seconds. “No. Sorry.” Luna said backing up slowly to rejoin her sister. But I stopped her again.
“Don’t be sorry, I would know how you feel if someone below me gave me orders.” Her ears perked up. “But, I’m pretty sure I know more about ships than you and Celestia combined. No offence.” She turned to face me again.
“Non taken, and, you are quite right, I do know nothing, and,” Looking back to her sister who I could see shrugging her shoulders. “I’m sure she doesn’t either. Sorry, I shouldn’t have been so hostile and judged you based on who you are. It’s just that, me and sis have been the ones leading the pack.” I could see where this was going, but Luna beat me to it. “I guess I’m not a good follower.”
I look over the group of ponies and humans, most of them wearing the same, “Uh, awkward time to be here at the moment.” Faces. I shrugged and the whole lot of humans shrugged back. I turn back to luna and pat her on the shoulder. “Sometimes, you just gotta listen to the ones below you, cause most of the time they are correct in what they’re saying.”
Luna’s head picked up and gave a understanding nod. “Alright, we’ll locate the town hall.” A smile appeared on mine and her face.
“Thats the spirit. The rest of the ponies except for, uh,” I needed someone in the air looking for sailors in the streets,
“Fluttershy, find out anything you can find down by the docking areas, Charlie,” He moved forward, I motioned for him to come closer. “Follow the ponies, they might need help, okay.” He nodded and motioned for his men. Alright everyone else on me.”
Fluttershy singled herself out and made her way over to me. “Uh, J-john? why do you need me, if it’s alright to ask.” She asked quietly. I kneeled down to her height so I could talk to her better.
“Well flutters, I sort of need your help in locating pony sailors from above in the sky.” She grew a puzzled look on her face as her eyes darted around as if she was searching for something. Then as if some one zapped her, her face lit up. “Oh, I have an Idea!”
“Alright what is it?” I say moving closer.
“I could talk the sea birds that live in the surrounding areas, they’ll know if they’ve seen the ship!”
“Wait you can do that, talk to birds?” she nodded.
“Okay, thats pretty cool, thanks that’ll help us out alot.”
“Oh, you're welcome.” She said with a smile.
After the ponies were split up, Princesses were to investigate main hall, the element and Charlies marines were to help them, and me and my marines were going to go around town and ask anyone if they saw anything, we moved so that everyone was in a legit group.
“Alright everyone, LET'S GO FIND US A SHIP!” I yelled as everyone scattered into the village entrance.
Clues
9/12/97
1230 hours…
Saddle Arabia…
As I walked through the crowded streets of the dense Marketplace, I found myself bumping into to everyone and everything that just happen to be in my way. Squeezing through crowded ponies as they stand around market vendors, trying to locate my men, and trying to keep an eye on Fluttershy as she flew above, almost made me lose my mind. Eventually, I made myself through the Market and found myself under a decorated archway. I moved over the the left side and slammed my back against and took a few deep breaths. The Marines that followed me into the market were still in sight, they were spread out amongst the crowds trying to catch anyone to ask a question. The first one to break free was a Corporal, he made his way over to me and saluted. I saluted back.
“Sir, I was not able to obtain any information. I couldn’t even think straight in there, too many ponies talking and moving around, I couldn’t even get anyone to look my way an-,” I put my hand up to stop him as I pushed off from the wall. I moved over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“You’re good, I couldn’t talk to anyone either, Corporal, uh, Corporal…” I made my hand turn in a spinning motion and looked at him like, “go on.” He raised a brow, then realized I was asking for his name.
“Oh, uh, Dunniham, sir.” He said and nervously saluted again. Now I knew something was up. He was saluting for no reason and acting all skittish, like I was gonna jump down his throat if he didn’t… oh.
“Hey, Dunniham, am I making you nervous?” I said looking him dead in the eyes. He trembled with fear as I could see a lump slide down his throat.
“Aye, sir.” He said, his voice shaked a bit.
“Uh, why?” Like saying a death note he began trembling as sweat slid down his forehead and his eyes moved in every witch way, except my way. His hands got clammy and shook uncontrollably.
“W-well, I always get nervous around, h-high ranking officers, l-like yourself. I always think I’m gonna get a beating if I slip up and down show respect.” Well, I could see his reasoning. I sometimes get nervous around my superiors, to them I’m nothing, but to me, they are everything, and I need to show respect too. But, he didn’t half to fear me, I’m not like those, hardass, no joke captains. I let my men speak up if they half too. Putting my hand on his shaking shoulder, he shook even harder and flinched.
“look, listen, I’m not like one of, those captains, I’m not a hardass, don’t be nervous. You have a lot worse things to worry about besides formalities, so knock it off.” Saying that, he stopped shaking and looked up to me again, a small smile on his face.
“Thank you sir.” He said standing up taller than he was before. Conversation time.
“So, what company you in son?” I asked moving back to the wall as I leaned up against it, crossing my arms. He moved closer, but kept his distance.
“Bravo Company sir, I joined two months ago when we were stationed on land, back in europe. Then, five weeks ago, command order us to sea as sort of a protection force for a ship. Your ship, and, well, here I am.” He said finishing as he shot his arms down toward his legs. I placed a finger on my chin as I tried to remember my time in europe. Remembering, I snapped my finger and smiled again.
“Ah, I remember now, I knew your face looked familiar, I saw you board. You dropped your rifle on the gangway cause some ass hat bumped into you. Then the sarge behind him, knocked him on the side of the head with his hand.” I laughed a bit, he joined in.
We joked around for a little bit more until all the marines exited the Market place and joined us under the arch.
“Sir, we're sorry, but we couldn’t find anything on the ship.” A marine called out. I looked down to the ground and placed my right hand on my face as I cleared my forehead of sweat. I took my captains hat off and gripped it by my side.
“Great…” I said softly. Then the sound of pounding feet and shadows reached my sight as I looked up to find three marines and Charlie standing there.
“John, We might have something.”
1235 hours…
Shipping Yard…
“So, what is it?” I said surveying the shipyard. “I don’t see anything.” I looked around the nearly empty shipyard looking for, well anything. But, I didn’t see anything. Then I saw Charlies had pull up alongside my head.
“Over there.” He said pointing to an Island not to far off shore. It was mostly rocky with a beach on one half and just a straight rock cliff on one side. Again I looked like a mad man trying to find the reason he brought me over here. But, like before, I saw nothing.
I shrug my shoulders, “Nnnnnnope, don’t see it… what am I looking at?” Charlie face palmed and handed over a pair of binoculars.
“Look at the rocks.” I snatched them out of his hand and lifted them up to my eyes. I began scanning the rocks. Then, I did see it. the rocks had a distinctive black shading on them which singled them out from the rest of the island. But, a few rocks looked different. Them had grey lines scraped down them, about five lines, all different sizes and shapes. Then it hit me. Those lines weren’t part of the rock. They were put there but something smashing into them and then scraping along side. Something metal.
“Oh, shit you don’t think…” As I pulled the binoculars down from my eyes, I looked over to Charlie and he shook his head, “yes.”
“Alright gather your men and the elements, I'll go grab the princesses and, i’ll also try to find Fluttershy at the sametime.” He nodded his head.
“Okay, good deal, when I head back to the Yarnell, i’ll send a chopper for you, then you board and ride it back to my ship, but first drop your men off at the Boston, then we will ride the ship to the island to inspect the scrapes. Got it?” I Nodded back.
“Alright, lets MOVE OUT!” I yelled as I ran back towards the town.
1245 hours…
Landing Area…
“Come on, I don’t have all day…” I said tapping my foot near the edge of the water bank of the spot where we first landed. The princesses waited with me as fluttershy was hovering above. My men stood close by, and with the news of the first sightings of the Missouri in the air, they chattered away with possibilities. Of course, I wasn't happy about any of this. The thought of a Iowa Class Battleship, being a Ghost ship. Just made my blood run cold. Fluttershy came down from flying as I sat down by a rock near the waters edge. She flew down next to me, and sat on a smooth rock.
“So, uh, I couldn’t find any information from the seagulls, if you wanted to know.” She said in her soft fragile voice. I looked over to her as I spoke.
“Oh, thats okay, I got all the info I need.” She dug into the sand a bit with her hoof as she looked around for something to look at.
“Fluttershy?” I asked timidly. She stopped digging and looked to me.
“Yes John?”
“How do you talk to animals?” I asked a little carefully, not knowing if she could even answer that.
“Oh, I just, ya know, talk… I don’t really have a special way of doing it. I just started doing it when I was young. I was in cloudsdale and Rainbow Dash was defending me from these bullies that were making fun of me. She challenged them to a race, but unfortunately for me, I had to be the one with the flag to wave them off. When I did wave them off, their speeds knocked me off my cloud and I feel toward the ground below. But, before I hit, these butterflies caught me and stopped me from falling, then I found myself flying like it was nothing, they sort of, well, gave me the confidence to fly.” She looked away from me and stared out into the ocean.
“While I was doing that, Rainbow Dash was still racing those bullies in the clouds. She got enough speed and created a sonic rainbow. Down on the ground where I was, it was loud and it shook the earth below. The animals scattered away into the forest and I had to get them out again. I had to try and softly calm them and help them out of hiding. And when it worked, my mark appeared.” She smiled a bit, and sighed. “And that's how I got my cutie mark.” I look down to her flank and spot the slightly out of place, three pink butterflies on the tallest part of her back leg.
“Oh, thats pretty cool, so, does everyone else get their mark when they're young, or is it like… what?” I said, turning my hand around in circles, waiting for her to continue.
“Well, yes, everyone gets their mark when they are young, except for a very small amount of ponies, who, unfortunately never found their, special talent. Some call them, blank flanks.” Saying that she looked down to her flank.
“Of course, only mean people say, ‘blank flanks’ to make fun of them, course, I don’t, I don’t think it’s funny, some ponies just need a little motivation.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear that, I hated bullies, I really did.” I didn’t notice it before but, when she sat down next to me, she’s been slowly getting closer every time we talked. It was starting to make me uncomfortable but, at the same time, I sort of liked it.
“Well, I think your cutie mark is very, good looking, it suits you well.” Saying that she blushes a bright pink under her eyes and moves a bit closer.
“T-thanks.” She said looking over toward the sea again.
“No one ever told me that before.” I raised a brow and gave a small half laugh, and turn toward the sea too.
“I doubt that…” I say crossing my arms. Still looking toward the sea, she tilts her head.
“Huh?”
“I said, I doubt that. Anyone can agree with me. That mark is very cute.” Now she turns to me and blushes even redder.
“Y, you really think so?” She asks, now I turn and meet her eyes.
“Of course, I have nothing to lie about.” Shes now leaning up against me and her fur rubs up against my arm. It’s softer than I thought before now. Her long pink mane rubs against my neck as her head rests on my shoulder. Then it hits me. She does have feelings towards me. But, when did this happen? Was she always like this, or was this really her feelings? I didn’t know what to think of it. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t think of it. My mind was racing with what to do next, lucky, fate found me and chose for me.
“Sir, if I’m not interrupting…” Came a voice behind me. I turn my head the opposite way of Fluttershys, and look up to the Marine that stands before me.
“The chopper is on it’s way, we should get ready.” Saying that he walks off back towards the group. With my new found information on Fluttershys feelings, I turn my head back around so that she on my left again.
“Fluttershy we should get moving, the chopper will be here soon, but thanks for talking with me though.” Saying that I turn my head and place a quick kiss on hers. I hear a little gasp as her head shoots up in surprise. She turns to me with her face in awe. I look at her and smile and her face turns from surprise, to a blushing shy smirk.
“Oh, okay.” I get up and a extend an arm down to her. She grabs my hand and pulls herself up. We walk the short distance back to the group as the black Helicopter appears in my sight, a little ways off shore. Fluttershy moves off and goes over to her friends. As I stand near my Marines.
“Nice.” Came a voice that sounded a little too familiar. I turn my head and I see a Marines who singled himself out from the others to talk to me. Dunniham.
“W-what?” I said becoming a little defensive. He crosses his arms and throws his M1 Garand behind him on his sling.
“I said nice, yeah I saw sir, no one else did though, don’t worry your little crush is safe with me.” Saying that he made a zipper motion in front of his mouth. I became very nervous, knowing that someone knows, but, at the same time I trusted him.
Soon enough the chopper arrived and we had dropped of my Marines at the Boston and we flew toward the Yarnell. When we landed, the Yarnell sailed off toward the Island in the Docks. Upon arrival we took the same raft as before to the beach and then hiked to the rocks.
“So, what should we look for?” A marine said. A few Marines surrounded him.
“Anything thats looks like something from a Battleship, anything that may have fallen off, anything that could be floating around in the rocks, just anything that makes these scrapes, legit.” The men broke up and began searching close to the coastline for any debris from the Missouri. I joined them. Charlie was on the other side of the scrapes checking them out.
“Paint.” He said. I turn to him and walk over.
“This is paint?” I say feeling the scrapes. But before he could answer, I pull my hand away, and sure enough, the tip of my fingers are coated with dried grey paint.
“Great, shes lost, has no crew, and she needs a paint job.” Charlie said putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head. Fluttershy and some of the other elements are checking the waters near the scrapes. I climb down on the rocks and find a flat surface for me to stand on, Rainbow Dash is searching on the same rock I landed on.
“Find anything?” I ask as I walk over to the end shes on. She turns her head around and looks at me. She wrinkles up her lips and shakes her head.
“All I found were these paint chippings.” I turn and look up at the scraps on the rock above. This really isn’t looking too good. The scraps look pretty big for a small dent.
“Uh, Charlie!” I yell. His head pops out from a rock and looks over to me.
“Yeah?”
“I think the Missouri, went,” I stop and turn around and point straight over Dashes head. “That way.” Turning back, he looks to where I pointed, and rests a finger on his chin.
“Yeah, okay you’re right, lets get a move on before she gets to far.”
“Okay, lets get going.” Dash flies of back toward the Yarnell and Charlie heads off, and I start the climb back up the rocks to the top of the Island again. But, unfortunately for me, as I was climbing my foot must of loosened a rock from the wall, and I lost my footing.
“Shit!” I quickly grab for another rock with my right hand,but when I do grab a rock, that one comes loose too. Now I find myself dangling from the rocks edge trying to get my footing again. It was a losing battle, I couldn’t get up. And to add insult to injury, I climbed so high, that, if I fell, I was going to break bones, important bones. My fingers clenched tighter to the cracking rock as I tried with everything I could use to regain my footing. My fingers were gripping so hard, I began bleeding.
“Charlie? Dash? ANYONE??? HELLO??!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. The rock shifted as I went down maybe a inch, adding more downward pressure to my hand. I couldn’t hold on for much longer. Then finally, my hand gave out, I fell from the rocks and fell toward my even rockier death. But, why wasn't I falling? I open my eyes to find that I appear to be floating in mid air, something was holding me by my arms. Fluttershy. I look up to hind the yellow mare holding me as she tried to carry me to safety.
After dropping me off on top of the grassy top of the Island, and I felt the grassy earth below me, I couldn’t help but stumble around for a bit. My head was still in, “SHIT SHIT SHIT I’M GONNA DIE,” mode as my feet seemed to have a mind of their own. Clearing my mind I stopped moving around as I regained my stance. Looking around I saw Fluttershy gasping for air. I ran over to her and gave her a bone crushing hug.
“Thank the lord above! Fluttershy, I can’t thank you enough, you saved my life!” I could feel her hoof tapping on my shoulder indicating that she was still dieing for air. I let go and let her regain herself. As she stood there, getting herself back together I looked around for the raft. It was still there, the Marines were just beginning to board.
“Y-you’re, quite, welcome, John.” She said as her breathing was still a little erratic. “I had to, do it, if, if I didn’t, t-then you were, gonna… … die… I guess.” She said finally calming her breath. I laughed a bit as I picked her up in another hug.
“Yeah, I guess you did.” Letting her go a little I let her come loose as her head and mine were face to face. Now was my chance, I lean in and our lips connected in a kiss, but rather quickly, because my mind was still racing a bit about me nearly dieing. Fluttershys lips were a lot softer than mine, and were the perfect size, not to big, and not to small, just right, well for me at least. Not like I’ve been going around kissing everyone. I guess it was the fact that, I was kissing a pony, on the lips, and the lips were almost human, it freaked me out a bit, but, I didn’t care.
Fluttershy was still a little tensed up, she wasn't expecting me to kiss her, but after a few seconds, she gave in to the temptation of my gesture and kissed me back. We kissed for what seemed like an eternity, but again, it only lasted a few seconds. I breathed heavily as I pulled away from Fluttershy as she reopened her eyes.
“I take back what I said earlier, I guess you can thank a little too much huh?” I said giving a little laugh, as did Fluttershy.
“Yeah, I guess and I, w-wait, whys my mane beginning to get wet?” My eyes opened a bit, just for my right brow to sink back down.
“What? Lets me see.” I let her go and she hits the floor. But as she Turned around, I got sick and shocked. Her hair was covered in this red liquid, blood, my blood. I quickly glanced down at my hand, sure enough, it was bleeding from the palm and my fingers. What the fuck were those rocks made out of, razor blades? I look back up to Fluttershy and I braced myself for what came next.
“Uh, Fluttershy?” I said rather cautiously.
“Y-yeah?”
“Uh, I don’t know how to say this, without freaking you out, but, your mane is covered in my blood…” And like that she dropped like a stone, and fainted.
“Ah, Shit.”
A Guest From The Sea
9/12/97...
1245 hours…
Saddle Arabia…
Rubbing my brows with my thumb and index finger, I try to formulate an excuse to explain to the crew members along with the rest of the ponies, of, why Fluttershy isn't moving and has blood in her hair. Coming to conclusions, I couldn’t find any answer that would cover this mess.
So, I kneeled down to the motionless pony, picked her up, and began my some what longer journey to the raft at shore. I wanted to kick myself for not being a little more passionate for the shy pegasus that I probably knew was a little skittish around, you know, blood and guts and stuff along those lines, but of course, when I kissed her, my mind was still raging about me nearly dying, that I totally forgot about her.
Coming over the top of a ridge, I spotted Charlies marines boarding along with the rest of the ponies. But, when they spotted me, they all dropped what they were doing and rushed right over.
“J-john! What happened?” Yelled Charlie rushing over to me first.
“Oh, you know nothing special except that, I nearly died!” I yelled right back at him. He gave my a confused look when he looked at fluttershy,
“Then, why is she down?”
“Cause she fainted.” I say, as the marines take the motionless pony from my arms and begin heading back to the raft. By this time, Rainbow Dash had gotten to me and instantly got into a defence mode.
“Why? Why did she faint?” Rainbow Dash said closing in on me. I lifted my bloody hand and showed it to her. She instantly backs off, then flew over again to inspect my hand.
“Ugh, w-why is your hand bloody,” she says, then her face changed from worried to fuming “wait, is this HER BLOOD?” She says pushing my hand away and wrapping her hoof around my shirt collar as my nose and her snout connect together as charlie backs off about a foot. My eyes and her eyes finally meet parallel as I could feel the tension in the air increase by every second that I looked at her.
“No! not at all, it’s my blood, my blood got in her hair because I was bleeding. Plus, she saved my life. See for yourself!” Saying this I push her off of me and show her my hand again, this time she looks closer. The gashes and cuts along my palm make her recoil back a foot as her ears flop down in embarrassment. Charlie also looks at it. Feeling sort of foolish, Dash drops from the sky and land in front of me.
“S-sorry John, I didn’t mean to lash out at you like that, it’s just that,” she looks away as if she is embarrassed to even look at me, “ I get really personal when someone hurts my friends, and I guess my emotions got the better of me.”
Not really wanting to have to deal with this at the moment, cause, you know my hand still hurt like hell. I walked past her while saying, “It’s okay.” as I sort of threw it over my shoulders, but, not really at the same time.
I made my way to the raft, jumped over the rubber bow, and found a place where I could sit in peace. Eventually the rest of the Marines got in and started the raft back up and pushed off the shore. As we made our way back I tried to see if I could some how stop the itching pain in my hand, but to no avail, I couldn’t.
But, since my hand hurt like fire, the ride back was more painful than I thought it would be. Probably cause I was in pain. Upon reaching the Boston, I climbed to the top of the deck and headed straight down to the med bay deep within the ship. I knew the ship like the back of my hand, so it didn’t take me long before I arrived at the white walled rooms of the medical housing area.
I moved to the counter and tapped down on top to wake the nearly asleep doctor who was slumped down in his chair. He looked up with his eyes half shut and yawned. But, upon seeing me his eyes opened up to full and he stood up out of his chair.
“Evening sir, it is evening, right? Whatever, what brings you here?” He asked trying to make his uniform look nice and clean from the wrinkles that he had created. I didn’t say anything, I just lifted my hand.
“Ah, I see, lets get that treated shall we?” He asked stepping aside and motioning for me to come with him.
“Yes, please, it burns, itches, stings, and probably more things, but I don’t really care, I just want to make sure it doesn’t get infected.” I followed him into a little room behind the counter. Inside the room was a table along with a few glassed cabinets that held what looked like glass containers full of medical supplies and gauze.
It looked more like a dentist office than a Doctors office.
He moved over to the far right side of the room and patted his hand down on the top,
“Here, take a seat sir.”
“Thanks.” I said as I jumped up. He turned around to one of the cabinets and began rummaging around for something. He hummed as he did so. Minuets went by, until he began a conversation.
“So,” He began, “How did the search go?” He asked as he lifted out a roll of gauze and a brown bottle with a black top.
“Oh, It was just peachy…” I said in a sarcastic kind of voice.
“It didn’t go so well?” He asked resting the supplies on table before returning to the cabinet.
“No, it’s not that, we found what we were looking for, it’s just that, well, you know, my hand…” I said looking down to my rather disgustingly bloody hand full of gashes and cuts.
“Oh alrightly then, by the way, how did you get those cuts?” he asked closing the cabinet with a click.
“Oh, I, uh, was climbing up this, damn wall, but the rocks I was using were loose, and I almost fell.” Now the doctor was going to work on my hand, his cold, clammy hand inspected my tears and cuts as he took a rag out and wiped away the wet blood that was still there.
“Uh-huh, go on, what happened next.” He asked reaching for the brown bottle of black liquid, or it looked that way because of the light.
“Well, Fluttershy saved me…” I said rather quietly.
Now he stopped, he looked up from my hand, and up to my face.
“Really?” He asked. His face was that, ‘I smelt something bad,’ face.
“Yes, she did, she may not look strong, but, beneath that fur is a different story, trust me she held me up for a good ten, uh, maybe fifteen seconds before dropping me off.” Now he looked back down and started dabbing the liquid on the rag,
it was alcohol. I knew what was to follow so I held my tongue. He began rubbing my hand with the soaked rag as the stingy sensation of the liquid began to burn the cuts of my hand and cleaned the rest of the dried blood away.
Good god, I hate alcohol cleaning, it’s one thing when you have a small cut on, maybe your knee, but when you have dozens and dozens of them, you can’t match that kind of stingy hell. Next after the rag, was the gauze. He wrapped it up tightly and carefully. Finishing with a knot.
“There you go sir, it will be good as new in a few days, give or take…”
“Thanks doc,” I got off the table and moved to the door, “I’ll see you around.”
“Alright, you too sir.”
9/12/97...
1525 hours…
open waters…
I clinged to the railing of the bridge of the Boston as I felt the waves crashing against the bow of the ship as we sailed in the suspected direction of the Missouri. I Looked over to the Yarnell as it sailed along with us pushing against the waves just like us.
Even though the Yarnell wasn't really part of my timeline, it was still part of my Navy. It was just that, it looked so foreign, but, at the same time, looked just like my ship. Even though this ships fate will be, long before his and if this, well, accident never happened, we would never have meet each other. We would have never meet these ponies. I would never had fallen in love with Fluttershy.
Which, brings up something else. The accident. Something was really bothering me. Back when we actually first meet the ponies, face to face, when they told us it was a accident. I wasn't actually angry at them. I actually was sympathetic for them. They were just trying to do something for the greater good of their world. Hell, we would have done the same if the roles were reversed. I had no hard feelings toward them for a honest accident. I could see why they felt so bad...
I move off the bridge and move back into the cabin. The sailors were hard at work, taking data and follow the invisible path of the Missouri. I went to the center of it all and looked out the windows and watched as the waves continued to splash around the ship metal hull, and seagulls swarmed of the bows of both mine and Charlie’s ship. But, other than us, nothing else was on the ocean, but of course, why should there be anything near us, were just little specks in a bigger picture.
Except the life raft two meters away.
Now, my eyes focused on the raft. I didn't notice myself, but, when I focus on things I sometimes get closer to them. So I found myself hitting the glass of the window before any of the ship mates even saw me.
But, luckily, one did.
“Sir, you see it too right?” A sailor asked. I looked to him with the same kind of face he was sporting. The, ‘Here we go again.’ face.
“Yes, yes I do, get charlie on radio, now.”
Author's Notes:
So, new chapter... what do you think, let me know in the comments...
Guest From The Sea, Part 2
9/14/97…
1425 Hours…
Open Waters…
I cling to the railing as I hear the sound of the spinning rotors of Charlie's Helicopter as I keep an eye on the drifter in front of us. I ordered our ships to stop and allow us time to keep the drifter in sight. I was nervous, a little too nervous.
My body was trembling, my forehead was sweating, and my palms became extra clammy. I wasn’t ready to find out what was in that boat, I truly wasn’t.
But I needed to, for the sake of the human timeline, I need to find out what's in that boat. I noticed the change in the choppers pitch and sound as I felt the wind coming of the sea and now the Helicopter. The chopper speed past the bridge and headed straight for the wooden raft.
Then it began circling around the lifeboat.
“Alright, I got the boat in my sights, deploying divers.” Came the radio that Charlie held in his hand. The chopper lowered down to nearly sea level and two men in diving gear jumped out and landed in the waters next to the boat.
“Alright I got eyes on someone, he’s a sailor.” Hearing that voice, my heart instantly was lifted from my anxiety and was flowing in the breeze, I was so happy I was almost about to scream out of pure joy and excitement, if I didn’t hear what came next.
“Captain,” Came the radio. Charlie and I looked at each other. Both me and him wore the same expression. The tone of the pilot sounded low and deep.Charlie clicked the radio on,
“What is it, what?” He asked, voice speed up with adrenaline.
“He’s dead.”
I looked at Charlie, his eyes were glassy and wide as he stared at the life raft that drifted in front of us. I did the same, my mind wasn’t clear on what to do next and neither was charlies. We just sort of stared at nothing for the longest time, until he snapped out of it.
“Uh, l-like do you mean, physically dead or like what.” He said into the radio.
“No sir, dead.” The radio came back.
“Like…. dead?”
“Sir, with all due respect, He’s deader than dead, he has what looks like a bullet wound to the chest, and the bottom of the raft is red and wet, his skin is almost as white as his uniform. He’s beyond redemption, he’s gone, passed, pushing daisies, five feet under, need I say more?” The radio said and clicked off. Charlie was choking on air as he fought the urge to scream. His fist that was holding the radio began clenching harder as is his eyes began twitching.
I began to feel a little uneasy next to him, I took a few steps back as I watched in horror as, my normally calm friend, began to unravel before my eyes.
His eyes became bloodshot as he was nearly shaking with rage, actually scratch that, he was shaking with rage.
“Return to the Yarnell, we have work to do.” He said lifting the radio to his mouth. He voice was scratchy and uneasy, like a new evil had been born. His tone was deeper than ever before.
“Captain, what about th-” The radio tried to say back, but was instantly cut off by Charlie.
“I SAID, RETURN TO THE YARNELL NOW!!” He screamed at the radio.
‘Aye aye Captain.” Came the radio before it turned off.
“Charlie, are, y-you okay?” I asked . He turned to me with his hand balled in fists with rage, the radio in his right hand began shaking nearly as much as him, before it was crushed.
“No, I-I don’t think I am…” He said, dropping the crumbled radio and let it smash to the ground. He began walking towards me, I would have backed up, but, a wall meet me as I push myself up against it.
“Charlie?” I said. I began sweating rapidly. He came closer, and closer until he was nearly right up against me. I could feel his rage pulsing from his body. His eyes stared right into mine.
If looks could kill, this ship would have been sunk, right then and there.
“Charlie please, can you give me some space?” I asked nearly trembling. He opened his mouth and tried to speak. But he couldn’t. He tried again, and this time, something did come out.
“If, we ever find the, this, ship… I want, your men, to locate and kill, whoever killed that sailor. And if, there is no crew, which is more than likely true…. I won’t stop, until I find, the BASTARDS, who killed them… and I hope, you will be on my side with this.” He stepped back from me and looked out over to the Yarnell.
“What do ya say?” He asked. I still wasn’t sure what his problem was, but, whatever it was, it had faded for the moment. Now, one thing is for sure about this whole situation… The crew is
dead. I know that for a fact. The ships crew wouldn’t let the Missouri run around free in uncharted waters, especially if it could hostile waters. So know that the crew is gone, and that sailor says so. We could well be facing, war…
“Yes, I will join you. Lets find this damn ship…” I said walking away from Charlie and walk down from the bridge and onto the top deck. I walk all the way to the front and watch as the life raft passes us by as the current carries it away.
I watch it pass the port side. The sailor inside was in a sad display. But, I could sense something was wrong with him. He seemed different.
I’ve seen plenty of dead bodies, but his, looked different.
Then I saw it…
In his Uniform, carved into his back, his flesh and blood shone brightly on his white uniform.
“Turn, Back, Now.”
Someone or something had carved words into the back of a dead sailor, I didn’t know what to say at first. My mind just couldn’t comprehend. Then, I didn’t feel anything at all. My body became engulfed in rage. My hand hands shook, my teeth slid against each other. Tears flowed freely from my eyes as I could feel reality slip away from me as thoughts filled my head.
Terrible, awful, demented thoughts. I imagined the killer, his legs broken, him or her bleeding out, and a knife in the side of there lungs. and connected to that knife was my hand. I laugh as I dig the knife further and further into their lungs as they begin to suffocate on there own blood.
“They,” I say after the raft floats by, “They, are going to pay, for what they have done.” I say. I turn on a dime. And look up to the top of the bridge.
“START THE ENGINES, NOW!” I scream. A near by sailor jumped back out of fright and nearly landed on his ass. The shadowy figure behind the glass of the wheel room saluted.
1825 Hours…
The next thing I knew, I was gripping onto the chains of the Boston and was watching carefully ahead. Scanning for targets, and if I see something, ill have it blown from the water.
I was a little too into it, for I didn’t hear the hoofsteps of a little yellow pegasus behind me.
“John?” Came Fluttershy. I turn around quickly and was about to scream at whoever interrupted me. But, upon seeing it was Fluttershy, I quickly dropped all the anger I held before now and let it all go. I dropped to my knees and looked at her in the eyes.
It was like, when I looked into her eyes, all my anger would be lifted away and wouldn’t return. I felt much better after seeing Fluttershy, let alone talking to her.
“Yes Fluttershy?” I asked in much smaller and softer tone. She looked like she was scared of something, scared of me. I couldn’t live with myself if I scared her, I guess, like Rainbow Dash, my emotions get the better of me.
“Are, y-you, okay?” She asks. I looked away and took a deep breath and counted to five, or ten, something like that and looked back to her.
“Yes, I’m, I’m fine… It’s just that, this whole situation, is driving me mad. And the dead sailor isn’t helping… You know…” I said trying to act as calm as I can. “I’m sorry you have to see me like this, I guess, I got a little bit of Rainbow Dash in me…” I say trying to be playful.
“Hmmm, what do you mean by that?” She says moving as bit closer to me, putting one hoof in front of the other, slowly making her way to my torso. “Are you quick to act, and lash out. Or,” She paused for some reason, “Just quick in general…” At first I didn’t feel like something was going on. But when I felt her chest was against mine I could feel the, well, whatever it was in the air, I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Uh, quick to act?” I said in a questioning voice. Her muzzle was a little close to my mouth, and either it was the wind of the waves passing us by, or, I swear I could feel her breath against my own.
“True, true, I could definitely see that in you.” She said, a blush forming on her face. I could definitely see some part of her was making her do this, but I could feel that another part of her was still trying to act shy, and be like her normal self. Put those two together and, well, it’s just cute looking on her. But what came next was a little too much for me.
“And I could truly see how fast you were to come onto me.”
Uh… oh boy, here we go…
Author's Notes:
Welp, here you go... I think this chapter was a bit dark, but, I think it's worth it... Plus, I think we are seeing a side of Fluttershy that we have never seen before.
The Ship of the Century
9/15/97…
1535 Hours…
Open Waters…
POV: 1stLt. Samuel J. Stone
Being part of the Marines is a rather tough job you know? Especially when you see how your job was done years ago, by the same men that you might see as old if you weren’t in the situation i’m in. Maybe before you were even born. And have it done right in front of your eyes was even, stranger.
Ever since we meet up with John and his ship. I always had this strange feeling, that I shouldn’t be around them. It was a gut feeling but still, it was there. I didn’t feel safe around them, like if I get too close to them, I might rip a hole in time and space.
All though the other marines on my ship have done exactly that, and got close to Johns marines, I might just be the one that goes and kills us all. But I digress, besides, I need to learn were working toward the same cause. We may have different back stories on the wars we fought, but, were all human here.
Thinking about all this stuff, I find myself walking around on the top deck of the Yarnell. I was sort of just pacing but not at the same time, I was walking up and down the length of the ship. The whole time keeping an eye on the heavy cruiser across from me.
The waves from our ship and his ship made it look like there were more waves than normal as we steamed on. Nearing the front of my ship I kept looking over the side and noticed something on the bow of John’s boat.
“What the hell is that?” I mutter to myself trying to get a better picture of what that out of place lump on the top deck was. It was yellow, and pink, it could have been on of the ponies, but it looked to weird.
“God dammit, I can’t see, wait…” The realization of what it was struck me. It was one of the ponies, and I had good reason to believe it was Fluttershy. But, she wasn’t alone. John was there. The captain. But faster than I had initially saw them, I quickly turned around, and looked the other way, a blush appearing on my cheeks, ‘Damn it.’
“They weren’t, no, were they?” I began a little conversation with myself filled with small talk, “Ah fuck it… I don’t care, his life not mine.” I was about to turn around and head back to the other end of the ship, when a sailor stopped me with his hand. I look at him, directly in his eyes, his face was white, his pupils were smaller than normal, and his mouth was wide agape.
“Uh, mate… ya’ll right?” I say, trying to get his attention, he seemed to be looking over my shoulder, towards the front of the ship. His hand rises up from his side and goes above my head. Then touches the top of me. At first I was a little spooked, but as I felt his hand turn, I turned with it,slowly turning around to look behind me.
I shouldn’t have done that.
POV: Captain John…
I’m not one for making out in public, you know, kissing passionately on a bench under a tree somewhere in a park or something like that. I was never one really for that kind of crap. If I ever do make out with someone that I love, I’d do it in private. But, I guess I could let this one time slide. I mean she was already on top of me, pushing me down onto the floorboards of the ship's deck. Her beautiful eyes staring into mine,eyelids turned downwards giving me a look of pure want.
But, just as fate were to find me in the most awkward positions, it came in the form of a miracle. Fluttershy was closing in closer to me, her lips growing closer and closer to mine as I wish I could meet her halfway, if I wasn’t pinned down like I was. Until her pupils darted up for a fraction of a second, looked behind me, then looked back to me.
Then, her eyes became extra small as her eyelids shot open and her bottom jaw nearly hit mine. She looked back up again and this time stayed up, looking at whatever was behind me.
“J-john, you m-might want to see this.” Saying that she stood off of me still keeping both eyes facing, whatever it was that was behind me. ‘Oh god what is it.’ I thought as I began to roll over onto my stomach. Boots could be heard behind me as I got up to my knee. They walked past as one stopped and held out a hand for me. I looked at it and grabbed hold while pulling myself up. I lifted my head up to see dozens of sailors, marines, engineers, and communication workers, all of which were looking directly in front of the ship.
I walked forward passing them as my eyes caught what was on the horizon.
“My god, it’s… it’s…” came a stuttering sailor pointing to the point of reference in front of us.
“It’s her.” I say gripping the chain railing while sticking my head out further than normal. My eyes focusing on the giant grey mass just off the bow. A voice came on over the loudspeakers, and it said something that I thought I would never hear, ever.
“Ship ahoy, just off the front of the bow!!! It’s her!!!” Buzzed the bridge. And just like that, just as it clicked off, the whole ship began moving as more shipmates came out to the bow to look at our prize. I backed off while still keeping an eye on the object. I kept moving until I was nearly right next to Fluttershy again. My heart began racing as I could hardly control myself with the amount of emotions rushing through my veins, and adrenaline running through my blood. I hear the trotting of multiple groups of hoof steps. I turn around to find the whole set of ponies standing behind me.
“John, is that, it?” Came the princess, her eyes looking behind me at the grey ship that loomed in the distance, the rest of the girls looked to. Of course I didn’t hear her I was still over ecstatic that we were even able to locate her. My expression said it all.
“John? Is that, Missouri?” Came a small yet lovable voice below me. And upon hearing her voice, my head quickly shifted to her, nearly scaring the crap out of her. My head twitched as my hands slowly raised up and came in contact with the sides of my head. They suddenly made a quick thumbs up as my smile grew ten times as big.
And just as if on cue, the whole lot of Soldiers behind me began cheering out loud and prowd. I turned around after putting my hands down and joined the sailors and cheered myself.
“Captain, if I may ask that you hold your celebration for now, and come back down to earth, we still have to catch her.” Came the princess behind me. Snapping out of my ecstatic state I turn around and look to the royals who stand before me.
“Right, we need to secure the Missouri before she leave our sight,” I turn around and whistle for the Sailors to stop cheering, which they did, “Marines get ready, We have a boat to catch.” and like that they ran back into the ship with a quick salute.
“John, this is Charlie… Do you read me?” Came a fuzzy sounding voice, that seemed to come out of no where. I look down to my bulging pocket and reach into find one of those hand held radios Charlie gave me. I pull it out and push the button so he could hear my voice.
“Copy Charlie, I read you loud and clear, you may send your traffic, over.” A second or two went by until he came back.
“Good, glad to see that thing still works. Listen up, I’m going to pull up alongside your boat and allow you access to my main deck, get your finest Marines ready, we gonna board the sonofabitch.” My face became white for a second and my heart skipped a beat due to the swearing remembering there were ponies near by. But when I didn’t hear any remarks come from the lot, I came back.
“Rodger your last, my Marines are already getting prepped, i'll see you in a bit, over and out.” I turned off the radio and looked to the group of mixed faces. I just so happen to catch a glimpse of Pinkie Pie, she was nearly shaking with excitement. I knew what she wanted. So I put on a smile and walked a little closer to her.
“Not now Pinkie, maybe later.” I said softly to the pink party pony. Her ears flopped down a bit in confusion, but soon shot back up after she knew what I saw talking about.
“Okie Dokie Loki!!! I’ll get it ready!” And upon saying that, her body was replaced by a cloud of dust that faintly resembled her outline. Every other pony looked at me in confusion, including Luna.
“What? She wanted to celebrate.” Then came a crowd of exaggerated reactions. I just smiled and laughed.
“John,” Came Celestia, “I hope I can trust you with stopping that runaway ship of disaster, before it’s too late, I am surprised to find the ship un harmed in any way, or is not in enemy hands. Please for the sake of Equestria, will you please stop that ship.” I shook my head.
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, you can have complete confidence in me. I will stop the ship, and I will get it under my arm, and I will control faster than you can say, well, anything. Thats not the point, please, just trust me, ill have the ship under control within the next hour or two.” I gave a salute and the bowed.
“Thank you John, your title as captain serves you well in this field, your soldiers under your command, are lucky to have you as their leader.” Princess Luna said with her head still hanging low.
“Thank you.” I said in return, and then nothing more. I walked off leaving the group to stare at the ship in the distance.
This means war
1600 hours…
Open Waters…
POV: Captain Charlie...
As the raft lowered into the ocean, a wave of unsettling silence fell over me, John, and both of our Marines. What was on the Missouri? Where was she going? What’s gonna happen when we get close to her metal walls? I couldn’t bear the anxiety. My heart pounded louder and louder into my ear drums as the raft hit the water and the engine revved up.
‘Ready sir?” Came a voice behind me, I turn around and look at the Marine who called me. I shook my head.
“Aye aye.” He said as he pulled the ripcord on the engine, it sputtered to life with a roar and we sped away from the safety of our ship. Closing in on the ghostly silent killer, I automatically grabbed my M9 and checked the magazine inside the gun.
“Okay good, full mag,” I slapped it in again and looked to the other captain in the raft, “John you got your 1911?” I asked after sliding my piece down back into the holster on my belt. John didn’t even turn around, he just whipped his hand down to his side and pulled away his dress shirt revealing a pistol in a holster.
Closer and closer we came, my stomach turned my heartbeat slowed my eyes darted every which way looking at almost everything at the same time, my raft, our ships, Missouri, and every deck I could see. When got the closer I began looking for a way up, unfortunately there wasn’t one. Luckily, we brought along a rope ladder and could easily throw it up to the top deck and climb our way to the top. I tapped on my Marines soldiers, they turn around with confusion. I made a peace sign with my right hand and pointed at my eyes, then to the ship. They got the message for they began scanning the ships decks while I focused on the bridge.
The bridges windows were black, and nothing was moving, as a matter a fact nothing on the ship was moving at all, besides the ship itself. As we pulled up to the starboard wall of the bow, our little raft bumped harmlessly against the ship. We cast our luck with the rope ladder and caught our way up to the top deck, I went first, followed by John, then my Marines, then his.
“When we get up there get your Marines down to the engine room, and pull this beast over. You got me John?” I yelled over the sound of the waves.
“I hear ya, and when you get up there, have your Marines get up to the bridge, check for intel! Got it?” He came back.
“Aye!” I yelled just as my hand touched the wooden paneling of the top deck. As I pulled myself up a bit I raised my head just enough for my eyes to peek over the wall. I scanned the area and looked for any life.
The mighty 16 inch cannons stood above the wooden decks and seagulls circled above the bridges antennas. I pulled my way under the chained fence and snaked my way onto the deck. Standing up, the sure mass of the battleship finally struck me.
The ships guns, it’s tall bridge, the decks, the anti air cannons, the two CIWS systems, the- wait… CIWS cannons? I re adjusted my vision to a small yet stand outish lump on the top decks of the ship. There was one on each side of the ship, behind the second main battery cannon, stood a 20mm CIWS Anti Air Defence system. MY body was washed over with heat, my face turned white as my confusion was nearly incomprehensible. Why was my tech on this ship? This was a World War two Battleship, not a destroyer, it made no sense. Then I remembered something, something important.
The Missouri was upgraded, in 1984. She was given better radar systems, defence/ attacking weapons, and faster electronic warfare weapons. But this raised a problem.
Johns men couldn’t work this ship let alone even half, my weapons were not of their century, they were part of mine. Even if it were possible, me and John couldn’t split both our crews in half and have both halves come together and work, it just wasn’t possible.
This whole time, John and the rest of the Marines were coming up.
“Charlie? are you alright, you don’t look good?” Came John behind me, his hand came in contact with my shoulder. I turned around and looked at him, my face made him cringe.
“This isn’t your ship anymore mate,” I said removing his hand for my shoulder.
“Wait, what do you mean,”Not my ship?” He asked as the the Marines took off, leaving us alone.
“In 1984 and 1985, the Missouri was upgraded with modern tech, my age tech, from my ship. It was called Modernization. She was put into a dry dock and was nearly taken apart piece by piece. Her systems were replaced with new age technology along with weapons and defences.” Upon saying that I pointed to the CIWS systems. He looks up and his chin could have hit the deck if he was on all fours.
“Those were not installed when you heard about her getting built. After her involvement with world war 2 she was decommissioned, but was put back into commission and was given modern tech to make her more reliable.” He continued staring at all the new modern changes that were done to the ship. He seemed to be smiling. Then what really caught me off guard was what came next.
He laughed.
“Oh god, this is amazing!” He yelled. I looked around like I wasn’t the only one seeing this,but I was. I walked closer and began talking.
“How is this good? This ship we can’t possible pilot, it has mine and your tech put together into one, our men can’t work together, they have different training.” Now he stops laughing and looks directly at me.
“Charlie, let me ask you something, what are you?” At first I didn’t know how to answer the question, and spat out the first that came to mind.
“A sailor?”
“Yes, what kind of sailor?”
“A United States Sailor?”
“Good, now look at this ship, this ship was built in my time, and still exists in your time. She is the product of nearly 50 years of combat excellence,and your telling me that, not only we can’t sail this ship, but our men can’t work together because they got different training?”
“Well, yes.” I say rather quickly, I kind of wanted to hear what he had to say next.
“Listen here, we are all sailors of the United States, and this ship was made by the masters of war whom have proven that title for a long time, whether you like it or not, both our ships are a lot similar in more ways than you give them credit for.”
“Like how?” I asked, only to be stopped by an abrupt jolt from the ship, it began slowing down. He snapped his fingers and pointed down to the top deck.
“Like that. If they can stop this ship, they can sail it, all we need to do is get a select few people that can work together and give them specific jobs that they major in. We may not have a full crew, but we don’t need one. And if need be, they can teach each other the basics. ” After listening to his, “speech” I tried to understand where he was coming from.
His idea wasn’t to impossible, maybe we can give it a shot once we pull this ship over.
“Okay John, you got a deal, we’ll split up our crews and assign different jobs to different people, I just hope for your sake this works.”
“Don’t worry it will.” and like that he walked off, I followed him.
We walked through the ship, we moved along the long decks, passing all the different weapons old and new, while marveling at the ships beauty at the same time. It was a great feeling of security, being on this ship, as if this ship was some sort idle we looked up to. I guess you could say I felt like a Million bucks at the time.
Reaching the top decks and the bridge, I looked over the side at the two ships sailing ahead of us, that seemed to be slowing down. I opened the bridge doors, and looked inside.
Then, all hell broke loose.
I could make out the Marines we sent up here to gather intel, they seemed to be staring at something, something that smelt of death. One of them turned around and looked at me and John, tears trailed down his face, his eyes were red and his M16 lay at his side.
“S-sir, you might want to have a look at this.” He said moving out of the way,letting the light from the open doorway flood in and shine on whatever was lying on the ground.
Then my heart fell out of my chest and exploded on the ground. My eyes focused on the pile in the corner of the roof. All I saw was a hand gripping a un loaded M9, bullet casings were near the feet off all the Marines that were standing up.
“Dear god, w-what the FUCK HAPPENED!!!” I scream out.
The rest of the Marines move out of the way, showing the full picture. It wasn’t just one man dead, it was a whole group, there bodies were bullet ridden,dried blood stained there uniforms like dried paint, and they lie on top of each other in a pack. I walked closer to them my mind racing at epic speeds. I lean down to one of the sailors dead bodies, the one with the M9.
He was young, maybe 23, maybe younger,his eyes were blue, his hair was cut above his eyes, and his mouth held a perfect set of teeth. His face was white and his face wore an expression of two emotions, confusion, and rage.
I trail my eyes down his body until my eyes meet his name tag.
“Pvt. Carson… Oh, shit.” I whisper to myself, luckily no one heard me.
I covered up his name tag with another hand and stood up, still making eye contact with the dead man. Now raised a new problem. Carson, was the problem. My mind began recalling memories from when I first meet John.
Carson, was John’s Last name. My entire body went into panic mode as heat flashing began shooting up and down the entire length of my body.
“John, did you have a son?” I ask cutting the air of the silence that again swallowed the room. I could here a small bit of stuttering until his answer came back.
“Yes, why do you ask?” My mouth began to open up as my mind raced for an excuse to say.
“Just wondering.” God I’m stupid. “Men,” I said looking at my Marines that were looking at the bodies. “Clean them up, give them a proper burial, move them off the ship, I can't stand looking at them anymore,” I could see there facing changing into to a worrying state. “I know you don’t want to do this, but, please, hurry.” The men put down their rifles and went to quick work moving the dead bodies off the bridge.
Off course, me and John didn’t stay around for too long, we left the bridge after five more minutes looking at the dead sailors, and stood outside watching the waves of the ocean, while reflecting on the bodies.
We didn’t talk for what felt like ages. Until John broke the silence,
“Charlie, rally your men,” His voice was shaking, and so was he. “ And I’ll rally mine, get them on this ship, and get them ready to fight. We are going to find out who did this, and when we do, we are going to murder them in any way that it’s possible. Maybe even ways that are impossible.” This entire time he was looking over at our ships. “For this act against the U.S. will not go unnoticed, whoever they are, wherever they are, they are going to die.” Now he turns to me, his face was nearly beat red, his eyes were wide and his pupils were smaller than peas.
“Are you going to help me?” I didn’t say anything, I stuck out my hand, and he connected. And we shook on it. My mind had the same exact mindset.
“Neither the past, nor the present, no boundaries, no excuses, no problem.” Saying that, I stopped shaking his hand and made a salute. He returned it,
“Hoorah.”
END OF BOOK ONE