After the teleportation into space, the E.T.F Starflier and her crew completed final systems checks that it was spaceworthy. Vector was satisfied, getting their course from command and making sure that it was correctly inputted into the ships computer.

Equestrian space was rather peaceful. Ships were minimally armed, mostly in case of petty disputes between captains. In the early days, the Empire had maintained a rather heavily armed fleet of ships that patrolled its borders. No external threat came however in thousands of years and this fleet now has dwindled to a core force of rather old, endlessly retrofitted warships that hung in space over Equestria itself. The crew fat and lazy, never being called to action.

What was not outdated however was the engineering division of the Empire that kept its many worlds connected. Once a colony was set up and established the first thing built was always the massive gates that orbited the planets allowing for safe docking and atmospheric escape from these worlds.

After those were in place, safe routes between worlds were then established for regular shipping. The only ships capable of making jumps between systems were ships fitted with a jump drive, like the E.T.F Starflier and a few others. Most ships had only conventional in-system drives, which meant using jump gates. These huge structures, ten times bigger than the gates that orbited planets, were built second and took many years to construct. However they allowed safe passage through the void of darkspace between established colonies, each jump taking somewhere between a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the distance. Each one was built reasonably far out on the edge of the system, to mitigate the effect of any disasters, rather than close to colonies.

Once in a system, the first thing that got connected was the jump gate to the established colony via a transport lane. These lanes, miniature versions of jump gates, accelerate ships through their often dead straight path from one point in the system from point to point. Also helping ships avoid things such as asteroid belts or other in-system hazards that could get in their way. Finally once this was in place, other lanes may be built to connect to other points of harbour within a system, such as a rest stop, shipyard or in rare cases there are systems where multiple planets are suitable for colonisation, so have a transport lane connected between the two. Ships making their own way off these beaten paths was often considered dangerous and unnecessary. For a start no food made it not something on captain’s priority list and it these sorts of trips were left to ships in the exploration division.

In the case of the E.T.F Starflier, they would travel as far out on the conventional transport lanes and jump gates as they possibly could to conserve their fuel, then once in the furthest established system, use the drive to then jump the ship to the new system that had been mapped for them. The captain had called a meeting whilst the ship began its journey out of the Equestrian system, he had been briefed himself just before departure as was standard protocol. There had been incidents in the past where ponies had believed often the intended destination of these colony ships contained some sort of garden of Eden style planet made of food. No such thing had been discovered yet.

In the briefing room, Vector Thrust sat at the head of the table. You’d expect that table to be full of highly sophisticated notepads and other devices his staff were using, right now however it was just full of plates. Nopony missed the chance at a meal. Through his chews Vector relayed the orders he had been given just an hour ago.

“Everypony know why they’re here?” he asked.

There was just a selection of nods through stuffed and swollen cheeks as his staff ate.

“Good...uuurrppp!...excuse me. We’ll be taking the Starflier through conventional jumps right out to the north eastern reaches of the Empire. Embarr colony is the last system with a gate. It was only completed eleven months ago, their transport lane just three so we can use that to get to the colony. Once there we are to dock with the orbiting station, make final system checks then make the drive jump out into the unknown. Once we arrive standard procedure to establish a new colony. We’ll be here for a good long while, so make sure the crew is sufficiently fed and also morale is high.” he finished, at the same time finishing his place of food. Another one was brought to him straight away by a small drone and placed on the table.

“Have we got a name for the new colony yet?” one of the many staff at the table asked.

“Yes, Llamrei. Apparently a pony of repute back in the day. Fought in wars.” he replied.

The staff looked puzzled, eventually another asking “Where do these names come from captain? Nopony I know has such a bizarre name.”

It was a fair question, thinking over the colony names Vector couldn’t quite put a hoof on it himself. Sleipnir, Arion, Rhaebus, they were all very odd pony names indeed. Even going back thousands of years in the history of the Empire it was hard to discern when ponies might have given themselves such names. He had heard a rumour these names were chosen by Celestia herself, who was so ancient she may well have lived at a time when these names were common. He shrugged and simply answered “I don’t know, perhaps from a time so old these were normal pony names. In any case the name always comes from command.”

The pony who asked just gave a dissatisfied frown before going back to their meal.

Vector got up, he had finished his second plate. Before another could be brought to him he left the room. “I need to check on something, I’ll be back shortly.”

The meeting wasn’t over, but he had to make sure their core was safe and sound. Taking the elevator down he came upon the small room he had before, looking out the glass at Starflier.

The massive pony had gained even more now, she really was a sight to behold. A massive blob of a mare that put Equestrians to shame. He envied her in a way, to be that big must be rather wonderful. As he observed, he noted she was utterly silent, undergoing a feeding session. The tubes pumping her full of the fattening liquid. He took a quick look at her face through the connecting video screen but he thought it best to leave her be, making a quick mental note of her expression. She seemed satisfied.

Returning to the meeting he sat back at the head of the table, another plate of food being offered up to him. Vector began to eat, his fat frame easily taking on the food he was pushing down his throat. It would be a reasonably long journey, he hoped the crew wouldn’t cause him too much issues. They seemed like a good bunch. He just felt uneasy about their core. Nopony was ever happy, so he was told, about the situation they were forcibly placed in. Starflier however was perplexing him. Most ponies accepted their situation once they reached that size, that there was nothing they could do and they were trapped. Starflier however, when he had observed her on the screen despite being a face of not much but blubber still looked absolutely furious even after all this time. He was...concerned.

In the meantime he had a meeting to get back to and a voyage into the void to oversee. He just hoped nothing would impede it.