UEG-RD MISSION MAR-21-2508-052
STATUS UPDATE...
UEG-RV HOOK LINE EN ROUTE TO PEACE SYSTEM...
PRIMARY ASSETS
===> RAINBOW M. DASH: CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER
===> RARITY BELLE: COMPUTER SPECIALIST
===> APPLEJACK A. APPLE: ENGINEERING AND SHIP SPECIALIST
===> FLUTTERSHY BREEZE: MEDICAL OFFICER (TEMP. ASSEST)

DIRECTIVE A: LOCATE COLONY VESSEL UEG BON VOYAGE
DIRECTIVE B: DIAGNOSE AND REPAIR COMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT

TIME TO CONTACT: 3 MINUTES...

“Fluttershy... It's me... I know we don't talk much, but I don't know who else to talk to. I don't know how I'm supposed to... It's just all wrong. All of it. It wasn't supposed to be this way and now... Now I don't know what else to do.”

The audio log dies out from static, taking the voice of a terrified stallion with it. Watching the audio log from a hologram projected from a small device on her shoulder is a thin, yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane and tail. Her blue eyes are wet, her throat is tight and hot, and her body is shaking to where the chair bolted to the floor is vibrating. She wishes she can see her brother's face, but all she has is the audio file.

The one and only audio file.

It has been so long since she has seen Zephyr Breeze that there has been days where she forgets what he looks like, and the same goes with her parents. But the voice she has heard does not sound like her brother. Zephyr Breeze has always been mellow, go with the wind, dopey kind of pony, and the only time he really gets excited is when he plays with someone's mane or mixes drinks. Fear is just not in Zephyr's nature.

But this voice? This voice is terrified. Every time she replays the audio she hears the hopelessness, sees the tears, sees him tremble. Someone or something has him scared, and when she got the message she did not hesitate or hold any reservations in convincing her superior to allow her to join the team that has been assigned to investigate the Bon Voyage, a ship that she knew he took as part of the United Equis Government's initiative to colonize other worlds.

Now she is sitting on the deck of a rescue vessel christened Hook Line with a few other ponies, dreading what her brother will tell her. The ship is one of the oldest in the UEG's fleet and from what the captain has said this run will be its last before it is scrapped. The deck is relatively bare, with just enough seats for the two pilots, the four passengers and the captain. Each seat has its own computer terminal and the bridge has a large window giving everyone an unobstructed view of streaks of white and blue zipping past them like the lights of a tunnel.

“Are you okay, darling?” asks a unicorn mare with a Canterlot accent. The unicorn has a light gray color, sparkly blue eyes, finely curled purple mane and tail, and light blue eye shadow, and even Fluttershy has to admit she is a beautiful pony with her elegant build and perfect posture. Her suit is a simple light weight, white in color with gray pads, which blends nearly perfectly with her colors, and has a small computer attached to her hoof.

“She don't look fine to me. She's been playing that same audio ever since she got here. Plus she ain't spoken a single word,” says another mare with a heavy Ozark accent. This one is an earth pony, orange in color with a thick blonde mane and tail, and she is by far the largest in height and muscle mass. Her suit has a thick dark blue under layer with strips of metal covering her limbs, spine and ribs. She also has a sealed container on her saddle with a wrench and hammer painted over it and a beat up Stetson, but it is hanging off the back of her neck instead of on her head.

“Well, we're almost at the ship, and she can see that this is all just a case of homesickness and a bad relay,” says another mare with blue fur and a rainbow mane and tail, which seems only possible through a meticulous dye job. This one is also the smallest and leanest of the group, which is surprising since she is wearing a heavy suit model composed of dark padded under layer with plates of metal stitched to it, and on her hoof are two glowing orbs. One pale blue and the other dark blue. And she is also wearing a saddle that has a machine gun attached to it with boxes of ammo and medical packs.

“ETA three minutes,” says one of the two stallions sitting at one of the control seats at the front of the bridge.

“Good,” says the rainbow mare. She goes up to a panel on the wall and pushes a blue button next to a speaker. “Three minutes until landing! Everypony load up!”

Her voice carries over the ship through other speakers, and Fluttershy tenses in her seat for a moment before shakily inspecting her gear. Her thin white and red striped suit has no tears and her six medical boxes are secured on her saddle, which include quick stitch kit, medical foam, burn gel, gauze, pain pills, and adrenaline. Lastly she checks her Medical Assessment Device, which is a small cylindrical device that shares a spot on her shoulder next to the holographic displayer, and it is connected to her brain via a chip so she can keep her hoofs free. All she has to do is look and think at her target.

The MAD turns on with a green glow and a pair of thin lines move up and down and side to sign on the unicorn.

SUBJECT: RARITY BELLE
VITALS: NORMAL

She moves to the earth pony.

SUBJECT: APPLEJACK ASHLEIGH APPLE
VITALS: NORMAL

Last is the pegasus.

SUBJECT: RAINBOW MARIAN DASH
VITALS: NORMAL

The circular door to the bridge slides open and a green unicorn stallion with a cropped white and silver mane enters, wearing a sharply creased dark blue uniform with gold bands on his shoulders and cuffs. His golden badge reads: TROTTER.

Upon his arrival he goes straight towards Rainbow Dash.

“I want this mission quick,” says Trotter. “In. Out. Done. This ship was supposed to be scrapped last week and the longer I'm here the longer I don't get a new one.”

Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. “Well, you should talk to her then.” She points at Applejack. “I'm just the gal with the gun. She's the one with the tool box.”

Trotter looks at Applejack. “Make the repairs quick.”

“I ain't gonna make any promises,” says Applejack. “When I fix something, I fix it right. Besides, we haven't gotten any signal from the ship or the colony, so I reckon we got a mass relay failure that can take days to fix.”

“Great,” huffs Trotter. He then looks at Fluttershy. “As for you? Since you're a medic make sure they don't hurt themselves.”

Fluttershy nods and Trotter looks at the lights zipping by them.

“How much longer?” asks Trotter.

“ETA... Now,” says the second pilot.

The white and blue lines disappear and a dark planet floating in front of a blood red star appears. Seeing this brings a shiver up Fluttershy's spine, and Applejack whistles impressively.

“Ain't that something,” says Applejack.

“It looks... unfriendly,” says Rarity.

“That will be Onyx for you,” says Trotter. “It comes with being in a locked rotation. But it is a good staging point for other colonization efforts.”

“Yeah, yeah, that's nice, but where is the Bon Voyage?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“We were only able to jump to its last known location,” says the first pilot. “It should be close, though.”

“Close as in right there?” asks Applejack.

She points towards a long, balloon shaped ship with four fins on the back, each with a cylindrical engine. The red light from the star reflects off of the white paint of the ship, and near its nose is a green wreath surrounding a crossing sun and moon as its symbol, and next to the symbol is: UEG BON VOYAGE.

It is also completely dark.

“There it is,” says Trotter.

Rainbow Dash goes back to the speaker. “All right, ladies we're here! You better be ready!”

“Why is it dark?” asks Rarity.

“They might be conserving power, but it still don't look good,” says Applejack.

Fluttershy's ears droop as she puts her hoofs to her mouth, and Trotter places his hoof on the shoulder of the first pilot.

“Get us close and hail them,” says Trotter.

“UEG Bon Voyage, this is UEG-RV Hook Line responding to your distress call. Respond,” says the pilot.

Nothing.

Fluttershy is feeling sick, now.

“Try again,” orders Trotter.

“UEG Bon Voyage, this is UEG-RV Hook Line responding to your distress call. Respond,” says the pilot.

Again. Nothing.

“Boost the signal,” says Rarity.

“I give the commands!” snaps Trotter. “Boost the signal and try again.”

The pilot adjusts the dial on his control panel. “UEG Bon Voyage, this is UEG-RV Hook Line responding to your distress call. Please respond.”

Nothing.

Tears are flowing down Fluttershy's cheeks and her insides feel like they are being sucked inside a black hole.

'This can't be happening,' thinks Fluttershy.

“This ain't right,” says Applejack. “A complete communication blackout? On a colony ship and a planetside colony? That don't happen. That shouldn't happen.”

Suddenly a garbled, deep voice comes through the speaker on the pilot's panel. It is shrouded with static and a high pitched whine that brings everyone on the bridge to cringe and fold their ears down, but it disappears after a few seconds, leaving everyone in a state of silence and sore ears.

“What the hell was that?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“That sounds like an encoder program is malfunctioning,” says Rarity.

“An encoder does not sound like that!”

“It does when the program is broken, which I can polish it while Applejack fixes the relay. This will be a very quick job.”

“Good,” says Trotter. “Take us to docking.”

“Yes sir,” says both of the pilots.

Their ship glides forward and Applejack walks next to Trotter.

“What about the planetside colony? Shouldn't we check on them, too?” asks Applejack.

“No,” says Trotter. “Our mission is the ship, and since the encoder program is part of the problem we will be getting signals from both planet and ship once Rarity fixes it. You two play your part and we can all go home and I can get my new ship.”

After couple of minutes of gliding, the front of the ship is covered in a sheen of blue, and a beam launches out from the bottom of their ship and connects to a rectangular slot that has black and yellow stripes covering it.

“Gravity tether engaged... Auto docking initiated,” says one of the pilots.

Trotter sighs and paces in circles, and Rainbow Dash walks towards the bridge door.

“Meet me at the ramp when you are ready to go,” says Rainbow Dash.

The group nods, and Rainbow Dash leaves the room. After the door seals, the voice returns from the speaker with louder static and a higher pitched whine, and Fluttershy grits her teeth and covers her ears, barely able to hear the screams of pain and the swears. Then the ship lurches forward with a boom that rattles her insides and the force pushes her back in the chair. An alarm sounds with red lights flashing along the walls and a mechanical voice monotonously calls out: “Warning! Impact imminent!”

“What are you doing!?” shouts the first pilot over the chaos.

Fluttershy's eyes water and she sees Applejack and Rarity holding on to chairs while Trotter leaps towards the second pilot and uses his magic to through him out of his chair.

The dock shield to the Bon Voyage slides open, but it is opening too slow for the speed they are traveling.

“Warning! Impact imminent!”

“We're going to crash!” says the pilot.

Trotter screams and slams his hoof on the second pilot's panel, prompting a series of metal slabs to snap over the bridge's observation window and putting the room in a state of red tinted darkness. Then a jerk throws Fluttershy out of her seat, and she skids and bounces across the floor until she hits the back of the chair Rarity is holding on to, bringing a sharp pain to her ribs. Screeching metal, snaps and pops assault her ears, and another hard tug throws her and everyone else to the side, where she hits the wall and is crushed by Applejack, followed by sparks showering the both of them from the shattered emergency lights.

After that, it all goes dark and silent on the bridge, with only a few dots of light from the control panels and chairs.

“Warning! Ship hull damaged! Analyzing damage... Sectors 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 at 10%. Flying is inadvisable.”

“What. The fuck. Was that?” wheezes Trotter in the pitch black. “Where is Joystick?”

Applejack shifts on top of Fluttershy, apologizing quickly when Fluttershy groans from her digging her hoofs into her sore body. She then flicks a light on and scans the room.

“Is everypony okay?” asks Applejack, illuminating Rarity.

“I'm a little sore,” says Rarity.

Applejack helps Fluttershy up before she turns the light to the pilot. “How about you?”

“I'm okay,” says the pilot.

Fluttershy activates her MAD and scans Applejack and Rarity. They have elevated heart rates and their breathing is erratic, but other than that they are okay. She turns to the pilot, Road Map, and finds that he has a few cracked ribs from the belt that kept him from flying into the window.

Applejack then shines the light on Trotter, and Fluttershy turns her MAD on him, and both gasp when they see his bloody face and cracked horn, and he is slouched against the wall with a growing pool of blood underneath him. A scan reveals all of the ribs on his left side are broken, his hip is cracked and his organs have been punctured.

“Oh no!” Fluttershy gallops to him, fumbles with her medical pack and quickly injects him with some adrenaline. “This is awful! I can't fix this with my medical kits!”

“And the medical room is wrecked thanks to Joystick,” says Applejack. She shines the light around the room. “Where is he, anyway?”

Rarity gags. “I found him.”

Applejack shines her light on Rarity, and then trails down to see a the second pilot's body right by a computer. His head is broken wide open with blood, bone and brain matter all over its corner and the floor. His one remaining eye is wide open and his tongue is hanging out of his open mouth.

“Well shit. So much for getting answers out of him,” says Applejack.

Fluttershy peels open Trotter's uniform, swallowing when she sees his ripped skin and the white of his bone poking out.

“I'm sorry, this is going to hurt,” says Fluttershy. She pulls out a white and blue tube and sprays foam all over his wound, which solidifies in seconds.

Trotter barely makes a sound, and he puts his hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder and tries looking her in the eyes.

“I'm going to kill Joystick,” he mutters.

Suddenly, a thin yellow light pierces the door to the bridge, starting from the top and gradually moving down. When it is all the way down, the light returns, carves out a circle in the center, and after the circle falls down with a loud thud red light bleeds into the room. What quickly follows are two sets of hoofs that push the door open and Rainbow Dash rushes in, blinding everyone with her light.

“Is everyone okay?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“Joystick is dead and the captain is about dead,” says Applejack. “And the computer said the medical area was destroyed, along with basically the whole ship. So, the only way to save the captain is to take him aboard the Bon Voyage, find their medical facility and have Fluttershy operate on him.”

Rainbow Dash shines her light on Trotter. “Oh shit.” She then shines her light on Joystick. “Oh shit!” She puts her light on Applejack. “Well, I also got some bad news. We haven't heard any kind of noise outside. No signs of anypony coming to check on us. No alarms. Not even a reply when we sent out an emergency signal. Its like we're on a ghost ship.”

Fluttershy is in the middle of bandaging Trotter when Rainbow Dash says this, and she tenses and tries looking over her shoulder as she works, but a sharp hiss of pain from the captain brings her back to him.

“Dang nabbit,” says Applejack. She runs her hoof through her mane. “I guess we got no choice. We gotta fix the relay and Rarity's gotta fix the scrambler program if we want to get off this rig. And we got to get the captain patched up quick.”

Rainbow Dash nods. “We're going to do this one at a time. Captain first, then the scrambler, and then the relay. I got Thunderlane and Roid working on cutting our way out of here since the ramp went to hell. They should be done soon.” She then snaps her hoof up to her ear and scrunches her brow. “Copy that.”

She puts her hoof down and points at Applejack. “That was fast. They cut a way out for us. You get to carry the captain to the medical facility and none of us are splitting up, got it?”

“Gotcha.”

“Of course.”

“Mhm.”

Applejack goes to Trotter, and with the help of Fluttershy he is put on her back, and Road Map leans against Fluttershy for support as they walk out of the room, following Rainbow Dash and a couple of other earth ponies wearing armor similar to hers. With the emergency lights bathing the halls in red and the occasional spark flicking out the ship looks like its corridors are pulsing. This brings Fluttershy's steps to a crawl and she whimpers quietly.

“No time for whimpers!” snaps Rainbow Dash. “You can whimper all you want when we're off this ship!”

Fluttershy bites her tongue and remains quiet the rest of the trek. When they reach the docking area, Fluttershy sees four more ponies, two pegasi and two unicorns, all stallions and wearing the same kind of armor as Rainbow Dash. One of the pegasi is white with a dirty blond mane and red eyes, and he is a head taller than Applejack with brutish muscles. Unfortunately he also has tiny wings. The other pegasus is charcoal in color with a cropped gray mane and bright gold eyes. He also has a blowtorch attached to his hoof's padding.

The first unicorn is similar to Thunderlane with colors, but his mane is more messy compared to Thunderlane's cropped style, and his eyes are blue. The second unicorn has a grayish blue coat, a pale blue mane slicked back and blue eyes. He is also has a thick build, but is nowhere near as big as the white pegasus.

In front of the group is a hole where the boarding ramp used to be, and outside dim orange lights barely give them a glimpse to the metal floors and walls outside.

“Okay, listen up!” hollers Rainbow Dash. “We have got to take Captain Trotter to a medical facility inside the ship immediately! Then we will escort Rarity to the bridge so she can fix the scrambler, and then Applejack so she can fix the relay, and then we will call for help and get off this tub.”

The group nods.

“All right, let's get going.”

The group quickly and quietly files out with the pegasi up front with Rainbow Dash, and the two unicorns in the back with Fluttershy and Road Map.

They go through the dock slowly, scanning the walls and the carnage of the crash with their flashlights and weapons. But the only sign of there being any life before are luggage cases scattered all over, with some broken open and clothes and papers scattered all over the floor. At the end of the dock is a large door that opens without trouble when Rainbow Dash presses her hoof against a terminal.

“Welcome Chief Security Officer Dash,” says the computer.

After the door slides open the group enters a spacious lobby with benches, more scattered papers and clothes, and luggage. And directly in front of them, painted in blood over a mural of the Bon Voyage flying through a starry space is one word:

Author's Notes:

Another old story that I found and polished and decided to post just because.