private After Destiny

[Chaton 3,765]

Amber's view passed between everyone in the room and she stepped forward into the middle of the group.

 

"I think if we all just calmed down, put the weapons away..." She gestured to all of the guards. "...then we can sort everything out with a bit more of a level head, yeah?" She turned to Scarlett, curiously. "But I think the real question is what happened with dialling the 9th Chevron?"

 

Scarlett, slightly less tense then a few moments ago, turned towards Amber and said "Finally, another sane person. I'm not quite sure what happened with the gate, but I'm sure we'll find out soon. I hope we do."

 

 

The mare, after some impatient tapping at her suit's cloaking system's activator on her wrist, blinked as she watched the battery meter shoot right back up to 100%.

 

How the--?!

 

She glanced around herself, and below in case anypony had seen her. But no one was even nearby, let alone looking her direction.

Shrugging, she reactivated the system and veiled herself once more.

 

Scarlett couldn't help but chuckle a little once she knew the suit had recharged. She recognised that technology, very much so.

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

(Phone so yeah)

 

Emerald's spell hit the moment of no going back and shot off in the direction of Scarlett, the spell missed by a few inches and blew a sizable hole into the concrete. The spell left Sapphire in a state of exhaustion she fell to her knees. She proceed to speak but nothing but pants and heavy breathing was all the noise she was making, she saw the looks of those around and felt embarrassed she tried to raise herself to her feet but collapsed as the spell had all but exhausted her...

[Chaton 3,765]

Emerald's spell hit the moment of no going back and shot off in the direction of Scarlett, the spell missed by a few inches and blew a sizable hole into the concrete. The spell left Sapphire in a state of exhaustion she fell to her knees. She proceed to speak but nothing but pants and heavy breathing was all the noise she was making, she saw the looks of those around and felt embarrassed she tried to raise herself to her feet but collapsed as the spell had all but exhausted her...

 

Scarlett stood her ground as the spell flew past her. She slowly turned her head to face Sapphire with a look of slight annoyance, and also a little bit of awe. She hadn't seen magic like that in a long time. The pony before her then collapsed, and she knew exactly why. She quickly went over to Emerald, crouched down and spoke gently into her ear "Are you all right? Complete magic discharge or temporary?"

[Child Of Darkness 285]

'Have mercy on me these ponies are crazy. I came here to do science and learn and I nearly get disintegrated by a magic projectile. On top of that this whole facility nearly collapsed. This just isn't my day.

 

"Okay, now it doesn't look like we are trying to kill each other. You want to know what was wrong with the Gate don't you? If I can get everyone to promise that they won't try and destroy Specter, I'll call him out of hiding and explain what went wrong. Are we good with that? No complaints?"

[Chaton 3,765]

'Have mercy on me these ponies are crazy. I came here to do science and learn and I nearly get disintegrated by a magic projectile. On top of that this whole facility nearly collapsed. This just isn't my day.

 

"Okay, now it doesn't look like we are trying to kill each other. You want to know what was wrong with the Gate don't you? If I can get everyone to promise that they won't try and destroy Specter, I'll call him out of hiding and explain what went wrong. Are we good with that? No complaints?"

 

"Hey, you've got my vote on letting the ancient construct that just saved all our lives explain what is wrong with the giant circular portal that could lead to anywhere in the known universe or beyond."

 

Scarlett moved over to Ivan and whispered "I put a protection spell on Specter, if someone breaks the promise I can tell you it wont work.

[Child Of Darkness 285]

"Hey, you've got my vote on letting the ancient construct that just saved all our lives explain what is wrong with the giant circular portal that could lead to anywhere in the known universe or beyond."

 

Scarlett moved over to Ivan and whispered "I put a protection spell on Specter, if someone breaks the promise I can tell you it wont work.

"Alright then. Specter! Come on out again."

 

Specter appeared once again behind Ivan's shoulder. "What now?"

 

Ivan: "Do me a favour and explain to these people what went wrong with the Gate."

 

Specter: "Sure. Pay attention, I'll try and simplify this as much as I can. Basically what happened is that a small string of code within the 9th Chevron that provided the stability needed to preform a link became slightly corrupted. If this was simple corruption due to time, or a security feature present to prevent unknown species from misusing gates is unknown, but the latter is not improbable. Happened to me. If left to continue dialing, It would have imploded and created nothing short of a singularity, or a mini-black hole. I've isolated the corruption and the repair process is already underway. In just about half an hour, the gate should be functioning as intended."

[Chaton 3,765]

"Alright then. Specter! Come on out again."

 

Specter appeared once again behind Ivan's shoulder. "What now?"

 

Ivan: "Do me a favour and explain to these people what went wrong with the Gate."

 

Specter: "Sure. Pay attention, I'll try and simplify this as much as I can. Basically what happened is that a small string of code within the 9th Chevron that provided the stability needed to preform a link became slightly corrupted. If this was simple corruption due to time, or a security feature present to prevent unknown species from misusing gates is unknown, but the latter is not improbable. Happened to me. If left to continue dialing, It would have imploded and created nothing short of a singularity, or a mini-black hole. I've isolated the corruption and the repair process is already underway. In just about half an hour, the gate should be functioning as intended."

 

Scarlett thought for a moment before responding "That, actually makes a lot of sense. I'll assume that the reason the gate got corrupted and then didn't get fixed is because there is no functional DHD here. I know for a fact that the DHD's that usually come with gates are in charge of updating gate information."

[1Bit 1,531]

Amber was still in a state of shock staring at Specter. In all her years, she'd never seen anything like it and it boggled her mind just witnessing Specter coming in and out of view.

 

She was almost afraid to speak up. "So are you some kind of super AI or something?" she stared curiously at Specter

[Child Of Darkness 285]

Amber was still in a state of shock staring at Specter. In all her years, she'd never seen anything like it and it boggled her mind just witnessing Specter coming in and out of view.

 

She was almost afraid to speak up. "So are you some kind of super AI or something?" she stared curiously at Specter

"I guess you could say that. I don't have the answers to the meaning of life or anything, I can't predict the future or time travel. But I'm very life like in terms of personality and actions, up to a point. Are you in awe or something because you've never seen an active, working, living ancient AI drone before?"

[Flamestreak1990 1,172]

Flamestreak woke up after dozing off for several hours after the presentation yesterday.He Had been supposed to report to the gate an hour ago  "Shoot, hopefully they haven't left yet, I REALLY need this job." He sprung up beating his wings frantically as moved toward the gate. The Pegasus flew rapidly until Flame was about to near a wall, Learning from yesterday debacle, he stopped to a halt just short of the metal surroundings. He triumphantly shook his hoof "Not today." He didn't get to celebrate his little victory for long knowing he would have to explain himself, Flamestreak directly trotted to Scarlett after landing.

 

@@Ethan Sawyer,

 

"So sorry I'm late, Please don't fire me."  Flame was practically pleading with the mare.    

Edited December 20, 2015 by Flamestreak1990

[Unicorncob 5,681]

The mare continued to watch, cloaked in her mysteriously recharged armour, as the ponies below continued their complicated science speak.

 

Can't they just say 'we done goofed but we're fixing it' like regular ponies?

 

She turned her head as the new pegasus showed up, a stallion who obviously slept in this morning. She snorted.

Somepony's in troubleeee~!

[Chaton 3,765]

Flamestreak woke up after dozing off for several hours after the presentation yesterday.He Had been supposed to report to the gate an hour ago  "Shoot, hopefully they haven't left yet, I REALLY need this job." He sprung up beating his wings frantically as moved toward the gate. The Pegasus flew rapidly until Flame was about to near a wall, Learning from yesterday debacle, he stopped to a halt just short of the metal surroundings. He triumphantly shook his hoof "Not today." He didn't get to celebrate his little victory for long knowing he would have to explain himself, Flamestreak directly trotted to Scarlett after landing.

 

@@Ethan Sawyer,

 

"So sorry I'm late, Please don't fire me."  Flame was practically pleading with the mare.    

 

Scarlett stood there for a moment. Completely bewildered. After a couple more moments of looking but finding no response to the current situation she said "Uh, it's fine. Just go, find a seat, or something."

 

 

"I guess you could say that. I don't have the answers to the meaning of life or anything, I can't predict the future or time travel. But I'm very life like in terms of personality and actions, up to a point. Are you in awe or something because you've never seen an active, working, living ancient AI drone before?"

 

"No, we haven't come across any Ancient technology that is sentient in any sort of way. Unless you count the replicators as Ancient technology."

[1Bit 1,531]

"So wait, you're like SUPER old?" Amber was completely fascinated, more than before. "I thought all the Ancients were gone or something. Eh, maybe I should have paid more attention at Corbulo." She groaned at her own incompetence. "Sorry, I'm just rambling. You kinda start doing that when your job consists of standing on your own all the time."

[Chaton 3,765]

"So wait, you're like SUPER old?" Amber was completely fascinated, more than before. "I thought all the Ancients were gone or something. Eh, maybe I should have paid more attention at Corbulo." She groaned at her own incompetence. "Sorry, I'm just rambling. You kinda start doing that when your job consists of standing on your own all the time."

 

Scarlett silently muttered "We call them ancients for a reason..."

 

Suddenly, the entire base started shaking. She looked towards the gate and realised, that it wasn't the source. She quickly rushed to a console and a voice channel was opened between the overhead ships and the base. She said "What's going on?"

 

The ship replied "Icarus base is under attack, evacuate everyone!"

 

Scarlett quickly jumped up and hit the evacuation alarm "Specter, is the gate ready?!"

[1Bit 1,531]

"Wait, under attack? What?!" It all happened so fast and Amber's mind was still reeling uncontrollably from the shockwaves. "What the hell could be attacking us? I thought we were put out in the middle of nowhere so this kind of thing WOULDN'T happen!"

 

She stood up and ran for the door, but it didn't open for her upon approach. She continually pressed the manual release, but to no avail. "We're locked in too? No, no, no...come on!" Before she could do anything, another blast made the whole room shake and she was thrown off her feet. She barely had enough time to look up and see the pile of steel crates before they all came crashing down upon her.

 

She blacked out.

[Unicorncob 5,681]

The mare heard a rumble in the room as the attack struck the site. She raised an eyebrow with curiosity and glanced around.

 

An invasion, is it...?

 

She watched curiously at all the panic, seeing one of the mares freaking out and trying to restore control to no avail. Obviously, trying to get involved herself would compromise her disguise.

 

A sudden blast pulsed through the air, knocking her off her hover and hitting her against one of the steel containers. No doubt the sudden and sharp trauma against her head would knock her unconscious and knock her cloaking system offline.

[Flamestreak1990 1,172]

 

The ship replied "Icarus base is under attack, evacuate everyone!"

 

Flamestreak ,who had been counting his blessings after being let off the hook for his tardiness, jumped at the news. "UGH can anything ELSE go wrong today?!" He sprinted toward the door only to blocked by multiple steel crates that had formed a barricade around the exit. He dashed to dig them out, willing the final crate away before looking on in horror at a mare who had been pinned underneath the wreckage. "Dear Celestia.." Flame immediately picked up the mare and flew her to door attempting open it, The door wouldn't budge. after a few moments of paranoia, another mare violently hit her head on the side of one the crates. "Another one?! Wings don't fail me now...." He lifted the other mare and slowly flew to Scarlett

 

 "I found these two mares unconscious, they were trying to escape but the door is locked! Is there any other way out!?". 

Edited December 23, 2015 by Flamestreak1990

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

Sapphire had taken this whole time to recover from the shot she fired earlier that would've made the door go away damn it. She brought herself to her feet and was now barking orders on her radio "what do you mean they snuck up on you?! You're on red alert... no...yes of course...well get on it." Sapphire turned to the soldiers in the room "anyone have explosives if they do blow the damn door." She turned to the others (most of you guys) "non combat personnel are to stay here." She then ran over to the door with two of the guards trying to arm some explosives...

[Chaton 3,765]

Sapphire had taken this whole time to recover from the shot she fired earlier that would've made the door go away damn it. She brought herself to her feet and was now barking orders on her radio "what do you mean they snuck up on you?! You're on red alert... no...yes of course...well get on it." Sapphire turned to the soldiers in the room "anyone have explosives if they do blow the damn door." She turned to the others (most of you guys) "non combat personnel are to stay here." She then ran over to the door with two of the guards trying to arm some explosives...

 

Scarlett, for the first time in a while lost her cool. "Sapphire, we need to dial the gate. I'd ask you for permission but I don't think that really matters, once the gate is ready we are dialling."

 

She sat down at the terminal and began working furiously on the gate to speed up it's restoration, she began by hooking it up to the update servers the DHD's use.

Flamestreak ,who had been counting his blessings after being let off the hook for his tardiness, jumped at the news. "UGH can anything ELSE go wrong today?!" He sprinted toward the door only to blocked by multiple steel crates that had formed a barricade around the exit. He dashed to dig them out, willing the final crate away before looking on in horror at a mare who had been pinned underneath the wreckage. "Dear Celestia.." Flame immediately picked up the mare and flew her to door attempting open it, The door wouldn't budge. after a few moments of paranoia, another mare violently hit her head on the side of one the crates. "Another one?! Wings don't fail me now...." He lifted the other mare and slowly flew to Scarlett

 

 "I found these two mares unconscious, they were trying to escape but the door is locked! Is there any other way out!?". 

 

"The base is shielded, so that means no beaming out. I'll assume all the shuttles are gone so that only leaves one way out. The gate. I'll be dialling it as soon as possible but could you get everyone to evacuate to the gateroom? It's the most reinforces in the base"

[Child Of Darkness 285]

Scarlett silently muttered "We call them ancients for a reason..."

 

Suddenly, the entire base started shaking. She looked towards the gate and realised, that it wasn't the source. She quickly rushed to a console and a voice channel was opened between the overhead ships and the base. She said "What's going on?"

 

The ship replied "Icarus base is under attack, evacuate everyone!"

 

Scarlett quickly jumped up and hit the evacuation alarm "Specter, is the gate ready?!"

Specter: "What?! No! The gate is not ready for safe dialing. You can dial and activate it but I have no guarantee that you will survive, let alone where in the universe you will drop at. Dialing that gate is is a one way ticket. It's very very likely that you will never be able to return home again."

 

Ivan: "If you all are going through that gate I wish you luck. Because I won't be going, someone has to stay behind and make sure this gate stays operating correctly. And to make sure nothing unwanted follows you through. Whatever is attacking us is most likely after Ancient tech, but if they get in this room, I have a little surprise waiting. Specter, I need the access override codes Section-AYY Subsection-LM Sequence-AO."

 

Specter: "At once sir." Specter uploaded a string of code into Ivans personal tablet.

 

Ivan: "Should they get in here I can overload the gates warp driver to created a heavy back flow of unstable energy. Every organic, synthetic and mechanical being in a 50 miles Radius will be vaporised. But the gate and base will still stand. But it would take no less than 50 years before the gate will work again. 50 years before you can get back if leave if we're lucky. Well it's that risk or guaranteed death."

[Flamestreak1990 1,172]

"The base is shielded, so that means no beaming out. I'll assume all the shuttles are gone so that only leaves one way out. The gate. I'll be dialling it as soon as possible but could you get everyone to evacuate to the gateroom? It's the most reinforces in the base"

A​ye-aye Captain" Flamestreak softly put the two mares down and bolted away directing anypony in sight out the gateroom

After a few minutes slowly more and more ponies were flooding out the room, It all was going without a hitch until the ship jerked powerfully causing a numerous ponies to get flung off there hooves, One these ponies hit out flame the sky causing him to fall toward one of the steel crates he moved over. The Stallion opened up his wings attempting to regain flight. No such luck, he landed into the crate and letting out a cry of pain as his left wing emitted an audible Snap!​ while colliding with the steel box.

 

He crashed stiff on the floor looking at his injured wing and swiftly looking away, His wing had been gruesomely bent sideways, A part of his bone was popping out his skin, blood was seeping out the new holes opened by the bones

 

The Crimson Pegasus laid prone for 10 minutes before gingerly standing he slowly went back to Scarlett fighting the urge the to go unconscious ​

 

"I-I got as many ponies......a-as-as I could" He looked down at the two ponies he saved.

 

"Can you tak-take th-these two som-somewhere safe..." ​ H​e managed

Edited December 27, 2015 by LittlePip1990

[1Bit 1,531]

Amber could only make out harsh white lights in her eyes and constant ringing in her ears as she slowly began to come to. Muffled voices were screaming around her and she desperately tried to use her hooves to block out the oncoming orchestra of blood-curdling sounds. But it was no use, and the more she came to, the more she began to register the pain the crates had inflicted upon her. 

 

Her entire bottom half felt incredibly numb and her right hindleg seemed to bend at an awkward and unnatural angle which merely set her mind into a frenzied panic.

 

"A-ah, BUCK IT HURTS!" Amber howled the moment she tried to apply pressure to her hindleg. She felt helpless against the constant explosions that rocked Icarus around her.

[Unicorncob 5,681]

The mare's hearing slowly came back, only to have it taken up by the sounds of muffled yelling and explosions.

 

...I don't remember making explosions...this time.

 

She slowly raised her head, groaning from the migraine pulsing in her skull with every beat of her heart.

 

 

"A-ah, BUCK IT HURTS!" 

 

The sudden cursing made her jump, and she turned to see a mare clutching her hindleg. No point in going invisible now, considering she'd likely already been seen. Besides, what could that mare do?

 

Plus, upon further inspection, the camouflage control on her ankle seemed to be damaged.

 

Buck, I must have landed on my leg in that fall.

 

She decided to make herself useful to the mare and trotted over. "Anything I can do?" She finally spoke, her voice tinny coming through her helmet.

[Chaton 3,765]

Specter: "What?! No! The gate is not ready for safe dialing. You can dial and activate it but I have no guarantee that you will survive, let alone where in the universe you will drop at. Dialing that gate is is a one way ticket. It's very very likely that you will never be able to return home again."

 

Ivan: "If you all are going through that gate I wish you luck. Because I won't be going, someone has to stay behind and make sure this gate stays operating correctly. And to make sure nothing unwanted follows you through. Whatever is attacking us is most likely after Ancient tech, but if they get in this room, I have a little surprise waiting. Specter, I need the access override codes Section-AYY Subsection-LM Sequence-AO."

 

Specter: "At once sir." Specter uploaded a string of code into Ivans personal tablet.

 

Ivan: "Should they get in here I can overload the gates warp driver to created a heavy back flow of unstable energy. Every organic, synthetic and mechanical being in a 50 miles Radius will be vaporised. But the gate and base will still stand. But it would take no less than 50 years before the gate will work again. 50 years before you can get back if leave if we're lucky. Well it's that risk or guaranteed death."

 

 

"And of course that means that we cannot risk dialling Equestria..." She quickly checks her tablet "And user access for the system is down. Dammit. Specter, can you reroute all power we have to the gate, I'll have to dial it manually." She knew she couldn't dial an inhabited planet, and she also knew that there would not be another chance to dial the 9th Chevron. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she quickly ran to infront of the gate and lit up her horn properly for the first time in over a century. Technically. She grabbed the chevron dial in her magic and began rotating it.

 

After about half a minute, the entire base began to shake a lot more, and then suddenly the gate locked on. She realised that she had used the earth point of origin by impulse and dialled that. She quickly dived out the way of the unstable vortex and then amplified her voice out the speakers on the base "Evacuate through the gateroom now, the gate is open!"

[Child Of Darkness 285]

"And of course that means that we cannot risk dialling Equestria..." She quickly checks her tablet "And user access for the system is down. Dammit. Specter, can you reroute all power we have to the gate, I'll have to dial it manually." She knew she couldn't dial an inhabited planet, and she also knew that there would not be another chance to dial the 9th Chevron. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she quickly ran to infront of the gate and lit up her horn properly for the first time in over a century. Technically. She grabbed the chevron dial in her magic and began rotating it.

 

After about half a minute, the entire base began to shake a lot more, and then suddenly the gate locked on. She realised that she had used the earth point of origin by impulse and dialled that. She quickly dived out the way of the unstable vortex and then amplified her voice out the speakers on the base "Evacuate through the gateroom now, the gate is open!"

Ivan: "You people are crazy. Well someone has to make sure the gate doesn't die, and nothing follows. I'll stay here and make sure that you all get through the gate safely. You most likely won't survive without my help."

 

Specter: "He's right. With the gate not being in full working order the chance it breaks while inside are high. But we have no choice. All I can say for sure is that not in a million use I am going through an unstable gate first."

 

Ivan: "Specter you are one fussy machine. Good luck going through the gate. If you're gonna go. Better go now."

Edited December 27, 2015 by Child Of Darkness