Five miles to the North of the Firebase
One hour later

High above the sea, and below the clouds that stretched across to all sides of the horizon, a Northrop-Grumman MQ-4C Triton scanned the area with it's wide-angle camera, searching for the wooden boat that had been seen earlier. It was quickly found, being a white-grey ship on the dark blue sea, with its billowing sails providing a stark contrast to the water surrounding it.

The camera rotated as the drone turned, blending in easily with the clouds just above it. The vessel was close to shore, and, as a small rowboat coasted back to the boat, the camera turned to see that a group of ponies, numbering thirty-two in total, had disembarked. Those ponies were now headed towards the forest, while the MQ-4C moved its camera to track the ship. All seemed well to the drone...

... Twelve miles away, the operator had simply noted the moving guards into the 'Net' system, and then forgotten about them in order to continue tracking the ship as it pulled the small rowboat up via a series of ropes, the few ponies inside disembarking.

"I wonder why a few of them got out?" The technician next to him wondered aloud.

"Maybe a bathroom break." The operator joking added. "I don't think it matters much, anyway. If they're headed towards the forest, they're probably not a threat. Thirty-two of the bastards will last an even shorter time than eight hundred."

The technician shrugged. "Cheers to that, I guess."

The USS Spruance sat at rest in the water, its turret aimed out towards the wooden boat eight miles away. The aiming position of the 5-inch (127mm) deck cannon was continually updated by an infrared laser emitted from the MQ-4C, always in a position to blast the large wooden ship out of the water. The captain, however, had another plan.

Several minutes later, as the wooden boat came into easy view five miles away, a single MQ-8 Fire Scout lifted off of the rear helicopter platform of the Spruance. It had a large speaker array mounted on it, generally used for anti-riot measures, but also useful in conventional systems as well.

A mile away from the Spruance, two additional MQ-8s lifted off of the USS Hasley. Both of the latter were armed with a pair of M2HB .50 caliber (12.7x99mm) machine guns mounted on snap-on side wings, along with a single M260 7-tube rocket pod fitted with the aging - but still effective - Hydra 70 rocket mounted on the belly.

The latter two hung back while the first one went forward, painstakingly piloted by a Technician aboard the Spruance towards the ship. He turned on the speakers as he approached the Fire Scout to within two hundred yards of the ship. The ponies on the ship, naturally, had noticed him by this point. The technician's close in view via the camera showed what looked to be gigantic ballista mounted at regular intervals on the deck, as well as below. Various types of ponies, mostly pegasi, were visible on the deck. Several took to the air as the Fire Scout slowed to a halt, staring at the small, unmanned helicopter.

The technician pulled the microphone up, before looking at the 'Net' unit's box that displayed what he would say.

"Attention Equestrian guard forces." He began, his voice amplified through the speakers across the long-distance wireless connection. "You are outnumbered and are in danger of being obliterated if you proceed further. Strike your colors" The technician almost cracked up at the old phrase, but held his demeanor "and stand down."

Not a second later, a shouted voice echoed from a unicorn that stood at the rear of the boat.

"We shall not give in, and your evil will be eradicated from the shores of Equestria!" The voice said.

The technician shook his head, turning around to face his partners.

"They're not taking it." He said, broadcasting it over the 'Net' unit as well.

"Weapons free." The reply from Captain Henderson stated over the 'Net' unit.

The technician turned back to the terminal, quickly imputing a series of commands into the Fire Scout he controlled, ordering it to move back as the armed ones moved forward. At the same time, the Spruance started up her engines and turned towards the boat, for the inevitable result of the MQ-8 attack.

The first MQ-8 was three hundred yards away when the first spear from a ballista launched from the ships towards it. The six-foot-long pole was topped with an iron spearhead, which glanced off of the front of the MQ-8 as it turned away. The second and third lanced outward, one managing to leave a small imprint on the aluminum skin of the UAV, before the helicopter quickly flew out of range.

Seconds later, the two MQ-8s flew in, slowing to a halt as they began to circle the ship. The two M2HBs on each helicopter fired, causing the light helicopters the shudder as .50 caliber rounds were blasted from the front towards the ship. However, the bullets were stopped by a light yellow barrier, causing ripples in the surface of the mysterious wall.

"What the hell?" The technician said as the round failed to impact, instead striking some sort of barrier. It almost looked like a shield, something straight out of a video game he used to play. Suddenly, he noticed one detail: Many of the unicorn on the ship had the bright glow around their horns that showed when various Telekinetic and other 'Magical' attacks had been observed.

"They must be generating some type of shield. Damn." The other operator to his left commented. "Fire a couple rockets."

Two lightweight Hydra 70 rockets lanced forward, the 8.7 pounds of explosive in each warhead detonating against the barrier. It seemed to crack and then shatter under the assault, letting the rounds from the browning machine guns through. Bullets lanced across the deck, striking ponies and shattering wood. Several spears from the ballista lanced outward, but none reached the helicopters with any accuracy.

The two helicopter began to circle the ship, the incendiary rounds that were loaded one for every five regular bullets striking the deck, causing several small fires to break out.

Twenty seconds after the initial attack, half of the ponies previous seen on the deck were dead, with fires beginning to blossom everywhere on the ship. By this time, the machine gun fire had tapered off the conserve ammo. Two more Hydra 70 rockets launched towards the ship, tearing two holes right at the waterline, and causing water to surge into the ship.

Thirty seconds after the attack, the ship had fire engulfing the sails. The fires on the deck had been beat out by various ponies, some with what seemed to be strong gusts of wing out of nowhere. Several pegasi took off of the deck, going straight for one of the MQ-8s.

"Oh, hell no." The technician said, readying the machine guns again.

The M2HBs on the left MQ-8 opened up again, firing nearly point-blank into the four pegasi guards in the air. The 12.7x99mm bullets punched straight through the ineffective armor, three of the guards being swatted out of the sky. The third one, however, was trickier. It did a small roll in the air, moving over the stream of bullets and putting on a burst of speed. It quickly closed speed with the MQ-8, swinging a spear tipped in an iron head into the MQ-8. It hit nothing vital but circuitry, cutting off the connection to the left machine gun.

"Fuck! Getting an error on the port MG!" The technician nearly yelled. "Clark, shoot this bastard off my nose!"

"On it!" The other technician replied.

The second Fire Scout looped around the ship, quickly moving to an angle where it could hit the pegasus, but not the other UAV. A quick burst of rounds hit the guard, an incendiary round containing magnesium breaking as it went through the wing of the guard, causing a fire to quickly grow. The pegasus screamed as - apparent she - plummeted towards the water, striking it seconds alter and bobbing to the surface.

The USS Spruance was only a mile out at this point, having rushed towards the area as fast as it could. With the wooden ship beginning to fill with water and visibly tilt, two RHIBs (Rigid-hulled Inflatable Boats) were quickly lowered from the helicopter pad and into the water, quickly taking off at a hundred kilometers per hour towards the wooden boat.

Fires were out of control on the deck as the hundreds of holes chewed in the hull by fire and bullets (and the two massive holes now far below water from the rockets) allowed thousands of gallons of water to rush in. The list was approaching forty-five degrees at this point, and it was at the three minute mark of the battle that the ship, weakened by fire and the rockets, split apart, the two sections quickly vanishing underwater.

Almost one hundred and twenty ponies were on the surface when the RHIBs arrived on-scene. They quickly began pulling waterlogged ponies out of the sea, several of whom fought back. They were quickly ferried to the Spruance's helipad as fast at the tiny boats could move. The two remaining attack MQ-8s were quickly piloted back towards the Gerald R. Ford, as word spread across the 'Net' system about the battle that had just been 'fought'.

Forgotten, in all of the haste, were the ponies that had been offloaded onto land.

Author's Note

I try to put things in metric whenever I can, but keep in mind that I am American. I use both when it applies, such as with Americans, but I generally switch to my very poor metric conversion when I am talking through the Russian viewpoints.

Anyway, aside from all of that, tell me what you think of this little chapter's fight scene.