Through the portal

Through the portal

Chapter 8

Counterattack

I still lay in bed with Octavia at my side, when it happened. Luna had left several minutes ago, and I was almost ready to drift of to sleep again, like the mare at my side. Suddenly, the sickbay was bathed in red light, and a siren went off throughout the ship. I snapped right up, almost knocking Octavia out of bed. She looked indignantly at me, but understood that I had not meant to do it. Her second eye had regenerated in a matter of hours, while her hind leg had regrown. It was still hairless, but it had regrown nonetheless.

I stumbled over to an intercom on one of the wall, hitting the button so on it so hard, that I thought I might break the thing.

“This is Selina, what the FUCK is going on? Are we under attack?”, I bellowed into the microphone. A voice I did not recognize answered me.

“No ma'am. This is the bridge, Ensign Goldshield. We have just received word that the bunker is under attack. The ship is preparing to launch. All personal is ordered to pony the battle-stations, while we wait for the Commander.”, the female voice from the bridge answered me.

“What god damn Commander?”, I demanded, while I looked over to Octavia. I could see the realization in her eyes. Just before Luna had left, she had told me, that the mare had brought my family to the bunker, and said bunker was under attack now!

“Well who do YOU think has been appointed the commanding officer of this ship? Get a grip girl, and get your sexy ass up here already!”, I heard Frank practically shout at me.

I could not believe it. I had been made the commanding officer of a vessel I barely knew? I was not even fully aware what this ship was capable of. Humanity had similar ships back on earth, but I was sure they didn't compare in the slightest, when it came to firepower. Either way, I threw a glance back over my shoulder to Octavia.

“Can you keep them safe?”, I asked, and she nodded. In a gray flash of light, she was gone, no doubt to protect my family back at the bunker. I took a hand held radio that lay on a counter and stormed out of the sickbay. On the way to the bridge, Frank filled me in.

“Status report!”

“Well, I made it impossible for them to track us down, but it seems they have not yet noticed that one of their ships is missing. That's why I could connect the mainframe to their mission planning network. Looks like they can only communicate by using burst-coms. Audio communication doesn't seem to work over long distances, for whatever reason. Anyway, I intercepted a message that came from one of the alien ships. It said that they had located the Equestrian hideout, and were planning to bombard it. Their orders were changed, and now they are going in to capture as many Ponies as possible. According to this, their main objective are the Princesses....”, he finished.

I had figured as much. They were the embodiments of the moon and the sun, not to mention that they were the oldest beings in existence. If they could get their dirty tentacles on them, they would have enough power to last them forever I guessed. That was something we had to prevent at all costs....

I finally reached the bridge, and got in without a problem. The two Unicorn guards didn't even try to stop me. What I saw, did that in their place. It was impossible. The “Bridge” of the ship was a room that was dizzying. It was circular, and the terminals to control the different subsystems of the vessel, were spread all over it. I saw Ponies sit at terminals that were clearly hanging on the ceiling.

“Up here Selina.”, I hear Twilights voice call out to me. There she was, hanging upside down on the ceiling from my point of view. It was enough to make me more then a little dizzy.

“And how am I supposed to get up there?”, I asked, trying to keep the small dinner I had in the sickbay where it belonged.

“Just kick off the ground. There is some kind of field in the center, that negates gravitation.”, Frank explained, and I saw that he was sitting on a Terminal on my right. He didn't bother to look over his shoulder, but studied the readouts on his screen with more then a little interest.

“What's up?”, I demanded, approaching him from behind.

“I told you, the bunker is under attack. All we are waiting for, is your order on what to do.”

“But why me? I'm just a mere Captain. I shouldn't command this vessel.”, I protested.

“Because you are the most experienced strategist we have, AND the highest ranking officer on board. Besides, I trust you.”, Luna shouted from a Terminal on the right wall. She was not operating it herself, but studying the readouts over Janes shoulder. I looked at Jane, but she just avoided my gaze, deliberately trying to ignore me. I decided to just go with the flow. There wasn't anything I could do about it anyway.

“LAUNCH! All personal get ready for battle.”, I ordered in a booming voice and a several other voices shouted their affirmation. While they did, I made my way to Janes station.

“Engines at full capacity.”, A stallion shouted.

“Lift off imminent.”, a mare shouted back.

“Shield emitters charged and ready. Weapon systems activated and loaded.”, another mare shouted. I paid only minor attention while I jumped towards Jane. It was a strange feeling to just float towards my target. I could see that Jane was stealing glances at me, out of the corner of her eye, but she still ignored me. I wouldn't have any of that.

Once I landed, I was glad that Luna helped me to steady myself. Again my stomach was about to turn upside down. The additional help also avoided an embarrassing fall, when the ship finally made it's way out of the lake and into the sky. The floor was shaking under my feet, and only Lunas magic stopped me from stumbling into a red coated Earthpony mare.

When the shaking finally stopped, I nodded to Luna, who understood my request and strolled away. Once she was out of earshot, I lay my arms around Jane from behind, effectively stopping whatever she had been doing.

“I am sorry Jane.”, I muttered into her ear. Not for the first time did I enjoy being so close to her, even though I would have never admitted it to myself.

“Sorry doesn't really cut it this time Selina. You played quite dirty. I don't know if I can forgive you that easily.”, she responded, still looking at her screen instead of at me.

I sighed, but did not release my grip on her. Instead I leaned in closer, and softly blew into her ear. I could see an instant blush appear on her face, which made me giggle a little.

“Your quite the tease, you know that?”, she said, hard pressed to keep her arousal and anger out of her voice.

“I learned from the best. So, how about it? Can you forgive me? I just wanted you to be safe.”

For the first time since I had entered the room, Jane turned around to me. I had not let go of her yet, which was why we ended up being very close to each other, when she spun around in her chair. I had not planned on it, and I certainly did not expect it to happen, but suddenly Janes hands held my head in place. Even though I was much stronger then her, I somehow could not take my eyes off of her. A deep and passionate kiss followed, that left my knees a little wobbly. When we finally parted I am quite sure, that my face looked vacant for a moment.

“Now I forgive you.”, Jane said blushing hard. In that moment I realized something. Even though I might not have been a lesbian, I did enjoy this very much.

Shaking my head, I decided to keep it at that for the moment. As a superior officer, I could have punished her for it, but instead I somehow yearned for more. I sighed, nodded, and turned around to check in with Luna. There were a few things that did not add up here, and I was sure she would have the answers I needed.

“How come they have detected the bunker?”, I asked without beating around the bush, once I had reached her.

“Well, I guess they must have somehow detected Twilights and my own force, when we left to come for you. Either that, or they have a spy in our ranks.”, she answered worried. I could see it on her face. The possibility of a spy in their ranks did not seem too unlikely to her.

“But who would do that? I mean... The Ponies I have met so far would do anything to defend their homeland.”

“I'm honored you may think so, but believe me, there have been collaborators before. I think they have been promised to be left alive. It may be disgusting, but it is the way things are.”, Luna sighed.

I mulled that over in my mind. If there really were Pony traitors, then we had to find them as soon as possible. But at first we would have to make sure, that we saved as many Ponies as possible from the bunker.

“Luna, how many Ponies can we fit onto this ship? It's not that big, so... we may not be able to evacuate everypony.”, I inquired.

“We won't have to. There is always bunker B. All we have to do it to make sure that the ones we do not evacuate to the ship, can get there safely. It's located under Manehatten. Not quite as big, but it should suffice.”, the Princess said, giving me a reassuring smile. We talked for a little while longer, and Luna brought me up to date as to what our ship could do. I learned, that there were over two hundred DX units in the hangars, and that some of the Ponies had already started to train in them. The neurointerface made it easy, even for them. The biggest problem, as Luna told me, was that these machines were created for bipedal pilots. The Ponies usually piloted them on all fours, which limited the abilities of the DX units.

After a while, I returned to Frank. I wanted to know what our odds would be.

“I know what you want already, and the answer is: Not good. Unless you come up with a plan fast, we will loose this battle.”, he said, scowling.

“Ehm... OK.... Well tell me, can you do anything about the other human controlled ships? We wouldn't want them to get reinforcements, now would we?”

“Way ahead of you there. Their OS is... easy to use, but that also leaves it vulnerable to someone who knows what he is doing. I disconnected our ship from their communications network, because I hacked it. Every ship that is accessing it now, will be infected with a small little something. It's not much, just something I threw together in an hour, but it will shut down their mainframes, effectively rendering the ships and the DX useless. The only ones we will have to worry about are the few alien vessels that roam around.”, Frank explained proudly.

“How many of them are there?”, I asked, not reacting to what he had done, even though I had to admit that I was quite impressed.

“Twenty. Most of them are supply vessels. Only two Battleships, as far as I can see. That is... if you don't consider the mothership. It's number twenty one, but I don't see a way we could take THAT baby out. The aliens computers are highly encrypted, and I had no luck hacking them so far, so just shutting it down is out of the question. The only reason I could take out our guys so quickly, was that they expected everything but an attack from the cyberspace.”, Frank tried to lure me into praising him once again, but I didn't react to it.

“Commander, we are in sensor range. ETA ten minutes.”, a stallion shouted.

I turned to him, ordering to put the ship on the screen. As a big fan of Star Trek, I had always wanted to say that. A hologram formed in the middle of the room, accompanied by several diagrams.

“I can't make heads or tails out of this. Frank, can you?”, I asked.

“It's simple. It's a heavy cruiser, and it's shield and weapon systems are down. However, they are sending troops down to storm the bunker.”, he explained.

My mind raced over the possibilities, until I came to a conclusion.

“Twilight?”

“Yes Selina?”

“Gather as many of your Unicorn guards as possible, and instruct them to teleport onto that ships hull.”, I ordered, even though I knew I had no authority to order Twilight around.

“WHAT? That ship is like two thousand hooves in the air! They'll freeze to death!”, she protested, while stomping a hoof to the ground for emphasis.

“I know. They don't have to stay there long. Just have them teleport there, wreak as much havoc as they can, and teleport back to our ship. Their main target should be the cannons on the upper side of the ship.”, I clarified.

“That way they can't fire on us, and we will position ourself directly above them. Once all the cannons are taken care of, the carrier will open fire. That's when your Unicorns should be on board again.”, I added.

Twilight looked suspicious at first, but then she mulled my plan over.

“Alright. I will do as you ask, but what about the bunker? They'll need reinforcements.”, she asked while already making a mental list of the Unicorns she would want for this job.

“Jane and Frank will stay here. I will take a DX and go down near that cave we defended earlier. That's why I need you in the hangar, as soon as we are there. Think you can get me in the bunker from there Twi?”

“Ehm... sure I can... But...”, she started to protest again.

“No buts! We are going to evacuate, and as soon as we have destroyed the cruiser, we will use the Unicorns that destroyed the cannons, to teleport the refugees on board. If you have to, throw some of the DX out to make space. I don't care about the cargo either. Just make as much space as possible on this ship!”, I ordered, and several other Ponies got to work on that.

Eight minutes later

I sat in a DX unit, and Twilight was already in her own compartment in it's chest. The DX had an emergency teleportation system, that had enough power to teleport one object or person out of danger. I decided then, that I would teleport Twilight out of danger, if things got too rough down below.

“Operation started. The Unicorns are at work. We will draw their fire until they are finished. Good luck down there, and don't make me come for you a second time!”, Jane informed me over the radio, and I confirmed. The Hangar doors opened, and I jumped out. It was a strange sensation, but luckily these more advanced units had a flight module, that slowed my fall. Steering it however, was an entirely different story. Instead of landing near the cave, as I had intended, I landed on the cruiser.

“Fuck it!”, I though to myself, and crouched down, beating my fists against the hull. It broke like paper under the DX's fists. This was the first time I saw them. These aliens were disgusting. I saw several of them crawl away on their tentacles, as I worked my way through their ship. They didn't wear any clothes, or Uniforms. I could see them in all of their red skinned and slimy glory. On my way through the ship, several of them got crushed, until I came out on the other side.

A moment later I was already flying through the air again. Looking up I could see the two behemoths firing at each other. It was a beautiful sight. Each time the cannons fired, the shields of the other ship flared up in all colors of the rainbow. It didn't take me long this time, to reach the cave entrance and disembark the DX, but not before I let Twilight out of her compartment. She didn't look too good when she stumbled out of there. In fact, she emptied her stomach onto my boots.

After a few minutes, in which Twilights stomach heaved a few times more, we entered the cave. There was no sign of fighting here. Not even any sound. We soon found the door, and Twilight inserted her horn into a slot on it's left. The door began to slide open, and we could finally hear what was going on inside. It was then, that a bullet came through the half open door. No doubt there was a firefight somewhere close by, and this bullet had been aimed at somepony else. Nonetheless, it struck Twilight straight into the chest. Her eyes, that had been closed in concentration, snapped wide open, and she tried to say something. But what came out, was only a bloody cough....