System reboot

Screaming.

Screaming coming from the colonists... his family. The Cybrans were here! Where did they come from!?...

There was a bang and the boors caved in a bit more.

All he knew was that he was kneeling behind an impromptu barricade of crates and mining gear with a shotgun in hand. Kneeling to his left was his granddad, an old miner, holding bolt action rifle in his aged, arthritis riddled hands. To his right was a panicking woman, her hands were shaking with barely contained terror and a pickaxe clutched tightly like a drowning man holding onto a life line.

His granddad rested his hand on his shoulder "Steady lad...steady David..."

"You know I don't like that name" Ross said pushing his sweat sodden hair out of his eye's. His granddad chuckled as the second line of the firing line stepped behind them as the door caved in a bit more.

"Here they COME!" some one shouted and a ray of light shone into the mine shaft's mouth as the door started to part under whatever was hitting them from to other side. In the depths of the mine, the the families and one or two miners were working on a escape tunnel. Ross could hear their drills and shouts echoing back to where the brave few were going to hold try and hold off the Cybrans. The door parted a bit more flooding the small tunnel mouth with more light.

"Front rank! PRESENT!" a old and grizzled veteran shouted. He had come for peace and now was their last hope. Ross and his granddad along with the 30 others on the front rank pointed their weapons to point at the doorway.

"Ross I'm so proud of you" his granddad muttered. The door burst in and shadows fill'd the door and Ross racked the shotgun

"FIRE!!!"

Ross opened his eyes and blackness was all that met them. The reactor must have shut down. His mind was going through the priority's. Power, weapon's, injuries, treatment, damage. Damage control. His eyes soon adjusted to their limits of natural night vision but it was enough to see the small world. After his eyes refocused enough, he found that he was looking... his boots. He took a deep breath and immediately regret it as the pain burnt through his chest.

From the worst of the pain, he could tell a good portion of his ribs were no more than shards. As he breathed, a wheezing rasp started and he felt a wet leaking sensation where his right lung was. "O *Wheez* shit...." he muttered through the pain as he thought up of what must of happened. With the impact of what he assumed was a landing, he had been thrown around in his harness with sufficient force to break bones and the filter and scrubber system's held on the front of his chest for his mask didn't soften the blow.

He knew he was lucky. Many were killed by a bad gate-in, either ripped in two or bludgeoned to death by the harness meant to keep them safe. Ross slowly lifted his head up off his chest, relieved that his neck was not broken. As he gingerly pulled his arms out of the control frame, his right wrist throbbed angrily. "OK *Wheez* OK...I'm OK"

He started raise his right arm to turn the emergency lights on but the searing pain reminded him of his possibly broken wrist. Instead he raised his left arm to the small bank of switches above him. Three up...four across He flicked the switch on… and nothing. Ross flicked the switch back off and then on again followed with a pop, a flicker and a hum as the red lights glowed to life. The vision on his right was obscured somewhat by the cobweb pattern of cracked glass.

Lowering his arm to the ignition box to his right, he tried the key but the generator didn't turn over. He tried again with the same result. He tried a third time but the generator remained silent and cold. "No...please not now..." Ross reached up to the top right corner and pulled hard and with the nail on blackboard sound of screws giving way, the face of the box fell down on its hinges revealing a mass of wires and circuit boards. Reaching down to his trench coat's left pocket and after a bit of thumbing withdrew from its depths a pair of black leather gloves. He didn't fancy getting electrocuted as well.

With a bit of juggling and pain he managed to pull them on and gingerly brought his right arm up and into the mass of wires finding the wires that fed into the back of the key barrel. He pulled them out and gently moved his damaged wrist so he could get a better angle. Taking the wires, one in each hand, he brushed the ends together. The generator coughed and turned over once before going silent once again. He pulled the wires apart and the pressed them together again. Some sparks flashed and was quickly followed by the sputter of the engine before it roared to life. Ross held his breath partly in anticipation but more so to stop his chest from hurting.
Then his heart soared as he heard the loud hum and whine of the reactor coming to life.

"Thank who ever the locals believe their god is..." One screen to his left flashed up, it was a damage report and a computer generated voice read off as it came onto the screen.

Sub system 00-1 alpha
Damage control...
Core integrity: 99%
Radiation shield: 98%
Reflector shield: Not Installed
Left antimatter cannon: 89%
Right antimatter cannon: 100%
Armor: 95%
Electronic and sub-systems: 52%; WARNING!!! CRITICAL DAMAGE. CHECK FUSES AND ALL AVAILABLE DATA.
Construction assistance Drones: Not installed
Strategic miss-

Ross pressed the "Delete" button on the keyboard, the monitor flashing back to a blank, blue screen. With a groan, Ross fiddled with his harness release clasp in the middle of the harness’ chest plate and with a hiss of hydraulics, the harness rose part way up and Ross pushed the harness fully up. He sat there taking shallow wheezing breaths. Then he reached for a handle nearby with his good arm and slowly pulled him to his feet. Another major worry melted from his mind, that of a broken back, but his whole body felt like it had been in a train wreck…

Without thinking, he slowly shuffled off towards a grating in the floor of the control room. He slowly bent down and pulled it up to reveal a ladder on the wall covered in wires, circuit boards and lights. Ross undid a few buttons on his trench coat and slid his damaged wrist into the coat using it as a improvised sling before lowering himself down into the depths of the ACU's heart.

Celestia looked at the map on her table the city of Canterlot. Luna to her left and looked just as ragged and worn as her sister. Her dark blue coat had taken on a shade that one could mistake for black. Accompanying the Princesses were half a dozen Lunar and Royal Guard officers.

"Scouts are reporting that the Machines are advancing towards the city from the north. They estimate that they will arrive within a few hours. I strongly recommend pulling the scouts back to the defensive positions." One officer of the Lunar Guard stated.

"No, we need to know what their strength is. We need to send the scouts closer." A unicorn officer of the Royal Guard rebuttled.

"They’re only light scouts. They will be torn to ribbons before they get close enough to see what we're are up against."

“Or they could be light units that we could easily defeat.”

"Enough!" Celestia said the tone of her voice daring them to continue. They both gave each other a look before backing down. "I will not risk the lives of my ponies if it risks leaving the city weakly def-"
Celestia was cut off as the doors all but burst open and a panting, sweating Earth pony trotted in. He wore only a simple steel chest plate and helmet, the colour and style of the feathers on his helm told her he was a scout.

"Y...your...m...majesty... w....t..there's..." He took a deep breath and tried slowing his heart.

"Deep breaths my little pony, take you time." Celestia said with a kind smile her, face hurt like it had forgotten how to do it.

He nodded and took a few more deep breaths before trying again. "Your majesty I bring a report... from the scouts to the south. They report that there was some sort of explosion. We don't think it was from the Machines we know of..." he sat there panting as beads of sweat dripped from his fur onto the floor.

Celestia stood then looked at the map. "We cannot fight on two fronts." her mind was racing.
She walked up to the messenger. "You are to tell all the scouting parties to fall back to the city and await orders" The scout nodded and trotted out the room and Celestia turned to face to face the room, all eyes were on her. "I wish to speak with Luna, alone." The officers slowly filed out of the room, their armor and hooves clicking as they went.

Celestia looked at her sister “Sister... you know I value your opinion. What do you make of this?"

Luna walked up to her sister, a somber look on her face "It will take a miracle but... there is hope if the ponies are willing to stand in the face of this. Right now, hope is all we have left and I do not know how long that will last."

"Yes...there is hope" Celestia said as he looked out the window to the northern horizon to the. She could swear that she could see silhouettes.

The ACU swayed as Ross walked it on. He had gotten most of the systems working but he only had black and white video feed on the monitors and a good portion of the auto repair systems were offline. The outside world was fuzzy, a mess of shapes he thought could be a mountain in the distance. Ross moaned as he was jolted in his harness, his broken ribs flaring into pain again. As he took a breath, a gurgling started along with the wheezing. Ross pulled the bottom of his gas mask up and with a wet cough, the thick coppery taste met his tongue as he spat a pool of blood to the floor. Groaning and a pulling the mask back down, he tucked the length of material back under the collar of the trench coat, fully sealing the uniform from the outside world again.

A small pop and thrum was heard before the colour of the world filled the viewing screen. Ross' eyes ached as he had never seen a world so brightly coloured. He quickly turned his head to the side to shield his eyes until they could adjust before turning back to the screen. The world was so full of colour he thought the world was tropical.

"WARNING!! WARNING!! Seraphim forces detected. Command unit detected."

His arm shot up in pain as he reached for lever to the right of his chair, slamming it from "Transport" to "Combat."

"Warning reactor control rods extraction in progress. Control rod extraction complete." The computer voice encode through the room. A klaxon blared and the lights shifted from red to blue.

"RIGHT!" Ross press'd the pedals as far forward as he could and the ACU moved off swaying as it moved from walking to a rolling jog to a sprint. The ACU jolted violently causing the monitor to flicker before refocusing onto the mountain. No... not a mountain... It was a city

"INCOMING!!"

The ponies quickly ducked down into the trench as a shell slammed into the ground just behind the trench, throwing dirt into the trench and onto the ponies. Most only had a helm and steel chest plate for protection.

"We’re all going to di-" the cowering stallion was silenced as his friend smacked him upside the head.

One officer walked along the duck boards in the bottom of the trench. "WHERE IS MY FIRE SUPPORT!?!" she bellowed.

There was a loud bang and a dozen unicorns ran along the duck boards. "Where do you want us?!" the Sergeant of the squad said.

"I DON'T CARE, JUST LET THEM KNOW WE’RE HERE!!!" the officer bellowed at them. The half a dozen unicorns stepped up onto the firing step and started to shoot out a virility of spell's erupting from there horns. "GET DOWN!!" The office screamed as whistling was the only warning. Everypony ducked and a second later, another fountain of dirt erupted from the front of the trench line.

"TO THE SOUTH!!" A young guard shouted. The officer turned and saw a large creature running at them.

"Celestia save us...."

Author's Note

Feel free to comment and spread this around

Also thanks to flyingfox for all the help with the story and correcting me with my spelling and helping make this story better than I could