Supreme Commander: Equestrian front.

Their Universal Duty

Moonlight gave Ross a small smile "Thanks for you know...saving me" Ross gave a slight nod "My duty is to look after the morale and health of those under my command. Like you to those under your command." "Why? I'm just a lowly Sargent there are dose's of my rank." "Not to me" Ross said as he lent agents the wall and looked down at the injurer Moonlight.

"So how long you going to play lazy bugger's?" Ross said earning a slight chuckle from Moonlight "A few day's then I'll be walking round again. I'll be sore for a few day's after but I'll not like putting armor back on." Ross nodded then walked to her set of armorer and picked up the helmet and the attached neck armor. He was surprised by how light it was. "Wow. That's lighter than I expected." there was a chuckle from Moonlight "Why? How heavy is you helmet." Ross un-clipped his from the gas-mask and handed it to her It was easily double if not triple the weight of Moonlight's enchanted helmet. "Luna's Moon! what is this made of!?"

" Nano-steel I'll go into detail if you want."

Moonlight chuckled "You leave that to Savior Twilight and Spike the Dragon Oww! don't make me laugh my gut's burly holding together as it is." Ross gave a genuine smile his eye's reflected that for a full second then it faded as Moonlight spoke her next sentence. "I herd about Money... I can't say I'm sorry to see that one go...would you do ... do that to me?"

Ross shook his head "I think you are willing to follow me into death's mouth." "To pinch his gold teeth." Moonlight said with a smile. "Come hell or high water." Ross said returning the smile. "Listen you get some rest and heal I need you back." "Yes Sir." Ross trend and left the room and Patchwork closed the door.

Moonlight lay back down closing her eye's her ear's twitch following the heavy foot step's going up the corridor.

Celestia tend to the door as Ross stepped through the door way. "How is your Sargent?" "She's alive and kicking." Ross said as Celestia tend to Ross compactly "Do you thin-" Ross stoped as something covering his eye's and a giggling "Gess who?"
Ross acted on instinct and training. Grabbing the hoof's over his eye's and with a spin and tug pulled the pink power ball off his back and held her in a head lock "Pinky I believe the name was..." smiling for the briefest second. Pinky giggled loudly and some how managed to get loose and was on his back in a instant then some how managed to find Ross's neck under the large collier of his trench coat and wrapped her legs round it and his chest. I like this one. Bit to clingy maybe Ross let her hang on to his back.

Ross trend back to Celestia "Er..." Bugger it. Ross stood straight. "It is my universal duty to learn all I can of you're tradition, history knowledge, technology and..." he let the professional air go ".... bla bla bla blarr... in short I'll get a bolli- disciplined if I don't study all I can learn from you." Ross rolled his shoulders to joy of Pinky as this lifted her up higher and she rested her chin on the top off his head.

As Celestia contemplated that Ross noticed his other boot and walked over to the tabled and pulled the boot he left there that morning and he slipped it on did the lacing then the Puttees all the while Pinky hugged her self tightly to his back and giggling all the while.

"Only if you do the same?" Celestia answered Ross gave a nod "Agreed. Now if we are done here can I please get back to Unbreakable I'll need to sort her out before the Seraphim come knocking again and I suspect... Knowing I'm here now... the'll be eager for a swing at me." Celesta nodded and turned to Luna "Sister can you take him to the army barracks please." Luna smiled then walked over Ross "Follow me please." "Off please Pinky." After a bit of pulling she let go and pouted as she stood there.

Celestia the Doctor's and the small group watched Ross's retreating back. "He's a interesting fella ant' he." Applejack said a slight smile on her face as she fiddled with her stetson. "Yes Darling but sweet Celestia - No offence intended you majesty- he need's some better cloth's than that retched coat! And why he has fabric wrapped round his leg's I'll never know!!".

"I like him" Raindrops said from the bed having recovered from feeling sick from the bounce round the room with Pinky.

The all the troop's stood there looking up at the giant machine It had been levitated in with a team of a hundred unicorns just to lift it a few inches off the ground.

"All right you lot quit your gorping!" Ross said as he and Luna entered through the gates of the barracks he had seen his ACU's silhouette from long way off and as he came closer the gaping hole in it's chest revival it's self. "Jesus bloody Christ! I'm going have to pull a all nigher to fix that!" Ross gestated to the the damage as he walked thorough the crowd and looked up to the twenty store high machine "How the hell am I going to get up there to fix the bleeding thing!? I don't have a gantry set up!"

"Let me" Luna said warping her for legs round his chest "What are you- WOOHH!!" Ross yelled as he felt him self being lifted off the floor and start to rise up the ACU "PUT ME DOWN!!! PUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWN!!!" Ross never liked flying even when he did the flying now he was rising through the air without any form of lifter or plane.

Then as he felt his feet meet the top of Unbreakable's head he tent to find Luna with a large smile placated cross her face accompany with laughter from the crowd's below "O SHUT UP!" Ross shouted half-hearted as he looked down at the crowd's "Don't you lot have something to do?!" "Can you blame them and it is your job to maintain moral leftenant-Commissar..." "Yes ha ha" Ross said as he bent down and pulled the hatch open.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Ross said as he hoped through the hatch and landed next to the command seat and into the congealed pool of blood and lung Luna lowered her head in and looked round. Her main dropping in almost to the floor and blood but saved by the merest whisper of ethereal wind. Luna looked round the small room lit by the gaping hole in fount of the seat. Then she took in all the strange machinery that was there too. "How long do you stay in this place?" "Depends .Hours . Day's. The longest was ten day's the previous pilot was in here for six years on a siege. The longest in record was 500 years with 15 different pilots through the years more died to old age than enemy fire."

Luna was mortified "What is your galaxy like?" Ross sat in the command chair and Luna could see his mood change it turned dark"... The Infinite war ... a millennium of constant war... blood... carnage... that was two years ago.. now the last day's of humanity could be at hand... we are making our last stand's agents the Seraphim... I don't think about it but I'm riding surrounded by two thing's that will kill me..." he stamped his foot on the floor the solid panel bouncing off the dome of the reactor roof with a surrounding clang "... I'm getting ass cancer from siting on that large fuck off pile of Uranium or Thorium or whatever this thing uses..." Then he slammed his fist the wall to his left. Denting the metal panel a little "... I got a ant-matter generator ever side of me that if there is a microscopic hole in the shielding... I... die." Ross un-clenched his fist and then looked out the jagged hole opposite him. "One in my position...tends lost there fear of death... and that's.... not... healthy..." Luna watched as he seemed do deflate in his seat.

"Sorry..." Luna said unsure if it was her fault for bringing down his mood again.

"No no I'm going to have to talk with you about everything I know with your "dear sister". Ross said the last word's in a disturbingly accurate impression of Luna's voice. He looked up at her sticking her head in through the hatch almost above him. "You can come in you know."

Luna pulled her head out then with some difficulty managed to get her self on the run's of the small ladder that led through Unbreakable's head and into the command room. As her shoe met the floor and there was a fuzzy fabric and she looked down to fined Ross's trench coat covering the pool of blood and lug. "Save you from cleaning your self." Ross stood offering her his seat. As Luna stepped off Ross picked the coat off the sticky patch and pull'd it back on

"Thank you but there was no need." Luna said siting in the proofread seat looking at the control's and other computers surrounding the seat she looked to find Ross pulling a small door open to her right. "David?" "Yes Daughter of the Coal's?" Ross rummage through the locker looking through the piled up of tool's in the locker. "What did you call me?! " Luna said looking at Ross's back unsure if he'd just insulted her or not. "Humm... O sorry slipped back into the native tong "Daughter of the Coal's" means princes on my home world."

Luna's curiosity was aroused "Do you have any more names for royalty?" Ross trend to her a large frame with three gas bottles slung onto his back. "Yes "Son of Steel" Is a prince, the queen is known as "The Lady of The Anvil" And the king "Lord of the Forge"." As Ross talked he pulled the torch head from the tool cabinet and as he fixed the three pipes from the gas bottles to there respective valves. Orange- fuel, Blue- Oxygen, Green- Booster. All correct Ross reached back in and pulled a hammer out.

"What is you're home planet?" Luna asked as she got her self settled in to the surprisingly comfortable seat."

Ross smiled as he slid his mask down "The Forge planet of Garnlis home till the family had to go to a colony..." Screaming Ross pushed the memory's deep into his soul."...but we moved swiftly back." Luna pulled Ross back to reality.

"Forge Planet?" Luna asked a idea in her mind. "A forge planed is a world dedicated to manufacturing anything and everything from nail's to the modern versions of Unbreakable..." Ross gave the wall a almost affection pat "... then they are shipped out all over the UEF...."

Luna could see it in her mind's eye: Polluted with smog chimneys spewing more out and killing the world slowly, wast and ruin the light of fires burning bright... all plant and wild life dead and gone replaced with mud and ash...

"... and officially the most beautiful planet in the UEF... The City of Craftsman the capital of the planet the lush forest's and field of every crop known to man surround the city the mountain range's there mine's provide the purest ore's of all in the UEF and there are millennium's more worth in the mines most of them aren't even a quarter mile deep the ore is so pure and they have been mining there since the first few colonists landed and now ... father's beg us to take there son's as apprentices and our crafts men in demand all over the place and our warriors some of the finest armed and in constant demand our infantry the most feared in the galaxy."

"You are one of them?" Luna asked "Yes a simple miner boy who's mother was a smith and dad a miner. Now I'm a ACU pilot and known as a "Iron Warrior" that title is given once a generation both a blessing and a cruse."

"Why?" Luna said confused Ross puled a lighter out and trying to spark it. *POP!* as with the lighter Ross lit the blow torch and the large orange flame lit up. "While it let's my family live in comfit for the rest of there live's but the likelihood of me seeing them again in next to non... still the pay is welcome and good it keep's the family happy that's all that matter's."

Ross shut the torch off and walked up to Luna and opened the ignition box and started the generator and Luna jumped as it started then the hum of the reactor returning to life filled the room.

"Computer! Information vault.
Unknown life-form present log.
Name: Daughter of the Coal's Luna
Status: Friend. Access granted to information souses that is not classified by military order."

"Yes David and how hay I help you Daughter of the Coal's?" the female voice of the computer responded.

Luna looked round looking for the disembodied voice "What was that?" Luna said uncertainly "Just the voice of the computer nothing to be afraid. Just ask the computer a question and it will display the answer on this." Ross taped the top of the monitor that had displayed the damage report with the head of the blow torch."

"Very well" Luna said as here horn glowed lightly and a telepathic connection opened with Celestia whom was lisening to some noble complain about Pony's camping in his garden and to Twilight who had some how got her hoof's on a tissue sample from Ross

Sister, Twilight I'm currently in Ross's War Engine and he has let me into to something called a "Information vault" I'll need a quill a few ink well's and a few roles of parchment please.

Twilight squeal coursing Spike to jump and send the tissue sample roiling away in it's enchanted jar "I'll bring them and stay with you!! her link died as she doubtlessly ran round the room gathering all that was asked.

Your doing well little sister what have you learn so far? Celestia asked as the noble continued to complain ageist the campers.

I'v learned a bit of his home planet and it's Culture. Old Smithy would like him. Luna looked at Ross who had re-lit the blow torch and was pressing what looked like opaque glass into the rims of his mask's eye lenses.

Good heavens Is Old Smithy still with us? Of cores! Yes I saw him last month when I did that inspection. Anyway You keep learning what you can from him. The noble was still complaining now about some flower bed that the evacuees had destroyed. O shut up!

I didn't say any thing Tia.

O sorry Lulu this noble testing my patience.

Luna looked at Ross as the hiss trended to a rushing noise and the flame from the touch trend blue as he press'd the lever that opened the valve down. Ross adjusted the feed valves letting the booster into the mix of gasses and the flame turned a deep purple.

Luna could feel the heat from the torch for the seat even though she was sat a few feet from the source.

Yet another chemical prevented the intense heat from the torch from igniting the coat it also protected form Flamethrowers's he'd demanded the treatment even though Flamethrowers's hadn't been seen on the battle field for eons. Ross turned using the light from the torch to see through the welding glass and found the first jagged peace of metal that needed re-bent into place the head of the torch was't set up to cut just to heat the material so it could be bent into shape.

As Ross knelt and started to work Luna waited for Twilight she started to sift through the vast information that was a waiting her. The minute's passed with only the beaning of metal on metal and hissing of Ross at work fixing the damage. There was a banging on the hatch and Luna looked up from the screen that was displaying some political stance currently in affect. Luna looked to find Ross holding another weapon this one was larger version of the on he had on his hip.

Ross heard the bang and grabbed his costume made Bording Gun that had been resting in the tool locker and was on the first run's of the short ladder. The torch's small in-built computer activated mag-lock's that fastened it to his belt and also turn'd it off when he let go of the grip. With a sharp jerk of his head the welding lenses fell from the gas-mask's eye rimes and in to his open hand.

Twilight banged on the hatch again and looked at the saddle bag's checking for the tenth time if she had everything that Luna asked The was a *Screeeeck* as the hatch opened ever so slightly and what looked like a pipe with a metal bit stuck on top it came out the gap opposite her then swiftly tern'd round the rim of the hatch to point at her feet. Twilight lowered her head to look down the pipe closing one eye to see down it better "Hello anyone their?" The hatch slid up higher then pivoting round reviling Ross a new object in his hands as he protruded out the hole. "Jesus! don't you know not to look down the barrel of a gun!?" Twilight cocked her head "Why it don't look dangers?"

Ross looked and saw a pigeon flying over head Sorry mate this may sting a bit Ross raised the shotgun in one hand and pulled the trigger the drum turning anti clockwise. A inch of the pigeons tail disappeared in a cloud of feathers as the mix of buck and bird shot tore through the air and feathers.

"You don't want to know what happens when a person's crotch meet's buckshot" Ross pushed the small leaver on top of the pistol grip to the right and the front half fell down reviling the back of the cylinder and the eight cartridges pushed up one's firing cap dented where the hammer had struck it. Ross pulled it out and slipped the empty into his right pocket and swapped it for a live one. "Field rule No.4 when about to leave for off world combat all arms loaded and primed".

Twilight rubbed her ears "Why is it so loud?" "Unfortunate side affect of the weapons Humanity has come up with also to sow terror in the enemy." Ross snapped the shotgun closed then claimed down the ladder "Well come in then."

Twilight looked into the hatch and saw Luna looking up at her. Twilight try'd to get down the ladder but ended up falling off and landing in the congealed blood "Ew ew ew!" She looked down at the few chunks of lung now stuck in her fir and main she looked to see Ross kneeling back in-front of the half fixed hole trying to re-light the torch his shotgun resting agents the wall. A enchanted jar lifted from the bag and the few chunk's of lung surrounded by a magenta glow flew into the jar.

"Twilight have you got what I asked for?" Twilight tern'd to face Luna sliding the bag's off her back "Yes " she said with a smile "Thank you Twilight." Luna returned the smile.

*Click Click... Sn-click... Sn-click Puffffff* the torch lit and Ross started working again Twilight's ear's twitched towards the new sound and after giveing Luna the supply's walked over and looked over Ross's shoulder only to be blinded for a second and she was pretty sure her fir started to singe before Ross turned the torch down "If you don't want ark eye don't stand behind me or look at the light so please go and talk with the Daughter of the Coal's."

Twilight cocked her head again. "Who?"

"Me" Luna said the quill dancing along the role of parchment as she jotted down the political policy she was reading before.