Space Engineer over Equestria

Alex shook violently as consciousness fluttered into his body. He could feel his gloved hands clawing at the outside of his suit. He could feel the tips of his gloves being worn thin and torn by the metal of external panels on his suit. He could see floating scrap from several ruined buttons that would have been for manual controls, probably rended free my the small gripping hydraulics he used in zero G.

And like that consciousness fluttered away again.

M
Agent T frowned as the ship's rather ad-hoc medical scanners attempted to breach the hull of the first alien's ship. They weren't magic, everypony had learned from that afterall. Unfortunately, there wasn't any scanning technology outside of magic that was of much use. Again, he tried to up the resolution.

It was taking more magic to fuel the scans, but he and the crew had already come to terms that they wouldn't have enough power to return to Equestria. Hopefully their mission would be a success and it would take them back. That hopeful projection discluded any pathogens, mutagens, or other biological terrors the alien ship might contain that the short lived magic scan hadn't picked up.

The random unicorn they had grabbed had passed out, and was now suffering from some gibberish inspiring nightmare. He was thankfully heavily sedated, the needles still sticking out of his plot. He had been a bad choice, they should have had a better fourth candidate, but everything was so rushed.

He had read the magical spikes as the left the pad, three spikes. Three deadly failures in the craft just getting off the ground. For all they knew, the craft had an oxygen leak and faulty air sensors. How long before they noticed, if it was small enough?

Alex's heart stopped as his eyes flew open. There was, rumbling. Where was he? The There had been a... there is a battle.

Confirmation came as an explosion shook the ship he was in. He sat up and looked about, the familiar sight of the liberty's bridge greeting him. He was... a citizen. This was a Ambrosian ammo ship.

Alex jumped to his feet and charged for the panel. He was in a uniform, with only a rebreather on. The Ambrosian belt was rich with bio-carbons, but not plastics. It was cheaper to just clone. The lack of a space suit made movement easy and smooth.

Alex tapped out a status report. The ship's cargo had thankfully not detonated, though the lavatory was leaking air and, more importantly, water. The rumbling had been a missile striking one of the ship's ribs. The two Gatling guns were struggling to keep up with the weight of fire. He had already given up on lending point defense assistance to anyone. The continual waves of zealot ships had basically turned the fleet into a free for all struggle against a tide. For now the tide was loosing.

Alex stopped and forced himself to recall his mission, the munitions. Why was that so fuzzy? The Perseus should be around somewhere. He had to get the ammo to the Perseus.

He had... More missiles incoming, zealot spine breakers. These missile would be too heavy for the Liberty's defenses...

Shit...

Alex's breath escaped slowly through the open hole in his chest. The shock barely registered as he stared into his own father's cold uncaring eyes. This had never happened. Why was he seeing this now?

Why?

Alex struggled with both hands to pull the dagger out, but only managed to push it out an inch that his father quickly reclaimed. He could feel his last gasps escaping, blood replacing air. This was it, the end for real. He was...