Starbound Ascension: The Next Generation

Starbound Ascension: The Next Generation

Chapter Two: Peacekeeping

Katina, one of the many arid planets of the Lylat system. This was the sight of the first invasion of the Federation twenty five years ago. The flowing sand and large rocks dotted the landscape. Tall, but sparse forests of giant mushrooms were sporadically located around the planet as well. The scene was broken by a pillar of large smoke that erupted from the joint Lylatian and Federation Katina Outpost which had been overrun by an unknown terrorist faction. The ponies of the Next Generation Joint Strike force were in their dropship with Circus Blossom at the pilot seat.

“Alright guys! Thirty seconds to drop! Ship is on the line for the briefing. I'm patching her in!”

“Thank you Blossom. Fillies and gentlecolts we are dealing with an unknown incursion and our UPF allies have asked for help in this operation. The drop zone is hot and you are cleared weapons free. Mac what's up?” Ship flashed on the HUDs of their visors and glanced to the side offscreen.

“I'm detecting more unknown signatures warping in from undisclosed location. Looks like enemy reinforcements. They're just dropships Captain!”

“Okay Mac. Nelly can you send a message to UPF Command to vector in some of their own troops?”

“Solid copy Captain Ship. Say Jet, stay safe out there, okay?” Nelly smiled to Jet as her face displayed on his HUD.

“Course dear. Okay pilots! Did everypony use up their burn cards yet?” Jet looked to his squad.

“I did sir! Got me an amped Spitfire LMG,” Tough Heart brandished his machine gun. On his back was an exported Federation Obsidian portable railgun. All of them were heavily equipped with powered armor, weapons, and two pieces of key mobility enhancing gear. One of which was their pulse jump kits. This allowed them to wall run, double jump, and perform augmented feats of parkour. On the sides of their flanks were miniature 3D maneuver systems. These tiny grappling hooks and their smart latches enable the ponies to attack from all angles even when loaded down with heavy armor. These two sets of equipment made the NGJSF one of the most unique special forces among the major empires.

“You know me Jump Jet! I never leave home without my Dragonfires! Hehehe!” Rush laughed with his mother's glee as he hugged his beloved quadrotor drone. The normally SMG armed flying robot had its gun replaced with a mini rocket launcher.

“My smart pistol can do calculus now,” Avia looked to her miniscule weapon. Her tiny handgun was more than just a simple firearm. An invention of Applebloom, the Mk5 Smart Pistol is a miracle of Equestrian engineering. The supercomputer housed within its tiny frame linked with the homing rounds the pistol fired. The gun doesn't need a manual input to aim from the pilot. All she had to do was get the enemy within the forty five degree firing cone and the weapon will do the rest upon trigger pull.

“I'm saving mine for later. Besides is there anything my Creber can't do?” Prelude had his 14.5mm anti-materiel rifle. He was the best shot in the group during training and was always the first to fire, often kicking things off with a bang.

“Amped up my EVA-8 sir! I'll be good,” Fragarach unlatched his fully automatic shotgun and hovered it near him with his magic.

“Okay! Anypony else?” Jet looked about the dropship. The rest of the team: Simon and Scratch. Shook their heads.

“Alright, here goes mine,” Jet pulled out his own burn card. It was that of an amped B3 Wingman revolver, “Blossom, care to do the honors?”

With a bright flash of light from her horn Blossom ignited the burn card in Jet's hoof. The card was engulfed in flame and burned into embers that floated away. As Jet let go of the flying embers a swirling ball of energy materialized in his open right hoof. The ashes and cinders were replaced with a finely crafted futuristic revolver teleported right on Jet's hoof. He grasped it and smiled.

“Thank you!”

“No prob. Okay pilots this is your stop! Drop! Drop! Drop! Deploy! Deploy!” Blossom signaled to them to drop. They all jumped out together as their jet hooves slowed their impacts at the last moment. Once they hit the ground they stormed the front gate of the occupied Katina Outpost.

“Alright guys! This is a Hardpoint Operation. Patch me into those hardpoints so I can hack into the enemy network. The UPF will provide reinforcements shortly but for now it's just us versus them. I'm having all your titans rearmed now and I'll drop them in when you are ready.”

“Thanks Mac! Squad move up! Fan out and secure the hardpoints!” Jet and his squad jumped the walls and took the less direct routes into the locked down outpost using their hoof thrusters and momentum gained from their running to parkour up, “They're really dug in. Squad on me! Keep moving! Keep alive! Get to cover! That tank hangar over there should be good!”

“Roger Jet!” Avia was putting her smart pistol to good use as the lock on mechanic of her firearm gravitated to the heads of her enemies, “Five downed! Changing mags!”

“You're good sis! I got you covered!” Jet slid into the covered tank hangar and used his wings to sight in with his R101C. Short bursts connected to multiple enemies firing at them from the upper level of the base, “Rush! Can I get some drones here?”

“You got it silly willy! Hehe!” Rush unhooked the two folded Dragonfire drones on his sides and deployed their ducted fan rotors. The two automated quadrotors flew off to support the NGJSF with rocket fire, “Dragonfires are up! Time to party!”

“Good! We can move into position with the drones covering us! Sis, I want you and Frag to flank those machine gunners on the second level of the base! Get creative on your parkour!”

“Will do bro!” Avia winked to her brother.

“Prelude, Scratch! Get up near that spinning sculpture and provide some sniper support for us,” Jet pointed to one far corner of the base outer wall. It was roughly two stories high and provided a good sniping spot that was both level with the main structure of the base and an elevated position of the ground level courtyards.

“On it chief,” Prelude and Scratch grappled out with their 3D maneuver gear supplemented by their thrusters.

“Simon, Rush, Tough! You are on me! We advance once Frag and my sis clear out the-” an enemy Apex soldier dropped down dead to their hooves with a blast of buckshot in his chest.

“Second story is clear sir! Don't mind the dead body!”

Jet chuckled, “Damn fine work buddy! Go go go!”

They hugged the wall and chained their jumps, wallruns, and double jumps to the barracks of the Katina Outpost. The once regal statue of Admiral Fox McCloud fighting off the aparoid menace in the middle of the barracks courtyard was upturned by the terrorists. It dishonored the memory of the once great battle Fox fought here many years ago, before the UPF invaded, and before the discovery of the second universe.

“Heads up team!” Mac Book radioed in. His face displayed at the top right corner of their HUDs, “Enemy dropships are coming in now! They are dropping down pods as well!”

“We can handle it Mac! Prelude! Scratch! What's keeping you?” Jet thruster bucked an enemy Houndour Pokemorph into a wall, instantly killing him.

“In position, let's kick things off!”

The massive explosion at the end of Prelude's rifle propelled a solid tungsten 14.5mm diameter slug into another enemy soldier. This time it was a cat anthro.

“Command be advised, they are of multiple sentient races! Mostly Apex, Human, Avian, Pokemorphs, and Anthros over!”

“Solid copy Prelude, we've received your camera feeds. Looks like they aren't wearing their native armies uniforms either,” Ship looked on at the monitor of her work station. She kept tabs on all of the members with their camera links, “Mac, Nelly, how long until Titans are rearmed?”

“Titans are rearmed and ready! Call it in when you need it guys!” Nelly flashed on their HUDs with a smile and a nod.

“Drop it in Nelly!” Jet smirked as Simon and Frag stood by with him.

“Roger that! Standby for Titanfall!” Nelly punched in a sequence of keys to release the massive drop pods of their battlesuits. Piercing through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds the pods slowed to decent and broke away to land three bipedal battlesuits known as Titans. These marvels of Equestrian engineering were the culmination of twenty five years of research by Applebloom Engineering to provide Equus with a rapid reactionary vehicle in between an IFV and main battle tank. They were designed to be dropped from space as quickly as possible to aid in a planetary assault.

“Okay big guy! Let's take you out for a spin!” Jet jumped into his kneeling walker through the open front hatch. As he took his seat in his Atlas mech several hardwired connectors interfaced with his powered armor to link his natural movements to his robot. The hiss of compressed air closed his cockpit hatch and sealed him inside as the LCD screens booted up to give him a good view of the battlefield. The protective shield of the drop pod broke away as his Titan stood. He wielded his trusty XO-16 20mm chaingun; a beefed up assault rifle firing armor piercing rounds almost an inch in diameter. This was supplemented by a vortex shield and multi-missile launch system.

“Ogre is love, ogre is life!” Tough Heart smirked as his own mechsuit stood. The massive bulky frame of his Ogre class titan was more imposing than Jet's Atlas. Although not as agile the Ogre had a sturdier frame and stronger actuators for punches that could topple whole sky scrapers with just one blow. His Titan didn't wield a conventional weapon designed by Applebloom Engineering or Lastimosa Armory. Instead he had Rush and Brainstorm weld the turret of a UPF Type 37 battle tank onto his robots right arm. Complete with functional 20mm high explosive cannon and 135mm hypersonic railgun.

The other Atlas piloted by Rush was specially upgraded by him to incorporate an advanced AI far better than the standard aftermarket Guardian Chip. It was a hive based AI system that linked with all of his drones to give them their own personality. If only they had personality, seeing as how he used his mother's dead alligator as a baseline for their AI. His drones and Titan were aggressive yet protective like Gummy before them.

“Take out those dropships Titans! Avia, Frag you two take the nearest hardpoint!”

“Roger Jet, moving to objective,” Avia radioed out as she and Fragarach bounced back and forth on the walls in their parkour. Without the need of her sights her pistol continued to lock and kill the enemy grunts on their way to the hardpoint. Their powered armor did well to guard them against the enemy fire as multiple pings of bullets and energy fire bounced off their shields and armor.

“We're at the hardpoint Jet! Mac can you patch in?” Frag iced the room with a flurry of buckshot from his EVA-8. Downing three enemies guarding the computer console.

“Alright! Patching us in. Hold on while I reverse their damage. They seemed to have taken control of the anti air turrets of the base. It's gonna take me a several seconds to hack in and disable them.”

“Hurry up with those cheat codes Mac! Enemy dropships are swarming the facility!” Jet put his chaingun to good use punching holes in the enemy dropships unloading troops via ziplines. They started to overrun the first hardpoint as waves upon waves of enemies swarmed in, “Shit! Avia you got guys coming into the building!”

“Okay!” Avia boosted up and jammed her knife into the wall to hang. Fragarach did the same on the opposite wall as Avia activated her cloaking device. Her whole body turned transparent with nothing but a mere slimmer of an outline.

“Alright! Fan out and find these pony bastards! I want them dead!” the enemy squad ran into the room as Fragarach dropped down from the ceiling. With a firm buck he sent the commander flying into the brick wall with the help of his thrusters. A human terrorist pulled a combat knife to counter Frag but he returned with a firm bite on his wrist to flip his enemy over the shoulder and into the other. A flip of his shotgun into their heads sealed their deaths as three more surrounded him. He stood by as he was outnumbered.

“Squad, gun em!” the wolf anthro ordered before being stopped by Avia, who had their heads locked on with her smart pistol as she disabled her cloak. They all fell dead before they hit the ground merely a foot away from Frag as Avia gave him a little smirk.

“Nice save,” Frag smiled.

“I thought you didn't need it but I just wanted the kill steals. Haha-AHH!” Avia took a hit from outside as she stood near a window.

“Dammit! Avia's been hit and she's bleeding out! It's a sniper! Titans can you do something!”

“We're too busy Frag! Jet! Hey! Hey! What are you doing?” Tough looked on as Jet exited his Titan to let the AI take over. He rushed to the aid of his sister but was hit by the sniper as well. Luckily for him, it only damaged his power conduit on his armor rendering him paralyzed.

“Crap! I'm down! Avia!” Jet yelled for his sister. He was concerned for her safety but foolishly strayed in the open to get shot by the sniper, “Dammit! Give me a sitrep!”

“I can't get to Avia's body chief! She's still in the line of fire of the sniper! Her vitals are dipping!” Frag was in no better position. Enemy squads were advancing into the first hardpoint as bullets pinged and bounced all around him as his cover was chipped away, “And I'm pinned as fuck!”

“Jet do I really have to save your ass!” Tough Heart picked up his friend and placed him inside of his Titan. He boosted away and left his own Titan in AI mode to help with Avia, “Dammit guys! Prelude do you see the sniper?”

“I can't! They've got gunships pounding my position! GAH!” Prelude was knocked to the floor from an explosion. A solid chunk of the sculpture pinned his legs and held him in place, “Shit! I think my legs are broke! I can't move! It hurts! Scratch where are you?”

“I'm down! I'm right here but this statue's got me pinned as well! My HUD shows I'm not too hurt thought. Dammit! We need help!”

“Oh no, no no no no no...” Ship looked on as her friends were in deep trouble, “Dammit! Mac, Sagittarius, you two take over for the command and control. I'm going down there!”

“Let me come too,” Nelly looked to her commanding officer and pleaded, “He's down there too you know.”

“I know... Blossom! Get the dropship ready! Nelly and I are going in!”

“But ma'am, we can't risk losing you too down there!”

“That is an order Blossom! I can't just leave them to die like that!” Ship's heart went out to her boyfriend.

“Ma'am, we're launching as well! Those guys need some air support down there!” Morning Shine and Night Petal spooled up their ground attack fighters and launched from the hangar.

“Copy that! Nelly and I are boarding the transport!” Ship grabbed onto the harness of the dropship as she hastily donned a combat uniform. She whispered to herself, “Don't you die on me now.”

“They're not. We've gone through worse,” Nelly tried to comfort Ship.

“That was in training though, this is real life. If we fail-” Nelly put her hoof to Ship's shoulder and smiled.

“We won't. Rest easy on that...”

“Alright! We're coming in hot! Stand by for CAS runs!” Morning Shine and Night Petal laid waste to the enemies that surrounded their friends with accurate rocket runs from their To-119 Neophrans. This bought some time for Nelly and Ship to drop into the heat of the action.

Nelly and Ship stormed the room where Frag and Avia were pinned. Bursts from Nelly's Federation ARP-5 carbine took the terrorists by surprise and cleared the room with Ship using her own shotgun as well. They cleared the stragglers and got to Frag.

“Captain! What are you doing here?”

“I didn't just want to leave you to die like that,” Ship sighed as Nelly took her 3D maneuver gear and grappled onto Avia's suit to drag her to them.

“It's okay little sister,” she hugged Avia and began to treat her wounds. She used the endearing term even though they aren't related. Avia was like a sister to Nelly.

Tough looked on at the sky as more and more dropships came down. He could see Morning Shine and Night Petal getting run down by enemy fighter jets. With Night and Morning out of missiles and countermeasures they were shot down and were forced to eject into the heat of combat.

“CAS fighters are down! I repeat! CAS fighters are down!” Mac radioed out to all the Joint Strike Force, “We are losing ground. Captain what do we do?”

“Listen up team, we have to pull out. The enemy is too strong and we've got three wounded Prelude! Scratch! Can you beam back up to the dropship with your transponders?” Ship put a hoof to her earpiece.

“URGH! Negative! It's crushed along with my fucking legs!” Prelude gave a firm grunt as he tried to desperately shove the statue off him to no avail.

“My arms are stuck! I can't reach mine!” Scratch was in a no better of a situation.

“That sniper is gonna be a pain in our flank! Captain, we can't get to Prelude and Scratch in time!”

“Frag, I know that! Think Ship think...” she pounded her head with a hoof clenched in a fist. As she zoned out a grenade rolled into the room and exploded into a bright blue pulsing aura with bolts of lightning that chained to their bodies. They all fell to the floor incapacitated by an arc grenade. Their muscles twitched uncontrollably as the electric charge continued. Ship was rolled over onto her back and saw the terrorists deactivate their cloaking systems. Their armor was angular and looked to be much more advanced than what the Joint Strike Force used.

“Stupid motherfuckin' ponies,” the Asian human looked at his prey as he slowly thrust the bayonet of his AK-113 into the arm of Ship. Her screams of pain made him laugh, “You've got a big price on your head you know. This will be a victory for the Pulsar Miltia.”

With one firm twist he completely cut off Ship's right arm and her scream echoed through the base. She was then picked up and slammed into the wall along with her friends, now lined up to be executed. Jet, Tough, and Rush were brought in all heavily wounded and piled into the corner to be gunned down.

“Squad, take some pics. We're gonna show them the before and after images for verification. We're gonna be rich.”

The terrorists lined up with their gun barrels pointed at their heads. Avia's limp body responded as she took her smart pistol in her shaking hoof. Her visor gave six good locks indicated by hexagons to the heads of her enemies. One trigger pull and the gun jammed in this most critical moment. She gasped loudly and managed to turn the enemies attention to her.

“What do we have here?” the enemy squad leader walked over to Avia and crunched down her right hoof with a firm stomp, “Equestrian Smart Pistol Mk5. Amped version huh? It is a shame that such marvelous technology be in the hooves of an extremely inferior system of government. Monarchy, democracy, dictatorships, and governments all mean nothing to the Pulsar. Governments can't solve problems, but we can.”

He took her smart pistol and put it into his empty holster, “Throw her with the others! Kill them all.”

Tough Heart crawled to Ship as he was kicked repeatedly in the gut. He slumped his body over her to try and protect her as a final act of defiance. He threw his arms around her as he heard their guns raise to fire.

“I love-” he was cut off as Ship donned a smile and placed her left hoof to his month. Her eyes stained in tears and blood. She wrapped her only arm around him and didn't want to let go.

Nelly was thrown on top of Jet as they were piled in the corner. Jet saw her heavily beat up and bleeding from her mouth. She was forced to place a piece of glass into her mouth as they took turns beating her face in. Jet couldn't help but cry.

“Nelly,” he crawled closer to her. Her sobs making his heart break as he knew there was no chance in surviving.

“J-Jet...” she coughed out more blood. Jet pulled her in closer with the last bits of his strength, “W-wrap me *cough* in your wings. I'm scared...”

“Nelly...” he wrapped his wings around her tight. She took one of them to shield her eyes.

“You're all dead! Hahaha! Alright boys! Now you can gun em!”

“You sure we can't beat them up some more?”

“Quit stalling, we've had our fun for today,” the squad leader turned his head to his men.

The room fell dead silent as a blast of energy from a UPF mute charge tinted the room with a light bluish haze. The muffled sounds of gunfire and impacts faded away as more voices filled the room.

“This is Mitchell, Hardpoint one is secured and we are uplinking. Federation helljumpers are clearing the base and our fighters are clearing the skies,” they could hear a familiar voice as well as some boosts from UPF exosuits. They instantly knew who it was.

“Copy that Frostbite this is UPF Command. Is the Equestrian Joint Strike Force in the area?”

“Well,” he looked down at them all in the corner and shook his head side to side, “They're here. But their performance was rather poor. Multiple wounded, some critical. Get some medics here ASAP.”

“Copy that! We're already here!” multiple exosuited Helljumpers boosted in from the open hole in the ceiling and began to attend to the wounded ponies. Jet grabbed one of their arms and lifted himself up. He kissed Nelly on the forehead and stroked her mane.

“I'll be back. You say put,” he murmured to her in a tender voice.

“Go gettem...” she smiled back as Jet shook off his pain and approached Mitchell. He was greeted with a smug smile.

“The best special forces in all of Equus I might say?” Mitchell the Buizel looked on at Jet. He flicked his brown mop of thick straight hair to the side.

“Just shut up and give me a rifle! I'm not too beat to shit to fight!” he was taken out of his power armor and only had a basic vest left over. Mitch handed him his R101C and laughed.

“Just try and keep up,” Frostbite boosted up to the top of the building and looked out around the base. Jet followed using a borrowed 3D maneuver gear. The sniper rang out and hit Mitch. He only scoffed as his shield reflected the projectile, “Aly, did you see the shot?”

“Affirmative...” the Vulpix girl took a prone stance and deployed the bipod on her railgun sniper. She was unphased by the machine gun fire landing near her as her steady trigger pull followed with a splatter of blood from the source of the enemy sniper. Jet saw that Alyssa took position near Prelude and Scratch's sniper post and several medics attended to his friends injuries.

The shiny Glaceon with violet hair next to Mitch smiled at Jet and raised his hand in a fistbump, “Hey Jet! Brohoof?”

Jet smiled and returned the fistbump, “I can always count on you not to be an asshole Quincy.”

“On come on, what happened to Q? Makes me sound like a genius spy scientist or something. Or maybe an interstellar omnipotent being.”
(Discord pokes his head in from the background and smiles unnoticed)

“Focus on the mission Q! Strella, you done with the second hardpoint?” Mitch radioed out as he boosted down with Q and Jet. They stood at ground level and sprinted to the next objective. Jet took flight as the two members of Frostbite chained together their boost jumps, boost slides, and air dashes to move unpredictably and as fast as possible. Quincy shot open an air vent and air dashed into the room to land right next to Strella who was caught up with multiple enemies around her. She was in cover as her energy shields recharged.

“What took you so long?” The white haired Spinda Pokemorph glared at Q.

“Ponies I guess.” he shotgunned one of the power armored terrorists in the face as he casually went about with the conversation.

“I can't blame you there. Great show even though the universes don't match up anymore,” Strella reloaded her dualwielded SMGs and flipped her visor down, “It's go time cousin!”

“You bet!” Q broke down the door to the hardpoint room and cycled through the modes on his variable tactical grenade. The selectable munition uplinked with his 3D augmented reality HUD and displayed their enemies in bright red through the walls.

“On three, we breach,” Mitch placed another mute charge on the door, “One, two, three!”

The specialized gadget froze air molecules in place to muffle any and all sounds in the room. Frostbite cleared the room with shotgun, SMG, and assault rifle fire. Jet was left in the dust as he looked on.

“Oh come on! Save some for the pony in the room!” he threw his arms up.

Q laughed and bearhugged Jet with one arm, “Like Mitchell said: you gotta keep up!”

Jet rolled his eyes and whispered to himself, “One day... We will be as good as you.”

“You will,” Q overheard him with his four ears. He pointed to them and grinned to Jet, “Glaceon you know. Four ears.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Jet's own ears flopped back.

“Second objective cleared. Frostbite move out!” Mitch gave his order and Aly joined up with the group.

“Sup guys!” The Vulpix girl boosted in with a power slide.

“Third hardpoint let's roll!”

“This time I'm gonna help,” Jet whistled for his Titan to follow an he embarked the massive mech, “Why did I not whistle you over big guy?”

HEAT OF THE MOMENT CAPTAIN JET.

“Okay, you got me there,” he responded to his AI, “Let's give these UPF assholes some support.”

WARNING: THREAT LEVEL HIGH. MULTIPLE ENEMY TANKS HAVE DROPED IN.

“Jet you gotta keep those tanks off us! Mitch is the only one with AT in our squad and he can't get all of them!” Q radioed out as Dash dashed in with his Titan.

“Will do! I've got them locked! Multi-Missiles firing!” Jet unloaded a salvo of homing missiles onto the enemy tank platoon. The missiles failed to connect as the active protection systems of the tanks stopped his missiles dead, “Shit! They got APS!”

“Well get creative! They're pounding us right now!” Q cut off with a static ping.

Jet looked around and saw the wreck of Tough Heart's Titan. He eyed the destroyed turret once grafted to its arm.

“Let's go golfin'!” he picked up the tank turret and rushed in with his Vortex shield up. He managed to catch two tank shells directed right at him and fire them back at one of the tanks. He used his Vortex shields redirection capability again to redirect another tank shell fired at him into a group of infantry swarming the third hardpoint. He was right up on the first tank, “Fore!”

With one mighty swing be clubbed the tank and sent it flying out of the base into a nearby cliff face. It managed to lodge itself into the wall and exploded promptly.

“Hell yeah! HAHA!” His claps were mirrored by his Titan copying his movements in the cockpit.

“Good work Jet! You got three more tanks to go!” Quency peeked out to see Jet kicking ass.

One of the enemy tanks got stuck on a barricade. Jet crushed it flat and had an idea.

“Oh hello!” he picked up the wreck and bent the gun barrel of the vehicle into a handle. He grabbed it with his robots left hand and marched forward to the last two enemy tanks using the destroyed one as a riot shield. Several missiles and tank shells bounced off the twisted shield as Jet moved in close to rip the turret off of one tank to replace his broken club. He kicked the last tank onto its belly and repeatedly beat the shit out of the lifeless corpse with the turret club.

“Are you dead yet?! Are you dead yet?! Are you dead yet?! Wee!” he dropped the tank turret and riot shield as he spied two of the bailed out tank crew cowering in the corner, “Don't think I don't see you!”

“Captain!” the enemy soldier looked to his superior, “We're all that's left and we're out of options! What do we do?”

“We buy the Pulsar Miltia enough time to evacuate...” the two humans stood their ground, “We die... WITH HONOR!”

“Y-yes sir!” his grunt was scared but ran towards Jet's Titan with a zealous battle cry. The massive mech walked casually to them and picked them up, lifting them up to the rotating camera ball of Jet's Titan.

“He's gonna crush us! Oh God! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!” the grunt and his commander were stuffed into the exhaust port of Jet's Titan. His laughs could be heard outside of the cockpit as his robot farted them out as he caught them.

“Uh? Why didn't he kill us?” the enemy commander asked as Jet popped open his hatch with a devious smile and smug look, “Oh shit...”

He grasped them by their collars and forced their faces together like a toddler making two dolls kiss.

“NOW KISS!” he repeated as their disgusted grunts brought him a good laugh. He stifled his giggles as he held them outstretched with his hands wrapped around their bodies.

“Oh no! What's he gonna do?” they asked as Jet stood still. He then flailed his arms and span them around silly as their screams brought about more chuckles from the sadistic pegasus. Jet then began to juggle them around looking absolutely stupid playing with the enemy soldiers. Even Frostbite could to bear the comedy gold in front of their eyes.

“J-Jet! Ahahaha! What the fuck man?” Mitch laughed on slapping his knee. Quincy was there to help steady his uncontrollably laughing cousin.

“Hey! I'm not done yet!” He opened his hatch and gently sandwiched his two prisoners in between the doors. He unhooked from his seat and plopped his naked plot into their faces letting out a long and much saved bout of gas from last nights bean and cheese burrito. He dropped them to the ground and saw the commander puke. Jet lost it and was a flailing laughing mess in his cockpit, “I'm done! I am fucking done! Ahhh! You UPF guys can take care of it from here.”

Frostbite boosted over and locked them up with handcuffs.

Quincy clapped on with a smile wide on his face, “And who says a warzone can't be funny? You are lucky you work for the UPF my friend! Terrorists like these deserve no mercy. But I suppose comedic torture has its place. Well done Jet. Well done.”

“Yes, I agree,” Mitch smiled as well. He stuffed the two POWs into the back of a UPF APC and walked over to Jet, “It was a pleasure working with you. But please, do train harder. If we are to work together again I want you and your team to be as good as us.”

Jet gave a salute as the four members of Frostbite 2 gathered together.

“I pray for your squad's full recovery Captain! Until we meet again!” a Federation An-2000 VTOL hovered into place near Frostbite as they boarded. Jet flipped his salute into a goodbye wave and nodded. Only to sigh and slump back down on his haunches.

“We still aren't as good as them...”