Patrol Picket E-201, Cpt. Steadfast Commanding

“Commander, do you even know what we’re looking for?” I asked, seated comfortably in my chair.

The Commander in question, Dusk, turned away from where he was standing over the helm and shook his head. “We’ve been over this Captain. I don’t know what exactly is going on out here.”

As soon as Dusk said that an alarm sounded across the bridge speakers. “Sir, I’ve got a radar contact!” The weapons officer yelled.

“Radar contact?” I muttered. “Then what the hell-”

“Helm, hard to starboard!” Dusk yelled.

As I turned my attention forward again I could see why the unicorn started barking orders. Coming around one of Manehattan’s many damaged towers was a Raptor class cloudship. I hadn’t been this close to one in a long time, and it was still as massive as I remember. “To think the Thunderheads are bigger…” I muttered as the ship slid through the motions and came to a halt, all while the Raptor slowly gained altitude and pulled away from us.

“Hey Captain?” Dusk asked.

“Yes Commander?”

“I think I know what we’re looking for.” He said as he turned to the helm. “Follow that Raptor, but keep your distance. Tactical, I want weapons at standby.”

“And who said you could give orders on our ship?” Spark asked as he stepped out from behind my chair.

“Royal Guard, Mr. Spark.” Dusk replied in a matter-of-fact way. “I outrank all of you.”

“Might I point out that the world ended?” Spark retorted.

“Look, both of you can it!” I yelled. “Helm, Tactical, you have your orders.”

Patrol Picket E-201, Cpt. Steadfast Commanding
Equestrian Royal Navy
Captain's Log, 22 Days After “Apocalypse”

I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it first… But apparently there’s still working Raptors down beneath the cloud layer, even though the one that took off from the ruins of Manehattan a few minutes ago looks like it’s been through hell. I’m of the belief that it must be down here for a reason, but some of my officers and guests don’t agree with me. But what isn’t disputed is the radiation spike that we experienced when we nearly collided with the raptor. With the damage that we can see Spark and Dusk seem to believe that it must have been caught in the bombings a few weeks ago. That of course brings up a problem. If this thing had been caught in that hell, why didn’t the pegasi architecture that allows a cloudship to fly fail? And if it did… Who fixed it?

“Captain Steadfast, we could use you on the bridge.” Dusk’s voice rang out over the intercom.

Stepping onto the bridge I saw my first officer and Dusk standing over the helm. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“We’ve picked up some radio chatter from the Pegasi.” Dusk explained. “From the sound of it they’ve been trying to get a hold of that Raptor, but haven’t had any luck. It's almost like they didn’t expect to see that ship again.”

“Might I point out that it’s a radioactive flying wreck?” Spark added. “Even if the crew on that thing are the ponies who went down with it, we need to consider that they could pose a significant danger to the Pegasi above the cloud cover.”

“Inevitably it doesn’t matter if there are Pegasi aboard that ship. It's too dangerous to let it get above the cloud cover.” I said. “Do we have the firepower to take out their engines?”

“I doubt it.” Spark replied. “201 was never equipped with weapons capable of crippling a combat-capable cloudship, and unless I’ve missed something we never made any modifications that would help.”

“What about the Pegasi? We know that they’ve been talking about that Raptor.” The helmsman offered. “Maybe where it could be a threat to them, we could warn them that their ship is radioactive. It might get them to act.”

The helmsman has a point. We have no indication that the Pegasi are aware that the Raptor is radioactive, which poses a major threat to them. Even with our past failures at communication they can hear our radio calls… “Comms, get me an open channel on the Pegasi frequencies.”

“We’re really trying this?” Spark whispered to me.

“What other option do we have?” I whispered back.

Dusk obviously didn’t have any qualms as he grabbed one of the transmitters that was mounted on the helm console. “Any Pegasi on this frequency, this is Commander Dusk of the Royal Guard. We’re aware that you’re tracking a Raptor class vessel on an ascending course away from Manehattan. Be advised that the vessel is heavily irradiated and poses a direct threat to the safety of every pony that you have above the cloud cover.”

The radio remained silent for a few moments before a short burst of static broke the silence to pieces. “Commander Dusk, this is is General Spitfire. Just how do you know we’re tracking a Raptor?”

“Because I’m looking right at it and your ponies have been gabbing about it over the radio.” Dusk retorted. “You ever hear the term loose lips sink ships General? Because that safely applies here.”

“Understood… Now are you in a position to engage that Raptor?”

“Sorry General, we don’t have the firepower.” Dusk replied.

“So what exactly is he trying to do?” Spark whispered.

I couldn’t help but shrug. “No clue…”

“Commander, do you have a targeting vector on the Raptor?” We heard the General ask over the radio.

A smile crossed Dusk’s face and he instinctively nodded. “Stand by General!”

It didn’t take long for Spark and I to realize what Dusk was planning. “Tactical, we need the targeting uplink working!” Spark shouted.

“Aye sir!” The officer shouted as the crew went from a glassy silence to a dull roar. Alarm klaxons began blaring as the weapons systems powered up.

“General, I’m linking you into our targeting systems now!” Dusk shouted over the alarms, all while typing away at the keys on the communications console.

“Alright, we’ve got it. Overcast, you’re are clear to engage.”

A series of dull thuds could be heard as high above us the Thunderhead fired a volley from it’s large bombardment weapons. The series of four projectiles soared across our line of view incredibly quickly. One glanced off the side of the Raptor’s hull with an audible clang, while the other three struck home and slashed through the hull of the cloudship like a knife through hot butter, before crashing into the ocean far below. “Sirs, the Raptor is losing altitude!” One of the officers shouted. And the officer certainly wasn’t wrong. For once the Pegasi had done something other than ignore us; they had sent one of their own ships down in flames.

Patrol Picket E-201, Captain Steadfast Commanding
Equestrian Royal Navy
After Action Report

Suffice to say I didn’t expect to be doing one of these this morning when I woke up, but there’s nothing that I can do about it… We first encountered the Raptor in Manehattan just after 10:00 this morning. External geiger counters immediately went off and continued to do so until the Raptor was half a mile away from us. While I didn’t catch where the counters topped off at it was enough to warn us that the Raptor was heavily irradiated. We maintained distance as we followed for approximately two hours before the bridge crew picked up on Pegasi radio chatter. Apparently the transponder had been activated aboard the Raptor and they were tracking it, much to their surprise considering that it had been written off as destroyed in the bombings a few weeks back.

At that point I was recalled to the bridge. Our own armament was far too light to effectively engage the Raptor, but Commander Dusk came up with an idea on the fly. He contacted the Pegasi, and to our surprise they actually responded to him. When he told them that our weapons weren’t sufficient to engage the Raptor, they asked for our targeting information. Once they were linked in one of their cloudships fired a volley into the Raptor. One shot bounced, but the other three gutted the rear of the Raptor and sent it crashing into the ocean. After that the Pegasi cut communications, leaving us to assess the downed cloudship. While we didn’t get too close, we didn’t see any signs of life in the water around the sinking craft… So as of right now we don’t know for certain who was aboard. And that’s a mystery that will never be answered.

Author's Note

Anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker