HMS Paris, somewhere over the Western Ocean
Dart

Waiting. If I’ve learned anything fighting ONI and the Enclave it's that waiting comes with the territory. We beat back their advances only for their to be weeks, sometimes even months, between battles. A normal pony would assume that they go back to lick their wounds after we kick their asses, but I know better. They’re studying our tactics in search of weaknesses they can exploit. Up until a year ago I thought that we were flawless in executing our counterattacks… But Las Pegasus proved me wrong. In doing our jobs one of our enemies realized something very important.

We’ve fought tooth and nail to protect civilians. So they set off a radiation bomb... Those who didn’t go mad through exposure to the balefire radiation were died in agony within a week. Princess Celestia hailed us as heroes, but I and those who survived the ordeal know that none of us deserve that title. Over one thousand ponies died, a good chunk of them to our own containment efforts. And the Enclave only had to expend two soldiers, because in the end we did all the shooting for them.

But now a year on we’re in the prime position to get some payback. After months of planning General Meteor Shower unveiled our first real offensive action of the war; Operation Typhoon. Three years ago we had stumbled across an island shipyard in the Western Ocean, seemingly abandoned as the entire contingent was aboard two Raptors that attacked Equestria. But in the aftermath of Dusk’s disappearance the freshly reactivated Meteor Shower took another look at the island, and we’re lucky that he did. With the aid of the Wonderbolts we’ve been able to track Enclave and ONI operatives as they left the island, in addition to discovering a second base of operations deep within the Badlands.

But today our goal is simple; we take the shipyard and the island it sits on. With no proper repair facilities the Enclave won’t be able to repair their Raptors, which hopefully will restrict their deployments. But the shipyards come with an added benefit. We can finally make proper repairs to the Paris and bring two near-derelict ships, the Redoubtable and the Coral Sea, back into service after almost two years of clandestine storage in the Everfree.

At this point I believe that I must address something. All three of our ships are human vessels, the Paris being the only one still crewed. When the Enclave first attacked then-Commander Thomas Baxter came to our aid and helped drive back the assault. After discovering that not only had an element of their government known that they were stranded on our world, but they had decided to eliminate them all. Something broke in Baxter that day… But as word of the truth began to spread his crew began asking if they could enlist with us. And enlist they did, every single one of them. Baxter was the final person to sign on, bringing with him the Paris and the access codes so we could recover the Redoubtable and Coral Sea from their location in deep space. We went and claimed both ships immediately and they were incorporated into the Navy immediately. But the years adrift hadn’t done the ship's any favors and even now they remain hidden away deep within the Everfree, waiting for proper repair facilities to be made available. And if all goes well they won’t be sitting idle for much longer.

“Commander Dart?” Came Captain Baxter’s voice over my radio.

“Go ahead Captain.” I replied, leaning forward in the jumpseat I occupied in the bay of one of the Paris’ Pelican dropships.

“We’re one minute from green light. What’s your status?”

I looked around the back of the Pelican and looked over the four other souls that I would be leading into battle. Steeljack was locking his rifle to the rack above his seat, Comet was wiping down his rifle, Strike was loading rounds into spare magazines, and Don… The only human member of our group was holding his helmet in his hands staring at the silver visor. “We’re ready.”

“Understood, stand by.”

Out in the hangar klaxons began to bair and out the open door I could see Marines, both Human and Equine, running about as final preparations were made. “Still the same old music…” Don muttered as he flipped his helmet around and pulled it on over his head. In that moment the visor went from silver to clear, a function standard to the Helljumper’s equipment. “I take it that you all know the dance by now?”

“How couldn’t we?” Steeljack asked as he sat down in his seat. “We’ve only launched four other operations from this old bucket.”

I could see Don smile under the visor before he tapped the side of his helmet, turning the visor silver once more. “And I’d be worried if I got a different answer.” Fifteen marines filed into the bay and sat down in whatever chair they could find.

“Baxter to all hands, the board is green.” The Pelican shuddered as it lifted off the deck, followed by an immediate drop into the open tropical air beneath the frigate. “Commence Operation Typhoon!”

The Pelican shifted as it accelerated towards our beach landing. “Thiry seconds!” The pilot yelled from the cockpit.

“Alright, we’re mean. We are very mean!” Don yelled as he got up and grabbed his shotgun.

“OOH RAH!” The Marines all yelled in unison.

The visible ocean outside the open bay door turned a lighter blue before sand came into view, immediately followed by a thud as the pelican touched down. “Go, go, go!” Don yelled, waving the Marines out. As the last one left I got up from my own chair and led my team out onto the beach. Off to the left and right Marines disgorged from flanking drop ships and started advancing up the beach. As the last Pelican took off and flew back towards the imposing form of the Paris I made an important realization.

We weren’t getting shot at.

“Don…” I droned as I shouldered my MA5C “Shouldn’t it be a bit noisier?”

Don nodded his helmeted head. “Paris Actual this is Alpha Six, are you seeing anything up there?” Don was silent for a moment before he thumped his finger against the left side of his helmet. “Paris Actual, do you copy?”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the last of the Marines start marching off towards the dunes at the head of the beach. “Something’s not right…” Steeljack murmured. “No resistance, but no working radio either?”

“It’s gotta be a trap.” Strike observed.

He might be right… “It doesn’t matter.” I said, swinging my rifle onto my back. “We’ve still got a job to do.”

“The lady has a point.” Don said. “We need to take that shipyard, even if we’re walking into a trap.” The veteran soldier turned and started walking up the beach. “Now come on. We’re burning daylight.”

***

Ten Minutes Later

By the time we had reached the shipyard proper we still hadn’t seen any resistance. There wasn’t even a sign of life to be seen… And we were supposedly in Enclave central. “Is that radio still on the fritz?” Steeljack asked Don.

“Still is.” He replied. “But I just don’t get it… Why cut off the communications of an invading force if you don’t plan on engaging them?”

As we reached the main building I stopped and wheeled around. “What makes you think the Enclave isn’t up to something?” I asked.

Don shrugged. “Just look around. As far as I can tell we’re the only ones here.”

As much as I don’t want to admit it, the Helljumper might be onto something. And the prospects of what we were actually going to face left me a bit concerned… Are we really walking into an abandoned building, or are there soldiers waiting inside? “Only one way to find out.” I pointed at Strike before pointing at the steel double doors that would let us into the main building. “Breaching charge, the rest of you stack up.”

For what seemed to be the millionth time Strike fished out an explosive crystal and fixed it to the middle of the door, all while we all split up evenly on both sides of the door. As the crystal began to glow Strike wheeled around and got behind Strike on the other side of the door. He held out his hands, three fingers first before going down to two, then one…

BOOM!

The door blew apart and landed inside with a clatter. Lights on rifles turned on as we swept into the empty foyer. The building itself was two levels; the wide open ground floor with the command center up top. I silently waved Steeljack and Don to follow as I marched up the flight of stair. I made it to the top quickly and swept the light around the command center. Computers were all still running, but there was no sign of ny Enclave or ONI personnel.

“Clear.” Don called out.

“Clear!” I heard Comet yell downstairs.

With that word I felt my shoulders get tense. On any other operation I’d be relieved, but we’re standing in an enemy fortress with no sign of hostiles. Don and Steeljack were already looking over the consoles as the lights flickered on.

“So what’s new?” Strike asked as he and Comet walked up the stairs to join us, the Marines I was hearing downstairs likely having that level covered.

I heard something click, immediately followed by a brief burst of static through my radio’s earpiece. “Found the jammer!” Don yelled.

I immediately hit the radio’s transmitter. “Paris Actual, this is Alpha Three. Do you copy?”

“Affirmative Alpha Three.” Baxter called through the now unobstructed channel. “What’s your situation?”

“All hands present and accounted for, no signs of hostiles.”

“Say again Alpha Three? It sounded like you said that no one is home.”

“It’s exactly what she said Captain.” Don added. “No sign of the Enclave or-”

“You might want to put a sock in that.” Steeljack called out. “Dart, you need to see this.”

I jogged across the room as Steeljack pulled up a file from the communications logs. “Blaze Squad, what’s wrong?”

As I finished reading the file I clicked the radio back on. “Captain, get the Paris in one of those berths and send word that it’s safe for the Redoubtable and Coral Sea to move.”

“But what about-”

“Captain I know where the Enclave went.” I said, cutting off the officer. As I looked back down at the file and looked at the final timeline of the plan that it outlined I forced my growing concern down into the depths of my mind.

“What is it Dart?” Don asked as his visor cleared up. “What did you find?”

I glanced down at the plans and found the names of all of the ships that ONI had allocated for what the plan termed as ‘Operation Endgame’. “I found out where the Enclave went… And we have just over forty eight hours until they come back.”

***

HMS Paris, Two Hours Later

Under normal circumstances I’d say having a briefing on the bridge of a ship that looked more like a construction site was incredibly unwise, but we didn’t have time to fly back to Canterlot.

“Are they here yet?” I asked the Captain.

Baxter shook his head. “Didn’t I tell you no even a minute ago that they were on their way up?”

They, of course, were the Royal Sisters. As the elevator door slid open and they marched out onto the bridge, I noticed that Meteor Shower had stepped off with them. “Captain Baxter…” Princess Luna groaned. “Can you please tell me what was so important that you need the presence of both my sister and I? Your mission was clearly a success, and young Sparkle is already hard at work installing the equipment she built for your vessel.”

“That isn’t why I called you both here.” Baxter insisted, leading them over to the holotable. “Dart?”

I punched a few keys and the holotable projected images of five human ships. “We’ve got a big problem headed our way. ONI has provided the Enclave with three heavy cruisers and two frigates, in addition to four space capable Raptors that they’ve built for their friends.”

While Celestia’s expression didn’t change, Luna’s became one of great concern. “Faust… What do we do?”

“For starter we need all three of these ships combat ready in what is now less than two days.” I explained, pulling up the specifications that Twilight had provided for the refit on Paris when she arrived. “And I need to apply these weapons and defensive modifications to the Redoubtable and Coral Sea.”The specifications that the prodigal student of Celestia had drawn up were nothing short of a quantum leap for Equestrian science and magic. She had designed pulse cannons to replace the human-designed point defense guns while fitting in the same barbette, crystal-based “missiles” to replace the expended Archer equivalents, crystal-based ablative armor to reinforce the Titanium-A skin of the frigate and, after some work, a shield system that used the slipspace drive reactor as the main power source.

“And you need this done before those ships get here…” Celestia muttered.

“We should also get the crews moving.” Luna pointed out. “What about the Regent, do we know if it is ready?”

I thought back to the reports about the Condor that had been scavenged from the Redoubtable. “If Sparkle wasn’t satisfied with her prototype then I doubt that she’d be here.” I pointed out. “But with that in mind we need to get to my plan.”

“I’m sorry, but a plan?” Celestia asked.

I nodded. “Right now we have an opportunity to improve our position.” I typed away at the keys again as two ship images developed. “These are the UNSC Pioneer and the UNSC Euclid’s Anvil. According to ONI’s plan they’re the advance force. With that in mind our goal is simple. We take control of the Pioneer long enough to fire on the Enclave base in the Badlands before bugging out. Assuming Redoubtable and Paris can handle Euclid’s Anvil, Coral Sea and Regent will be able to get in close to the Pioneer unhindered.”

The bridge was silent for a few minutes before both Princesses finally nodded. “You’ll have your fleet Commander.” Princess Celestia assured.

I let a smile creep across my face. “Excellent… Captain Baxter, contact Flash Sentry.”

“Anything specific I should tell him?” Baxter asked.

I stopped to think for a moment before I nodded. “Tell him we’re going to war.”

***

HMS Redoubtable, Two Days Later

I’m not one to usually believe in miracles, but after losing resources to counter a surprise attack on Dodge City only hours after work began on the fleet we still managed to get all four ships combat ready. We even managed to cobble together proper crews consisting primarily of officers taken directly from the Wonderbolts. As I sat in the big chair on the bridge of the Redoubtable I couldn’t help but feel a bit impressed at our efforts…

“Commander?” I glanced off to my right and saw that the Wonderbolt commander, Fleetfoot, was standing at my side.

“What’s up Fleetfoot?”

She handed me a datapad. “I had one final systems check run, and I thought you’d want to see it.”

Glancing over the report I couldn’t help but smile. So far all of the retrofitted equipment was working as intended. “Good… This is good Commander.”

“But is it going to do anything for us?” She asked.

“We can only hope.” I offered. We had only finished the work on Redoubtable three hours ago, so no tests other than turning things on had been accomplished. “We know that the Paris had time to test its systems and they reported that everything was working. Considering most of this junk is identical I’d say we’re probably in good-”

“Commander, slipspace rupture detected!” The helmsman called out.

“Here we go…” I muttered. “Shields up, go to red alert!”

As the imposing shapes of the Euclid’s Anvil and Pioneer dropped out of slipspace alarms began blaring all across the bridge. “Paris to all ships, requesting status report.”

“This is the Coral Sea-” Came the calm sounding voice of the Wonderbolt’s leader, Spitfire. “-all systems are reading green. We’re ready.”

I flicked the comms switch on my chair. “Redoubtable here, we’re operational and ready to go.”

“Understood, stand by.” As I looked out onto the two ships ahead of us I finally noticed something. The new plating on our ships made them look pale blue as opposed to the grey that they had been painted with. A small detail assuredly, but one that I hadn’t yet noticed. “UNSC vessels. This is Captain Thomas Baxter of the HMS Paris. You are in direct violation of Equestrian space. Reverse course or you will be fired upon.”

The seconds ticked by before a green light flashed on the comms panel. “Captain Baxter, this is Captain Pellegrino of the Euclid’s Anvil. We will not reverse our course. Surrender your ships and prepare to be boarded.”

“The Anvil is arming weapons Commander!” The helmsman called out.

I offered a simple nod. “Paris, I don’t think they’re in a mood to listen.”

“Agreed.” Baxter replied. “All ships, fire at will!”

Outside the our enclosed bubble pulse cannons on both the Paris and Coral Sea lit up, spraying bolts of rainbow-colored light at the opposing vessels.

“Lock weapons on the Pioneer, target their MACs!” I yelled. I could tell that we were accelerating towards the destroyer as the Paris moved out of direct view.

Immediately the destroyer opened fire with their smaller guns. As the rounds impacted against our shield I could see the ripples of rainbow-colored light skitter away from the point of contact. “Missiles locked on target Commander.”

“Let em’ have it!” Fleetfoot yelled. With the push of a button five missiles streamed out from somewhere under the bridge and flew straight at the Pioneer. As they impacted against the front of the destroyer they let off large fireballs that flew out in all directions in the vacuum.

“Direct hit Commander, their MACs are reading disabled.”

“Paris to Redoubtable, we could use some support over here!”

“Bring us about Helm!” I yelled. As the view shifted I could see why Baxter had made the call. Instead of that same pale-blue hull that I had seen only moments before the ship itself looked more like a rainbow.

“Dart, the Euclid is lining up for a shot!” I heard Comet yell from somewhere behind me.

“Open up those batteries!” I yelled. Two of the visible turrets beneath us spun forward and began sending streams of light against the Euclid. As its shields flared the vessel kept turning away from us and towards the Paris. Missiles began to fly away from their launchers and smacked into the side of the cruiser one after another.

I could see the helmsman shake his head. “I’m reading fluctuations in the Euclid’s shields, but otherwise they’re ignoring us.”

That leaves us with only one other option to get their attention. “Preparing a firing solution for the main cannon, and make it fast!”

“We’re charging up the system now, we’ll be ready to fire in two minutes.”

I slammed my fist down on the armrest. “We don’t have two minutes!”

“But we’ve only got one-”

“It doesn’t matter!” I yelled, cutting off the helmsman. “Fire the damn round!” The ship shuddered and in a blink of the eye something smacked into the side of the Euclid, erupting into a massive fireball that obscured our view of both it and the Paris. As the flames died away we saw both ships still there.

Our low-powered shot had thrown off the Euclid’s aim. But their shot against the Paris had done a number on the vessel. Their shields had obviously failed if the rainbow-colored sparks arcing out from various emitters were any indicator, and the main loading elevator had suffered a direct hit from the MAC round which had taken out a sizable chunk from the ventral protrusion.

“Coral Sea to Paris, Captain Baxter can you hear me?” The channel stayed quiet for a few seconds before we all heard Spitfire sigh. “Redoubtable, I think it's time to worry about that Destroyer.”

I nodded. “Copy that Captain.” I hopped out of the big chair and waved to Comet. “Blaze Squad, let's go to work!”

Author's Note

Now this is something different that I hadn't planned on writing... But after hitting a brick wall on E-201 I came up with a few different ideas for separate stand alone stories set within the mirrorverse proper. That's when I remembered that I had a short stories segment to the original Broken Mirror... And after going through what I wrote I decided that I needed something of greater quality. So I pegged two ideas for further development. This was one of those ideas, which I realized would fit in well in the Mirrorverse as I hadn't explored what Dart and Company was doing immediately prior to Dusk's return. Their was simply a mention in Chapter 9 of Broken Mirror Part I that Blaze Squad was boarding the destroyer UNSC Pioneer. That in itself is certianly something to flesh out. You'll see more eventually, as I have the boarding operation itself already written. Eventually I'll be doing something with the operation to salvage both the Coral Sea and Redoubtable, but that'll take a bit more thought and planning before it sees the light of day.

In the meantime, 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