Luna could feel the space around her moon lit up. Green and blue beams of light exchanged against the dark backdrop of space, exploding either on the moon's surface or near one of the ships surrounding it. Her eyes were closed, but she could practically feel everything that was going on around her. She heard the shouts of her royal guards as they fought back the invaders, smelled the burning smoke from their weapons and felt the reverberation of every shockwave. Luna knew she had to ignore it all; she had to focus everything she had into keeping the shield up.
"Load next volley! Be ready!" the guard captain shouted. "Aim!"
Her shield was the only the invaders' barrage at bay. The translucent blue energy dome her magic maintained above them shimmered and quivered with every blast of green that hit it. Her magic was strong, but it could not protect them forever. She only hoped that she could keep it up for long enough.
"Fire!!" The royal guards' trebuchets flung their ordinance into space. Just before they impacted Luna's shield, perforations appeared in sections of it. The packages erupted into blue flames the moment they exited the moon's low atmosphere, burning brightly as they tumbled towards their attackers. The shield closed up again as soon as the ordinance was clear.
Commander Elso Harker led Gamma Squadron in their fourth run on the enemy's shield. His lasers stitched into the shield, causing ripples in the energy. The shield was strong, but the distortions were a good indication that it was beginning to weaken. It couldn't stand up to constant assault, which is exactly why he and his squad were keeping up the pressure.
He pulled around in a sharp bank, completing one attack run and leading his squad right into the next. Getting as low as he could, he strafed the shield with another riddling blast of laser fire, hitting it as many times as he could. Behind him, he knew his squad was doing the same, carving into the energy field like a knife. He noticed some of the distortions in the shield open up in front of him, actual holes. At first, he thought he was having more effect than his last run, that the shield was starting to collapse. That was when a blue ball of fire flew out of the hole right in front of him, nearly hitting him.
"Spast!! Enemy fire, break and evade!" He juked sharply to avoid another fireball. As he did, he realized too late that his squad hadn't responded to his order, to his warning. In fact, Gamma Squadron, apart from himself, didn't appear on his sensors. Commander Elso Harken was the last member of Gamma Squadron, a fact that found a cold place in his stomach to brew as he processed it.
"Gamma-One to Leviathan: the rest of my squadron is down! They've got some kind of artillery under the shield!" His comm system crackled static. "Gamma-One to Leviathan, does anyone-" Read- it was what he almost said, what he would have said. But one of the glowing blue fireballs collided with his cockpit and exploded, bringing an abrupt end to Commander Elso Harker and Gamma Squadron.
The fireballs continued hurtling towards the enemy fleet. Green lances fired from the ships' batteries at the oncoming orbs, destroying a few but not all of them. Some of the ordinance made it through the counter barrage, striking the enemy ships. The larger triangular vessels' shields repelled most of the damage but the smaller boxy freighters weren't so lucky. Two of them were destroyed, erupting into a vibrant explosion of orange and blue.
"Next volley, load it up! Load next volley!" Luna's guards readied the trebuchets again and the battle continued. Luna could feel the strain in both her own ponies, in the invaders and slowly, herself. She ignored it all and focused on the shield.
"Captain Trake? Zeta Squadron is down, sir."
Delmot Trake didn't need his sensor officer to tell him what he could see for himself. The Leviathan's viewport gave him a spectacular view of his fleet and the local resistance forces engaging them from the surface of the moon. From the bridge of his flagship, he could see every part of the battle. Hands clasped tightly behind his back, he nodded, appreciating just how much he was able to see. He gave his sensor officer the only reply that came to mind from such a view.
"Fuck."
"Sir?" the monitor looked over her shoulder.
"Nothing, nothing, ensign," he waved erratically, "Deploy squad... which one is after Zeta?"
"Eta, sir."
"Good, err, yes- deploy that one." Trake turned around, rubbing the back of his neck. "Commander Grammith, you have the bridge. I'll be in my quarters."
"But- sir?" His first officer tried to stop him, but he shouldered right past the larger man. The battle had already been decided; Grammith could take care of the rest. To be fair, there shouldn't have even been a battle, something Captain Trake was very aware of. If he made it back to his quarters, though, faked an illness or something, there was still a chance he could avoid the blame. He just had to make sure he didn't run into-
The doors at the back of the bridge opened. "L-Lord Starkiller!" he snapped to attention, followed quickly by everyone else on the bridge.
"Captain Trake." The Dark Lord of the Sith, or at least one of them, seemed to block the entire doorway. The person, or rather the thing, that was Starkiller stood at average height for a human but always seemed to be wearing a metal bodysuit of some kind. This suit, which contained clawed gloves and a dark T-shaped slit visor, made him looking like a strange hybrid of demon and machine, but certainly not human. He stepped menacingly onto the bridge, a sharpness in his every step. "Our operations are not proceeding as planned."
"Ye-yes, my lord. We've encountered some unexpected resistance from the native population. But I assure you that we're-uuulh!"
"Your assurances mean little to me, Captain Trake," Starkiller said, walking right up to him. "Your assignment was to evaluate the full capabilities of these natives before bringing your assessment to me. This failure reflects badly on your performance and I am afraid I can no longer place my confidence in you."
Captain Trake dropped to his knees, clutching his neck. The crew watched, their expressions twitching as they hid their shock but not a single person intervened.
"Uhhhll-hhhhllllaaall-"
Starkiller turned to the first officer. "Commander Grammith, bombard the moon's surface with the fleet. Eradicate this native resistance and dispatch your troops to prepare for Director Margus' arrival. I expect you to assure me of your own capabilities in this matter, Captain Grammith."
"Yes, milord!"
Starkiller gave the battle beyond the viewport barely a passing glance. It had been decided long ago, now was just the time to finish it.
Luna felt the stress mounting. Like a dozen hammers striking above her head repeatedly, she literally felt every blast upon the dome of energy she maintained. It didn't seem like she could take much more when suddenly, it ceased.
"They've stopped firing! They've stopped firing!" one of the guards announced.
Keeping the shield up, Luna allowed herself to open her eyes. The ships above had stopped firing. They were still there but they weren't moving, none of them advanced or deployed anything more, they had all stopped.
"We did it! We did it, they're giving up!" one of the newer guards cheered, a couple others joined in with her. The more experienced officers, however, knew that such things were premature.
Luna looked up, with some amount of hope in her heart that their adversaries had either given up or exhausted themselves. "Ready another volley," she ordered. "Send word to Princess Cadence- tell her we need reinforcements. We haven't broken them yet."
"Yes, mum."
She watched the ships above cautiously. What were they planning? What move would they make next? Minutes passed and nothing.
"Your highness!" one of her guards shouted, "Word from Princess Cadence! A crystal legion is teleporting in- seven minutes!"
Luna nodded. "Good. With our combined power, we can repel these invaders," she said, hoping. With the crystal ponies adding their own strength to her own royal guards, they could bolster their defenses and free her up to attack. They had a chance now, a fighting chance.
"Your highness, they've yet to return fire," her guard captain said. "Could their guns have been silenced?"
She shook her head. "It's too early to tell. But I think-" The moon started shaking. The surface shifted and pulsed, as if an amplifier was reverberating just beneath their hooves. It traveled up their legs, a low rumble that seemed to be coming from the moon itself. Luna looked up; through her eyes, even the stars seemed to be shaking.
A massive object moved overhead: an arrowhead silhouette that seemed to be more part of space than something in it. It swallowed the stars above them, blocking the view of space beyond.
Luna swallowed. She felt herself nearly paralyzed by the sight of the behemoth vessel. "Captain," she started, in the most confident voice she could muster, "tell your men to-" Too late. The ship opened fire.
Pale green-yellow bolts the size of some of Canterlot's buildings rained upon the shield. "Ahh-AHH!" Unlike before, the beams did not blast the shield- they went right through it. They blasted the surface of the moon itself, sending the guards into panic as dust and rock flew into the limited air. To Luna, it felt like molten arrows were piercing her head but the pain went no deeper. She nearly lost her balance and fell. Still, she fought to maintain the shield, what little of it there was left.
The energy blasts continued ripping through Luna's barrier. Massive holes were punctured in the shield until barely any remained. The rays exploding on the moon's surface, many of them destroying the guards' trebuchets.
"Retreat! Retreat, fallba-" A stray blast hit the munitions loaded onto one of the trebuchets. In an instant, the artillery crew around it were vaporized in an eruption of white-blue fire.
"Fallback! Fallback to the crystal!!" Luna shouted to anypony who was left. She struggled to stand herself. Her captain grabbed her leg, wrapped it over his own shoulder and tried to help her walk. She tried to tell him to leave her, order him to retreat with the others but a bolt exploded in front of them. Luna found herself bathed in the yellow-green light and blasted above the surface.
Cracks appeared in the moon's crust. As the beams scorched the ground, huge chunks of the moon exploded upward. As Luna floated above her moon, she watched it as it was blasted, cracked open and torn apart. She felt everything and faintly, just at the edge of her hearing, heard the screams of her valiant soldiers. The last thing she saw was her moon with a huge, blackened gouge in it before she fell unconscious.
Director Seebrin Margus was in his own private quarters when Starkiller entered. "Come in," he said, despite the fact that the dark lord had already entered of his own accord and had not knocked.
An asian man with a bald head and curled mustache, he had been enjoying some tea and light reading while his fellow Imperials fought. "Ah, Lord Starkiller. Please, sit down."
