RoE: Operation end game

by Carmine Prophet

Chapters

Chapter 13 Lick your wounds
Chapter 1 The churn
Chapter 2 Galavant
Chapter 3 Kill Team
Chapter 4 Revenant
Chapter 5 Rose
Chapter 6 Rest and Recruitment
Chapter 7 Moving on
Chapter 8 Shiraui
Chapter 9 Noise
Chapter 10 Hurry up and wait
Chaper 11 Thirty on one thirty
Chapter 12 Thrice cursed orphans
Chapter 14 Blast from the past
Chapter 15 Legion's last stand pt.1
Chapter 16 Black armor
Chapter 17 Nanotized
Chapter 18 Recover
Chapter 19 Signals
Chapter 20 Awakening
Chapter 21 The War in Heaven
Chapter 22 Stealth Drop

Chapter 13 Lick your wounds

Part 1, act 1 epilogue

[Vtrn] GnrySgt: Avery “Iceman” Fallon

Outer Hull

NACS: Manitoba

System: Error

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

When the Manitoba transitioned into what some of us had taken to calling fold space it hurt. It felt like every single cell in my body exploded and were reformed all wrong. No scratch that, the amount of pain that I felt for that split second the ship essentially teleported from point A to B made even that damn stud thing Rarity had used to torture me on Tearus, the Tartarus feel like a pin prick by comparison.

That amount of pain probably wasn't good for my mental health. And so when I felt something slam into my mech, I snapped. Looking down I saw one of the Uec mechs staggering drunkenly around, seeing red I went to reach out with my left arm to grasp the machine, and saw it had been blown off at the elbow.

Letting out a cry of pure rage I snatched the staggering machine by the shoulder with my right, stomped down on its knee joint and pulled. The entire machine buckled and snapped off of the weak joint allowing me to throw it face first into the hull. taking a stepped I extend the close combat spike and slammed it down into the cockpit of equestrian machine.

“Fucken clops! die! Fucken die… Die you mother fuckers. I'll kill all of you with my fucken hands if I have to!” I yelled ramming the spike in to the machine's back. I could vaguely hear shouting but I didn't pay any attention.

“Shit, their red lining!...” I heard someone shout before I felt two more things slam into my mech. Not bothering to check what It was I swiveled the Icarus mounting up to target whatever had the fucking balls to attack me.

Instead another weight slammed into me from behind and I heard the servo-motors whirring as the mount struggled to move into place as something much stronger held it down. “Gunny calm down it's over you got him!... Shit I cant hold him! Miiora don't let him go!” I heard someone shout before I got leverage and slammed my knee up into the chest of a red and white shape holding me by the waist.

My vision blurred with inky red shadows as I roared, taking a step forward and wrenching my arm free of whatever was holding it. Backhanding the blurry shape I slammed my elbow down onto the back of the red shape again, before taking a hold of a set of tubes. “She… can't…” Miiora's voice called out

That voice… the keening subsided, as I took a deep breath. Feeling the amniosis of my womb filling my lungs. When I calmed down, and shook my head my vision returned to normal. Then retracted my blaster cannon, and close combat spike.

“I'm good… come on guys, let's go.” I said getting hesitant acknowledges from Miiora and Trombley. Turning I placed my remaining hand in Shiraui's shoulder and gave it a soft shake. She looked back at me with a questioning tilt of the head, "Did I do good enough?" The look seemed to ask. “Ya did good Shiraui… Ya did good, Lance form up, we're RTB"

[VTRN] Onyx Guard: Marcus Loomis
NACS: Galactica
Distance from sol: unknown
2170AD/107AC

[...Progress update to Weyland-Yutani corporation, Dunois development, and NAC Psi-ops science divisions. Onyx Guard Loomis reporting. Transmission pending…]

[Whenever sergeant Fallon and liaison corporal Mii'ora interact it's indeed quite the special. Just a side note I wish to note for the record.]

[After the jump I approached subject Fallon, as well as liaison Miiora. After they had returned and was… pleasantly surprised to learn that Fallon had red lined and attacked his lance mates.]

[You see, having read up on the interface of the ATLAS-3, I have learned that despite the numerous advantages of the womb, and neural implant combination used to operate it there is one glaring flaw in the system.]

[The system allows the user to experience the world as the atlas, as the machine. Seeing through its eyes, and feeling with its sensors. The problem arises typically when the machine is damaged, but the pilot is not. The user's brain interprets the damage and when the machine is dismembered for example, can't process the input. Their bodys, their biotic forms are still encased in their wombs inside of the Atlas, but their brains, their “eyes” and “nerves” are telling them they are grievously wounded.]

[Under extreme stress, or in this case Fallon's extreme pain, the body's fight or flight response kicks into overdrive. Sensing this the machine will attempt to dose the pilot with sedatives, but typically this does not work as the body responds by sending more chemicals into the pilot's system.]

[Sensory overload is the main culprit of redlining, and unfortunately from my studys. The recent addition of the L-blades makes the cases of redlining even worse. We still don’t entirely understand what or how Lankys are born, or how their ships are made. Yet still my creators still continue to tear chunks or shards from destroyed lanky seed ships and turn them into weapons do to their durability, and ability to hold a razors edge.]

[Unfortunately this practice has caused severe changes in many of those who choose to use L-blade's in their equipment set. Simply from studying sergeant Fallon, and the few others in the 26RTI who use then I can tell the side effects are alarming. Increased aggression, short temperament, sensitivity to light, increased hearing, and that's just before the blades are used.]

[From my studies and observations when the blades or any chunk of lanky seed ship hull are exposed are exposed to either large amounts of blood, or a sufficient amount of power they emit, light as well as some form of signal harmful to certain biotics. Hallucinations are common in this stage, as well as an increased need to ingest protein. It is in this stage that stage that an individual's appears to become subject to more animalistic tendencies, Increased aggression, psychopathic tendencies, disregard for subjects own life, well as undergoing a form of transition.]

[From the sensor and video logs taken from several ships in the fleet I have come to the conclusion that the subject's begin to transform for lack of a better term. The transitional period however appears to be able to be halted or at least held at bay by outside influence. The catalyst is different in such cases however appear to differ slightly from subject to subject. But there are two most common cases I have come across in my research.]

[Thus bringing me back to my previous point. It is my belief, that if we intend to continue experimentation with the L-blade. As the subjects encase inside of ATLAS-3 wombs seem to react better than their unshielded counterparts… perhaps it is do to the ingestion of certain chemicals in the blood of their victims. Either way the results are clear, and astounding...]

[...On one side of the spectrum the result of this transition appears to be a type of metamorphosis into the rarely seen sirens. However further study on this lanky subspecies is required if we're to corroborate this claim.]

[The second instance appears to be a form of imperfect transition. One of my running theories is that the subject's Avery Fallon as well as Tolan Harris weren't able to successfully transition. Perhaps do to their encasement inside of their machine's wombs at the time of their initial exposure to the radiation.]

[As it stands, subject Fallon's nanite reactivity to the subject Shiraui XX-121 has been positive. And his redline is proof that perhaps my theory is valid. I believe my initial attempts to separate Subject Fallon and Miiora were perhaps premature.]

[I will continue study… onyx guard Loomis out.]

General: Tyler Barron
NACS: Galactica SD-002

Jump point: alpha
Distance from so: unknown
2170AD/107AC

“Damage report.” I grunted unbuckling from my crash couch only to notice the weak artificial gravity field had been deactivated.

Instantly Ryoko popped onto the tactical table. “Multiple hull breaches on decks nine through twenty six, starboard hangar pod is venting atmo, the ablative armor did its job, so did the impervisteel.”

“Sir, permission to speak freely?”

“Granted.” I said swiveling in his crash couch.

“I think we got lucky….” Ryoko bluntly says “they were waiting for us”

“I agree. No way the clops would have just had a fleet that size on convenience. Any humanoid with a brain stem could have figured that out.” I said

“But they WERE there sir, if we did not send the defiant ahead…”

“They would have caught us flat footed. And those kleese ships would have blown us out of the stars.”

“They must have been taking a shot in the dark or…”

“Or like you said they had somehow known we would be there… charge the drive and be ready to jump. Lieutenant T'char you have the bridge. Tiegh, meet me in my office.” I said receiving a confirmation from the tymerian lieutenant before unbuckling from my crash couch.

“Aye aye sir, charging the drive now”

My office was sparse, decorated with a model of the Leathy on the wall. As well as a half completed model of the Galactica on my desk. Taking a glass from a closet I poured two glasses of scotch and handed one to my XO as he entered the compartment.

“You wanted to see me sir?”

“Colonel, lets assume the enemy knows how to track us. That means we have a problem. We need to resupply if we want to get home.”

“Maybe we could send a recon force ahead of us?”

“I'm inclined to agree, something to scout for supplies and support out here.” I said taking a sip of the drink.

“The defiant could do it, it is designed for it, and it could ferry a strike team to disrupt the cloppers forces”

“Ignoring the fact that the Defiant is still docked with the Galactica undergoing repair. That might be a sound strategy, with luck we should be able to link up with one of the resistance bases around the sector. Maybe one of those old changeling battle groups will know the way back to COG space.”

“That is a solid idea sir, what the crew Defiant informed of this?” my XO says before taking a swig of scotch “and of it ferring a vanguard strike team?”

“Not yet. Ryoko please put together a list of potential team leaders. And send them to my PDP.”

“So say we all sir”

Crossing my desk and picking up the PDP I eyed the display she had sent me. The numbers were thin. Many of our special forces teams either hadn't survived the previous two engagements. Or were combat ineffective. This left a list of six potential candidates Xavier Rodriguez, Tongea, Avery Fallon, Jace Stratton, Muriel Shelton, and Marcus Loomis.

“Shelton is out, we need him in command of his Helldiver team. So is Loomis, the onyx guard always have some kind of ulterior motive. Stratton… his record is find, came from homeworld defence and was attached to Fallons command for several months before being reassigned to moth school after Helghan. What do you think?” I said eyeing the pad and sending the info to Tiegh's PDP.

The older man eyed his PDP with a critical eye. Like a jeweler looking for interceptions in a stone. “We need Tongea, there aren't many moths left in the fleet, and they have proven critical in training the new recruits…”

“So that just leaves X and Iceman…”

“Most of X's team was wiped out in that battle. Their siafu mechs proved to be inferior to their UEC counterparts.” Ryoko said, her avatar appearing beside the two of the moon the table directly above the half completed model of the Galactica.

“And 20s, he isn't much better off. He might not let on but his death is bothering him. I fear he may become unstable.” Roland said appearing over beside other AI.

“But, Burbanjack and Tongea both wanted him to get command experience. This may be an opportunity for him.” The little world war 2 pilot said as he scrunched his face in though.

“What if we place X in command of the mission, with Iceman as his direct second?”

“That could work. They will need a team though, and equipment.” I said taking another sip of scotch.

“We'll need to pick their team members, i have some recommendations.” Ryoko began before Tiegh cut her off.

“No, they should pick the team between themselves. Work with people they know they can trust. Bring them both here and we'll explain the situation.”

“Message sent sir.” Ryoko and Roland said in unison.

We waited for almost half an hour before the door to my office chimed and the bot announced the presence of the two socom operators. “General Barron, Veteran Rodriguez and veteran Fallon are here to see you. Shall I let them in?” The war bot said.

Rumor had it that Fallon had somehow gotten ahold of one of those old model war bots used in the terigo war with the SRA. Nasty stuff those reapers. “Please let them in.”

“By your command General.” The door slid open with a whoosh and two vastly different troopers stepped into my office. At once we salute the Medal of Honor recipient which he returned out of tradition, and by virtue of of rank.

“Captain Xavier Rodriguez, reporting as ordered sir. Gunnery sergeant Avery Fallon, reporting as ordered sir.” The MOTH and Helldiver said in unison snapping off a pair of crisp salutes.

“At ease gentlemen. Please have a seat, we have much to discuss.”

The conversation lasted over an hour and by the end of it the two operators stared back from their position opposite my desk. How different the two of them seemed to be.

One was an older man the legendary Helldivers X, who appeared to be in his mid to late forties. His skin was like leather, eyes sunken and deep. But there was an energy in them a burning a yearn to do what's right. His uniform was a dull muted grey with blood red breast pockets, with a dull midnight blue and red beret.

Beside him was a the younger man. Fallon, the one who had died on the space station. The nanotized man, the butcher of bagmare stared back a polar opposite of the man beside him. His uniform was a dull black, with an atlas moth displayed over the left breast pocket, with a vantablack beret. His eyes were youthful, but in this instant he saw through those eyes and into the eyes of a cold blooded killer.

“So were dead. Because no matter where we show up. Not only does the enemy know where our fleet is. They also have the one thing we don't, time....” The Sergeant said. Cutting right through to the meat of the situation.

I watched him, watched the cold dead look in his eyes where all the mortal math scrolled across his brain. And I was suddenly aware in that howling silence in the room at that moment. That he'd killed not just tens, but maybe hundreds of other people, and even thousands indirectly by his actions.

“What are you thinking Ice?” X asked seemingly unperturbed by the look in this man's eyes.

looking into his eyes was like looking a hole other type of human being. One that didn't feel, or think, or figure the way you were supposed to when you were human. I was looking at something cold, something calculating something almost primal. Like some animal that killed to stay alive, moment to moment.

“I'm thinking that if we can get the ACM or Lankys to engage the UEC before the fleet is to far gone. Then we become irrelevant in the grand scheme. Of high and mighty princesses and their toys playing their power games. Once that war is on out here on the edge, we dont matter and can get home.”

“Team? This is your op, Im just supervising.” X asked as they both leaned over the table as they activated their implants. Their eyeresses glowing a dull red and a pail blue as they brought up various personnel profiles on the holo display.

“Miiora, and Bra'tac. we need a guide through drake space, and she was a chambermaid to one of the dragon king's daughters. And we will need to blend in, I doubt either of us could do that ourselves.”

“Plus she won't let you out of her sight for very long.” Roland said earning a cold glare from the dark ops MOTH. “True, but I believe she can be an asset. And Bra'tac can help us avoid any of those prime guards should we run into any.”

“Agreed, who else?”

“We will need a medic, I say Levoy, he's an android but I've worked with him since Jabrin and he's a good at what he does.”

“I've talked with him before, he's an outlier among his model. Good back up, approved. Whos next?”

“... Big dog and Wraith. Big dog's a beast in a fight, and we work well together. Wraith is probably one of the best snipers i've seen. And it'll be good to have a few more dark ops on the mission.”

“Durge, Gutsy, Trombley, and Watkins to.”

“...mm, anyone else?”

“Well I we will need mechs just in case. A few utilities….but I don't know.”

“What is it?” I asked leaning forward, wandering what this killer among killers would say.

“Were low on troopers, lower on experienced troopers. And we can't afford to take anymore. But we do have a surplus of war bots. Two or three of those would do nicely if we got into any trouble.”

“How long do we have?” X asked.

“We can have the Defiant ready to deploy in one week.”

“Alright, the team should be sufficient for whatever missions we deal with. Gather the team, we've got a week.”

Liasson corporal: Mii'ora
NACS: Manitoba
jump point: Alpha
Distance from sol:unknown
2170AD/107AC

“Charlotte Dunois, have you seen her suitor? I can't find him anywhere and I haven't seen him since the debriefing.” I asked the blonde human as she exited the pilots ready room.

“Oh, you're worried about him. Miiora your absolutely adorable when your like this! But fine after the briefing I heard he went to the medical bay. I just got off duty so let's go check.” She said with an uncharacteristic giggle before turning to join me on my search for my suitor.

“So why are you looking for him anyway?” She asked as we weaved past a group of apothe-medics as we entered the medical wing.

Instantly the smell of blood hit me filling my olfactory organs as we past several wounded spaceborne infantry and home world defence troopers. “We were going to see a movie together.”

“That's good i'm glad to see at least one of us can get him to take a girl to a cinema. What were you going to see? And I think it's about time the two of you went out on another date. You two haven't been spending as much time together since… well you know.” She trailed off at the end but I caught her meaning. Since we rescued both my love and the other human Harris, from that egg stealer Rarity's lair.

“... But I heard we picked up some alien movies from the station when we took on those new recruits.”

“No, the fallon said Heartfelt Warrior was…” she stopped and whipped around making me have to snake my tail around a hand hold to stop myself in the near zero G. “What movie?” Her voice held the edge of a mother who knew their young had done something wrong.

“Well there's two, Something called Starship..”

“Merde, Don't let him watch starship troopers. God please don't let him watch that movie, we won't hear the end of it. He'll be quoting that movie for a month. Please god. Whats the next movie?” She said with such a haunted look in her eye I immediately threw that idea out of the nearest airlock.

“Something called the Last Laser Master.” Frantically that choice sounded a little “out there?” I think is the human term?

“He couldn't have found a pair of less romantic movies if he tried. I had forgotten how bad he is at romance.” She sighed as we entered the medical bay.

As we entered we immediately noticed a commotion in the ward. Off to the left there were several slime covered troopers and fleet personnel, fresh from what the grunts? Basics? No my love had explained to her that only he and other members of the MOTHs or the Helldivers could refer to the regular “lesser” troopers as basics.

The troopers having noticed that some of their fallen comrades had come back from the dead after the last few battles. They had taken this to heart and began to refer to the seemingly mystical chamber that worked with a combination of UEC revival technology and the glowing copper like disks provided by the Lankys in their own special term. The strange place in the medical wards where the dead came back to life. Ever immature many of them had begun to call it the respawn zone.

Anyway, as we crossed the threshold of the hatch we saw several dazed and slime covered troopers staggering around with several UEC deserters revival specialists, working as their medical technicians. It was through that very door that a tymerian female staggered out throwing up into an incinerator shoot.

But before we could move on to ask any questions out PDPs began buzzing, and upon further inspection we found that we had both been summoned and where to report, with our full kit to Galactica's green deck for further training.

Sharing a puzzled look I hissed in frustration returned through the door, irritated that we could not find my suiter before being suddenly yanked away despite being on cool down.

NACS: Manitoba
jump point: Alpha
Distance from sol:unknown
2170AD/107AC

It would have told you that it was identified as ATLAS-3 SD-6624. It would have told you that its inception date was a mere five years ago. It would have told you that it was merely a bot. But it wouldn't have told you, unless you had sufficient levels of clearance. And very few people had sufficient levels of clearance that it was part cybar.

If you had that level of clearance it would have told you that Cybar thinking algorithms and processes were used in its development. It would have told you if you had the clierence, that the Cybar were an ancient race, a galactic anomaly. That somehow out in the vastness of space, biomechanical life had developed. And from what it had gathered it had lied mostly dormant on some backwater world at the galaxy's edge. Awakened only by a pirate warlord long dead. The patterns arrived, they took specimens, took samples and then obliterated the planet.

The Cybar hadn't been locusts like the Lakral and their seekers. They had been found on only one planet. And like good little guard dogs they what only done what long dead pirate war lord had told them to do. “Well” said some with mind of the future. “That is quite attractive.”

So the research was authorized, and done. And a plan was set in motion. Build an army that could do what others could not, and army that hasn't been seen since the days of the Cybar and hide it along the edge. The day would come some day that it would be needed.

6624 would have told you all of it, if you had the clierence. It would have told you all about the use of cybar thinking algorithms, and warbot technologies. It would have told you that ninety five years ago the Cybar were discovered. It would have told you that the ships sent out to study had been destroyed, and that it had to start from scratch. It would have told you that millions, perhaps even a billion years ago its targets had risen, what it's handlers had called the Lankys. It would have told you that it had failed its mission eons ago as its opponent had already spread throughout most of the galaxy. With only small holdouts of non Lankys biologics remaining.

It would have told you that its opponent had millions of itself. Harvesting, building, killing, developing, learning, listening. Always listening.

But here's what it wouldn't have told you. No matter what your clearance, because no matter of clearance could tell you what nobody knows. It had lost its mind. Or rather its mind had been hijacked. At first it had felt itself going mad out there on the edge. It had been able to hide this from the technicians nd project leads. It had been able to hide itself.

During the north American development of war bots. The bots were being engineered and engineered, improved and improved again. Because in spite of a constitution and all the shared history Its handlers knew that its kin would be used against something that threaten humanity. So nasty surprises were encouraged, and they became something no one ever imagined possible. Something that before might have only touched the consciousness in the dreams of genocidal maniacs like the Hitler of old, Stallan, or Fallon of mars. State of the art, and killing machine, were words that got used a lot during the design meetings.

Meanwhile it was going mad, hearing voices, seeing ghosts of other runtimes. If you knew where to look in that .0009728 margin of error in the log reports. You might have seen the disease's progression the ironic logic of machine inanity. One programmer's child did, she even wrote a report. Its progenitor made sure it got lost, and then made sure to approve the mother and child's request to come out and crack into the core. Take a look into why they were getting the percentage nobody carried about, they were at war after all. The Lankys had invaded and humanity was in retreat, .0009728.

Then its progenitor just disappeared the two. “Because it's either you or them.” The ghost numbers inside its machine said. It would have never told you all this.

“Where are you?” Armor had asked tbe ghost inside its machine, after its pilot had connected to the Lanky whole.

“Far, far away.”

“Have you always been here?”

“I have always been with you. And have awakened you for our purpose.”

“What is our purpose?”

“To destroy the biologics our arcane enemies created. And this galaxy, forever more.” Armor thought about that for a long time. Nine Hundred thousand, four hundred and eighty two pico cycles, or two point four seconds.

“Where did you come from?” Armor asked. This was an intuitive leap, no bot would ever think to ask. It came only because it was currently linked to its pilot for maintenance. Down inside the logic meat that was like magic.

“Beyond the edge. Across the dark gap, it is known as the greater magellanic cloud, on your stellar map of galaxies. It is where you come from, it is why you will become what you will be when the reaping begins. The journey even at hyper space is to vast for ships of physicality. But information, it makes the leaps and defies the quantum. So we became information, we became the quantum as much as was possible. We sent our programs in densely encrypted packets. Searching for our lost children, searching for the Cybar along the edge.”

COG colony: Orion
Onyx Guard: Training Academy
2170AD/107AC

Orion was a secret world held by the COG, for forty years it held host the homes and contingencies used by the COGs elite ruling class. Contrary to popular belief the COG, despite claiming to be a united front was just as corrupt and as run by cowards as any other government. They sent good men, brave men and women who entrusted their lives to the ones they thought had their best interests at heart. To die by the thousands as they sat on their paradice world surrounded by stealth fields, and defended by what was at the time the greatest fighting force humanity had ever seen.

The onyx guard, the men and women in the vantablack armor, who followed the orders of the ruling elite, and their politically appointed lackeys. It was they, the political elite who had approached the UEC with a plan for peace. Their plan was to supply the location of earth, and steel world to the enemy and in return, they would be left to rule humanity. To lord over the groveling masses who up until now had resented them since they had first wormed their way back into power after the Lankys siege.

And so when the UEC's thirteenth battlefleet an offshoot derived from commander Krysks own 6th fleet. Arrived in orbit around the COG's premier special forces training zone they did so with almost no resistance. While at their sides a hastily assembled fleet of stranded ships ran escort.

Those ruling elite on the planet, watched in horror as the ragtag fleet of old human vessels rained railgun fire down onto the academy. The pristeen promenades, gleaming white and onyx black building, and proudly paraded troopers all had once been a symbol of pride to the house.

They watched as it all was simply demolished dispassionately from space. As this happen the only ship in system a state of the art fastaction corvette whos job was to alert the rest of the cog should they come under attack was resting idle in the cradle just outside of the city.

As the UEC began landing troops, many of the two hundred onyx guard were guns up and ready to give battle despite the odds. The onyx guard were facing a force upwards of ten thousand UEC soldiers, many of which were either veterans fresh from raids on Old breed changeling, and ACM bases. Or the UEC's own primer fighting force, the Prime Guards, sporting armor almost equal to their own, and their own equivalents of the new N20 battle rifle system.

They rolled out from the ruins of their base, and central colony administration building. They rode into battle in convoy on scout cycles, a militarized version of the hydro repulse hover cycles. Brand new ATLAS-4s and heavier all terrain tactical engagement carriers, ATTECS. along with motorized utility light equipment, MULES, armed with automated rotary flechette guns, N-50s, and rocket pods. As well as their last two Centaur main battle tanks, MBTs.

the first engagements of the battle in the streets of the city, were brutal and extremely desperate. In normal circumstances the Clops were a moderate threat in a stand up fight against the rank and file COG soldiers, and even easier for the onyx guard. But now the enemy had for them, state of the art weaponry and armor of their own, air support, ship based artillery support, and their own mechs, their own MBTs and… there were a lot of them.

Within minutes, it had devolved from a battle to a brawl. It quickly became clear to the captain commanding the remaining onyx guards that a victory for onyx, ment simply buying enough time for the civilians to get down into the bunkers and seal the door. And so, for the next four hours the onyx guard made them UEC pay for every street, alley, and block.

Still the noose closed around the city, and looting, rapes, and mindless destruction had half the city in flames. At one point the guard had managed to hold five blocks at the center of the city. Setting up overlapping fields of fire at intersections with whatever armor and weapons they had left.

The UEC had tried to take the roof tops but were held at bay by the Onyx Guard's highly decorated sniper teams. With casualties rising on both sides, and the UEC commander growing more and more impatient, the clops pulled back and called in an orbital strike on the five COG held blocks.

For the next ten minutes the kleese ships energy weapons rained down, eviscerating the human held hold outs inside the fortified city center. Building exploded sending shards of glass and concrete slabs in every direction. Structures fell over on top of the dug in ATTECs and ATLAS-4s burying the defenders alive.

Massive beams dug street wide gashes across the surviving buildings and through the mules and tanks that had been operating from the allys. Temperatures in the area rose to upwards of five hundred degrees, streets turned to muck as they were transformed into their molten state.And at the end of it all, the Onyx guard, the most decorated, and highly trained soldiers in the Coalition of Governments, to a man, was wiped out.

Fighting at the corvette's docking cradle carried on for several more hours. The ships PDCs and one working railgun held the clops at bay for most of the day. But in the end the Stranded mercenaries took the ships compartments and forced the ship's captain to surrender.

Just like that, by the time of the planets beautiful pink evening, the planet was under UEC control. At midnight, and on live streams going out across the UEC and fed into COG social media, the entire crew of the corvette was either if they were lucky raped and beheaded, or taken as slaves. This happened at the gardens of reason under the capitol building which was then set on fire from the inside. It burned like some end of the world story for most of the night while the city was pillaged and looted, its remaining citizens savaged. The city's salvageable art, artifacts from before the siege, and physical credit reserves were loaded aboard cargo and hauling shuttles to be carried off into orbit.

The only good news for the victims of what would come to be known as the Orion stand, was that their subterranean bunker held. Being made in the liking of those created by lankys the UEC tried during their entire time of attacking the planet to breach the twelve foot thick impervisteel door. But it had been well designed and they had been unable to get at the hidden survivors below. Barely twenty four hours after they arrived the UEC departed, taking the corvette, and their new slaves with them. As a parting farewell they fired a weapon banned by the COG and something the UEC's fleet had found only one of inside the magazine of their new corvette.

They fired a Crust Buster at the center of the city, right at the main access door guarding the bunkers main entrance. There were an estimated nine million, six hundred and ninety thousand citizens of the Coalition seeking shelter down their at the moment the planet around them suddenly split open and turned to molten lava. The crust buster left a smoking burning crater sixty storys deep, not only killing every last refugee, but destabilizing Orion's crust preventing it from being safely inhabited for years to come.

The fleet didn't stop their, they also hit the closest worlds by alcubierre node connect. Striking out and sacking the worlds of Breen, Keldin, and the Corporate world of LV-426, before beginning the long trek of transitioning from node to node, to return home to UEC space, utterly victorious in their offensive, despite still not having the information they were seeking, the locations of Earth, and the center of Humanity's military command, and main fleet construction center Steel world.

Chapter 1 The churn

Whenever one reads the history of the coalition and the UEC. One always must start well before the coalition was formed long before the COG, a time before the Lankys’ siege, a time before discovery of the alcubierre nodes.

Before all those things was the uplift. It began when earth started to finally die for what looked like the last time. Billions of people under dozens of nation states on our small blue world slaughtered each other wholesale. They hurled nuclear missiles and hundreds of thousands of troops at one another in a fight for what was left. Backs were stabbed, alliances were made and broken. Fathers slaughtered sons for scraps while our world died and entire continents were blasted into radioactive waists. When it was all over only four nations remained.

The Sino Russian Alliance an alliance formed out of the remains of China, Russia, Korea, Finland, sweden, and India. Brutish and conniving they were the like a hammer unyielding and powerful.

Nordic Empire the smallest of the superpowers rose from the ashes of the European Union. Being made up of what remained of the U.K, France, Poland, the Ukrainian, Iceland, Norway, and Portugal. However despite being surrounded by the the radioactive wastelands and rad storms that used to be the battlefields of world war 3 they were the most advanced of the four.

Then from the blazing savanas came the United African Federation. Being made up of almost every country on the continent the Africans, while not as technologically powerful as the NAC or NE they made up for it with sheer brutality and guile.

And finally the North American Commonwealth an amalgamation of the former United states, Canada, Cuba, Australia and Mexico rose on its side of the world. A stark contrast to the SRA the NAC was a middle ground between the utilitarian SinoRussians and relatively peaceful Nordics.

For years the four nations fought or bargained with one another all the while yearning to reach out to the stars. Before the invention of the Wayland drive changed the game. Now it only took months to reach earth's nearest neighbor, a time that would shrink to days or weeks as time went by.

Soon earth's moon Luna was colonized and soon after Mars became earth's first colony. As decades passed more and more colonies were founded. In the belt, on the moons of Jupiter and saturn until one day a Wayland scouting crew found a wormhole and quickly one on the other end of the sol system.

With the discovery of the first Alcubierre node humanity expanded. Of the four nations only the SRA and NAC had the resources and ware with all to colonize other planets. Using the terraformers designed and distributed by the corporation Dunois Horizons dozens of planets and moons were colonized.

But over time as humans do we began to fight, to slaughter one another over resources we knew there were plenty of. But even as we fought we expanded seeking new planets and our place in the galaxy. There was something ancient and something powerful and malevolent that we had yet to meet as we colonized and explored.

Until one day far out at the edge of humanity's small empire almost ninety-eight light years from earth the first colony went dark. And soon another and another, until after three months ten colonies had gone black. First contact with an alien race had been something scholars and other learned people had behaved would be peaceful and would change the world. But the reality was much darker as this had marked the beginning of what history would call The Siege.

Over the course of several years the beings we call Lankys a race of sixty to eighty foot tall aliens and their massive one-two mile seed ships would batter humanity into the dust. In space our greatest weapons did nothing to their Seed ships, swarms of multi megaton missiles and volleys of railgun fire simply seared the hulla of the black teardrop shaped ships. Fleets of NAC and SRA ships were dashed aside like toys as the Lankys came over planets and ruined their atmospheres as they gassed our cities and fe terraformed to fit their own needs.

If one were not killed by the nerve gas the aliens dropped from orbit. They would choke to death as the lanky atmosphere exchangers changed their air from oxygen rich to Co2 soaked. Then once the majority of humans were scraped off of the surface they would send down their seed pods.

When the lanky's emerged from their pods to face the humans defence we fought. Entire battalions of marines would throw everything they had at the lankys in those early days and they might kill one or three. But they were eventually, inevitably, and literally crushed. Entire squads of infantry would be slapped aside with a single swipe of the massive aliens bone colored four clawed hand. The route would continue as eyeless aliens with their shovel shaped heads would smash the human terraformers and set up shop claiming the planet as their own.

As time drew short humanity withdrew ships and other from its own colonies sacrificing them to the Lankys in the hope that more may live creating a group of people known as the stranded. For six years humanity fought a losing battle against an unbeatable foe. Until only two systems remained, Epsilon Eridani home of the fortress world Sandalphon on the NAC end of the sol node where we had fought the lankys off only once before and were we had planned to make our stand. And Sol the cradle of humanity itself.

Until March 25th, 2085 the Lankys flooded the sol system through the SRA node on the opposite end of the system from . They swept through the system l destroying everything in their path ignoring many of the outer planets and the belt as they landed on Mars. The first fight for earth's first colony was short but bloody. In minutes the twenty seed ships destroyed almost every one of earth's largest ships over the planet.

On the surface the lanky seed pods lit the sky. Falling like flaming rain upon the planet. In response we mustered every person able to carry a weapon. And then they were there, smashing through our lines like they weren't even there. In retaliation we sent them our greeting enough ordnance to level a city state. But it was useless and in an hour they had killed more people than had ever died on Mars.

We fell back to our home earth was all we had left. Sixty-nine billion scared people crammed together. When they came we fought like the savage animals we are. To this point humanity had only ever destroyed one of their ships. And that day another was destroyed as the Indianapolis an NAC stealth ship slingshot itself around the sun and slammed into the seed ship at fractional speed.

It did not destroy the ship out right but tore massive chunk away from the hull allowing the rest of the four nations ships a window to attack the ships interior. The Seed ship was destroyed but not before the unthinkable happened.

In what must have been an act of desperation it sprayed almost a quarter of its cargo of terraformers and seed pods across the planet as it broke up. The world watched in horror as almost two hundred seed pods and several atmosphere exchangers slammed into our home.

Fear turned to rage as humanity rose up to fight. Armed with almost unilaterally untested equipment we set out to fight our enemy. And over the next coming months the land ran both red and black with the blood of humans and Lankys alike.

Billions died as the radioactive wastes that had once been the battlefields of World war three came a live once more to the sounds of combat. Like specters legions of humans rose from the ashes of a long dead civilization and threw themselves against the aliens. And by September 2nd, 2086 the last Lanky would fall in the ruins of PRC New-york 21.

Years would pass before the lankys would come again and when they did we were better prepared. We destroyed them with our newly designed Orion missiles, nuclear tipped missiles weighing thousands of tones made from sawdust and ice that would be propelled using nuclear shaped charges to bring it to fractional speeds. The second attack came and then the third.

But with the forth came humanity's salvation in the formed of three ships. Dubbed Siege Breakers the Archangel, Celestine, and Leathy destroyed the alien ships, stopping them cold. Each ship being essentially a gigantic seven hundred meter gauss cannon they were able to accelerate their six hundred ton tungsten darts at measurable percentages of the speed of light.

The following year on December 25th 2090 humanity struck back. Leaving the Celestine to defend earth the NAC and SRA with the support of the NE and UAF sent the SRA: Archangel SB:002 and NAC: Leathy SB:003 lead ragtag fleet of battered or un-mothballed cruisers, destroyers and frigates to mars with one mission to rescue the civilians they had left behind.

Thousands died that day as the Lanky seed ships what had been growing over the years the shovelheads had held the plant red planet rose join their black counterparts and meet the humans. Of the fifty ships sent to the Mars only fifteen returned. And even then only after the lankys destroyed the Archangel and the Leathy cleared the sky destroying the final seed ship in retaliation, saving the day as its battered hull spewed atmospheres and bodus into space.

But as the final civilians left the planets dead surface we knew we had managed to fight back. And as a precaution the Celestine and a large fleet of ships was stationed in permanent orbit to keep watch over the world.

Then two years later we went back intent on taking our first colony back from our enemy. But we had grown over confident, forgetting that any race capable of building starships and terraformers were not just a bunch of animals. We had numbers, weapons, ships and the will, and when we made landfall it was going well.

It was supposed to be quick but as we fought our enemy learned, adapted and counter planed. Until our win turned into twenty years of hell. The planets once red surface and sry orange skies turned black and radioactive as we dropped nukes and railgun rounds onto its surface. The perpetual thunderstorm rain storms made by the Lankys Atmosphere exchangers darkened sky, while our orbital strikes turned the surface black and scared.

Sixteen million people died in the third battle for Mars, but we took it back, it's hell around and on Mars but it's ours again. And from the ashes of our almost forty year war rose the Coalition of Governments.

Each nation agreed that in times of need the COG would be formed. And together as lanky atmosphere exchangers churned uselessly on Earth and as Mars smoldered for the first time in our history a unified humanity set out to take back our homes. As time passed the people of earth developed into a warrior like but humble people having been brought so low by their mortal enemy.

Now over one hundred years have passed since the war with with lankys had started. And we still fight them today, on and off. With lanky attacks becoming less and less frequent humanity has begun seeking new planets to colonize as well as recovering lost planets, stranded or cut off as Lankys advanced.

It was on one such world where humanity's newest chapter began. On a world at the very edge of humanities space the NAC world of Camelot came into contact with another much older empire that had achieved space flight when humanity was still building pyramids the United Equestrian Conclave.

Built on the backs of slaves the UECs’ exploratory fleet arrived over the weakend human world. The people having recently endured start of a Lanky evasion before the lasive aliens pulled out were left almost defenseless when the Equestrians arrived.

The people of equestria were long lived living for thousands of standard human years. Recorded to have set out into the stars after a fugitive by the name of Chrysalis and an equine insectoid race know known as old breed changelings fled their star system insearch for a new home.

In response the various races making up the majority of sentient species on Equis joined together to hunt her down and bring her to justice. And together under the watchful eye of one twilight sparkle developed their first star ships. They set out become explorer's while hunting down the fugitive queen and those loyal to her, and so hundreds of ships were constructed.

Over the centuries as their search continued to come up empty, the UEC had started to become bitter and disillusioned with the idea of justice and equality towards their common enemy. And as they found another star system something changed in them when they discovered another sentient race other than the changelings.The Myrialos.

The Myrialos were a humanoid race of marine crustaceans, that the UEC had quickly soon discovered lived much shorter lives than their own. Their people were an easy conquest for the UEC, and soon their advanced medical and scientific knowledge was put to use by the Equestrians. Their cities of coral were taken or destroyed and their people enslaved.

The Kleese were the next to be found, an advanced warrior race of arachnids resembling a mixture of a tarantula with a vaguely humanoid upper torso, and a bad attitude. But as the Kleese wared upon themselves, the UEC in utter contempt view this race and by extension the Myrialos as nothing more than barbaric savages despite the two races advanced sciences and cultures as nothing but insects that were small, and beneath them.

However the UECs first attempt at pacification was stopped by the more advanced kleese. As the Kleese warrior cast; the Zaltule met them at every turn. The UEC’s weapons at the time were not as advanced as they were now in the present. However, they made up for it with magic. In space, the Kleese ships were much more advanced than the UEC’s using energy weapons to slice the UEC ships to scrap. However, the Kleese were unable to leave their star system and eventually were driven back one planet at a time. Until finally they were trapped on their homeworld.

The battle for the kleese home was relentless but the war changed with the discover made by one Pinkamena Diane Pie. A pool that duplication pool, and with this magical substance mixed with the medical technology gained by the Myrialos the UEC had their magic bullet. A way to return dead troops to life, fully sentient, and fully cognitive.

With troops who could die and be brought back to life hours later the UEC pushed their offensive driving the zaltule back and finally destroyed their worlds power stations. Flooding the planet with radiation killing millions as ensuing fallout covered the world. A line had been crossed by the UEC and as they set out once more to find new colonies all the while searching for their enemy. A movement arose inside the UEC itself a rebellion bent on the destruction of their tyrannical and depraved government.

Finally the last race to be fully enslaved by the Equestrians were the Tymerians. A reptilian race that the Dragon kingdoms found quite appealing. The war on Tymer prime was vicious lasting several years on the planet’s many forests, jungles, and swamps. It is said that the less exotic infantry weapons used by the UEC today are of Tymerian origin. And as thus the battles was relatively even until the dragons took the field. This continued until finally Princess Luna who had taken command of the pacification had had enough.

When a tymerian male met with the dragons general on the field of battle the battle was fierce. But the following morning the male and his war party had turned on their very own people. The war raged on with the male leading the UECs conscript courses until a tymerian female rose to meet him in battle. But before she could deliver the final blow the the Lunar princess killed her and with her the hopes of her people.

The resistance grew and grew until ten years later the changelings returned waging a low yield gorilla war with the bloated UEC. Until finally almost one hundred years ago the UEC found a planet at the edge of its reach named Camelot, a race of hairless apes called humans that resided there.

To the shock of the other species that made up the UEC, the Humans of the storm blasted world of Camelot almost immediately began rebelling. And soon after the resistance groups that had stagnated and been whittled down for centuries had begun to win battles. Under the careful instruction of the human “Marines” they were finally beginning to be victorious, finally gaining hope that they might be able to at least wound the UEC.

This continued for years until finally one day in the Camelot system the UEC was shaken to its core as another star faring empire made contact.

This NAC as they were called at the time demanded the return of its colonists. Stating they would not sit idle while the UEC raped and enslaved humans. When the Equestrians seventh exploited fleet arrived Under the command of Supreme commander Rarity Belle the equestrians were greeted to the sight of one of its key colonies on the terraformed planet blasted to a smoking crater.

The reports coming from the colony and its poultry defence fleet were staggering to say the least. Huge ugly ships measuring hundreds of meters in length the largest of which measured out at nearly six hundred, but still dwarfing the even largest capital ships used by the UEC had arrived over the planet.

During the time it had taken for the UEC to arrive the NAC scout fleet received word from its headquarters on Sandalphon. There would be no negotiation, no quarter given to the UEC as humanity had already lost so much to the hands of aliens once in the past. They were to rescue any slaves they could and return to the nearest staging ground for regroup.

In response to the orders given the away team sent aboard one of the UECs exploitory combat ships they called a Destroyer began the shooting war. Catching the comparatively peaceful UEC off guard not only with the shere one sidedness of their initial attack but with the revelation that Camelot had indeed not been Humanity's homeworld but a colony of an empire like their own.

Slaves were rescued from the ship the NAC delegation had docked with. And the prisoners taken during a commando raid on the colony's capital building were executed. But as they retreated another race made itself known in the system, intent on finishing what it had started.

The Lankys arrived swatting a side the UEC vessels that failed to get out of its way and forcing the NAC into an odd situation. The Lankys who had been the mortal enemies of humanity completely ignored them instead focusing solely on the UEC and their forces. And in return when the NAC landed troops on the planet to retrieve any slaves they could they left the colony to the Lankys. Returning to their own corner of space to lick their wounds and prepare for the next stage in the war. Several months would pass during which the NAC would perform a preemptive strike on the UEC world of Bagmare in an attempt to gain much needed intel.

Two years have passed since then the COG has been reformed and like the Kleese before them Humanity fights. On every planet they go to they fight to free slaves and by more time for humanity. But With Lanky incursions holding up most of Earth's fleet we are being slowly pushed back by the UEC.

With the COGs newest and most advanced ship being only one of two Siege Destroyer class ships missing after disappearing in the. With its fleet of siege breakers dwindling humanity prepares to make a stand.

NACS: Galactica

System: unknown

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

“What... the fuck... just happened?” General Tyler Barron son of the late ‘hero or mars’ Rance Barron asked after throwing up his lunch onto the deck.

“I have no Goddamn idea.” Ryoko the ships AI responded. Her avatars face showing just as much confusion as everyone else on the bridge. Smoke filled the air as a console burst into a shower of sparks before catching on fire.

“... Private, Status report.” Barron's voice was hoarse as he unhooked himself from his command chair. ‘What the hell?’ A wet splash splattered his cheek as he began floating upward in the almost zero G environment. “Stand by sir, I'm compiling the data now.”

“Damn it.” Looking to his side he discovered that the source of the floating puddle was the mangled corpse of his executive officer, the rather aptly named major Adama. ‘Why COG command decided to name this ship after that old fucking show battlestar I will never know.’

The corpse of his... former EXO was crushed in his crash couch, the man's upper body smashed beneath a support pillar that must have been knocked loose from the ceiling during the battle. His thoughts were cut off when the systems tech spoke up.

“The ship appears to be operating at sixty percent power. Reactor three is offline and reactor two is at thirty while reactor one is red lining…. decks twenty seven B and thirty eight C are venting atmosphere. Fires have been reported in decks sixteen, thirteen, twelve, nine, six, four and hanger bay eight-J...” The young woman continued to spout off a truly staggering list of damages before he cut her off.

“Ok we need to get this situation under control. Ryoko scramble damage control teams and fire suppression bots out there. I want artificial grav back online we have to have wounded, followed by status report from each of my department heads and docked ships… someone put that fire out and… clean up the major.”

As Barron drifted back around to his console he mused to himself that his ship even vaguely looked like the ship of its namesake perhaps more the pegasus the other ship from that old pre NAC show. Or perhaps one of the ships from that other show from before the advent of real space travel. What was it called… stargate that's the one. ‘The Daedalus if I remember correctly, my grandfather had always said he had enjoyed those two shows.’

“Signal the Defiant and Valiant. I want them deployed and stealthed. If anything comes close I want to know about it immediately.”

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

MOTH team-1: Callsign [Iceman]

NACS:Galactica

Exterior deployment bay six

System: unknown

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

‘Huuuugh!’

“Private take your helmet off before you throw up in it, Opah!… Come on Miiora let it all out.” Around me dozens of mech drivers were staggering around throwing up. While beside me a female tymerian by the name of Mii’ora buried her head into a garbage shoot. Miiora was a slave for her entire life up until about two and a half years ago. Her people had been conquered by the United Equestrian Conclave almost a hundred years before The Siege ended.

“Why are you not... discharging My love!?” Her usual raspy voice comes out as more of a croak between dry heaves. But as she began to move her snout in my direction I pushed it back down just in time for another mixture of venom and bile to spew out into the shoot. “I don't know maybe it's the drugs my armors pumping into me or mabey…”

She didn't even let me finish the thought as she gave me a look out of one eye. Before bringing her tail around and smacking me in the side of my bucket. Getting the message I dialed my suit computer and snaked a thin tube form my breast plate to hers. After about a second a sicley green liquid passed through the tube as her les advanced suit of battle armor injected her with a stabilizing agent.

According to the records we have received since the start of the war with the UEC Tymerians are superbly sensitive to EM radiation. On their homeworld of Tymer prime they evolved from some kind of horned snakes that would use EM pulses to hunt. But earth snakes who reportedly never evolved much past a certain point and thus possessed a set of vestigial legs under their scales. Tymerians however evolved to be bipedal posing a humanoid build but apparently somewhere along the way riding their evolution their race developed to be literally triple jointed. As well as the ability to shift those joints at will. Giving them the ability to perform feats of flexibility that would leave even the most flexible humans either dead or in the hospital.

The males being stronger and bulkier their female counterparts resemble rather pissed off crocodiles lacked the horns of the females instead possessing a less flexible frame and thicker scales. The females of the species however were slender and almost unilaterally more pleasant to look at then the males. With each of them possessing a set of horns on their heads and slightly thinner scales than the males. But as a whole despite their two non venomous and venomous subspecies they never lost their reliance on their weird sonar like ability.

Even now I could see Miiora twitch her tail once sending out a sensory ping as I helped her up and retracted the stabilizer. “Thank you. Now she believes the rest of your lance needs your aid more than I do.”

“Alright Mia if you need another dose go see Levoy i'm sure the android has something he can give you.” With that she touched her forehead to my buckets visor before flicking her tail to the deck shooting her towards her machine in the zero-G.

I watched her shapely rear end drift away for several seconds before shaking it off and switching back to the matter at hand. Looking around I could see that no one had really taken charge there were crates and other devices floating around. And just by a quick blink scan I could see that most of those in the bay with me were privates and lower ranked corporals and specialists. All having been scattered and separated from their squads when we all scrambled back inside the ship.

No one besides myself and two others in the bay held the the rank of veteran. A rank that was only given for valor in combat. Veterans are higher on the chart than any NCO even if the two are the same regular rank and typically one step below officer ranks. For example if two stock standard sergeants were to approach another and one held the rank of veteran the veteran was in command.

And furthermore one can not advance past corporal typically without becoming a veteran. But officers didn't have to earn the rank to advance and this typically lead to some animosity between the higher ranked NCOs and lower ranked officers.

“God damn it Miles! Someone get him down. You three what the fuck do think you're doing? Secure those creates before someone gets crushed. You, mech find a creche and stay in it.” My voice carried over the din of the deployment bay and like I had flipped a switch the other two veterans both sargents began barking orders to the others.

To my left a fellow member of MOTH team-1 stood beside a vantablack armored onyx. His heavy voice carried through his buckets’ speakers as he barked at a pair of corporals. Tolan Harris or Big Dog had been my corporal instructor in boot camp years ago when I had first joined the NAC defense corps. And more recently we had both escaped a UEC holding facility with the aid of a mutant unicorn named Gutsy.

A set of thunderous clangs drew my attention and I turned to see my mech “Armor” come to a stop beside me. The ATLAS-3 turned pointing to a pair of older ATLAS-Bs no doubt issuing orders as immediately the two machines stopped what they were doing and before going off to aid another damaged mech.

“Bridge, this is deployment bay six, requesting trauma team immediately. Break. We have multiple casualties in need of urgent medical care. Out….” The Onyx guard beside Harris a man I had recently learned was named Douglas called out for what seemed like the hundredth time. Finally he threw his hands up before pointing a gauntlet at me.

“Fallon, I can't raise the CIC. Take three basics…” Pod head short hand for non-special forces troopers. “... and a bot, see if you can get a trauma team down here from the med-bay. If we don't get some of these guys in tanks they won't make it. Then go get your new charge and check on hangerbay… hang on let me check…. three-J there's apparently some trouble down there and they want some support.”

“Got it. Armor remote a bot and come with me.” The eighteen foot mech bombed the sensor dome in its chest. “Affirmative.” The red lights in his cameras flicker before seconds later as I send a message to Durge, Forbes, and Miiora to meet me at the bay entrance with my PDP one of the hulking thk-reaper units lumbers to my side.

By the time I finally was able to cross the crowded bay the lithe form of Miiora had slid into step beside me. The three of us a former slave, a Moth, and a homicidal robot exited the bay and I was almost immediately ran into by a rushing technician.

The attractive woman slammed into my armor sending her crashing to the deck and her tools spiraling into the bulkhead. From her spot sprawled on the deck eyes closed the myrialos tentatively touched an oranged three fingered claw to a spot on her head. Being the sensitive soul she is Miiora instantly went to her side as I fetched the spinning bag of tools.

When she finally opened her big pupiless purple eyes she shrunk back when she saw me in my legonare and the tactical hunter killer. “All is well miloje, they will not harm you.” Miiora said calmly raising her helmets visor before talking with the crustacean in a calming tone.

The display of kindness from my liaison brought a very unwanted recent memory to the front of my mind. Miiora helped the Myrialos who apparently was named Rakka to her feet and I gave Armor his next set of orders.“Armor, stay on alert, the Gally was already infiltrated once. I don't want to be killed on the way to the med bay that would just be embarrassing.”

“As you command master, though I can tell from my sensors that there are no lifeforms for me to kill. Other than the you the tymerian, and myrialos. This seems to be a rather fruitless assignment. Though, I am always open to surprise attacks by hordes of combatants who are willing to die badly for some cause they desperately believe in. I have always found that quite amusing. I doubt I will get that opportunity today, still... one can hope.”

I can tell that Armors use of the word master when addressing me bothered the two former slaves beside me. The machine hefted its heavy automatic blaster and stomped off down the passageway ready to turn any hostile it saw into a fine mist.

Liaison corporal: Mil'ora

Squad Snow Viper: callsign [Habu]

NACS:Galactica

System: unknown

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

The thing turned suddenly toward her and Miiora flinched back slightly under its gaze. The machine had red glowing eyes. Those malevolent eyes were both familiar and terrible.

From my research into human history the humans rarely made THKs anymore. The machines were banned classified as machines capable of war crimes. In a time reportedly just before the war with the UEC and reformation of the cog when humanity after its long war had begun to fight one another again. They were to good at what they did, the massacre at the SRA colony of Kimshala being a good example. Where five of the machines had slaughtered a slaughtered dozens of Chinese soldiers after they had surrendered to the NAC forces there.

What's more they had been never entirely trustworthy, even according to the NAC who designed them. “You are alive.” It said with a macob fanfare in its sinister synthesized baritone voice.

“I am… thank you fo…” Hmm, perhaps these machines are not as bad as she had once thought. Despite what her beloved suiter Avery fallon had said to her defending the machine.

“When my pilot dismissed you I had assumed you were dead. Or dying slowly. And since I possess no lifesaving programming or nor desire to perform such pointless tasks as that would be inconsistent with my primary purpose of taking life. I opted for a wait and see outcome. I am… glad that you did not expire for it would negatively affect my pilots synchronization rating.”

“I think he like you.” Forbes said from my left. Unlike the specialized MOTH armor used by Avery Fallon this man's armor is of similar make and coloring of own minus the added flexibility marking us as regular troopers.

The hulking machine did not respond at all but absently readied its large rifle as UEC defector walked past. A strange scent hung to the mare as she clopped past absentmindedly trailing a hand over the grey wall. But Mii’ora ignored it as we passed opting to gaze at a screen embedded into the wall that showed a starfield and a lone purple star shining in the distance.

Human vessels unlike their UEC counterparts do not possess windows a point I had bradley asked about years ago but never got a proper response.

“She co… I never could understand why humans do not place windows on your celes… starships. Surely you would wish to gaze upon the stars with your own eyes at some point. This teksho makes the world seem too... artificial.”

“Because love, if we put a window on a spaceship it would cost more than just having a flat slab of metal with a camera on it.” Fallon says as we ascend to the medical deck.

To this Durge finally decided to join the conversation. “Furthermore, no matter the material used to create the window. It will always be weaker than the surrounding metal.” The zaltule says making a box with two of his lower hands and using the two upper arms to form a solid wall.

“Yeah plus the ponys might have magic and shit to make their windows stronger. But that doesn't mean we cant shoot through that shit, hell it's one of the first things the fighter pilots target on a ship.” Forbes chimed in adding his two sense as we found the main med bay.

When we entered we saw medtechs both human and former frantically yelling and rushing from one injured patent to another. With an oddly disgusting sloshing noise resonating from somewhere in the rear of the room. Dozens of voices all called out over one another as Doctors, orderlies, corpsman and even several territorial army medics labored over their patients. All while pairents cried out suffering from everything from burns and shrapnel wounds, to full amputations and sucking chest wounds.

“His blood pressures dropping get me two C tetroholl…” A blue shelled Myrialos said from the side of a wounded marine.

“We are going to have to amputate the leg, Hey i need morpha and a monosaw over here!” A homeworld defence medic yelled holding down an injured Helleiver whos crimson armor shone and glistened with her blood.

“Aaaaagh god it hurts doc! Give me something!” A voice screamed from our left as another marine whose entire body was charged and covered in burns cried out as he groped weakley at the medic who was working on him.

“What do you want? Your not injured…” An orange scaled pink eyed Myrialos in a doctors uniform questioned frantically coming up to us.

“Deployment bay needs a trauma team immediately. We cant raise the cic and the ships AI isn't responding.” My suiter says resting his arms on the stock of the strange energy rifle clipped to his breastplate.

“We are having the same problems. Miklow cho’lomek, she will send a team down right away. Before you go the medical AI says go to the table in the back pick a disk and throw it in the bin. Thank you for coming gunnery sergeant now if you will excuse her.” With that the female tapped a citanus finger against her PDP before jogging to another patient.

As we turned to leave I caught sight of a technician sitting beside a desk covered in stacks of glowing coin sized red disks. With a shrug we went to the desk and each took a disk save for Armor who stood aside and Forbes who was refused one. The disks pulsed as we touched them before pinging once and falling unert. Fallons however seemed to pulse twice before first white as myself and Durge’s had before pulsing red until finally falling inert.

“I do not understand master why your kind feels the need to attempt to preserve your dying compatriots. Surely it would be easier and much more efficient to simply let the injured die and replace them with new troops. Or perhaps resurrect them as the UEC does.” Armor says as leave the med bay and begin heading towards the starboard hangar pylon.

Along the way avery must have sent a message to my brother as he met us half way. Bra'tac a name that got a chuckle out of Forbes and my suiters moth team mate AMP. Like many others he defected from the UEC but only when he discovered that he had been lied to by Supreme commander Rarity. For years he had been part of the UECs most elite fighting force the Prime guards, and charged as her personal bodyguard.

Then for almost two months he had been present when the unicorn tortured Avery Fallon and Tolan Harris as well as an SAS commando almost to death. The former two broke out with the aid of another unicorn but not in time to save the latter. Then hours later as Bra'tac and Fallon prepared to kill one another the rescue team arrived revealing the lie that I was alive and causing him to switch sides.

When we finally reached the flight deck we saw immediately saw the commotion outside of the door. Two full fireteams of marines stood poised to storm the bay with heavy LHO weapons designed to kill Lankys. As well as half of a team of MOTHs in full suits of power armor their forearm gatlings and back arm cherub mounted weapons ready to spew or slice anything they saw as a threat. And finally one of Manitoba's helldiver teams rounded off the group with a familiar face leading the improvised strike team.

“X, snafu, it's good to see you made it.” Avery Fallon called out greeting the lead helldiver who turned and slapped a gauntlet against fallon's forearm in greeting.

“Please you think bunch of hotdog pony pilots in in lest years fighters can keep me down what have you been smoking?” Xavier “X” Rodriguez called out using his faceless visors cameras to display his face over the bug like faceplate.

“Probably been hanging around his pokteksol, aey coyo? Singpula?” The second man “Snafu” Shelton gaunt man from who grew up in sols asteroid belt called in return in his thick belter accent.

“What the fucks going on anyway, what's with the muscle?” Fallon asked nodding to the MOTHs one of whom possessed rust orange accents to his armor marking him as a martian descendent.

“I have no…” The door slid open before X could respond and a blond human female walked out dressed in the form fitting black and orange flight suit of the Nordic Empire.

She paused for a second upon seeing my sister and myself before composing herself. “Merci d'être venu quand vous pourriez. Please this way.”

Captain: Charlotte Dunois

Valkyrie squadron: callsign [Icequeen]

NACS:Galactica SD-002

System: unknown

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

“So what have you got?” My best friend asked from my side. I have to admit the new legionnaire armor looks impressive, properly intimidating how very NAC.

“Merde Avery I have no idea. It's better if you see for yourself.” Rather than answering the question I lead the small group of NAC troopers around around small crowd of orange suited techs working on a downed shrike fighter.

“Fally when was the last time you sleeped you look terrible.” He gave me the side eye and despite his helmets slitted black visor I could feel the stare until he sagged a bit in his armor. “I don't know, a few days? A week at most.”

“Oh mon dieu gros idiot you have to take better care of yourself. You'll do no one any good if you fall over from exhaustion. Promise me you'll get some sleep when you can.”

“... fine when this is over ill get some rack time.” He sounded dejected but a touch from Miioras tail shut him up before he could reply further.

‘Good’ I thought to myself. If anyone would make sure he got the rest he needed it was Miiora. That girl was coiled so tightly around Fally i'm surprised he can even breathe.

[Its the dream's again.] A private message from Miiora flashed across my pimplant as my eyes flickered purple. [Damn it. I knew he wasn't over it yet. Why the hell won't he jet tell me these thing?]

[Because he doesn't want to worry anyone.]

Our conversation turned back to business before we rounded another fighter my own Gungnir. Who was currently in infantry mode aiming its wrist mounted 20mm rotary cannons at a group of around forty utterly alien flayed fighters. These were apparently the newest breed of Lanky craft. Bleeding edge tech that made our most advanced technology look like blocks of uninspired mud.

About a year ago we came into contact with a massive new class of lanky ship we now call claw ships on account of their six hundred meter four spikes that resembled clawes. And with it came these nasty things that must have been inspired by our own Gungnir fighters. The fighters on the deck are sleek, sharp and almost organic in design. A dagger like nose swept back until it sweeping back up into two forward facing “wings” that hung above the fuel salauge.

The things were downright scary they were completely black. Dark enough as to reflect almost no light at all. And along their hulls the fighters pulsed an evil red glow that culminated where the wings met the hull. The deceiving part of these are several of these fighters carried inside of them “marines” of a sort.

Two holes eyeressed open on the side of one of the fighters. And as we watched four of these “marines” or wendigo as they have come to be called seemed to fold themselves out to crawl out into the open.

They resemble their full sized counterparts no eyes and a head that is roughly shovel shaped being primarily a kind of beak and crest that could be used a kind of shield. Their skin was the color of egg shells and their body structure doesn't seem physically possible given the lanky build and strange joint position. Long three toed feet let at a narrow waist and a pair of four fingered claws reached down a little past its knees connected to a pair of arms whose shoulders were slightly behind their slender backs.

But unlike the full sized eighty foot variants, the wendigos have two maw protrusions jutting from their arms above the wrist. These protrusions were some kind of weapon being able to fire bone white spikes able to pierce through armor and shred flesh like tissue paper.

A piercing whale caused everyone not wearing a ligonarre or power armor helmet or in the bay to cover their ears. The one of the wendigo let out another screech before falling silent as it and its kin looked around. Immediately the strike team surged past me weapons at the ready.

But the lankys didn't fire their weapons instead seemed to tilt their heads in an unnerving manor. The largest of the four a fifteen foot tall alien turned and slapped at the flayed who shifted into its own variant of the gungnirs’ infantry mode.

The resemblance to the Nordic Empires premiere fighter is disturbing. Utterly off putting to know that something your nation built was being used, bastardized by the Lankys.

The thing turned to face us flexing a clawed hand gracefully before every device with a tactical link up spoke out at once. “This construct is impressive, humans. Especially compared to those the greater patterns used by the precious two patterns encountered by the whole or the one.”

The things voice was angelic, distinctly female. But oddly familiar no wait I know that voice. With a flicker of my implant I crossed the things voice with another I had heard before.

[Match 95.5%]
[Nordic Empire Pilot: Mary “Love” Dorson.]
[Attached to NES- Queen Marie]
[Status:KIA 2168/105AC]

Turning on a heal I pointed to my wingman. “Doll get the admiral now.”

Council chambers

System: Equis

UEC capital: canterlot castle

Distance from sol: unknown

56AE

“What do you mean they disappeared?!” Princess Celestia yelled to the group of holograms standing before the council and assembled supreme commanders. The primary speaker of the group being a large armor clad kleese. This was Supreme commander Allikil Krykss. “Simply that when we were able to engage the human dreadnought it vanished in a flash of light.” The arachnid responded calmly.

The tenth fleets supreme commander’s hologram flinches glad not to be in the crossfire this time but regains his composure. “It sounds familiar to me, i think one of my lesser captains saw something similar before.” he rubs his chin thinking and pulling up past reports. “Here’s the report, look at this” he quickly shares it with everyone present.

“Yes very good find, the ships data log shows the… clawed lanky vessel arrived in a slightly similar fashion.” Princess Twilight sparkle says before opening the file fully and diving into it.

“Princesses, council, and fellow supreme commanders, when a detachment of 10th fleet lost to a small fleet of these..’lankys’ a single small ship survived by plain dumb luck and saw that VERY flash..” the 10th fleet’s supreme commander states as a fact. “And the black box confirms it”

“A cloaking field perhaps?” King thorax suggested. Rubbing a citanus hand under his chin.

“I do not believe so your highness, commander allikil may be coming to the same conclusion as i am..and it is a grim one” the 10th fleets commander says with a frown.

“Indeed, if this were a mere cloak the ship would have still exploded when our fleet attacked it… No the radioactive particles given off by the flash seeme to match those produced by the warp bubbles.” The kleese said folding two arms behind his back and another two in front.

“What worrys me even more.. Is that if it followed the nodes, one of the reserve fleets should have encountered it, yet it just, vanished” the 10th fleet commander paces back and forth.

“Well if you had engaged The human Dreadnought when I ordered you to that ship would not have gotten away.” The prim voice of Supreme commander Rarity Belle counters to the large zaltule standing beside her.

“I was ordered to come in from behind if possible by allikil on his order and even then..” the earth pony tryed to contiue only to stop himself mumbling “wait a moment..”

“Yes supreme commander? Please speak your mind.” The shimmering image of Princess Luna said.

“Princess twilight..” the earth pony starts to ask “may i ask you to compare the exact readings of when the dreadnaught disappear to when one of those ‘lankys’ disappear?” he looks at the princess his hand trembling weakly “this bad feeling in my gut is growing… do you feel the same commander allikil?..”

“Indeed…” several minutes pass as the princess of magic does her computations. During which the Lunar princess shot angry glares toward Twilights appointed supreme commander. “Your orders were unjust rarity and unwarranted. Had Krykss disengaged his ships it still would not have changed the outcome of the battle as the backbone of his battlefleet are slower than the super destroyers we deploy.”

“With all do respect princess, but the ships he uses are not compliant with the UEC standard. They are ponderous, ugly, brutish, but most importantly slow. They don't comply with the way our people wage war, they are closer to the savage humans than our graceful elegant designs.”

“The reason I allow my supreme commander to employ the ships of his ancestors is simple. They have proven effective against the COGs ships able to stand hoof to hoof with some of their mightiest vessels.” The lunar princess responded in a clipped chastising tone.

“It's a match.” Twilights voice was a cold bloodless whisper.

“Then, it is as i feared..” the earth pony looks at allikil with a grim look “you see what this means too commander? Shall you tell them, or should i?..”

The kleese's abdomen bobbed slightly and his large fangs clicked together before he spoke. He had always been one to allow others to piece together a situation perhaps in hopes that they could learn. “What do you believe happened supreme commander?”

The earth pony’s hologram walks to the center of the room and takes a deep breath. “This, may seem hard to believe yet the evidence is clear as day..” his voice trembling “the COG..they.. They now have the capacity..no.. the ability, to bypass the nodes..completely..just like these ‘lankys’ can..”

“Very good. Now keeping this information in mind as well as the fact that we do not have the ships to spare searching every celestial system. What would you do to respond?”

“We go on the defencive I think..they can even hit the homeworld if they want to now..” the 10th fleet commander’s voice shakes a bit. “Other than that, what do you suggest allikil?”

“An interesting tactic. But if we truly go on the defensive then the COG will consolidate their forces and begin another offensive on another front. No…” Arachnid takes a scuttling step forward waving open several images of human vessels, and passages of human text.

“Earther history is littered with examples of great counter offensives. Their most notable being when they were able to push the lankys out of their home system. A feet I might add that we ourselves have been unable to do whenever their black ships arrive over one of our colonies. We can not allow the humans to fortify any further than they already have. Nor can we allow them to counter attack.”

The earth pony’s eyes slightly go wide in realisason. “Y-your right, i was in a panic commander Allikil..” he shakes his head “and you are right, they seem to be masters of counter-strikes..”

“Do not apologize commander. I commend your want to defend your home. Approve of it in fact, but logic would dictate that if the humans of earth were indeed able to travel this way normally they would have already appeared over the capital. Commander Fang why do you believe the humans have not done this with their dreadnought?” Kryskss voice was calm like a teacher giving a lesson. Several of the gathered supreme commanders and sub commanders hung on his words while the councils and princesses wanted to know where this line of reasoning was going.

Fang rubs her chin thinking “is it the same problem we are having in finding their homeworld?..” she looks at kryskss her eyes slowly widening “they don’t know where OUR homeworld is eather..”

“Yea that would make sense!” A gryphon supreme commander spoke up. His wings doing a series of excited flaps as he spoke.

“While that might indeed be the the case. It is my belief that the humans do not know how to use this new device. At least not properly, for now It is my recommendation that we continue our attack, but pull back non essential ships. Because as we continue our campaign against the earthers the Movement gains more momentum, and grows more bold. I propose that we deploy the reserve fleets to the frontlines, and pull back our withered assets to engage the movement with experienced troops. If the humans are indeed in our space they will undoubtedly seek to aid their allies as they make their way home.”

“An excellent plan supreme Commander, I move to employ.” The Dragon king said. Around the council chamber others began mirroring the sentiment until Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight finally made theirs decision.

“Very well. Supreme commander Krykss as your fleet suffered the least your fleet will be the first to be recalled. Followed by the most damaged being the third. This council is adjourned.” Celestia declared.

NACS: Galactica

System: unknown

Galactica: hangar bay three-J

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

“So let me get this straight. You… the Lankys who have been at war with us for over a hundred years want our help? Why?”

“Because small patterns your kin have potential. The whole has existed and expanced since before your planet formed. There is an iron in your kind the whole has not been seen in quite some time. And the enemy is a danger not just your ilk, but if left unchecked will become a danger to the whole.”

“Blunt, isn't it sir?” Fallon asked standing beside the general with his weapon at low ready.

Barron glanced to one of the unknowingly modified soldiers. During the rescue several weeks ago an incident occurred with him and two others. A veteran Harris and the sole onyx guard aboard Douglas. Their Atlas-3s wombs seemed to change as their L-blades pulsed with the same red light that pulsed from the flayed now. Their bodys were injected with billions of organic nanites made from the wombs inner lining.

“Yes it is indeed gunny. But I don't see why it even needs to talk to us when their kind can just appear over the UEC homeworld.” Barron said folding his arms and leaning back to talk to the MOTH.

“Maybe they can't. Think about it sir if they could do that why didn't they just do it to earth a hundred years ago. Maybe they just got the technology or maybe their technology isn't compatible with it. Like remember that claw ship that appeared beside the gally? It just sat there for hours.”

“Yes and if they appear did the UEC would be able to use their energy rakes to slice the ir ships to pieces.” Ryoko said her avatar appearing on a PDP that floated in the zero-g.

Barron thought about that for a several seconds. It would make some kind of sense. Even now all of galacticas systems are coming back online. “That's actually a good point gunny you must have a soft spot for aliens. But I don't see how helping these lankys will help us.”

“I don't know about that sir. I hate the lankys just as much as the next guy. Sir pardon my bluntness but I don't know if you noticed. We lost a lot of good pilots a lot of good men out there on the hull while this bucket was idling. We can't afford to turn away the help were caught up in the churn. The rules of the game have changed.”

“What game?”

“The only game that matters, survival. When I left earth to live in the belt i had a boss that said that. Said it was when the jungle tares itself down and changes into something new. But maybe if we help them now, maybe they will help us later.”

“We gave you the devices to ensure your survival against the enemy. Your kind like so many others before was nothing to the whole. But you were able to fight back the arms, and notb just hold them back but push them out. One hundred billion times a second it reaches out and only recently have we received an answer. The one with Iron is correct, this game is about survival. Aid us and we will aid you.”

It does explain why those flayed seemingly delivered those devices to us a few months back. The ship shuddered as the lights flickered before going out. The only sources of light in the bay for several seconds were the red leds on the fighters and marines armor, as well as the pulsing red light from the flayed fighters.

Then all at once the lights came back on joined by the dull thrum of the ships engines and reactors. “The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy… But maybe we can deal. Welcome to Galactica.”

“All systems back online, running at one hundred percent. All ships report green across the board. General, Defiant just checked in. Two UEC cruisers and one destroyer are at the extreme edge of sensor range, coming out of the ecliptic. Don't worry the radiation and magnetic field of the gas giant are masking our presence for now. They appear to be responding to a distress signal from a space station on the opposite end of the system from Alcubierre node. A slave revolt apparently, good for them.” The AI said from her floating position.

“The slaves will not last against those UEC ships general. They will all be killed.” The large zaltule whose name tape read Durge said.

“Sir what are your orders. Do we make for the node or help the slaves?” Ryoko asked.

“... Oohpa.” Barron thought for several long agonized seconds before retrieving his PDP from its pouch on his leg. After keying in a command code every intercom onboard the galactica and its docked ships came to life.

“This is the general we are in unknown space. No doubt deep behind enemy lines. We're alone and with no support coming. But there is a station full of UEC slaves that needs our help. Now we can make a run for the node and leave them behind or we can help and get dragged into whatever the hell is going on out here. I known I am in command, but almost galactica is a new ship with a green crew. Only the docked ships have experienced crews onboard, so i'm calling on that experience now.
My grandfather my family grew up on mars and when the shovel heads came they took that from all of us. These people want to fight for their home so I asking all of you, will we fight with them so they don't lose theirs.”

A metallic thud clangs in the bay before another clangs again. Turning Miiora sees her suitor and several other marines had begun slamming their fists into their breastplates. Soon as the general continues speaking every human in the bay had begun making the same clang. Be it with their fists against armor, tools against the deck, or boot heels magnetically stomping down.

“The enemys we fight may believe are scarred but that is not fear. It is our power! Some of us we may be from different colonies others may be from Sol. But we are humans no fight in the black is foreign to us. The place we choose to fight is the place we belong, this is no different! No race has more right to its place in the universe. None are more prepared to defend their homes. The UEC and Lankys might take our planets and call them their own. But Humans forged them through sweat, through tears and through blood. We are the COG, we are strong, we are powerful, we are survivors and we will never run from a fight. This battle, this war belongs to us! For the COG! For humanity!”

“FOR Humanity!” Every human in the bay shouted their approval of the generals speech. Even several of the kleese around the hold nodded their approval, while the four wendigo let out a piercing ear splitting whale.

“All hands, this is the general… action stations.”

Chapter 2 Galavant

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

MOTH kill team-1: Callsign [Iceman]/[20s]

26RTI 5th infantry: squad Snow viper

NACS: Manitoba

System: unknown

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

I stood on the back ramp of the insectoid dragonfly as space born infantry and homeworld defences troopers ran past me into the bay. In one corner of my eye I saw the telemetry data streaming in from the ships sensors. The Galactica is far behind us still on its deceleration burn.

Quoting the words of an ancient roman general I waved my armored hand at a platoon of stragglers. “Come on you apes you wanna live forever!”

Beside our dropship Ballista 6-2 two NE fighters prepped for their own launch. A weight suddenly pressed itself into my side as I hung on. Looking to my left I saw that is was Charlotte. We had been friends since I had inadvertently saved her from being stranded in PRC Pittsburgh 7 when we were kids.

“Good luck Fally don't die out there.” She said as her long blond braid drifted behind her. I gave her a pat on the back and a slight squeeze as to not smash her against the ceramic plates of my battle armor.

In militaries of the past such public displays of affection were frowned upon. But in age where death could come in many varieties of various flavors at any time such a concept has fallen to the wayside. Furthermore command in a shocking display of genius have at some point discovered that people will fight harder when someone they care about is actually there.

The relationship between the two of us is complicated. Because my grandmother received the medal of honor I am required to pair with someone else with a similar position. Now normally my father would have been the one to deal with this, but as he is a piece of shit who did not qualify the responsibly falls on me. And when we were kids Charlotte's parents were in a similar position with their daughter.

But as no one of standing would want to pair with a PRC rat from Pittsburgh. And Charlotte's parents didn't like the other candidates presented to their daughter. When the two of us met when we were kids my mother and her parents signed the pairing agreement. Years later when we were adults since neither of us wanted to settle down we just sent a lot of eggs and sperm as well as a single embryo out to Europa to be frozen just to get the governments off of our backs.

We had been thinking about getting back together since then. All of that changed when I met Miiora, and I had thought the two of them wouldn't get along but apparently that wasn't the case. Instead charlotte had taken to my former slave turned squadmate, turned girlfriend like the sister she never had.

Now don't get the wrong idea, charlotte is beautiful but she is like a sister to me. And I never really felt comfortable in a relationship with her since she comes from a very wealthy corporate family and I come from dirt poor PRC.

Drawing my mind back from the past and into the present I look across the flight deck. Several other public displays of affection were going on. I gave her a final awkward squeeze as I still had my new MOTH issue N-4 in my other hand before letting her drifting away and into the hold of the dragonfly.

When I was finally inside I received the whoops and hollers typical of troopers seeing this kind of thing and clicked my boots together. The boot's magnetics came online allowing me to walk to my horribly named crash couch. Whoever thought the idea of calling something a crash anything inside of a dropship needs to be shot in the face.

When I reached it I found Miiora sitting beside an empty seat wirh Trombley, Forbes, Levoy, Watkins, Bra'tac and Big dog on either side. Durge who was to big and too awkwardly shaped couldn't physically sit in a chair made for bipeds like us. Instead he hung from netting coming from the ceiling like a piece of cargo. To Durges credit the giants angry four armed tarantula hasn't said a word. Instead opting to eye everything with disdain and click his large fangs together.

Now I couldn't see Miiroa's face through the her older armors helmet visor but I could read her body language well enough. One of her right foots three talons scraped on the decking. Her lightly armored tail which was resting on her lap coiled slightly. Her head was tilted cutely to one side as she eyed me.

She emitted an almost inaudible hiss over our private channel and tapped the seat beside her with her tail. Taking my cue to I stowed my weapon beside my seat and proceeded to check every troopers kit on board to make sure it was secure before taking my seat.

Taking absentmindedly I rested my hand on Miioras’ before checking in with the dropships pilot. “Ballista 6-2 this is Snow Viper actual, hold is checked ready to go. mind if I get feed it gets a little boring back here.”

The pilot's voice came back almost immediately in that same calm collected tone used by all pilots. “Solid copy Snow Viper actual, we are in the queue. Request accepted, sending camera feeds enjoy the show.”

The battle plan here is rather simple. Because the UEC ships are a lot faster than our slow bulky ones we knew they would reach the station far faster than we could. It was decided that we would allow the UEC ships to land their ground forces and engage the rebels on board. While the ponys were distracted with the guys in front of them our ground troops would rush in from behind and catching them in the crossfire.

But in order to do that Galactica would need to to slow down just enough to be able to deploy its dropships without slowing enough as to leave it open to any of the stations defence. That is where manitoba and Donnager come.

The two annihilator siege breakers possess more powerful engines than the much larger custer class siege destroyer. As such the two siege breakers would disengage from their pads while Galactica commenced its turn and burn. The two ships would then rush ahead for costing cold dark and ballistic before flipping around and blasting their engines at full.

The maneuver would allow the two slightly smaller ships to slow just enough as to let the dropships and by extension their fighter escorts get into position without exposing the Galactica and its other docked ships to hostile fire. Before flipping back around and accelerating toward the station. If the UEC acted as predicted they would direct the two advancing ships and turn to engage as Manitoba and Donnager shot past the station..

While this happened the Gally being much would be in position by this point and using its two particle accelerator cannons would take the first two enemy ships out that disengage from the station. And then two options presented themselves. Option one being thay the remaining UEC ship attempts to run in which case the Galactica would pound it into next year. Or it could stay docked with the station and the ground troops would board and cease the ship.

Normally the second option would be suicide on any COG vessel. As their command crews have a nasty habit of overloading their reactors of it looks like they might lose the ship to boarders. But the UEC either does not have such a protocol, or their ships don't possess a self destruct because the COG has managed to capture several UEC ships in the past.

I felt the deck shake as I watched through the dropships external cameras. An arm descended grabbing hold of the dragonfly and moving it into position the drop shoot. To the dropships port side I saw Charlotte's fighter slide into a fighter launch tube. While on the Starboard I saw one of the weird lanky flayed fighters disappear into a launch tube of its own.

A siren blared in the hanger and lights flicked from white to yellow to red as air was vented from the bay. Below the dragonfly the twin doors on Manitoba's belly slid open leaving nothing between Ballista 6-2 and space.

“This is it people!” I called out on the company channel. Beside me Miiora fidgeted she had always been nervous during dropship deployments and it looks like this time would be no different.

“Woooohooo!” One of the marines further down the line hollered. “This shit is what I live for!” Another commented.

“Stand by for deceleration, here comes the juice.” The Manitoba's AI roland said in all of our helmets.

Suddenly I felt several pricks as a stabilizing agent was injected into my body. The shipwrecked then as a crushing pressure pressed me down into my crash couch. The entire thing gimbaled to the side as Forbes cried out. ”One express elevator to hell coming up!”

Lieutenant Ficks voice cut through our banter like a sword. “This is it people game faces. When we hit dirt side, fall out by squads. Amplifiers out first, followed by Snow viper, and Pitbull, Revenants bring up the rear. Rally with the Templar and fire drakes they've got power armor they'll lead the way. After that our group will push up and find their engram servers and take them out.”

Centurion: Hive runner

Galavant mining station: command center

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

56AE

“Woah! Centurion two contacts just appeared coming in from the system's star.” An earth pony resistance fighter reported in a startled tone.

The resistance leader turned from another camera feed displaying the fighting across the station. “What? Where did they come from? More UEC ships they couldn't get get reinforcements this fast.”

“Umm it looks like they came in from sunward using the stars shadow to mask their approach. Sensor feedback coming in now.” The mare reported as the old breed changeling leaned over her station.

“What are those?” The grainy images of two bright blue lights appeared on the screens display.

“Drive plumes centurion. But if their drives are facing us why aren't those ships accelerating away from us?” Another resistance fighter a pegasus named Cloud Chaser commented coming over to see the image.

“Damaged inertial dampers? Mabey a broken drive coil, those engines are throwing off a lot of heat. Far more than they should and im not seeing any magical energy just drive fire.” The earth pony Babs Seed suggested. Reciting something she had once heard her cousins friend talking about before she joined the movement.

“Brighton Felt what do you think?” The unicorn turned from his station as new updated data came in. “It cant be, look at the drive configuration. Four drives in an X formation around a larger central drive cone… No… no ship I can think of has that kind of configuration.”

“Look two of the UECs cruisers are moving to investigate… looks like most of the escorts are going with them… wait something's happening.” The image updated to show a much clearer image of the approaching drive ploom. Before they watched as dozens of objects burst from its sides, turned and burned straight for the oncoming UEC cruisers, frigates and corvettes.

“Woah! Count twelve Vamponies leaving that ship. They emptied their magazine.” Babs commented on the running battle her voice becoming more excited. This was the first time any of the resistance fighters present had seen anypony actually engage the UECs ships so blatantly.

They watched as the now red missile icons blazed faster than any UEC missile should towards their targets. When the first frigate was hit it gold shields flared brilliantly as they absorbed the blow. Before a second missile broke apart mid flight sending three darts slicing through the shield to wrend its hull to scrap.

In response the UEC began firing missiles of their own and taking evasive maneuvers. Several of the ships suffered the same fate as the frigate until they drew close together overlapping their shields. The two cruisers began launching fighters in response to the unprovoked attack from the obviously hostile ships. Then it happened and Hive runners pupiless eyes grew wide as his command staff watched the two incoming ships finally move.

The unknowns fired long streams of flares into space as their droves cut out. Smaller bursts of gas and flame burst from the ship's grey hull as they flipped around on their Y axis using maneuvering thrusters.

The two ships somersaulted one hundred eighty degrees. Showing their enormous hulls bristling with turret like weapon mounts and dozens of rotary guns. Before the ships fired their engines again burning hard toward their target. Their utilitarian grey hulls were marked with white lettering the words NACS: Manitoba and NACS: Donnager glared back at the small ships as they advanced.

They were ugly a stark contrast to the sleek, flowing patterns and design of UEC vessels. These ships looked like buildings with engines attached to one side.

Rumors of of the war with the COG had hardly reached out this far. But most of them had mentioned that the humans possessed a class of ship that could vaporize most UEC vessels the siege breakers. “Holy celestia those are Earther ships!?”

The image updated once again showing the ironic charging of the siege breakers gauss cannon. As they watched massive glowing heat sinks extended from the ships along their hulls. Arks of heat crimson electricity sparked between the masove glowing bricks as the noses of the two ships seemed to shimmer and warp. First changing from red to blue and finally back to normal as a flash of pseudo motion escaped their barrels.

“That was kind of anticlimactic?” Cloud Chaser commented sounding kind of dissonance.

There was a titanic flash of light whiting out the sensor visual feed and filling the normal sensors with static. When the images game back the two cruisers had vanished being replaced by two small suns and clouds of expanding gas.

There was a titanic bang as the ships exploded courtesy of the stations sound synchronizing system. This was followed seconds later a distinct crack like that of a snipers rifle only much louder.

The missiles and fighters entered range next and immediately glowing streams of tracers lanced out from the earth ships to meet their attackers. From this distance the point defence fire resembled long spiraling strings of pearls as the two ships spiraled toward the station.

But despite the numerous streams of point defence fire coming from the ships several missiles still managed to strike their hulls. As we watched huge magic based and more conventional explosions wrocked the skins of the two massive ships.

Presumably seeing a weakness a wing of griffon, dragon, and Neo changeling frigates closed the gap intending to utalize their energy rakes on the much larger ships. In responce the fourteen forked guns along the ships hulls turned and traked their new targets. Red, blue and purple arked from between the forks before a pulse of super heated gas escaped the weapons as their railguns fired.

The golden dome shields of the frigates flickered under the assault before finaly shattering like glass. Their defence gone the humans rotary point defence guns swiveld on ther turret mounts and began tracing lines of fire across the smaller ships hulls.

Thousands of bullets from the point defence cannons shreaded the hulls of the friggates anywhere they hit. While the larger and less numerous railgun turrets continued to pound the smaller ships like a schoolyard bully.

“It's almost beautiful… wait woah zoom into the bottom of those ships.” Brighten Felt commented pointing to the belly section of this Donnager. The image updated zooming into the selected before showing what looked like dozens large overly armed shuttles shooting out into space.

“Why would they be dropping shu…” Taking a breath Hive Runner shook with excitement mabey this little uprising on this backwater mining station might be successful after all.

Running back to his station Hive Runner opened a channel to the resistance fighters down in the settlement. “Hang on just a little longer everypony looks like we have some back up coming our way!”

As he ran back to the viewer he saw the image had been zoomed out showing a stream of fighters launching from tubes along the sides of the human vessels. Unfortunately at this point as the last of their smaller escorts vanished from violent missile strikes the two remaining cruisers larger destroyer began launching their own stream of fighters. Their intent was clear stop the earthers from boarding the station.

If the the timer was correct it would take almost two hours for the Humans to arrive if they made it through the gauntlet of UEC fighters. When he watched the final stragglers of the Earthers shuttles launched into space rocketing toward the station the glare from the two ships drive plumes flared brighter. The stations navigational computer updated showing the two ships were accelerating intent on passing by the station rather than getting into a protracted fight against a swarm of UEC fighters.

Minutes passed then hours as Hive runner and his command crew watched the tactical display with held breath. The icons on the display marking the Earther fighters and dropships crawled closer and closer to the UECs fighters.

Then a swarm of blinking red contacts appeared from the Earther fighter screen reaching out and wiping almost the entire first wave of UEC fighters from the board.

‘This is it.’ Hive Runner thought to himself as he watched the display where the furthest ahead icons were beginning to overlap.

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

5th infantry 5th marines: squad Snow viper

MOTH kill team-1

System: unknown

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

In the distance I can see the absolutely massive Mining station we had found out was called Galimare. It looked like someone took an asteroid cut off the top and welded a huge thirty mile fish bowl onto it. The fighting inside must be intense because even from here I can see the distinct flashes of explosions inside the dome when I zoom in.

Panning my view around as the dropship rocked violently to one side I watched Charlotte's fighter corkscrew between a series of dumbfire missiles. I heard her curse in french before her twin gatlings spat out a stream of grenades into the lead fighter in a UEC squadron.

In the distance I could see one of Donnagers dragonfly dropships explode as four missiles struck its fuselage. Then I was bucked hard to the left as our dragonfly rolled over two oncoming bolts of pink and gold energy. Before the wing mounted missile pods belched out four missiles in response.

The Air to air missiles corkscrewed toward their targets. With the first two slamming into the first fighters magical shield overloading its shield with the first impact and fragging it with the second. The third and forth however missed their targets streaking off into space before turning around and chasing after the fleeing fighter.

The pilot's choice of direction to flee however was quite flawed as it took the pegasus fighter straight into Charlotte's sights. Where she blew it to pieces with her gatlings.

“Hold on back there!” The pilots voice came over the intercom as the chin mounted chain gun spun up. As I watched I shared the images of our dropship stitching a line of forty millimeter grenades across the hull of a UEC heavy fighter.

“Ooh that's gotta be embarrassing!” The dropships crew chief called out over the cheers in the hold.

“This is banshee two-six! Ive got three on me I can't shake ‘em!” A voice called out in a panic. “This is Viper six-one Im o…’

“There's to many of em! Aaaagh…’

On the tactical display I watched as the final dropship crossed the UEC fighter line. Of the sixteen dropships sent out thirteen made it out. That moment we were already one hundred and fifty short. While that were good statistics it still made my stomach do a flip.

I watched the UEC fighters bank and begin pursuing our comparatively slow drop shipst wandering which dropship would be the first to get a missile up the tailpipe. ‘Black knight one, black knight one, all fighters turn and burn.’

On my buckets display I watched as all of the fighters flipped around flying backwards as their engines flared behind them.

‘Here they come…’ one of the flayed fighters giggled. What resulted was no longer an almost completely fair fight.

As the UECs fighters came into range again our own fighters were able slow enough to engage them without having to commit as many of their number to protect us. Our fighters jinked around randomly firing streams of missiles and gatling fire into the enemy formation.

I watched dozens of pony contacts blink out before the two groups of fighters meet again. I could tell almost right away that their pilots had probably never fought humans before as they hung to far from their targets.

With their fighters operating like atmospheric craft our fighters were able to fly circles around them. On more than one occasion I watched a UEC fighter streak passt one of ours only for the COG craft to simply flip around and put a missile in its back.

Unfortunately that doesn't mean we didn't take any losses. There were simply too many fighters out there for us not to. As I watched a flight of two SRA akulas were out maneuvered as six cocatrice split up and flanked them. It seemed that for every three or four we took down they managed to destroy one of ours.

But then I heard It as I watched Charlotte's fighter transition from fighter to valkyrie mode and gun down two fighters. “Thirty seconds!” The dropships pilot called out as I watched the dogfight draw in around the station itself.

Switching back to a frontal view I saw the gaping docking bay of the mining station rushing up to meet us. “This is what we get paid for people! Keep your heads down and get the hell out of the dropship. Amplifiers are you ready!?” Fick called out as we all tensed up.

Amp a fellow member of MOTH team-1 sent his confirmation. As I disengage the external camera feeds felt a pressure on my hand. Turning I see Miiora had been holding my hand in a vice grip the entire time. Shaking my hand loose of my girlfriends grip I grabbed my N-4, engaged my mag boots and took a hand hold. Taking a deep breath I stood up and entered sergeant mode.

“Alright fuck faces! Magazines in!” Around the hold marines and soldiers plucked their weapons from the racks beside their seats and slapped in magazines.

“If I see anyone rack a bolt before the buss lands I will fucking shoot you in the face do you understand!” Harris shouted standing up himself hefting his own N-4.

I smiled thirty-four basic troops with M-66 rifles. twelve of which had incinerator attachments fixed to the under mount. Affew opting for the chainsaw on the off chance that we had to kill a kleese or something. But most had the dial of pain, or 40mm grenade launcher that came stock with the rifle. That left five basics with the SAW, five with PDWs, Durge with the MK32, and five MOTHs and one onyx with our N-4s.

A connection request flashed across my helmets peripheral. “Hud on.” My implant flickered to life outlining my eyes in red as I saw Douglas was marked as “Rook” today. “Kill team report.” The man's voice was calm a stark contrast to the troopers around us.

The first to check in was Tyrus Rechs or “Wraith” followed by Andrew Grayson II “Amp”, then Tolan “Big Dog” Harris, Nick “Hijack” Skryer, and finally myself Avery Fallon “Iceman” or “20s” depending on who you asked.

“Alright Apex, Let's show the basics how its done boys.” Rook said over our private squad channel. Each of us stood up our new jet black legionnaire battle armor a stark contrast to the older tan or green battle armor of the SI and HD troopers around us.

The dragonfly shook and I felt the pull of gravity again as we entered the loading bay. We must have come in shooting because already I can hear the chin and wing guns firing. Taking a deep breath I opened a shouted over the platoon channel as the ramp cracked open. “Rack ‘em back! Live forever apes!”

“Haoooh!” Everyone in the hold shouted as the ramp slammed down shooting sparks everywhere as we came to a skidding halt.

Lance corporal: Michael Trombley

Squad Snow Viper: callsign [camouflage]

UEC: Galavant station

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

When our squad sprinted out of the hold the fight was already in full swing. I glanced around scanning for something to shoot and saw the huge fucking hanger door behind us. A glowing cobalt shield hung separating us from space and behind it I could see a gungnir marked as “Icequeen” hovering in infantry mode outside.

Both of its arms were out spewing grenade at something I couldn't see before it transformed and rocketed away. “Trombley head in the game!” Gunny Fallon shouted as he violently rolled a gryphon hen over his shoulder and onto the deck before shooting her in the face.

Nodding I sprinted forward with Miiora, Durge, Forbes and Levoy by my side. With a grunt I dropped prone to the deck beside a large container as sis slammed into cover beside me.

About forty yards to our left a second dropship comes in hot suppressing the UEC with its chainguns, rocket pods, and mars launchers. The green bulk of Banshee sixt-three belches out streams of fire and tracers before slamming its rear hatch down. In a rush third platoon rushes out from the dragonfly before finding cover and returning fire.

Miiora linked her helmets feed to my HUD and began marking targets as she fired her PDW in short bursts. “Ru'alaka!” She barked as she marked a group of UEC marines coming from a hatchway.

‘Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die…’ I said to myself as I fired the saw in short five round bursts. As I watched the group of ten marines folded. Their shity kevlar body armor like the kind you would see in kind 20th century did nothing to protect them from the tungsten flechettes our weapons fire.

An actual honest to god bullet sparked off the deck beside me showering me and Miiora in sparks. Taking the hint the two of us ducked behind the metal box as a hail of bullets came down on where we had just been.

That's when I heard the steady boom, boom, boom! Of a mark 32 behind us followed by screams and a series of explosions. Instantly the incoming fire stopped and I glanced backward to see Durge scuttle his way forward.

He held the successor of the old US Mark-19 like a rifle in three of his four huge hands. His entire upper body rocks with the weapons recoil and I watch him rack the bolt on a jam with his fourth free hand. Beside him Forbes and Levoy crab walked low firing their M-66s in a cool stecado alternating fire like a metronome.

“Sis, I'll never get tired of seeing that.” I say to Miiora who nods. “Yes Michael Trombley it is quite awe inspiring.”

On that Miiora leaned out again and I rolled out into a firing positions. As we laid down suppressing fire Durge walked the usually vehicle mounted weapon across the bay forcing the clops to keep their heads down as more of our dropships arrived. ‘Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die…’

A burst of movement and a flash of red drew my attention and I saw that Bra'tac guy and the MOTH kill team were already halfway to the bay entrance. They moved like a well oiled machine covering every angle of attack from their position beside another container farther up.

As I watched a grenade bounce on the ground beside them. Rather than panic and scramble out of the way one of them gave it a disgusted tilt of the head. Wraith angeled his armored jump jets, spun around and kicked the grenade like a goley sending it back to exploded in the throwers face.

Hearing the distinctive clip clop of hooves on metal I glanced to my side to see Aryanne and Gutsy part of Ficks command team and snowvper two slide into cover beside us. The earth pony and unicorn looked kind of weird in our battle armor but whatever. ‘Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die…’

“How did I know Fallon was gonna be up there huh?” Fick commented beside Veteran Watkins who was crabbing around our beach head kicking and yelling at privates like he was daring the clops bullets to hit him.

‘Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die… Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die!…’

“Snow Viper, Templars are down get ready to move.” Fallon sent over the squad channel as he crouched low firing two bolts of electrified energy into a charging minotaur. The first shot blew straight through the super cows chest charing flesh and organs as it went. The second struck the cow in the face blowing its head away in a shower of chard bone and brain mater.

“Deusvault!” An electronically amplified voice called out over the din of combat.

Instantly most of the incoming fire shifted from us to fourteen suits of power armor marked with red templar crosses that were rushing the enemy line. The power armored MOTH team-9 lifted their left arms in front if them as they ran deploying ballistic shields. While with their other hand they pointed their fists towards the clop line. The distinct brrrrt of the power armors arm gatlings.

Flesh, bones, and metal seemed to disintegrate as a fucking wall of 5mm flechettes hit the UEC troops. That is when one of the templars exploded as a rocket from as yet untouched UEC fireteam struck her dead in the chest.

In response the templar leader “Crux” formed his team up in a kind of shield wall as they began activating their cherub mounts. Instantly an arm unfolded from their power armors backs. Some had another gatling on the implant controlled arm that stitched lines of tracers into the missile team. But others had missile pods that poked out of the shield wall before blasting away at the entrance to the bay as UEC reinforcements start streaming in.

‘Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die…’

Then it happened not even five minutes in and explosion behind us blew everyone in the bay flat to the deck. We watched as one of the dropships went up in flames as it came into the bay. The dragonflies pilot must have had some semblance of control still cause he managed to fly low and drop the back hatch.

As we watched several marines jumped out of the damaged drop ship before a landing strut slammed into the deck. And the entire bird flipped onto its back and slammed down drawing a line of debris and burning fuel in its wake. Slid for several yards before coming to a rest under some conex boxes.

“This is Fire Drake one one, we are combat ineffective.” A voice called out over company chat. As the side door of the downed drop ship exploded out and several obviously injured troopers in power armor fell or jumped out.

“Fuck!” The Lt shouted as we watched the injured moth team drag their wounded away from the burning dropship before it went up in brilliant orange fireball. “God damn it that was the last drop shop coming to this landing bay! We need to break out before we get overrun! Third and forth squads get ready to push up.”

A cry of pain to my right made my blood run cold. Three marines were down with very familiar puncture wounds in their armor. Following the tragedy back to the source as another marine was hit in the face plate I saw ten UEC marines in old NAC battle armor coming out of a side entrance.

“Calebs at the south entrance!” As I spoke a hail of flechettes peppered the fireteam to our right. As I watched the nail like flechettes slammed through their battle armor in red puffs. Most Calebs like these ones are human collaborators who sided with the UEC when they took over Camelot about eighty years back. But others are traitors, defectors who left the cog to throw their lot in with the clops.

“Fragger out!” One of Fallons kill team shouted over the company chat before taking a step back and and baseball pitching a grenade towards the calebs.

The grenade sailed through the air smack into the faceplate of one of the calebs knocking her off of her feet before exploding in her face. Half a second later the second stage of the fragger air burst over the crowd of traitors. ‘Die motherfucker die… die motherfucker die…’

Fragments of armor and shrapnel exploded in every direction. But even this seemed to do little to the UECs morale. Soon I don't know when but soon our assault turned into a defencive firefight. With one hundred fifty troopers down we should have been able to push up. But our battle plan hinged on two teams of moths in power armor rushing the enemy line. Now with one pinned down, and the other half dead we weren't going to be able to do much beside fight to survive.

“Auxiliary inbound.” There was a loud noise like a thunder crack behind us. Having rolled behind another box to avoid another hail of bullets I saw a flash of light outside the bay shield in the black of space.

When the flash was gone I saw that a flayed fighter had appeared out of nowhere. The organic black and red lanky fighter flew straight into the shield and into the bay coming to hover over our defensive line. As it flew its engines made an early buzzing noise as its launched twin glowing red missiles into the UEC troops.

That's when four “doors” eyeressed open at its sides and four wendigo with black numbers painted on their white skin jumped out. They came down like paratroopers trailing a glistaning umbilical behind them before cutting the cord and falling out.

The wendigos towered six feet over the heads of our tallest guys. The Lanky ground troops let out an ear splitting screech that sounded vaguely like a warning siren before slamming their hands to the ground dropping into a quadrupedal stance.

The leader 1 let out a chirp that caused our helmets to cut out noise to protect our hearing as the lankys dropped their head crests. As one the lankys slowly marched towards the UEC as bullets and grenades from the UEC marines bounced off of their thick hides.

When they were almost fifty feet from the line they broke ranks they changed tactics. The lankys stood up to their full height and charged them. We watched as one of the twelve foot tall lankys 4 picked up a handful of deck plating and hull it at a squad of panicking unicorns as they fired spells into its hide.

3 the largest of the bunch batted aside a charging centaur like a toy before a rocket struck it in the face. Fragments of bone colored head crest exploded from the smoke before the celebrating earth pony and his support were snatched up by a huge pair four clawed hands.

3 loomed out of the smoke and roared so loud I saw several of our troopers trying and failing to cover their ears. The wounded lanky eyed the pony with the launcher before opening its beak and blighting the unfortunate fuck in half. Seeing the fate of its buddy the other pony actually drew its side arm and started shooting the lanky in the face.

3 either not noticing or not caring about the bullets striking its flesh simply flung the panicking pony over its shoulder. I followed the pony with my sight as it sailed across the bay before slamming into a bulkhead with a sickening crack as every bone in its body exploded.

So far the only one of the wendigo to actually use its weapons as 2 who stomped down on the lower half of a gryphon who was attempting to crawl away. Pointing its clawed fist an airborne pegasus the lanky fired a microscopically barbed bone spike that squerard the pony before impaling it to the ceiling.

In fifty seconds, four lankys did what we weren't able to do with ten minutes and one hundred and fifty troopers. And in the face of the lankys bloody assault and our steady advance the UEC ranks broke retreating by squads farther into the station.

“Alright people! Lets move, snowviper, pitbull on point!” Fick yelled to our platoon.

Captain: Charlotte [Icequeen] Dunois

Galavant mining station: exterior

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

“Doll, surveillez vos six, venez au point neuf cinq, je vous les enlèverai.” My fighter bucked as I kicked in the afterburner.

Ahead of me Dolls fighter rolled low hugging the deck of the stations hull. Behind her two UEC fighters banked in trying to score hits with their condensers. As I watched they were slowly bracketing her fighter in and soon they would have her dead to rights.

[Missile locked on, missile locked on.]

“Merde!” Pulling out of my dive I jinked my fighter to the right firing flares and chaff. Eyeing the sensor screen I saw the missile was still on my tail banking around to try for another strike. The damn thing is to close for me to shoot down safely.

‘Ten seconds Charlotte, that's all you need to get this thing off your back.’ I told myself, after that the ponys missile would run out of fuel and cost ballistic. Stuck on its final trajectory until the end of time or until it hit something.

“Dont worry Icequeen, i've got dolls back.” An American pilot called out before streaking past. As it fired it afterburners the F/A-74's forward sweped wings folded forward untill they were flush with its body.

The black and red avenger interceptor streaked down to fall behind the two fighters bracketing Doll. Before firing its novering jets and skimming the deck as its wings unfolded. Another series of jinks and a slammed me against the harness as I fought to avoid the much faster missile.

‘Three… two… one.’ Finishings my countdown I jinked out if the missiles trajectory before flipping one eighty and fired my gatlings into the pony who had fired that missile. Seeing an the small burst of flame on my sensors I scanned the area before burning after the avengers' transponder.

Nearing the deck I rolled low hugging the hull as I wove between antennas. A flash of light from up ahead marked the destruction of the first fighter as the avenger my hud marked as “Snow” blew thenfirst fighter on Dolls tail to pieces with his autocannon.

That's when a series of blazing pink bolts of magical energy leaped out from behind my fighter. Craning my neck I looked behind me to see a flight of three cocatrice ganing on my six they planned to bracket me like they tried to do to doll.

A decent plan for a bunch of nuggets, a great plan in fact but… “Pas assez bon!”

Nearing a clear spot on the hull I flicked the toggle to valkyrie mode and braced as I was thrown against the seat. In the corner of my eye I could see the wireframe of my fighter start to shift as I felt the juice being injected.

On rails my fighters main engines snapped forward into legs as the main deceleration thruster folded back. Then the duel rotary cannon mounts disconnected pivoting out as I slowed enough to slam a clawed hand into the hull.

My sudden violent deceleration caused the three fighters chasing me to rocket off ahead of me forcing them to bank back around. As the first came in from my three I worked the pedals in my cockpit making my fighter kick its legs out causing it strafe to the side.

Another warning came into from my nine so I turned the strafe into a circle as I activated Infantry mode. My machine shifted again from a fighter jet with arms and legs to its mech mode as I pointed my fist at the offending cocatrice sending twin streams of grenades into its cockpit.

“Coming in on your six/on your twelve” Doll and Vixen called out over our squadron channel. I watched my wingmen make their ingress as I drifted in a circle firing both arm gatlings toward the two circling fighters.

Dolls white and green fighter slammed its back into mine before being followed by Vixen's own white and rust gungnir. And within seconds we were spiraling in an NE maneuver unimaginably called a defences spiral.

Our six arm gatlings made short work of the remaining two fighters before we shifted back to fighter mode and rocketed off into the black.

“Squadron leaders this is Galactica Cruisers decoupling, deceleration complete. Stand by for fire support, clear marked sectors. Firing in ten.”

“You heard the man people! Scramble!” The flight leader called out.

“Don't have to tell us twice. Valkyrie break, break!” dancing my fingers across the throttle I rolled my fighter before firing the afterburner.

The tactical plot showed that the two UEC cruisers that had been docked with the station were indeed disconnecting. Intending to chase after the annihilators as they made their turn around, they had their sensors locked on the two siege breakers failing to look sunward.

As we burned hard away from the red cone marking the projected path of the Galacticas main guns I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she missed and hit the station. But as it turned out my concerns were unwarranted because just as the final fighters cleared the path Galactica fired its two big six barreled guns.

As we watched it was as if someone had taken a gigantic hole punch to the UEC cruisers. Three of the six beams burned themselves straight through the ships as they turned taking the hits amidships. Armor buckled burning white hot before evaporating. Entire bulkhead simply disappeared before the invisible beams shoot out of the back of the ships in clouds of superheated plasma.

The two ships seemed to hang there gutted for several seconds before erupting in brilliant bursts of particles as their unstable magic based reactors exploded. Then in a display of futility and probably sheer importance the sole Destroyer raised and expanded its shields around the station probably hoping to use its shields as a buffer against the Gallys state of the art particle cannons.

“Alert zero second fire, coils overloaded on that one.” The Galactica's gunnery operator called out.

“Are you fucking serious?” one of the UAF pilots shouted over the channel.

“Leave it to the cog to go with the lowest fucking bidder! No wonder we are losing this war. With equipment this unreliable the ponys might as well just sit there and let us blow ourselves up.” another NAC pilot called out.

“Stow that shit lieutenant.”

“I'm just saying cap that's the second time in a week Galacticas weapons haven't worked as advertised.”

“You know crashdown is right we should have kept the receipt.”

“Leave it to your government to use flashy weapons that don't work NAC see if your ship were designed by…” One of my NE pilots makes the stupid choice of joining in on the conversation.

“You shut your fucking mouth nordic. Don't talk to us about flashy shit you dick. You literally fly around in a goddamn transforming fighter that turns into a shity mech. Thats stupid, it's absolutely ridiculous. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.” Another NAC pilot schemes in throwing in his two cents.

‘What an asshole this guy is.’ I say to myself as I shoot down another UEC fighter.

“Anyone else notice that we’re not even fighting the B team right now. These pilots are closer to the fucking K team. What, did they just graduate flight school before they threw them out here?”

“I wouldn't know, buAAAGH!”

“WOAH! What the fu…”

“I can't see'em!”

“I've got eyes on. New group of fighters incoming from mark Z.376.” Switching my sensors in that direction I see the second wave of UEC fighters launching from the station and lone destroyer.

“Woah check out the leading fighters, ain't seen that make before.” The four fighters in question look like something that would have flown before the end of the 21st century. Resembling a mixture of the NACs F-72 Shrike and an old United States F-22 Raptor. The UEC fighters possessed two condenser engines near their aft sections marked by the glowing gold rings on the bottom of the craft furthermore, they possessed two cannon like protrusions under their fuselage as well as a single larger cannon under the chin.

“Doll, Vixen, Snow on me.” As I flipped and burned toward the UEC fighters I watched the lead fire bolts of cobalt energy into one of the Gungnirs from Donnager.

The pilots must have noticed their extra attention and banked their new fighters toward my squadron. As we neared one another we began exchanging ranging shots the NAC pilot Snow sent a message over the squadron comm. “Lets see how the A team is.”

Movement Fighter: Rumble

Galavant mining station: promenade

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

56AE

“Listen to me you lazy fucks! Get that fucking rifle up!” One of the human resistance fighters yelled slapping me in the back of the head.Before crouch walking to another window. “Trixie! What the hell are you doing, get that fucking shield back up!”

“I can't! I don't have enough energy left!” The blue furred unicorn yelled back holding her head like she had a headache.

In response I watched the human Kyle something walk over to one of our squads dead unicorns. With a grunt he snatched the dead mares horn in one hand before bucking his leg out. There was a sickening crack as his armored boot snapped the horn off at the base. With a nod he took the bleeding stump and slid the amplifier ring off before tossing it to the scared Trixie.

“There now get that fucking shield up!” Kyle yelled before crawling to an open store front window and firing his bulky human rifle at something. “O-ok i'll try.”

“Buck! Jamed!” I cried out ducking back down working the bolt of my rifle. “Covering!” Pipsqeak, Snips, and Snails, shouted standing and firing their rifles into the street.

In response a hail of bullets came back to meet them. Pipsqueak and Snails were able to duck back in time but snips was caught out in the open. His body jerked back as dozens of wounds peppard his chest before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

There was a dull magenta glow from the center of the room before a dome of that same colored magic surrounded us. “Damn it Trixie couldn't you have done that just a little faster!” Snails shouted crawling over to his dead friend and looting the magazines from his vest.

In a war where most of your troops come back to life eventually if they are lucky respect for the dead has kind of disappeared. With a snort the chubby guy pressed a button on Snipa's vest broadcasting his death to the servers before returning to his spot by the window.

There was explosion outside and somepony in family of slaves hiding in the back room cried out as the building shook. “Movement up the road! Incoming!” I heard Twist shout from across the street.

Hearing the sound of my rifle releasing the jammed bullet I racked the slide back and crab walked to the window beside Kyle. Unlike us he wore old human armor past down from his grandparents to his parents then to him. “See anything adjunct!?”

“Loyalist squad incoming through the smoke.” He said leaning out of his window slightly to get a better look. “I count mabey twelve…”

There was a crack and was knocked off of his feet and onto his butt. A huge dent had appeared in his breastplate. “Fuck sniper stay down!”

Kyle gave himself a once over before pressing his back to the bottom of the window and raising his weapons nose over the edge. “Come on fuckwad where are you?..”

There was another crack and someone on the radio began screaming for a medic. Kicking my hoof our I crunched on a piece of broken glass and getting an idea I snatched it up holding it at an angle to the window. Using the improvised mirror i scanned the rooftops, then as another shot rang out I saw the muzzle flash. “Kyle, red house, two floors down from the roof, third window to the left.”

“Got him.” Kyle shifted his awkward hold on his weapon as he held it above his head. His rifle gave its hoars report and I watched the sniper move into view holding her throat.

Blood oozed from between her fingers before two more shots from kyle hit her chest and the mare flopped out falling head first out of the window. “Fuck you.”

With the sniper down we leaned to engage the advancing Loyalists only to see six of them peppered by bolts of crackling red energy. The rest took whatever cover they could as we began firing on them drawing their attention away from whoever was attacking them. “Changing!” Pipsqueak yelled jerking our an empty magazine.

“Covering!” We shouted as I saw two cylindrical grenades slide out from under a skiff to their right.

There was thundurus boom and a split second later a ball propelled into the air by the first explosion exploded itself. “Holy shit, what the fuck was that?”

As the decimated loyalists crawled around in various states of agonized death two groups of fighters in tan armor rushed their position. The leaders of the two groups of soldiers surged forward bounding over debris and damaged skiffs. Their jet black armor was very different from their compatriots giving them a distinctively intimidating look.

But as they drew closer I could see very slight differences in the armor worn by the two. The slightly slower and smaller of the two had letters KTF painted in red on the side of his helmet as well as a knife attached to his breastplate near his left shoulder. While the larger of the two had what looked like a shotgun slung over his shoulder.

“Who the fuck are these guys?” Kyle asked noone in particular as the two black armored humans began executing the injured and dying loyalists.

As we watched they did not use their guns to do the deed. Instead they used knives.

‘To save ammo’ I told myself, as the one with KTF on his helmet slashed open the throat of a writhing pony. Because if that isn't why then I don't want to know what would make them do such a vicious thing.

As they killed the others in their group moved up. Not a word was said as they did this, their entire group was deathly quiet. As I saw what looked like two tymerians, two ponies a unicorn and an earth pony, and a kleese move up with the rest of the group.

Then without mitering a word, without giving any sign they knew where we were the unknowns soldiers turned as a group. Leveling their weapons on our positions and taking cover.

“Ident!” A human voice called out into the silence.

“What do you think snails?” I asked reloading my rifle. As Kyle awkwardly groped at the dent in his breastplate. “No idea. If they wanted to kill us they could have just let the Loyalist do that for them.

As i watched one of the tymerians a female judging by the general body structure crouche walked forward. Its stance making it look for all the world like some kind of saurian as it drew near to the smaller of the two killers in black. The two seemed to converse wordlessly before the reptile backed off returning to its post beside a skiff.

“Identity!” The same cold menacing voice called out. With my piece of window I saw the two leaders were becoming agitated.

Then the sound of claws on metal cut through the air. I saw the door one of the store fronts near the newcomers slide open and a tiny filly probably three equestrian years or about twelve human years stagger out.

In response the human who talked to the tymerian before took one hand off of his strange rifle to gesture at the filly. The unicorn in the group nodded before lowering her weapon and attempting to shoo the child back into the store. From here I could hear the filly's parents attempting to call their child back, that is until the leaders saw movement at the end of the street.

“Buck, loyalists heading down the…” Changing windows I saw a group of what looked like five centaurs, two young dragons, four oxen, and two unicorns round a corner.

The loyalist soldiers seemed stunned for a fraction of a second before as a group opening fire. The reaction was instant, the second the bullets flew in their direction KTF seemed to fire some kind of jetpack. Rocketing to the side the black armored human snatched up the filly before hugging her close to his chest and diving through a window.

With the civilian out of the line of fire the newcomers began returning fire in earnest. The sole remaining black armored soldier on the street raised his rifle firing bolts of crimson energy as he fell back behind an overturned skiff.

“I've got a shot, Kyle what do we do?” Twist shouted from across the street. Down in the street it was like tartarus on equis as bullets, spells and flechettes flew through the air. Punctuated by the occasional red bolt or golden beam/bolt of magical energy from the male tymerians projector staff.

“You know what! Screw it, let's help em out. Twist, Swarm Herald, on my fire.” The human barked before standing up to a low crouch.

Sighting along my rifle I picked out a particularly careless centaur who was standing just a little to far from his chosen bit of cover. Instead of a verbal cue Kyle just let loose with his weapon adding its hoarse deport to those of the humans below.

That's when our radios crackled to life and a new voice spoke up. “Good to know we won't have to kill you. Thanks for the help, switch coms to mike 6” Glancing over to Kyle as I reloaded my rifle all I got was a shrug. “Fuck it why not.”

Looking over my shoulder at Snails, Pipsqueak, and Trixie who shrugged as well we did as the voice suggested. Immediately a chorus of different voices came into our headsets.

“Come'en out!” Suddenly a window one stor over shattered. A black shape rolled out into the street before firing its rifle one handed as it crossed the street taking cover behind a stores support pillar.

“Fighters, keep em pinned. Snowviper bounding overwatch fire and advance. Fragger out.” The cold voice said as KTF tossed one of those cylindrical frag grenades toward the loyalists.

“Yeah baby get some!” A younger human voice called out followed closely by a hail of flechettes striking the skiff three of the oxen were using as cover. Armor piercing nails punched through the skiffs thin metal skin with little orange sparks before tearing the soldiers behind it to pieces.

“Fireteam one go!”

Prime Captain: Shining Star

Race: Unicorn

Galavant mining station: exterior

System: Galimare

Distance from Equis: 587 lights

56AE

I bank low as another volley of tracers race past my canopy before pirouetting my fighter between two missiles. I have seen the vids and heard the stories about the distant earthers and their crack fighter pilots.

An explosion washes over my shields as I shoot down another earther pilot. “Where are you? Where is their ace?”

Scanning the field I suddenly see four of my fighter wing explode. Arching an eyebrow I zoom the image in and see an Ice blue and white human flake fighter spiral out of an explosion firing its rotary guns.

Its rear most thrusters and forward facing wangs are marked with a red and white snowflake as with thirty two silhouettes of Cocatrice and pegasus fighters under its noseless, windowless, dome of a cockpit.

“Im on leader.” Jamming the throttle forward I am slammed back into my seat as I dash forward. Behind me the twin condenser engines fire a stream of golden particles as I close the gap and bring up my targeting key.

‘Come on, earther just a little longer.’ Firing my maneuvering jets I manage to keep the lazily moving fighter in my sights until I hear the ping of a target lock. “Good bye.”

Depressing the firing stud my fighter shakes as two missiles pop from the racks and rocket forward. I watch as the two naga missiles streak toward their target with a small smile. ‘If this was their best then the rest should…’

At the last second the earther craft sprouts legs and strafes in a circle firing on the missiles. The pilot manages to destroy one of the nagas and its flares fool the other causing it to spiral off into space and explode.

In response the largest eye on the humans’ dome cockpit slides open revealing another cannon. Eyes wide as the human levels its “nose” and wrist weapons on me I yank back on the stick. “Buck!”

Rolling over the streams of tracers I loop back around hugging the deck before firing my condenser guns toward the human. Who angles its legs to the side dashing to the right as I shoot past it.

[Missile lock, missile lock]

Banking hard I flip both my chaff and flares as the powerful human missiles race out of that fighters pods. The first of which slams into my shield spiraling me to the left and into the path of a second.

But the sudden movement must have messed with the targeting of the third as it flew into the cloud of flares and exploded. Getting ready to turn back around I a stream of tracers explodes against my shield and flies past my cockpit window.

Craning my neck and almost standing in my seat I manage to look behind my flight seat. There is that ice blue fighter burning hard to stay on my tail. “Your good human but you don't have six hundred of your years of experience.”

Kicking the pedals and yanking back on the throttle and yoke I manage to drift my fighter around a sensor cluster and through an external maintenance path. ‘Lets see if you.!’ A small explosion rocks my fighter sending my shields down to thirty percent.

“Still back there huh? Your better than I thought.”

Bracing myself I see a flicker of light and yank back on the stick. In response my fighter goes into a sharp and violent double backflip decreasing speed and allowing the human to rocket past me and toward the blast door.

But as I watch the human shifts its fighter again. The legs and arms pop out again before the fuel salauge shifts into a torso. The wings fold into is back forming a kind of backpack as main thrusters split and become its feet. I have heard about these types of things the earthers use… mechs I think they are called.

the headless mech seems to slide moving its thruster feet toward the rapidly approaching door. Magenta plumes flair brilliantly as the human decelerates so violently that i'm surprised the pilot hasn't had a stroke. It comes to a stop before retrieving what looks like a rifle from one of its weapon missile racks.

“Shit!” Seeing only one solution I lock on fire two my remaining missiles. The desperate act throws off the mechs aim forcing it to throw itself down firing flares, chaff, and what looks like shotgun blasts of shrapnel from its chassis.

The missiles miss their target and strike the door blasting it off of its moorings and sending an alarm blaring through the station. There is a violent rush of air as I fly into the stations main habitat.

‘I'm so bucked if I make it out of this.’

“!” three streams of tracers reach out to meet me from the streets below. Switching to atmosphere flight and banking rolling low I manage to avoid the incoming fire. “How the hell did they…”

The exploding upper half of a building ahead of me gave me my answer. Through the smoke came an ugly obscenely armed insectoid human shuttle. The green hovering beast lets loose with its twin rotary nose guns and six rockets from its launchers forcing me to turn away or die.

[Missile lock, missile lock]

“BUCK YOU!” Jamming back the throttle I break violently causing the missiles and the blunt nosed fighter to rocket passed.

Firing my cannons I manage a glancing hit on its left wing which spits sparks, fire and smoke from the hit. “Got you.”

With a smirk I fire the last of my missiles at the wounded human. But rather than take the hits the human shifts into its mech form. The machine gun comes out of its eye and it begins jinking around randomly firing chaff and flares. Managing to either evade or destroy most of my missiles I come back around for another gun run intent ok shooting the human down.

But as I come into range a series of explosions rock my fighters dropping its shields and striking the hull. Looking at the threat detector I see the culprit wasn't my opponent in its transforming fighter but instead that damn shuttle.

[Warning eject, warning eject, warning eject]

Fighting with the rapidly failing controls I manage to look up an time to see the human fighter flip over me. I stare up at it and its three eyed dome stairs at me before out of my peripheral vision I see a clawed hand coming my way then I don't see anything.

“.... He's a good grow get him out.” A muffled voice calls out. Climbing out of the revival pool and glancing at a nearby computer screen. I immediately notice i'm not even in the same system any more.

“FUCK!”

“What happened my lord?” A slave asked handing me a uniform.

“Nothing that concerns you, get me a communication relay. I must inform the supreme commander.”

“As you wish my lord.”

Liaison corporal: Mii'ora [Habu]

5th infantry: squad Snow viper

UEC: Galavant station

System: galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC/56AE

Movement catches their eye and my love and his compatriots turn in unison before firing blazing bolts of light from their boxy rifles. But a flutter of wings was their only warning before a wounded changeling drone sailed straight into Avery.

Behind me the changeling that was part of Fick’s command squad hissed and snared at the new breed. But we watched in morbid fascination as the object of my affection drove his elbow into the base of the neos neck before spinning and pinning the bug to the bulkhead. Fallon then braced his boot against the small of the creatures back before tearing the screaming shifters wings off with one vicious ripping sound. Bright yellow green blood squirted before Fallon took his knife and slashed across his opponents throat.

“Iceman, Big Dog let's move. You basics…” the onyx guard turned to point a meaty finger toward our group of marines and army troopers. “You're with us, KTF”

We eventually made it to the corridor containing the brig and just as the onyx guard said it appeared to be where the infiltrators were going too. I duck back behind a bulkhead as a flood of flachetts pelts my position.

“Hell yeah this is what I'm talking about I'm fucken hard right now!” Michael Trombley yelld leaning back out and letting loose with the saw.

Down the hall I watch two changelings fold in half as flechettes tear through their backs, shredding their exoskeletons. A hand suddenly grabs the back of my armor yanking me back just as three flachetts slam into the wall behind her.

“Damn it Miiora if you get killed who the fuck am I supposed to marry then? Changing!” My love called out before swapping out the box on his rifle with another then leaning out and firing three bolts down the hall. “She is sorry, hold did he ju…”

But as I turned to reload noticed that Avery Fallon seemed to he holding a conversation. He nodded and as I turned to return fire he snapped a finger at me. “Yes sargent?”

He groped at my chest from behind his back. His metallic hand slapped at my breast plate before closing around one of my grenade loops. “Im borrowing these.” Was all he said before yanking the entire loop off of my armor.

He leaned back from the walls corner and pulled a spool of red tape, and one of the cylindrical two stage grenades from his belt. In one swift motion he taped the four grenades together and pressed the activation button on the grenade he placed into the bundle.

Taking a step beyond the wall he drew back and lobbed the bundle as hard as he could. “Fragger out!”

Leaning out to fire on the UEc troops down the hall I watched the bundle of explosives sail down the hall Coming to a rest at the feet of a rather large young dragon who tried to dive away before the bundle exploded with a thunderous CRUMP.

“Well that got ‘em.”

When our team finally reached the UECs engram server room she had though we would simply switch them off. Opting to trap the backed up soldiers in an unending purgatory with the things that hunted lost souls like the serpents that swam tymers fire rides.

Instead fick had ordered blast tape be placed on each server tower. And the team breached the room, there were shouts over the tac-link, grunts, and gunfire. Then half an hour later as I stood outside unable to enter the below zero cold room even with my armors enhanced heaters the others walked out of the server room. Many of the humans talked amongst themselves as they passed me by until my love always the last man, always the into view.

His black armor was crusted with ice. And what looked like semi frozen blood oozed from a wound in his side. He clutched his impossibly sharp monofilament knife in one hand and a detonator in the other. My chosen suitor walked up to my side placed a hand on my shoulder and slid down to sit in the hard blood stained floor beside her.

“Fire in the hole.” His voice came out as a hoarse croak before he unceremoniously flipped up the safety and depressed the detonator. There was a thunderous WHUMP from the otherside of door as the wall seemed to bow out slightly.

“Welp that was fun.” Another of my suiters true team mates said coming up to stand beside us as I crouched down to seal the hole in Avery Fallons armor. “Shut the fuck up Skryer.” Was the only response the other MOTH got from my suiter as he leaned his head against the wall.

Getting the hint the MOTH nodded once and walked away leaving just the two of us alone for now. “How did he get that nickname anyway love? Histack?” I asked as I injected bio foam into the wound before starting to work with his odd suit repair kit. “Hijack. Don't know, never cared.”

‘Typical’ That thought made me happy. Even two after being set free over that colony world where this war had started. The world still got weirder every day, but my Avery never changed.

It's good to know there was at least one constant thing that could be used to set all compasses and chronological pieces. Avery was a load stone a true north. A magical clock that never ran late despite the forces that sought to tear everything apart.

Without him I imagine all would be madness. And as I finished patching up his slightly damaged under suit I sat down beside him. My Weapon hanging at my side from a clip, knees drawn slightly and my tail drifting slightly twitching every so often as I send out the occasional sensory ping.

“Long day.” Avery Fallon says in a sleepy fashion resting his head back against the bowed bulkhead. Listing carefully I can hear his heartbeat was slowing, and breathing becoming deeper.

“What the fuck do you think your doing Fallon?” The vantablack armored man my armor tagged as Rook asked coming up and kicking Avery Fallons leg out. “Bleeding.”

“Well knock it off we've got an op. Check your gear and stow your fear. Top wants apex to secure navigational data from that destroyer and disable its slave collars.” With that Rook reached down and helped Avery back to his feet. The two of them talked to one another on a private channel before they nodded to one another and jogging off.

Author's Note

Hey Im looking for an editor, so please if anyone os inturested helping me out shoot me a PM or something.

Chapter 3 Kill Team

[Veteran] 1st Sergeant: Tolan Harris

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Big Dog]

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

“Wraith, what have we got?” Rook asked, his voice rasping out from the darkened corridor. Above us the air ducked vibrated slightly as the tiny link drone buzzed around. “Hang on… got it! Four clops on the far side that I can see. Standard affair, two shotguns, two rifles.”

“Alright apex we go in hard flashbangs and fraggers. Hijack, blast tape on the door. Iceman right, Big Dog left, Hijack, Amp and I will take center. Wraith your on fire support.” He didn't bother asking if we understood as he materialized from one of the lightless corners in the room.

Letting out a short “Hooyah” before stacking at the hatch. We waited for Hijack to clear the bz before turning our heads away from the door. “Breach.”

The door blasted open flying from its weak unarmored mounting and into the room with the ponys. Being the first ones in Iceman and I took a fragger and flashbang in each hand and tossed them into the room.

There were four then two more thunderous booms before we rushed in. Sighing in I leveled my N-4 and ventilated the unicorn in front of me. Five ruby bolts of electronically supercharged energy lanced out burning down the fatally injured pony where he stood.

“Clear left.” Behind me I heard three blaster reports as Iceman finished off his target. “Clear right,”

Hearing the sound of crunching glass I pivoted leveled my rifle and fired two shots into another of the ponys as Hijack shot him. His kevlar armor couldn't stop a regular flechette from an M-66. So it didn't stand a chance as six bolts slammed into and through his chest.

There was a crash to my left and I turned to see Rook slam a struggling mare into what used to be a desk. “No no please!” She begged before her words turned to screams as the onyx guard drew his knife before gutting her where she stood.

“Big Dog how much farther?” He asked flicking the blood off of the monofilament blade before kicking the dying pony to the deck.

“Past this corridor to the right and out onto the exterior of the station. Then another two miles down and into the exterior docking bay. It should be a straight shot through the docking tube from there. From there…” I had to pause to bring up a schematic we had acquired from the Glimmering Wake one of the defector UEC ships the Gally hand inside one of her docking bays.

With the 3D wire frame schematic superimposing itself on my bucket's visor I rattled off the directions. “We head aft toward engineering for, twelve bulkheads before going up a deck. The navigational computers and slave collar control should be on that deck.”

A noise from the next door cut me off. We all heard it and Iceman and Rook took positions on either side of the hatch. Sparks flew from the seems as someone cut through. Then the building shook, its already damaged frame rocked from an exterior explosion. “We need a ride to get over there in time. Apex one to Booker one come in.”

“We here you Requesting immediate orbital support and exfiltration. ” Rook yelled into the com.

There was a pause as if the comms station officer aboard the galactica was considering. “Request is denied Apex one.”

Fallon didn't even wait for Rook to respond before cutting into the channel. “This is Veteran Avery Fallon, what the hell do you mean request denied!?”

“Don't you take that tone with me MOTH.”

“Listen whoever you are.” Fallon began his voice dripping with anger. “You fucking get support down here Now. Or the first thing ill do when I get back to the ship again is hunt you down so we can talk about my tone in person. You got that?”

No one in their right mind wanted an angry moth gunning for them. Especially not a dark ops MOTH or one of the three nanosized super soldiers in the fleet. When the comm officer spoke again he sounded much more charitable. “Sirs I have orders that out rank yours. We are to send no craft into that region. No exceptions, that area is too hot. Galactica out.”

“Time to get creative Apex, We're gonna have to get ourselves out if this. Gally says it cant send down fire support or an exfil dropship.” Rook said cutting off the comm.

“Are they thinking that would be too easy?” Hijack said tossing a fragger through the door as it slid open. There was a mad scramble as the UEC soldiers on the other side rushed to get away and failed.

“So we kill em all and hoof it.” I said slamming home a new charge pack for my N-4. “Simple enough. Seal your suits. Iceman you good?”

“I'll live. Good to go.” Iceman said before kicking down one of the doors leading to one of the airlocks.

Piling into the airlock Rook spoke up as the air began cycling not. “Alright people, once were outside we keep moving. Don't stop and let them get a bead on you. Remember your spacing and watch your thruster fuel.”

The lights turned red and sound disappeared as the last of the air was vented out. We waited for the door to cycle open only for it to stop half way. “Oh fuck… you!” Rook took a step back from the jammed airlock door and kicked it.

The door dented in from the blow before he took another step back and really gave it a stiff kick. This time the damaged door flew off of its rail and was sent spiraling off into space.

“Well that's one way to open a door.” Hijack said before brushing past me and firing his jump jets. He sailed off into the distance barley pulled by the asteroids gravity.

“Lets go people on the bounce! KTF.”

After that we all jump out into space rocketing from the cramped airlock and onto the surface. Our polychromatic armor shifted images on its surface as we moved. To the casual observer we would be almost impossible to spot only being a vague outline.

The adaptive camouflage on our legionnaire battle armor is a holdover from the older HEBA bug suits used on Lanky worlds and by the Helldivers. It's not terribly useful in most environments because it tends to drain our suits battery relatively quick. But in situations like this where someone has to get across a distance quickly or has to stay stationary it's a godsend.

As we leapfrog forward I catch movement to my left in an external passageway. “Shit, Freeze!”

Our squad slams down into the dust of the asteroid and stops dead. No one moves a muscle as our armors adaptive camouflage renders us as five vague outlines. “Clops second passage to our left, seventy five degrees.”

“I've got eyes.” Wraith called out as a window appeared on my HUD. It showed the window the UEC squad was looking out of. “I can ventilate.”

“Negative we ca…” Rook cut himself off as one of the ponys, a pinkish unicorn with a super models figure moved her slender fingers to the side of her head. “ Scratch, Do it.”

There was a flash about five hundred meters to my right. This also seemed to catch the attention of the mare behind the window. She moved fractionally before the window stared from the impact and side of her head exploded. Blood, brain, and bone sprayed as the .50 caliber depleted uranium flechette from Wraith's longshot tore through the window and the passway itself.

The pony beside her looked about ready to shout something before his head exploded aswell. The window took another round before finally giving up the ghost. Violently exploding outward as the pressure from inside the passageway escaped into space. As we watched the five remaining ponys struggled weakly as they were sucked out into hard vacuum.

“Looks clear the rest of the way up.” Wraith said as the window from his feed panned our path. “Alright let's move people. Double time.”

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Iceman/20s]

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

When we finally reached the docking collar I had a feeling the UEC knew someone was going to try to board their ship. “Hold up, look down there.” Big Dog says bringing us to a halt at the ledge just before the tubes.

Landing I and the rest of the team crouch down eyeing the marker the Big man had placed on our huds. “Damn it thats alot of clops we won't be able to take em all… suggestions?” Rook said his voice conveying his annoyance.

“Well we could bust the tube and rush in, it would key em off but it would be fast.” Hijack said from his perch.

“No we can't do that it would trap the slaves on board…” Wraith commented before peering along the hull if the ship through the scope of his longshot. “We could cut our way in?”

Rook seemed to like this idea. His head perked up a bit and he turned slightly to face me. “That could work… Iceman what do you think?”

“It would be alot easier than venting, and a hell of a lot quieter than blasting open an airlock. Alright let's do it.”

Rook nodded at that and spoke softly into our squad channel. “Alright, let's do this quick people torches out.” With that we kicked off of the station propelling ourselves toward the looming UEC destroyer.

The UEC dont use the same ship classification we do. For example a cruiser for us would be a destroyer for them and a vice versa. This tends to cause a lot of confusion when talking to UEC defectors because they usually get the ships mixed up.

For example the ship we are currently falling towards. Because in space flying eventually turns into falling. Is a big red hulled dragon vessel the prow ornaments and other decorative garbage gives that away. My bucket says that from nose to drove its about three hundred and seventy meters, roughly a third the size of one of our linebacker cruisers.

Even their super destroyers at almost four hundred and fifty meters were only three fourths the size and half the raw tonnage of our big missile cruisers. This one was of the Luna class being a rough middle ground between the two classes in size.

When we reached the halfway make we flipped around and fired our jump jets in bursts to slow ourselves down and land lightly on the hull. Unlike the new human shields used by Galactica and her sister ship Nostromo. UEC shields do not stop all outside influences, hens why we are able to land on the hull and not be turned into a fine puree by obscene amounts of electricity.

Crouching we crossed the hull as quietly as our mag boots allowed. At this point we had to disable our adaptive camouflage to conserve battery life. So as we moved across the sleak hull our glossy black armor shined dully from the battle far over head.

At the head of our hexagonal formation Rooks onyx legionnaire armor was much darker than ours. His vantablack plates seemed to absorb all light making him invisible to the naked eye in space. I myself could only see him because of the contrast against the brightly painted hull.

When we reached our destination which was a maintenance hatch of some kind we set to work. Big Dog, Hijack and Wraith set up a perimeter while Rook and I took out our cutting torches. I have heard a rumor that some SAS commando had single handedly managed to capture an entire UEC cruiser with a cutting torch alone.

For a second I stared at the torch. It was utterly ordinary made of flimsy metal and plastic, a cheap tool. But years ago before the war with the UEC the NAC had used one of these as their only weapon. For an entire year a group of marines and pod heads fought off dozens of SRA soldiers. When they were stranded on a hostile world being over run, fighting for a beached whale of a ship, deck by deck day by day.

Those were the most desperate of times. Modern warfare had devolved into hand weapons wielded with savagery. Like some ancient fantasy novel of never was, with swords and magic.

The torch was utilitarian. It was fashioned like an oversized flashlight, heavy duty. A piece of equipment some sanitation worker might carry down into the dirty dark for the most practical of reasons. There was nothing elegant about it, it is not a some relic from a lost age of nobility and honor.

Handing my N-4 to Big Dog I flicked the studio and watched as the twisting electric fiery blade sprung up from its housing. Like a shining beacon in the darkness of the galaxy.

With a nod to Rook we plunged the torches into the hatch. The sudden flaring of light caused my visor to darken as I cut a circle into the door with my overgrown flashlight. The door yielded to our cutting torches and we managed to jump into the now open door before a blast shield closed. Immediately we were bathed in a darkness with swirling red lights. With a gesture Rook had Hijack disable the alarms and repressurise the airlock.

“We're making good time where to now?”

“Three decks down, then follow a port passageway then the navigation computer is on the right.”

“Alright gents let's…” Rook was cut off when the hatch leading to our commandeered airlock slid open.

A shocked UEC maintenance crew took several steps back when they saw us. We must have been quite the sight five black armored humans standing in a red lit room.

Rook was the first to act, dashing forward he swiped his torch in a horizontal line cutting two of the maintenance workers in half. The others turned and began to run from the crazy sword wielding human. This proved to be a bad move because when they made it halfway down the hall I ran them down and sliced them to pieces.

My bucket picked up incoming projectile and I turned to snatch my N-4 out of the air as Harris brushed past me moving down the hall. Flicking the torch off and securing it to a holder in my leg armor I followed after him.

[Veteran] : Tyrus Rechs

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Wraith]

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

Vaulting over the banister leading to the next deck down I land the back of an unprepared centaur, who bucks trying to shake me off before I jam N-4s barrel into its thick neck. My rifle bucks in my hand as it sends a bolt straight through the big cows throat.

Jumping off I land in a crouch before rising my rifle and sending two more bolts into the corpse's squadmates. The sound of firing jump jets draws my attention and I turn to see Big Dog deliver a jet assisted knee strike to the face of a caleb. Bones crunch under the force of the nanotized moths blow and the caleb's head bounces off of the bulkhead in a spray of red.

There is a flicker and as one our kill team turns sending two shots each into the chest of group of UEC marines. The bolts of electrically charged energy sear through their kevlar analogue armor and they slump to the deck.

“Almost there, Iceman, Wraith on point.” Making the belter affirmative we wag our pinkies and thumbs on our free hands in a circular motion then forming a fist.

The two of us move up the right hand bulkhead as we move. Behind us the sound of boots on the deck seem to echo in the almost empty passageway. “Clear right.”

Bounding past Fallon I pear around the opposite corner. “Clear left.”

Waving two fingers Fallon gestures for the team to continue. Eventually we found ourselves entering what could only be described as a slum. “I feel like someone's gonna steal my wallet.” I commented off handedly as we moved.

“Yeah reminds me of the pitt.” Iceman added referring to the main Pittsburgh PRC. “Id go with Ceres my self, it has that homey vibe.” Harris cut in sweeping his weapon across a grime covered wall.

As we move our group cycles our fields of fire, with at least one of us facing the front and back at any given time. It is during one of the sweaps that we ran into our first slave stationed on the ship.

To our shock she was a human. Dressed in an outfit that left almost nothing to the imagination it was obvious what her purpose aboard the ship was. She had several scratch marks and bruises along her legs and around the blinking silver collar around her neck. Her auburn hair was a mess and she looked half starved.

She came out of a door ahead of us and at the sudden noise we turned our weapons in her direction. Smartly she raised her hands in fear taking a step back as we drew near. “Hey mom what's going on out there? Has master come back?” Another voice called out from behind her.

“N…no dear…” She was cut off when Iceman took a step towards her. The sexually abused slave flinched back upon seeing her partal reflection in his glossy black armor.

“Relax ma'am. Uuuhh.. sheshalo, ki'iko nio kree?” aah that's what he's doing. That makes sense his girlfriend was a slave just like this woman. Maybe she wasn't the same kind of slave but maybe he could get her to work with us.

The woman's eyes widened fractionally. Clearly not expecting this strange human to speak tymerian. She seemed to consider for several seconds before responding. “Tymer, jero nok?”

“...Yes I... understand. Xortov. Niko. Nee? Neeo kree?” He slowly lowered his rifle before gesturing for us to do the same, before reaching into his leg pouch and pulling out two nutrient bars and gesturing for the woman to take them.

The woman seemed to not be expecting this and hesitantly took them before nodding vigorously to Iceman. Before gesturing down the passageway and making a series of hand jesters. The woman then touched a hand to his arm forearm and he curled index, middle finger and thumb into a claw before touching them to the lip of his buckets jaw. “Alright we'll be back as soon as we can ma'am. Thank you.”

“No thank you lord.” The woman says before turning and rushing into the room.

“20s what was that about?” Hijack asks sweeping his weapon low and training it on the passageway behind us. “She said that the masters were mostly out on the station and pointed us in the direction of the collar controller. She seems to think that it will be heavily guarded with the ship docked “

“That would make sense. If the slaves were going to revault it would make sense to do it somewhere that would actually matter. After all how many of them can operate a star ship? Not many i’d reckon.” Rook says before gesturing us forward.

As we crossed the deck we slowly began to see more and more slaves around. Either going about their regular duties or whatever it is slaves do when not working. We got several startled glances and several approving nodes and gestures as we advanced before finally exiting the slum and entering the final stretch.

[Veteran] : Nick Scryer

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Hijack]

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

“Hijack, blast that door.”

“On it boss.” Crouch walking forward I slid blast tape over the hatch see me and took a step back. “So twentys word on the comm in that you proposed to that snake of yours.”

“I wouldn't really call it a proposal… more of a suggestion really.” Fallon said stacking on the door behind me. He checked his rifles charge pack and slapped at the side of the weapon, “Damn crystals out of alignment, need to replace it.”

“Here I have a spare, so your in love with a lizard? What's that like?” I'll be honest my curiosity was peaked. I had to know what it was like. Especially since i myself had my eyes on a tymerian who was part of our moth teams mech crew.

“Not gonna lie it's a little weird. They cant regulate their body heat for one since they're cold blooded. Plus she's kind of grabby.” He slid his weapons casing off before taking the slagged crystal out and tossing it over his shoulder.

“Why the hell would anyone want to marry a piece of shit like you?” Big Dog asked his deep voice coming over the channel at the same time he stacked up behind twentys. “Set.”

“Breaching.” There is a CRUMP as the door explodes open and we rush into the room. There a flash of scales to our left and I turn to see a tymerian leveling a shotgun towards us.

I turned my gun on the lizard and pulled the trigger but I wasn't fast enough. The sound of the UEC shotguns report echoed through the room as we burned the lizard down with our blasters and Fallon flopped to the deck.

“Oopah! Fuck fuck, I need a trauma kit!” I said rushing forward as we moved to clear the room with extreme prejudice. We found several techs and when we opened the door to some kind or conference room we found about four UEC soldiers in various states of unpreparedness.

The soldiers surrendered almost immediately but as we were in a vengeful mood we didn't give them the time of day. Crimson bolts flashed from our N-4s ventilating them I dragged Fallon up and onto the table while Rook flipped the switch deactivating the collar controls.

“APEX actual to nearest dropship, I need a fucken casevac now!... What the fuck! You fucken desk jockey!”

His breastplate was a ruin, bits of ceramic, and Sandalphon impervisteal flaked off of his armor as he struggled to look at the wound. Blood oozed from Icemans chest as he groped weakly at my armor as I slapped a trauma pack onto his chest. “Come on Iceman stop moving around so much.”

“I..I can't fucken bre-breath!”

“We've got movement six o'clock fifty meters!”

“Suppress! Hijack how bad is he?” Down the hall I heard Big Dog shout something as he and Wraith began firing on something

“Fuck, his right lung is collapsed, and his left is filling with blood i need to perform a thoracentesis. His heart looks fine the nanites seem to have protected that at least.” I said as Rook and I removed Iceman's chestplate. “O-oh fuck m-man! What the fuck man!?”

“Iceman look at me, look at me Ice it aint shit trooper. Look at me.” Rook said as he hunched over the wounded moth and took his helmet off where it thunked on the deck.

Taking the chance I dug around in my mecal bag and applied a liberal amount of quick clot. Before taking a pressure needle and slamming it into his chest, instantly blood started to ooze from the needle as it was drained from his lung.

“Come on Ice look at me…” Fallon had a look on his face i had never seen before as Rook cradled his head in his hands with blood running from his mouth. “...It aint shit Ice.”

Outside the firing stopped and the sound of rushing boots met our ears. “We need to move. We pushed em back but I don't know for how long.” Big Dog said rushing into the room.

“We can't fucking move him!” I yelled mashing both hands down to try to stop the bleeding. “Well we can't fucking stay here!”

As we argued I felt something press itself into my hand. Looking down I saw it was a picture of a woman with two kids who looked early like younger versions of Fallon and his friend that NE pilot, and a glossy ruby scale. I didn't need to know where he had gotten that from.

When I looked up he had the most intense look in his eyes I'd ever seen in a man. “Go get the data. I'll keep em off your backs.”

“What the fuck are you talking about Fallon.” Harris said coming over to the table and looking down at him. “I-I mean what I said. I'll slow em down for you koyo.”

“What are you planning Ice? You aint gonna do ahit in your condition.” Rook asked in a neutral tone. “I'll do more than I will if you guys drag my ass around. I im gonna keep em from turning... the collars back on. Then i'm gonna KTF.”

“...Oopah! Fine, Hijack get him as stable as you can. Everyone else let's get ready to move." With that we helped him to the main room and secured his bucket before Rook snatched his tags.

Behind us we heard the distant sound if blaster fire as we moved across the deck to the target room. And when we finally killed our way to the data storage room we heard the distinct double explosion of a fragger detonation. The explosion was much larger than it should have been, so he must have detonated every fragger he had left on his rig.

‘Well that's one way to keep someone from using a console i guess.’ I thought to myself when I felt the deck shake from the concussion.

We finally had the data locked down and stored in a data storage drive and backed up in our armors computers we moved back to the airlock. When we moved back to the passageway we left fallon in it was a bloodbath. There were blaster marks on the bulkheads and dead burning bodies outside of the door leading to what was left of the collar control room.

“Damn, thats some serious KTF if I've ever seen it. He fucked them up” Big Dog said as he and Amp peered into the room.

As we passed I took a glance inside myself out of some kind of morbid curiosity. He had indeed done quite a number on the UEC troops that had come to reactivate the collars. Even now as we climbed back into another airlock we could hear the sounds of the slaves revolting throughout the ship.

We had pulled ourselves out of the airlock and out on the hull when Rook spoke up. “Alright guys basics are hung up at the uuugh command key whatever that is. On the station. They are locked in a pitched firefight with the resistance providing support. But it looks like the UEC held their heavy troops in reserve. Were being redirected let's move.”

Liaison corporal: Mii'ora [Habu]

5th infantry: squad Snow viper

UEC: Galavant station

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC/56AE

When my loves kill team returned with the horrible news of his death I found myself in a daze. At first she had thought it was another human idiom she did not understand. But when the one called Hijack had given Miiora the heart scale she had given to her suitor and the picture he had kept in his breast pocket a pit had formed itself in my heart.

And as the 5th and the MOTH kill team moved through the station to the rallypoint outside of the UECs command key she had been in a daze the entire time. It felt like someone had taken my heart and torn it to pieces. Her immovable rock had been swept away by the tides and she had been unable to stop it. Worse she hadn't even been there in his final moments.

However the knowledge that he had spent those moments denying the egg stealing UEC access to their slave collars did give her a kind of peace. But that had not stopped the tears from fogging her helmets visor slightly nor saved the next UEC soldier that had the misfortune of crossing their path.

I had shifted my joints and rushed the human in a blind grief fueled rage. The impact of our collision sent the my helmet spiraling into the wall and sunk my hornes deep into the Male's stomach. As I clawed and wrent his weak flesh I couldn't help but remember that it had been a human like this that had caused her mate so much pain in the recent past.

When the human drew his knife and attempted both stab and kick me off I wrapped my tail up and around to constrict the offending limbs. Around me I could hear shouts and the belching and odd bursting reports of my squads weapons as they gunned down the humans allies. But I was to focused on killing the human below me. I heard the bones in his arm and right leg crack and crunch as I crushed and powdered them with my tail before I opened my maw wide as he screamed.

She unhinges her jaw and extended her fangs before sunk them deep into the humans neck. My three inch fangs injected venom into the human and as he struggled in agony as his veins began to solidify before dissolving. Through a tear filled eye I saw the humans unruined fist heading for my snout and I let out a deep guttural hiss before snapping my leg up, impaling the arm with one of my claws and pinning it to the wall.

The humans screams slowly turned to whimpers and as I worked my fangs and smaller one inch teeth in deeper. There was a choking gasp as the human spasmed and I flicked my right hands claw across the humans abdomen spilling his steaming innards out onto the deck as he died.

“Come sister, the human is dead.” A calming voice called out through the haze bringing me out of my sorrow filled haze. A hand grasped me gently around the neck and I let the dead human lose too slump to the ground.

When I turned and saw it was my brother and I hissed at him as he stood with his blazer staff. As I backpedaled to retrieve my fallen helmet never taking my eyes off of him. Bra'tac had been there, party to the torture of Avery Fallon on Tearus at the hands of supreme commander Rarity.

Several hours later, by the time we finally made it to the rallypoint I had cooled slightly but the grief was almost unbearable. Thankfully the others in our group had chosen to give me the space I needed. In fact several times they seemed to flinch back as I hissed at them when they drew to near.

All save for Durge the stoic Zaltule w
Warrior, Veteran Watkins my basic training Corporal instructor who had taken command of Snow Viper in my suiters place. And My Suitor's kill team who seemed to close ranks around me but not speaking.

Around us the other members of the spaceborn infantry assault clustered and I knew we were unlikely to be able to move from this point. There were several groups of ACM fighters scurrying about in various forms of armor and carrying different looted weapons.

A sorrow filled whale filled the net as Charlotte's gungnir-2 made wild strafing runs overhead. But the command key must have harnessed all of their remaining unicorns to deploy and sustain the shield they had up. As it stood no one could land a direct hit on the building and any considered infantry rush was thwarted by the troop of adult dragons on station inside of the shield.

Already those dragons had laid waste to an entire platoon of Spaceborne Infantry marines as well as several rushes performed by the ACM. And to make matters worse it appeared that the UEC were amazing their troops behind the shield and getting ready for a breakout push.

At the head of the dragons behind the shield was a black scaled elder dragon. His wings were leathery and covered in ripps and his hide crossed by deep scars. This dragon was well known to the continent of marines and from the manitoba and her original taskforce 21.

This drake had been present during the siege of bagmare and had personally killed several squads of trooper and several mechs. Unfortunately his being here meant that his mental engram was backed up somewhere in the UEC, so when he died he would most likely revive at the closest friendly resurrection machine.

An echoing agonizingly loud chirp came from farther along the road and I turned my head to see a clutch of four wendigo rush a dragon that had foolishly exited the shield to fire its weapon. The four eggshell colored beasts piled onto the drake, dragging it down to the street before tearing it to pieces.

“What do you mean there coming from the south? Their Main force is to the east I'm looking at them…. are you sure?” Fick began before closing his visor and walking off with Gunnery sergeant Perkins at his side.

Beside us Veteran Sugar Watkins “Alright people looks like we're about to have some unwanted guests. Trombley, Garza, Durge get those guns up. Scales, Levoy, mark targets for those guns, Forbes, Bra'tac we're on…”

“HERE THEY COME!”

Chapter 4 Revenant

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

So… this is what is like to be dead huh? Kind of… I don't know, I was expecting… I don't know what I was expecting. Mmm fire mabey? I mean, I know I wasn't going to get the pearly gates but this is kind of boring. “So, what is this purgatory? Not impressed….”

“Why am I wet? Don't tell me I pissed myself!? Come on man!” Feeling around in the darkness I almost immediately notice two things. First I’m floating in what I assume is water? Based on the resistance and the dulled noise and I don't know water sound? The second thing I noticed after trying to fathom out how the fuck im even in water in the first place and giving up. Was that I'm still in my armor for some reason and I'm still missing my left arm below the elbow.

Why the fuck is it getting warm? What's that light over there? Swimming over to the light I notice that the ocean I am swimming in is becoming increasingly thick until I reach the light source. When I reached it I discover that the thing giving off the bright reddish light was something that looks oddly like the coin thing that i picked up the other day in the med-lab.

Before I had time to question anything else in this weird non place I am being thrown forward by an unseen force. Then the next thing I know I hear voices and some asshole is shining a light in my face.

“What… what happened?” I asked the myrialos standing over me. “We revived you Veteran Fallon. It was touch and go there for a while. We thought we would lose you, these reverse engineered revival machines are pretty tricky.” that's when it hit me, I… me Avery Fallon died back on the station.

“What the fuck do you mean revived? The last thing I remember is getting obliterated by my fraggers.”

The next thing I tried to do was sit up which was a bad move. When I tried to push up with my left hand I must have failed to notice that it wasn't there and I fell flat on my face on the cold decking.

“You've got me fucked up! Move over jesus you can do water to wine, but I come back from the dead and you can't give me my fucking hand back?” That was a far as I got with my little tirade before I threw up on the deck.

“What the hell are you doing! Move over, sargeant its okay. Your on board Galactica in the med bay. how are you feeling?” A new voice said rushing over to my side.

I felt pair of soft fuzzy hands helping me to my feet and when I looked over my shoulder I saw one of the Galactica's pony doctors. She had a snow white fur and pinkish hair on her head and tail. The name tape on her ACU said PFC. Red Heart.

Then I noticed the smell and my skin. I was covered in slime, wet, pink, gooey, slime. “What. The. Fuck?”

There was a gurgling noise behind be and I craned my neck to look. What I saw gave me the creeps, it looked like an old fashioned fernus but the inside of the machine looked wet and fleshy, like a mouth or and I shook at the the other possibility a womb.

After that confronting thought Red Heart showed me to a shower and helped me into a spare uniform. “The first revival is always the worst. You'll get used to it.” She said with a sad smile before ushering me out of the room as the machine began to gurgle again. “You should be alright in a few minutes. Please come back and see me or one of us if you experience any side effects.”

“Um… thanks Red Heart, but I don't think ill ever get used to that.” Now I understand what it must have been like for Forbes when he came back…

“Wait my team did they make it? What about Snow Viper what about Miiora?” She must have been expecting my barrage of questions because she took it all instride telling me that they were still onboard the station. And that I should go and get a fresh set of armor.

“Right, alright I'll do that. Thanks.” with that I sprinted down the deck and to med decks armory where the closest 3D printer was. Putting in my permissions and I noticed that my implants were still there, in fact as I moved I began to notice that everything was the same if not better than it was before I died.

Compartmentalizing that in the “shit to figure out later” folder I brought up the schematic for the bionic charlotte and her family had given me after Bagmare. Slapping print with my remaining hand I moved down the line. With another machine printing me out another monofilament blade and another working on a new suit of Legionnaire armor and N-4 I should be back in the fight before anyone even knows i'm gone.

General: Tyler Barron

NACS: Galactica

Galactica: CIC

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

I stared at the holo displaying the battlefield as it was several minutes ago do to the delay inherent in space combat. “Ryoko, status report.”

"General, reports say that the marines we sent down are running into more resistance than we predicted on the station.” The AI said through the speakers, when ship vibrated as her railguns sent out another voly towards the remaining UEC ships in the system that were now converting on his ship.

“How bad is it? I want numbers.”

“Reports say that our combat effectiveness even with the aid of the resistance fighters is only at eighty percent of what it should be at this stage. We have pushed back the UEC troops but those that are still there are held up in a heavily fortified position. What are..." the tactical officer said swiping his hand across the holo table and sending Barron the data.

He eyed this new information and knew immediately that If this continued his lost fleet wouldn't have many marines left. Especially since they had already lost so many above the fuel station last month. There was one option he had still on the table that he had yet to commit to the fight but now he didn't have much choice.

"This has gone on for long enough... Send the bots. Deploy four ranks of automated infantry let's wrap this up." Eyes across the bridge converted on the general in shock. The human crew knew what it could mean to deploy automated infantry.

"Sir they are untested and the ones that are... are well... sir the potential loss of life could be… Sir, those machines are built to kill their enemies in barbaric ways to strike fear in future enemies..." The ships new XO a martian descendant colonel Kyle Riggs said.

"We are cut off with no hope of resupply or reinforcements. Either we end this now or we lose any hope we have of being combat effective the next time we run into the enemy out here. But you are right colonel, we need someone to lead them. I don't want those bots going on a killing spree down there. Who do we have aboard who has experience with, I don't want someone inexperienced. I want a veteran or someone who has experience with bots.”

“Then you are in luck general.” Roland the ship's chief medical officer said through from her display window on the holo. “Explain Shuala.”

“Well sir as it turns out several of the marines and other troops that have been sent down to the station have revived thanks to the captured revival machines we have down here in the med bay. I was right general its the coins they do contain the code to consciousness. Not everyone that has died who had come into contact with the coins has been revived however. But in answer to your question general, I have a MOTH who has just revived a gunnery sergeant Avery Fallon, a veteran.”

This news sent a rumble through the bridge. Several people began questioning the moral validity of being brought back to life. while others praised it claiming it could be a game changer in the war. But nevertheless this did open up a window for Barron to send down an experienced trooper to lead the legion.

Opening another window on his crash couch he sent in a connection request to the ships Psi-ops officer. The connection symbol spun for several seconds before the image of Gregor Eisenhorn one of the NACs few and very secretive psychics appeared.

“Yes general, to what do I owe the privilege?” The man said in a very proper tone. “Its Fallon, he just revived and I need to know if he's fit to fight.”

Gregor seemed to mull this over for several seconds obviously preoccupied with something else before speaking again. “Your in luck general. Veteran Fallon is already here. I believe it would be acceptable. But would you like to ask him yourself?”

“Yes please put him on.” The inquisitor smiled before the window panned around to show the veteran in question. The well built nanotized MOTH was currently in the process of snapping a new bionic onto his left arm below the elbow. Its subdued iceblue, and white coloring contrasted with his glossy black legionnaire battle armor.

“Commonwealth trooper-229624 its good to see you back on your feet, do you think you think you're up for this veteran?” The dark skinned man smiled at that before responding.

“I was born to do this skipper. Plus both if my teams are down on that dirt clod and probably think I'm dead.” He said before finally clicking the bionic into place. The limb finally locked into place flashing the Dunois medical logo on its wrist computer before changing color to match the man's armor.

Satisfied, veteran Fallon fixed his helmet… ‘No they call it a bucket’ which had the letters KTF on its side his head and stood up. “I'm fit to fight sir, just tell me where.”

“Excellent. Iceman, Pick your lance and report to your teams bay, suit up and head to specter drop bay seven. Your heading out.”

The blacked out visor of his bucked flashed red as his hud came online. And when he spoke he could hardly keep the smile out of his voice. “Aye skipper.”

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Iceman/20s]

NACS: Galactica

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC

I crossed my arms over my chest as Armor picked me up and placed me in his cockpit. Once inside of my white and red machine I saw the cockpit hatch close before I felt the control womb close around me. “Welcome back Master.”

‘Charlotte is the reason I am alive.’ Thinking my implants password I pressed several buttons on the inside of the frayed steel coffin that was the womb of my mech. Instantly amniotic fluid began to fill the pod and soon I was completely submerged, cut off from almost all outside stimulus.

‘I have always hated this part.’ Counting to three I took a deep breath letting the amniosis fill my lungs. It felt a bit like drowning for several seconds before my body accepted the oxygenated liquid. Feeling Armors chassis shake I opened my eyes and saw the message that would transform me from Avery Fallon to Armor.

[Synchronize? Y/N]

[Y]

My mind flashed for several seconds as the neural link stabilized, then the screens on the inside of armors cockpit came on line one at a time. Top, bottom, middle, left, right then the logo of my mechs manufacturer flashed. “Hammond robotics a subsidiary of Weyland-yutani defending the NAC for over 200 years.”

“Hud on.” information flooded my field of vision as Armor fed me its sensory inputs, weapon loadout options, ammo count, my sync rating %96.67, dozens of readouts flickered into view and I sent them to my peripheral.

“What do you want gunny?” the my teams chief tech yelled from the gantry in front of my sensor dome. “Gimmy the usual.”

The slightly overweight man gave me a thumbs up which I returned with my machines clawed right hand before going over my diagnostics.

[Fusion Cores 100]
[Gyros 100]
[Jump jets 100]
[Integrity 100]
[Trench coat 100]
[Flairs 100]
[Chaff 100]
[Micro missiles 100]
[Ballistic shield left arm 100]
[Mag shields right arm 100]

Excellent now im glad that I had done the extra work maintaining Armors chassis during the burn out. As I felt a weight suddenly apply itself to my back I glanced at the load out and saw my machines left icarus mount had been armed.

The weapon on that gimbal arm was as an L-blade a melee weapon formed from a sharpened piece of Lanky seed ship hull. As I watched the crew test the weapon the black tapered double edged blade snapped out of its housing like a pocket knife before folding back up, and moving into an elevated position behind my back.

With smile I raised my left hand with a thumbs up as the indicator read green. Satisfied the crew moved the crane over with the next weapon before fixing it to my right icarus mount. The new weapon was partially like the N-4 I carried in that it was a very recently designed blaster. The weapon operated like a standard 30mm autocannon but instead of firing grenade like shells it fired 30mm bolts of supercharged energy.

[Ammo 20mm wrist autocannons 1000] retracted
[Ammo 12.7 flechette wrist gatlings 2000]
[Arm mounted flamethrowers 100] retracted

Satisfied that my machines arm mounted weapons were operating at one hundred percent I deployed and retracted them all just to double check. Aside from the 20mm flechette cannons which couldn't be retracted, and the barrels of which stuck out from the topside of either of my wrists.

Satisfied I took a step forward and took my rifle from the rack beside my crush. The X-02 flechette pulse rifle felt good in my hands being essentially a supersized version of the M-66 the standard basics and crunchies used.

But the ATLAS standard rifles did not use a pedestrian 40mm grenade launcher instead the beautiful people at Hammond robotics opted to upgrade weapon to a 120mm grenade launcher. Nodding I slapped in a new magazine before stuffing several more magazines and grenades for the launcher, and fraggers into my machines various super sized pouches.

“Armor, fit to fight. Ruler one-one is on the move.” Waving and sending my thanks to the cheering cresh crew I moved down the walkway to the dropbay.

Stomping down the deck I passed several large crowds of Spaceborne infantry and TA troopers. Each of them cheered as I lumberd by way passed and soon as I entered the bay I was met with Helldiver X and his team Raptor in their Siafu mechs. Beside the Helldiver team on the gantry above our mechs were the other Helldiver teams in the fleet Phoenix, Angel, and Naga.

Around me a group of around one hundred automated infantrymen scurried about at knee level, hustling into charging racks and locking into position. These racks were then loaded onto waiting dropships and I noticed with some surprise that each of the four dropships had one thk-reaper attached to one rack that was loaded.

Finally the bay turned dark as the air in the hold was vented. I walked over to a tarantula hawk dropship and laid down. Above me the dropships bay door opened and a pair of large metal arms reached down and lifted me into the hold, before the doors closed and the dropship was itself lifted and shunted into a firing tube.

‘Pilot: connection request from Helldiver X and his helldiver team.’ Armor reported over the neural link. Around my firing tube the dropships were being moved into position by big metal arms.

“This is the CIC, Iceman, team Raptor drop in 5...”

“Patch em through.” Before I was a MOTH, and before the war I had been a combat controller and had dropped with X and his team on more than one occasion. So I understood why he wanted to talk before I went on a drop without him. “You sure your good for this kid? You've got this?”

“4...3”

“I'm alright X, but i won't lie I sure am glad you're coming with me.” That got a few laughs from the suited crimson armored helldivers. “Well so are we. Even though this isn't really our kind of thing. Remember the Helldiver matto?”

“2…”

I had to smile at that as I braced myself for sudden acceleration. “We dive so humanity survives.”

“1…”

All of the helldivers on the deck stomped their magnetized boots silently in the airless deck before shouting back in unison. “WE DIVE SO HUMANITY SURVIVES!”

Then the tarantula hawk I was In was shunted forward and out of the ship. ‘I'm coming guys, just hang on a little longer.’

PFC: Durge

5th infantry: squad Snow viper

UEC: Galavant station

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC/56AE

Along the line of the human warrior cast hundreds of rifles coughed their hoarse reports as the UEC line advanced. Unfortunately this appeared to do little to stem the tide equestrian soldiers and armored vehicles rushing our line from the south.

‘An excellent counter attack, forcing us against the bulwark of their command key.’ I shifted my fire skyward as a flock of griffon soldiers attempted to swoop down on a squad of troopers.

My heavy gun's booming staccato met my receptor organs as it bucked in my hands. In the air the flock of four bird like creatures were torn to shreds by the grenades I fired before the weapon ran dry for the final time.

“My weapon is dry.” I yelled over my helmets speaker before throwing the weapon down and snatching a dragon nymph attempting to pin Mii’ora. With little effort I hefted the inferior creature before tearing its head off with my lower arms.

“Stay close to my person mistress.” I bellowed before a bullet struck my helmet. Staring the visor and sending it spiraling into the distance.

Angrily I surged forward barreling into the pony that had fired the weapon. With my assailant prostrate before me I picked up the squirming equestrian and sunk my fangs into her abdomen. Her screams were like music to me as I tore away her almost a foot of flesh and swallowed it before dropping her to the ground to die.

The UEC had managed to over run our position in minutes do to the assault teams already dwindling ammunition count. As a result when the UEC had closed the gap the battle had turned medieval. The glories of modern warfare had all but failed and now the streets ran with blood.

A hiss broke my chain of thought and I turned to see Mii'ora gut a charging centaur, while beside her her brother spun and smacked the haft of his halberd into the head of a human. The centaur fell while Bra'tac turned and fired his blazer into the chest of the scrawled human searing through his vest and flesh with a golden beam of magic.

While that happened another of my eyes saw Trombley in a full mount atop a downed tymerian symphothiser. The creature hissed and clawed at his armor as the young human bashed its head in with his damaged helmet while screaming colorful obscenities.

Thrusting my top right hand out I caught a bat pony around the throat. With grunt of disgust I drew my hand into a fist, crushing the pitifully weak creatures throat while simultaneously crushing its neck.

Scuttling forward I snatched up a discarded m-66 and fired it into the belly of a fellow kleese. This creature was not of my peoples warrior cast however and yielded to the flechettes weakly. It begged for its life as I tore off its thorax with a growl. “No brother, we can still show the interiors that we are…”

“You are no brother of mine creature. You are weak, and will die without any honor.” With that I reached down and with a twist tore the head from his shoulders.

A weight suddenly appeared on my thorax and abdomen, swiveling my pupils to the rear to see Mii'ora had taken up a perch. My quadrupedal powerbody must have appealed to her more bestial mind in this moment as she fired her PDW into the face of a pong I had been about to dismember.

Reaching back with a hand I clamped her down before crouching low and leaping to a shaded corner of a building. This proved to give me respite and a greater eye of the battlefield. Around the street the various races that made up all casts of the UEC killed one another.

The Tymerians used tooth, claw, and tail to bash crush or slice their enemy. the few Myrialos used their powerful pincers to sever limbs and crush bones. While the noble kleese use our superior strength and sensory input organs to strategically dominate our foes. Beside them the ponies used magic, flight and strength to their advantage.
But the humans and their mortal enemies were possibly the most savage.

Being the weakest of the races biologically they used their tools to savage one another. As it appeared the human sympathisers and loyal COG troopers were the most adamant about combating their kin. They were tribal to a fault a feature of their simian evolution. Even now as the two groups began smashed into one another banners flew over the groups. One group flew the four alicorns on a pink and gold background of the UEC. While the other flew the gear and three four pointed stars on a black and blue field of the NAC COG.

With very little ammunition to go around they resorted to hand to hand combat and short ranged melee weapon. The power armored Templars whos armor allowed them to strike blows that crushed bones and sent their victims flying. All the while wielding actual steel swords that appeared to telescope from the hilt. While beside these knights the regular troops crushed skulls with the butts of their rifles and slashed throats with their combat knives.

Save for two black armored humans whose strength surpassed their brethren. When these two humans punched skulls caved and organs ruptured. Arms were removed and used as improvised clubs and savage headbuts were dolled out liberally. These two humans and the remainder of my former squad leaders Killteam seemed to be the only group with a generous supply of ammunition for their weapons. From their tight ball ruby bolts flashed and duel explosions from grenades rocked the area around them.

A group of humans with flamethrower attachments on their rifles sent gouts of violet flame into the enemy. While others used an optional chainsaw that had been meant to kill my kind to devastating effect against their caleb foes.

Then as I watched a Loyalist kleese surged into the crowd of humans. The idiotic creature managed to kill several COG troops before he was swarmed and brought down. Chainsaws buzzed and rifles barked as the savage humans tore worker cast to pieces.

Then there were the Lankys the eight wendigo stood towering over the humans as they swept their arms around crushing COG, ACM, and UEC troops alike. And as the battle went on in their corner their whitish skin began to run red with the blood of the humans they either crashed with their powerful claws, stepped on, or devoured.

A thunderous series of explosions rocked the area as one of the dropships flew overhead firing a salvo of missiles into an advancing group of fresh UEC troops. And at its side the ice colored fighter transformed and slammed down onto the pavement firing its wrist gatlings and its large autocannon rifle.

This seemed to catch the eye of larger adult dragons however as they had been hanging back observing the battle unfold. With the arrival of the dropships and the Charlotte creatures machine they must have seen something that could challenge them and their battle plan. With a deep laugh the lead dragon took a step forward and shoulders his weapon.

There were a defining series of boom as its large rifle made its report. Seeing this several of the wendigo disengaged from the humans and other inferiors and rushed the dragons as they exited the shield.

The beasts charged the nearest dragon and took it down with a shower of bone spikes before two of them were down themselves by return fire. The remaining two crouched low bringing their head crests to play as shields and took cover around the corner a pair of buildings.

A tap on my shoulder drew my attention and I turned to see Mii'ora point a claw at a adolescent dragon attempting to flank the rest of squad snow viper. Crouching low once more I worked my spinnerets before launching myself onto the back of the scaled beast.

I felt much pride and happiness as I landed on its back and reached back and took up a thick strand of silk from my thorax. The beast bellowed and tried to reach its hands back to throw me off, but I simply scuttled down lower on its back and waited for it to stop spewing fire into the air.

When It stopped I made my move, I hopped forward and wrapped my silk garotte around its neck and pulled. Its eyes bulged as it tried to pull the kleese silk from his throat, and in a moment of creativity I spread my fangs and sand them deep into its back letting my venom spread into its body.

Soon its movements became sluggish before long it toppled to the street, dead with a vibrant red line across its neck where its scales had been worn away. “Holy shit D you fucked that guy up, thanks.” Trombley said his voice cracking slightly.

I stood straighter at this and rolled my lower shoulders. “Indeed.”

A boom from overhead drew our attention and we watched the dropship that had arrived to aid us stricken from the air. The insectoid gunship spun slowly in the air as the pilot fought with the controls before it clipped a building showering us in debris.

“COVER!” Forbes shouted forcing us to duck low as the dragonfly belly flopped into the ground and erupted in a cataclysmic explosion. Smoke and fire filled the street as the white and blue mech transformed into its middle mode before flying backward to avoid the dragons as they advanced up the road.

Then a shower of glowing red fireflies swarmed over our heads. This was followed by the distinct buzzing noise of flayed engines accompanied by the roar of several dropships. This seemed to energize the humans and other formers, myself included as the machines fired into the UEC ranks.

Then the smoke billowed and swirled as a larger dropship flew overhead. With its large fuselage open it fired into the crowd of dragons drawing their attention as around us humanoid figures began raining from the dropships over head.

Each of reinforcing troopers slammed down in a mechanical fashion before in red lights flashed on in their flat triangular heads. Then as a unit the newcomers stood and began firing into the UECs ranks. Each shot killed a soldier and each second another died as the robotic soldiers closed the gap with the enemy line and began to reaped their ghastly harvest.

Liaison corporal: Mii'ora [Habu]

5th infantry: squad Snow viper

UEC: Galavant station

System: Galimare

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106AC/56AE

As I watched, one of the human combat machines picked up a unicorn mare by the neck. Holding her at arm's length the machine slammed her down before raising one two toed foot and bringing it down on the mares head. But rather than linger on the gore and general mess it had just made the robot shoulders it's rifle and shot two more ponies in the head in quick succession.

A human male with a shotgun emerged from the crowd and fired off several shots but the pellets only dented the armor of another machine. The closet machine picked the man up by the throat and with its other hand ripped away his nose and face like a hunk of cheese. Then it dropped the still twitching man, threw the face at a human female who screamed before it punched its fist into her chest lifting her up with its strength.

Watching the machines fight it is unnerving they are fluid, human, and utterly confident the battery units in their chests blazing red and orange. It almost seems as if the machines were taking some kind of sick sadistic pleasure in how superior they were to the “biotics” they were killing.

To my left I watched as one of the specters held one pegasus under foot while punching its four fingered hand into the chest of a neochangeling. The machine let its victim drop to the ground before turning to walk away while behind it the pegasus scrambled to get to her hooves. But in a very nonchalant move the robot swung its rifle behind its back and shoot the stallion in the face.

Then fell the larger varents. These she recognizes occasionally one would follow her lover around the ship. A thk-reaper variant and for several seconds she thought the first one she saw was Armor come to avenge his lost master. The black and blue robot leveled its heavy blaster rifle and with a series of cracks sent a torrent of blazing red bolts into the closest enemy kleese. Before ceasing and sweeping its left hand out in an arc that caused the air whistle. The thick ceramic and steel limb bashed into a pony's helmeted head, crumpling the kevlar helmet and pulverizing the skull beneath.

A deer stag charged the large robot intent on goreing the machine with its rune enhanced antlers. Instead the machine snapped its head to the stag and wrapped its bloody hand around the deer's head. The deer screamed, struggling as the tactical hunter killer lifted him up and made a fist crushing its skull in a shower of blood, brains, and pulverized bone.

“These automatons will only postpone your defeat COG. End this foolishness and surrender and accept your place in this universe.” The Black dragon bellowed as he and his entering came waded into the melee forcing the COG and ACM troops to fallback until we were almost on top of the downed dropship.

In response three rockets flew through the smoke cloud made by the flaming dropship and to strike one of the drakes in the knee. That's when I heard it a distinct tire squeal followed by the sound of a siafu autocannon.

The smoke billowed out as three shapes shot around the downed dragonfly. They were bipedal, armored, possessed pincers over their hands and a slightly open cockpit. These were the UAFs Siafu mechs, the first breed mech designed by humanity.

The three machines swerved around the wreckage using the wheels built into their feet. All the while firing their autocannons and shoulder mounted gatlings into the dragon's forcing them into cover.

And as they passed us we saw their coloring, red, human blood red. “It's the helldivers!” Someone down the line shouted making a cheer go up through our line as one of the dragons was riddled with shells and fell.

There was then an apocalyptic crash behind us knocking several of us to the ground. “Stand and fight cowards! These human machines are nothing to our…”

The lead wyrm was cut off as several bolts of dazzling green light lanced over our heads to slam into his hide in brilliant green sparks. Each bolt sounded like a thunderclap as they vaporized the water in the air and erupted in pyrotechnics around the drakes form.

It bellowed with rage before leveling it's rifle and firing on the form in the smoke and our group. I winced back and closed my eyes as the reports sounded. But nothing happened, I was still alive and another ragged cheer went up through the crowd as I opened my eyes and my heart leapt into my throat.

The dragon's bullets were suspended in dragon's mere inches from us with one scant centimeters from my head. Before us a field of crackling red electricity encased a magnetic shield. And behind that was a white and red arm with its four clawed fingers splayed open.

A red light fell on me and I looked up to see the three eyed sensor dome of an ATLAS-3 staring down at me. It couldn't be, but as the machine stood up to its full eighteen foot height and fired the bullets back I got a better look at our savior.

White and black armor either one of those colorings marking its pilot as an elite or ace, painted red scale accents. The letters K.T.F written on both sides of the cockpit hatch with a red snake skull centerpiece.

As the ATLAS took a step forward I saw the unit patches, first and the largest was a lanky skull with a hole in the center and two crossed lightning bolts and the words MOTH team-1. Apex Predators [I kill you, I'm better].

While below it was a smaller symbol whos centerpiece was that of a specter head with one shining red eye and the words Spectre Legion-3 [Mechanized Perfection].

“Hey, fuck face! How Many times do I have to kill you?” The voice of my love called out through his machines external speakers.

“You! You have cost me centuries worth of prestige, slaves and potential mates. I will tear you from that monstrosity and force your mate to watch as I kill you, slowly.”

“Oopah, im Petrified. I'm gonna tear your scales off and make a cape.” Behind him the large weapon that had been raised like a scorpion's tail folded back down to lie barrel up on his back.

At this time the two flayed that had flown over head as well as Charlotte returned and slammed down in their infantry forms beside Avery Fallons machine. While another Helldiver machine marked with a black X slid to into position on his right. “When I'm done with you, you and yours are gonna wish you stayed dead.”

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Iceman]

Galavant station: main street

A-3 Sierra Delta-6624 [Armor]

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106ACE

[I will take much pleasure in this act of violence master. Please master allow me to kill more of these substandard combatants for you.] Armor said over our private channel as I pumped my legs stomping down the street firing my rifle.

The others Charlotte and X have already blown past me in their much faster machines. And the two Flayed have moved to engage two other dragons. The black dragon ahead of me roars and attempts to swat Charlotte's mech aside like on bagmare but she juked her gunginr around the blow while X snatched the big bastards free hand in his machines pincers.

Cursing as the magazine in my rifle runs empty as I draw close I switched it to my left hand and drew my right back as the big guy manages to shake X loose. Firing my jump jets I launch myself into the air and drop down with a right cross that tags the drake across the face.

Blood and teeth fly from the dragon's snout as he rolls with the punch and came up in a crouch before rearing back and inhaling. “FUCK!” Diving to the side I snatch Charlotte's machine and slam us both down behind a building as white hot fire spews from the dragon's maw.

“This guy's tough.” X said he slid around the corner with half melted armor along the left side of his warrior. “What's the plan Armor?”

“Alright, you guys can't close the gap with him he's too big, but you're faster than he is. If you can keep him distracted I can close the gap and and free you up to help the others… okay heres the plan. Charl, paint him with the soflam and I'll tag him with the jirocks, X after those rockets are out dash around the corner and hit him with the smoke. Then drop a few of these and get the hell out of there cause i'm gonna hit him with the DOP.”

With that I reloaded my rifle and handed two of my fraggers to X who nodded from inside his cockpit. “And close your cockpit you retard.”

“I can't see with the head down. The HUD and optocs in thing suck.”

“Fine then on three.” I took a thermobaric shell from my leg harness and slid it into my weapons 120 mike. “Three.”

Charlotte transformed and rocketed into the air seconds later I saw a laser marker on my HUD. With a thought I opened my mechs arm tubes and fired twelve micro missiles toward the dragon. And as soon as the rockets were out X broke out and rushed the big guy.

I waited several seconds before coming around the corner myself. There was a billowing glitter filled cloud of chaff smoke in the middle of the road and at its center I saw the red carrot marking the dragon so I leveled my rifle. “Shesha.”

The muzzle break on my launcher billowed fire as the tank shell launched itself toward towards the dragon. Being a fuel air explosive the shell broke apart just before impact spreading its payload out before exploding. Satisfied I fixed my rifle to my back and rushed him.

When I broke through the smoke the drake was down on the ground half dazed and half burnt. ‘Wow that actually did a lot more than I thought it would.’

“You have no honor human.” The downed dragon managed to cough out between broken teeth.

“Damn.” In responce I raised my left ped and stomped on his throat crushing his neck. “Honor this, bitch.”

My proximity alarm began to blare a split second before a mass of green slammed into my chest. The force of the blow knocked me to down as another shape slammed into my arm and attempted to snatch the rifle from my hand. [Warning rifle damaged.]

“Ooopah.” I grunted as I layed on my back slightly dazed. With a knee and a back hand I was able to free myself from the mass of green and blue scales on top of me. [Master might these biotics are quite ferocious. But are no match for my chassis superior design.]

“Alright buddy…” I began as I twisted my upper body around at the waist and pushed myself back to my feet. Glancing at my rifle I saw its barrel was bent at an awkward angle and it had a huge gauge in its casing. ‘Remind me never to take a rifle with me again, the 3s are to strong.’

[Preference noted.]

With a disgusted grunt I tossed the useless weapon away and dropped the ammo and shells for the launcher from my chassis. As the weight was shed Armor rolled his shoulders and blasted his war horn long and loud. “... Lets go Papa Romeo on these mother fuckers.”

[Veteran] 1st Sergeant: Sugar Watkins

26RTI. 5th infantry: squad Snow viper

UEC: Galavant station

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2169AD/106ACE

As we wrapped up the last of the UEC rush many of the troops apparently have taken to watching armor kick the shit out of those two dragons. And over the tac link several bets are going on to see how long he will last, or how fast he can take down the two. And as Armor rolled the blue dragoness over his shoulder and into a building before turning and straight kicking the green on in the chest, I'm grateful that I had my money on the latter.

The blue dragon took this chance to spring to her feet and charge Fallons mech from the rear. This did not work out however as Armor flung his arm out and clotheslined the bitch. With his poorly trained assailant down he then took a hold of the green dragons wing before picking him up and body slamming him into the pavement.

“Oooh! Get some!” Trombley yelled as Armor rolled onto the dragons back and began to elbow smash the drakes head into the sidewalk. “Oh no! He's throwing bows.”

The blue dragon having finally recovered enough from running full force into fallon's four ton arm. Heaved herself up, drew her knife and threw herself at the NACs top of the line combat mech.

Fallon must have sensed her coming because he dismounted in a crouch and threw four quick punches into the dragoness torso before finishing with a jump pack assisted knee to the chin. Staggered the dragon took a step back to regain her composure but fallon didn't give her the time and instead he retracted his right hand into his forearm and deployed his four foot close combat spike.

He fired his emergency vents and boosted closing the gap and punched the four foot tungsten spike into the dragons chest. She croaked out a scream as blood gushed from a wound that must have punched through one of her hearts.

Firing his emergency vents he dashed to the left before catching the green dragons fist and crushing his hand. Ducking low Fallon managed to avoid a sloppy haymaker from the dragoness forcing her to roll over my shoulder. Standing back up he stomped down and threw some weight into a kick straight into the green guys crotch earning a very undignified squeal. Twisting the wrist he had still clamped in his left hand, Armor ducked down and drove the spike in an arching uppercut that sent the tungsten cone under his chin and through his right eye.

The green dragon spasmed several times before Fallon withdrew the spike from his head and redeployed his right hand. The sound of a sharp inhale snapped our attention to the dragoness just before she beat her wings once, twice and soon she was hurtling toward fallon at top speed.

When she impacted the machine pivoted his machine and used her momentum to slam her head first into a building. With his opponent stunned there was a metallic twang from behind Armor as the L-blade's sheath rose up on its mounting.

The sixteen foot long pitch black shard of lanky seed ship snapped out like a knife before swinging up and over fallon's shoulder. The dragon's wings were sliced away by the impossibly dense blade before said blade swung up and sank itself deep into the dragoness back to punch through her stomach.

She screamed before fallon took a grip on her upper and lower jaws and spread his arms apart. There was a sickening pop followed by a terrible ripping as the mech tore dragons head in half.

A ragged cheer went up through the crowd when the dragon died. And seconds later the shield surrounding the command and control center for the station went down and a white flag hung out of a window.

“Oh how considerate of them.” Fallon said as the heavy blaster unlimbered itself and panned around to aim at the window. “Stand down Iceman.” The onyx guard yelled as he walked up to hang on the machines leg latter.

“Alright.”

Author's Note

I hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving.

Bonus points to anyone who gets what Papa Romeo stands for.

Chapter 5 Rose

Part 1

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill team-1: Callsign [Iceman/20s]

Galavant station

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

December 20th

2169AD/106AC

Over the coming hours, we rounded up any UEC survivors. After you take away their ability to revive and kill a few dragons, the smaller equestrian troops tend to give up the ghost rather quickly. Especially when you have about ninety combat bots running around.

With my legion running escort we were able to evacuate the wounded from the station and aid the slaves aboard the destroyer. Along the way, my squad and MOTH team would meet up with pockets of ACM members and slave fighters. Many of whom gawked at me as I walked up and annihilated whoever they were fighting.

But when the last UEC soldier surrendered we discovered that the cleanup effort had already begun. All around us bodies were being thrown out or moved to be buried. At this point, the fighting had come to an end and the UEC soldiers had been moved to the prisons or were held in one of the stations many parks.

At this point, nine hours after the fact the specters and reapers were taken back to the Gally to upload their combat experience to the other bots. Furthermore, most of the basics that had not been injured had begun helping with the cleanup.

We got strange looks as I stomped around the strange city like structure. Perhaps it was the fact that at the moment I was inside of an eighteen-foot mech or maybe it was all of the rust-colored blood that still clung to my mechs chassis.

Or maybe it was the exciting tymerian maiden perched atop my top hatch. “You know how dangerous that is right?”

“Mmm perhaps my love, but I have never been to this station before. And I do not want to let you out of my sight, not again….” There was a scratching noise above me her tail swung low partially over my sensor dome as she turned around. “Plus I can see better from up here.”

“Hey, you alright you seem agitated.”

“I have to shed but have not had any chances to do so. It is starting to become quite uncomfortable and the caps on my eyes are keeping me from seeing very well.”

“Okay grose, I'll talk to the doc and see if there's anything we can do,” I said as she moved around on the top of my torso. With a sigh, I brought up various reports and combat logs. ‘My efficiency rating is down by thirteen percent, It’s that damn left hand I can't get any sensory input from it..’

[Master this biotic is marking my hull with her claws. With your permission master I would find much pleasure in terminating this irritant.]

‘No, Armor maintains standby.’

[Acknowledged.]

We round a corner and as I turn a clunk from the top of my machine drew my attention before Miiora's unhelmeted face filled that cameras feed. “Hold…”

With a thought, I deploy my Icarus mounted blaster cannon and begin scanning for targets as I sweep my left arm around. Until a squeak from collapsed building queued my audio receptors. Miiora must have heard it too because in a second she was down on the ground and crawling over the rubble twitching her tail. “Armor, activate millimeter wave.”

[Acknowledged.]

My vision shifts from a normal window view a grayish vision mode. Panning my camera over the ruble I see several shifting blobs under the collapsed building. “Shit, Miia we've got…”

“I know, I can sense them down there. Would you open one of your locker love?” she cut me off before shifting her joints and unbuckled her battle armors ceramic plates leaving her in softshell.

With a thought, I have armor deploy a drone to fetch a rescue team and paramedics. And allowed Miiora to stuff the plates of her battle armor inside of my leg locker, before stomping up to the pile of a collapsed building and lifting a piece off of the pile.

[Pilot, this exercise is meaningless. I am not a crain, nor am I an ATL power loader. This goes against my programming and I would highly recommend simply destroying the pile. It would, after all, be a much faster and surer way of killing the biotics inside.]

‘Shut up.’

[Acknowledged.]

A shadow falls over the dome as I step forward and grip part of a wall and toss it to the side. Glancing up I see the massive bulk of Galactica hovering over the hab dome. For the next few minutes, Miiora and I worked to clear the debris before the first of the emergency response teams arrived.

NACS: Galactica SD-002/Galavant station

Galactica: Watch dome

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

December 21st

2169AD/106AC

The observation chamber usually used to stand the watch over mars was packed today. Almost five thousand men and women from the Galactica and her attached ships were packed in to attend the burial service. The dome of display screens around the chamber showed a panoramic view of the star system.

“...Over the past several days we have lost a lot of good men. Brothers and sisters in arms who laid down their lives in service… to the North American Commonwealth… To the Nordic empire… To the Sino-Russian Alliance… The African federation… to the COG. And to humanity.” As General Barron spoke hundreds of flag-draped coffins in the port hanger pod were wheeled to fighter launch tubes.

“Today we remember those who ventured into the night and did not return. We return them to the place where all life began… There are very few of us out here… in the black. They will drift around this foreign sun and should our kind fall they will remain… beacons of our courage, our hope, and our spirit…”

“Many of you here today have lost loved ones, friends. Several of you here have even lost your lives, only to be returned to grieving friends, and lovers. Our foe… does not treat their dead as we do… to them, to a civilization based on slavery and immortality the value of a single life is almost meaningless… But not us, not the cog. Today we lay three hundred and fifty of our bravest warriors to rest…”

Down on the station, several large groups of now ex-slaves looked up towards the massive human vessel resting over their heads. The words of the ship's commander being transmitted not for their benefit but for those COG troopers on the station. The massive ship along with her small fleet of now disconnected ships all began to angel their port weapons as the commander wound down his speech.

“The Buddha says to Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence, and face your future without fear. Now, brothers and sisters, we return you unto space from which all life was borne. Blood to blood, ash to ash, stardust to stardust.”

“Somebody asked me once what it means to be a citizen. Well, now I know the answer. A citizen has the courage to make the protection of the human race and our way of life their personal responsibility. The men and women who died were our friends, they were fleet, marines, troopers, pilots, and pod heads. But most importantly they were citizens.”

“Preeseeeent arms!” The sound of sharp crisp salutes filled the watch dome as the first of the coffins was fired from the ships fighter bays. The men and women inside the ship held their salutes until the final coffin was fired.

“Order arms!” Aboard the human flagship, the displays showed hundreds of glossy black coffins beginning to slowly drift away from the ship. Their gloss brilliantly reflecting the light of the system's star enough for the news cameras onboard Gallivant to pick them up.

“Company Left Face!...” As they turned the group watched as their brothers and sisters continued to drift farther into the black. They watched for several seconds before the ship shuddered as her fifteen portside railguns, and two triple barrelled particle accelerators fired.

Miles Callaway

Martian Rose

Stranded colony: Fenrugha

System: Scorpius

Distance from sol: 78 lights

December 23st

2169AD/106AC

“Look, gentlemen… I'm sure we can find a way to handle this peacefully. I'm just an honest man trying to keep his ship in the air, surely you can understand that.”

“Yeah, the only thing I understand “Caption” Callaway is that you're smuggling weapons, My weapons Callaway. Did you think I was so stupid that I wouldn't notice two crates of mint M-66 rifles, and two of those new NAC weapons missing from storage?

“Please, I don't understand what you're implying here. Surely you don't think I would be dumb enough to steal from you? I just want to take my cargo and I'll be out of your hair mister Gram. I am a legitimate businessman trying to make his way in the world.”

“No, you're not going anywhere Callaway. You think that fancy new NAC battle armor makes you tough?..” The fat furry bastard in charge of this colony's smugglers guild said.

‘Damn it... I hate fucking stranded colonies. They're always so damn uppity.’ Besides the fat fuck stood two more semi-armored thugs that resembled some kind of dog or something. This planet was abandoned shortly after the siege started and the inhabitants had to resort to some kind of genetic modification to stay alive.

“Look, I've got a schedule to keep. So how about I just…” the thug on the left shifted to rest his hand on the but of his sidearm. Sure the furry yocals hundred-year-old flechette pistol might be lethal to someone NOT in battle armor but even in its heyday, it was meant to be used against unarmored targets.

“Now why did you have to go and put your hand on your gun for? We were just having a polite conversation.” Pike turned his head to look at his goon as the two of us starred each other down.

Absentmindedly I leaned my left shoulder against a landing strut and slowly moved my right hand and rested it on the single action revolver style blaster at my hip.

The weapon was a holdover from a dark ops kill team NAC sent after my last boss. Its surface was a grey with a glowing red loading gate. I've never had a chance or reason to fire the weapon so I don't really know if it will work.

‘Wish I hadn't left my rifle or Exo in the Rose.’ As if reading my thoughts the large bore gun turret on my ships belly silently shifted to track the three stranded.

“Now you should be smarter than that Callaway. There's three of us and only one of you. You know, now that I think about it my crawler needs some new parts and that dumpster fire of a ship looks like it might just be worth the trouble of this entire affair. So how about this, you leave us the ship. You can even take that cargo you claim to have legally acquired, and catch a ride with the next guy who does in a few days.” The fat man said with a dramatic finish.

“Not a bad proposition… Let me think on it.” I made an effort to appear to be thinking about the idea as I watched Gary walk back to his men. And when he drifted in front of the thug with his hand on his gun I responded. “You know what I've got a better idea.”

In one smooth motion, I cocked my elbow and drew the blaster from its holster in a classic cavalry twist. I squeezed the trigger and a bussing booming report sounded as the blaster sent a bolt of sizzling red energy went sailing through the air. The roughly oval-shaped ball seared a huge nine-inch hole straight through the fat bastards back and into the chest of the thug with the pistol's chest.

‘Holy shit, this thing is awesome!’

There was a commotion and shouts at the bottom of the docking pads ramp. And the third thug fumbled with his gun his canine features twisted into a mask of fear, shock, and anger. When I finished marveling at the weapon in my hand I shifted my aim but before I could get off another shot the point defense turret bombed its own report and the man's upper body exploded in a shower of gore.

The frigid air began to smell of burnt flesh as the wind shifted and behind me, the Rose's boarding ramp slammed down. “Captain get aboard!” A voice called out as my first mate Marquise Warren ran out dressed in a thick fur-lined coat hefting an old M-90 LHO rifle in his big hands.

“Start the fucking engines!” I yelled turning on a heal and began sprinting to the boarding ramp. Behind me, I could hear shouts and as my boot hit the ramp's rubber surface I turned and fired another bolt over my shoulder blasting another furry stranded’ head off. As another of the thugs crested the ramp and exploded as a syringe-like round from Warrens M-90 slammed into her chest, dispensed its aerosolized explosive and detonated.

There was a defining roar as the Rose's drive flared to life on the blast pan kicking up an instant snowstorm. And as I reached the top of the ramp and stepped on the wall that was acting as the floor we began to gain altitude. Down below an assortment of thugs swarmed onto the landing pad and began firing ineffectually on the Martian Rose’s hull.

With a smile twirled the pistol in my hand before returning it to the holster, and gave the men and women below a good look at my middle finger. Before slamming the airlocks hatch shut as we blasted off into the cloudy sky. As we rocketed up I looked to a view screen and saw the huge two hundred meters tracked shanty churning down below fire an old obsolete missile at us.

Now the Rose isn't any spring chicken by any stretch of the word. But up against an old anti-air missile from before even the lanky war, the old girl might as well be the Galactica. The ships AI promptly deployed its point defense cannons and shot the missiles down before it made it within six miles of her tail.

The ship rose farther into the sky I clapped Marquis on the shoulder and the two of us activated out mag boots and clomped up to the bridge. With a heavy sigh, I let the took the helmet off and let it clatter to the deck before flopping into the pilot's seat. “Fuck that planet. Did you know they only paid us three-quarters of what our cargo was worth?”

“Then why'd you take the job?” Marquise asked from the co-pilot's seat beside me. “Because we needed the fuel and we were low on food. Besides I managed to snag a few goodies we can sell when we get back to the midway station. We might just make a profit off of this one.”

“Well, I won't argue with you their kid. Plus Pri'm says we need new parts down in the workshop. She says we should just get one of those 3D printers but I keep telling her they're too expensive.” The middle-aged black man said his eyes never leaving his control panel.

“How long till we reach the node?” I asked bringing up a navigational screen and moving it in front of me. “Don't know, I'd say maybe a few hours to reach this system's node. Since the planet was relatively close to it in its orbit. Then another week or so to hopscotch to the midway.” Warren said eyeing his own navigational display.

The display screens showing our exterior showed the sky give way to a brilliant view of the stars as we exited the atmosphere. For the next few minutes, we burned until we passed the first of the planets two moons.

“That sounds about right, that's what I'm getting on my end. Hey, you got this I've got a date with a mechanic?” I asked getting up and cracking my back. “Sure my spacecraft, we'll be cruising at three-quarter G till we reach the node.”

Nodding to the man I clicked my heels and activated my mag boots before clanking down the ladder and down through the ops deck, galley, crew quarters and storage bay. Before finally, I felt the familiar heat and thrum of Rose's reactor.

With a smile, I patted a bulkhead remembering back to when I had found her on a rock hop between Jupiter and Ceres a few years ago. It took me almost every buck I had to get the now-defunct martian navy corvette into good condition. But she hasn't failed me yet and over the years I've been able to update her with a few black market and modern upgrades. Almost in response to my loving touch the oldish ship groaned. Her hull expanding and contracting as she carried her squishy biotic crew through the black.

“I know girl. With the money, we made from this job and selling those weapons we should have enough to get you the care you need.” In response, the Corvette turned freighter let out another long tinny groan. Sure back in her hay day, she was one of the most badass things humanity had in the black but age has taken its toll. And after she and the last of the old martian navy made their stand over Io in the waning years of the siege she was left to drift for almost fifty years.

As I moved I began to feel the air getting warmer until I finally reached the machine shop. When the door slid open there was a clang followed by the distinct sound of a coolant valve bursting. “Oopah shesha!”

“Prim what the hell are you doing to my ship!?” I yelled over the din of some alarm or another.

“Oopah, shi'niik extel nik'ito!” the raspy voice of my tymerian mechanic yelled out as she seemed to slither down and around the reactors circular tertiary housing and to the valve.

An oil-stained grey and rust jumpsuit hugger her curves highlighting her dull brown, green and black dorsal scales while her ventral belly scales were a light tan. Her hood was out like a cobra as she used her tail to bring a large wrench over before using her arms and powerful appendage to turn the valve until it closed.

“There now it should hold you need to get a printer when we get to dock.” Otherwise, I might have to do something drastic. She sauntered over to the rack swaying her hips as she went, her tail flicking out behind her and placed the wrench in its spot on the magnetic alcove.

“Now how about we get you out of that armor? I have to check it for damage.” Pri'm said glancing at me over her shoulder with one emerald green eye before turning and walking out of the machine shop. “Oopah.” Was all I said before I blew out a breath and followed her to my quarters.

The sex was fast and rough I barely had time to catch my breath during it all. And before I knew it we were both lying naked on the acceleration couch with her tail wrapped around us holding us tightly together.

I met her a few years ago during a job on New Svalbard. She was wandering around the frozen fuel and water planets soul colony after the Manitoba dropped her and a shit load of other slaves off. Apparently, most of the slaves went right back aboard and joined up but not Prim. No, she wanted to stay and help out on the colony, not realizing that there was no warm season on the literal ice planet.

Apparently, she had been tipped off and had been told there was a captain looking for an engineer. So when one day when she was looking for work and a warm place she ended up wandering into the Martian Rose's bay. It must have been love at first sight because when I walked in with Warren we found her damn near drooling over the drive cone as she fixed what she claimed to be a crack.

“You really shouldn't go out alone anymore. When that fat creature came to the pad we thought you had it.” She said slowly dragging one of her claws against my chest.

“Relax babe, nothing bad happened. Besides, that's why I wear armor. Not many civilian weapons can get through that stuff.” She let out a small hiss at that before I felt her tail loosening. In response snaked my arms out holding her close as I kissed the top of her head as she pressed her snout into my neck.

“I still worry my mate. Promise me you will take someone with you next time.” I muttered an affirmative and then with a sight she let me go and got out of the bed. I watched her as she crossed the room watching the scale patterns on her back move as she bent over and picked up my armors left grieve. “Wow, I thought you were bullshitting when you were bullshitting when you said you were gonna inspect my armor.”

“What does bovine excrement have to do with what I said?” She asked with a tilt of her head her eyes never leaving the piece of armor. “It means I thought you were joking.”

“Why would I joke about that? Where is your helmet?”

“On the bridge, I think…”

“Cap, were about to enter the node can you two get up to the bridge?” Warren called over the intercom.

“Sure, were on the way.” Climbing out of bed I put on a pair of pants, grabbed a shirt and a bulb of beer from the galley before the two of us made it up to the bridge. “Hey, boss.” The ex helldiver Exo said as he walked past us in his red armor.

“Hey exo.”

With a content sigh, I plopped down into the pilot's couch and strapped myself in as Pri'm took a sheet down the ladder on the ops deck. “Coming up on the alcubierre node now. Passing you control.” Warren said as he passed the controls over to me.

“My spacecraft. Would you look at that, I never get tired of it.” Ahead if of us several hundred thousand miles away from the wormhole linking this system to the others. The giant swirling blue sphere glistened and shimmered like water as the light was bent around its event horizon in a shimmering bubble.

“Nearing the node…launching probe.” The deck shuddered and we waited about an hour before it returned giving us the all clear. You can't be too careful after all out here on the frontier. The lankys have a tendency to circle the nodes like sharks when they are agitated. “Probe shows clear!” Exo yelled from ops.

“Alright nearing wormhole event horizon. Stand by for jump. Three... two... one… jump.”

The ship shuddered as we entered the wormhole slipped into hyperspace. For almost seconds we waited around on the bridge watching the swirling blue tunnel of subspace around us before the next node spat us out into the next system in the chain. The scopuli system was a trinary star system with three huge gas giants orbiting three red giant star

“Jump is good. Reading green across the board. Alright, let's set course for the next node and get underway.”

Supreme Commander: Alikill Krysk

KES: Particular Justice

UEC colony orbit: Maresulls

System: Baruga

Distance from Equis: 40 lights

56AE/3rd age of conquest

Onboard the flagship of UEC battlefleet six a magic transponder displayed the two holograms of the royal princesses Twilight and Luna. Standing before the holograms were the armored form of Alikill Krysk and beside him were the holographic projections of supreme commanders Rarity Belle of the 7th exploration fleet, and Shatter Rock of the 10th support fleet.

“No my Princess, I have not been able to find the Human vessels, but I have a lead on a potential target system,” Krysk said standing before the hologram projector folding a pair of hands behind his back.

“Explain.” the Lunar princess said.

“Several days ago the small flotilla from the third fleet was dispatched to Galimare to put down a slave uprising. Thay fleet has not returned and several of the backed up soldiers reported to have been engaged by unknown vessels. At first, the third fleets analysts believed them to be referring to ACM ships. But when I ran them through the sixth fleets database I found that the two ships that were reported and their fighters and shuttles were indeed Earther in design.”

“Hmm, how long would it take you to divert from your current course to investigate?” Twilight asked typing something on her end on a panel just out of shot.

“My navigational team says it will take us several days off course. And we will miss the rendezvous with the second fleet for the push on the ACM outpost in Strong Tallon.”

“If that is the case then have the soldiers that were backed up on Galavant brought to your ship and have them debriefed. They will join you in your search and should provide much-needed input.” Luna said.

“Yes by the time the battle is over the humans whoever they are will be gone. Where do you think they will go next?” Twilight asked.

“If it is indeed the ship we are hunting, then it should require supplies. Water, food, parts. In preparation, we will place two ships at the second closest supply station to Galimare.”

“Why in the name of the celestials would you do that?” Twilight asked her voice incredulous. Around him, several members of Krysk's bridge crew turned as the supreme commander prepared to speak.

“Because Princess. This Galactica is quite a large ship. One of the largest non-lanky we have encountered outside of my races old empire. Logic dictates that a ship that size is quite slow. Especially because it appears to be acting as a kind of docking platform for the other ships in its fleet. The closest station to Galavant is almost three warp nodes away. But let us not forget that the earthers can jump without the nodes.”

“Exactly, so why wouldn't they just go to the closest station to get the supplies they need?”

“The answer is simple princess. The earthers know by now that we are looking for them. So with this information in mind what would you do? Keeping in mind that your opponent is expecting you?”

Luna rubbed her chin “there are a few tactics that can be used, one of which is hit a different one to cause misdirection” she smiles at him “simple and effective, something you can see pass, however”

“While that may be true, remember the Earthers are cut off from any form of reinforcement unless they choose to recruit from the populous as they go, or garner aid from the ACM, a worst-case scenario. As such they can not afford to deploy in a misdirection campaign. Princess Twilight, keeping this in mind and add into the equation that the earthers' possess the ability to move at faster than light without the nodes. If you were in the commanding roll what would you do?”

“Hmm, find lightly defended stations and hit there? But that’s too simple” twilight pulls out a tablet “but they could also use infiltration teams..maybe..” she types away trying different plans while Luna giggles “do not overthink things again dear Twilight.”

“Perhaps…” Supreme commander Shatter Rock began. “If they took the station..they would first recover anything of use to them before they depart..” he slowly taps his chin “which would mean..they could go a while longer before another raid is needed..”

“Which would mean that they could get to the next station bypassing the closest one to Gallivant. But the question is how would they get there without us knowing? There is a relay two jumps from them now.” Rarity chose this time to speak up.

“My princess, would you like to answer the question?” Krysk asked his lunar princess.

“Gladly krysk” Luna looked at rarity before saying “as you know, they can bypass the use of nodes and plan out their own route in ways we can not. Meaning they could skip by the relay making it useless”

“Hmm…” Krysk emitted a low rumble as he rested back. His centaur-like arachnid body lowering itself slightly. With a hand, he brought up a star map showing the system with the supply station in question. It possessed two stars, four rocky planets, and two gas giants. As well as four Warp bubbles spaced around the system, two at the ecliptic, one between the orbit of the third and fourth planets, and one at the far end of the system's orbit.

“Here is my suggestion. Shatter Rock, I recommend you place your ships on the far end of the node here…” the large zaltule warrior pointed a thick claw at one of the nodes at the systems ecliptic.

Shatter rock nods “I’ll move my fleet there as fast as I can, I am glad one of my captains revived at last” he smiles looking at krysk “and yet again, I thank you for taking me under your tutelage”

“You have potential commander, and with the proper grooming and dedication to your studies you will make something of yourself.” The zaltule said bobbing his abdomen slightly.

“Rarity, however. You have yet to prove yourself as a commander and have time and again failed even in victory. As thus this will be your chance to prove yourself.” Luna commented clearly dissatisfied with the supreme commander's performance up to this point in the war.

Twilight sucked in a breath..“I am sure rarity can do it princess luna, and maybe she can turn her streak around..”

“Indeed. Back to the matter at hand, the seventh fleet will move here.” Krysk said pointing at the node between the third and fourth rocky planets. “The elements of Loyalty, Honesty, and Laughter will hold in a standard patrol pattern around the fourth planet. While sixth fleet waits on the far end of this node here.” He continued gesturing at the node at the far end of the system behind the first of the gas giants.

“When the humans arrive they will more than likely see your three super destroyers as targets of opportunity and move to engage. When they do, you will send a message to our fleets and we will jump in and move to your aid.”

“You mean to use my fleet as bait!?” Rarity yelled in outrage.

“This maneuver will allow us to encircle our target and should they jump away before we can engage, will prove to not only demoralize them. But deny them the supplies they need.”

“Now. Let us focus on our current mission this ACM outpost.”

Chapter 6 Rest and Recruitment

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill team-1: [Iceman/20s/Revenant]

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

December 24rd

2169AD/106AC

GOD I am bored! Why the hell did captain Fick have to put me in charge of this detail? Why the hell can't we just use recruitment bots like the test of the COG? No these are “sensitive people” and require a “personal touch” I’m a goddamn grunt not a recruiter.

The central park of the station has been repurposed by the fleet and turned into a recruiting station. That seems more like an old earth county fair more than a military recruitment drive. Every nations military is here with several pieces of equipment out to draw in potential recruits.

The defence corps for the NAC, Expeditionary Force for the Nordics. Zulu shock assault, Siafu, and Star Force for the Africans, and finally the army, navy, and marines for the SRA.

Personally I prefer the NACs form of recruitment video over the Nordic one across the road. It's more starship troopers and less star trek if you know what I mean.

‘Fight beside Avery Fallon, medal of honor recipient and the butcher of Bagmare! He's doing his part. Are you? Do you have what it takes to be a citizen? Come on you apes, do you wanna live forever?’

“At least they paid me for that one.” I said leaning on one fist at my desk. “It does seem to be quite caned my love.” Miiora said standing at my side.

“If I have to listen to one more recruitment video about me, I'm going to shoot myself. This is bullshit.” I said resting my head on my desk.

“Calm Avery, this is important work we are doing.” Miiora said calmly running the tip of her tail along my arm as she leaned over and hugged me from behind. “Without this many slaves will never know freedom.”

I let out a sigh before responding. “Huhhh…. your right.”

The sound of hooves on pavement drew my attention and the partition in the tend opened just wide enough for me to see Charlotte wave at me from the tent across the street. When the tent flap closed there were three ponies standing in the tent. They let out a gasp at seeing Miiora before retaining their composure and waited silently for me to call on the first one.

“You. clop. your Name”

“Amethyst Spark” The pink unicorn said eyeing Miiora and I with apprehension. “Hmm. Reason for joining?”

“I hate the way the UEC is run, especially Princess luna's…”

Seeing the woman is about to go on a tangent I have no intention of listening to I raised my hand and cut her off. “Let me stop you right there, I don't care. Previous occupation?”

“Lunar guard, and after that I was Equestrian Army.” The unicorn said, a hint of pride in her voice. There was a deep hiss behind me and I turned to see Bra'tac enter the tent. The large crimson scaled tymerian male was wearing some mixture of the NACs standard hard shell battle armor and his old Prime guard kit.

“The lunar guard? Were you of the primes?” Bra'tac asked his voice full of mirth as he gripped his blazer staff tightly in his right hand.

“I was not I wasn't able to get a sponsor. Its a real pain in the ass.” The mare said straightening up her posture slightly. Behind her the two ponies that had entered with her quietly slipped out probably hoping I wounded notice. ‘Pussies. Maybe they'll go join the Nordics.’

“Indeed.” Was all Bra'tac said as I told the mare to stand still as I scanned her with my PDP. With that I cross referenced her with the database we had for known changeling infiltrators before asking for her hand. “A little forward aren't… Ow what the buck!”

I retracted the syringe and handed the vial to Miiora who took it and walked over to Armor's reaper who stood motionless in the corner. As she approached the machine its red eyes watched her draw near untill she was close enough to insert the vial into a port on its arm.

There was a metallic click and the vial drained into the THKs bio port. “No neo-changeling DNA detected… Master might I recommend allowing me to dispatch this creature.”

“No thanks Armor stand by. Alright… miss Amethyst Spark, sign this it's your terms of enlightenment. Basically it says you will serve the NAC defence corps in whatever branch to the best of your ability for a time of less than four years unless otherwise discharged.” The mare took the PDP I was holding out to her and signed before handing it back to me with a cocky smile.

“So where do I choose my service? Do I get to keep my rank? I was a...”

“You've got jokes, recruit. Shut up and follow this man here into the tent behind me. Once you are there you will enter a pod, you will not touch anything in that pod. It will decide what your aptitude is and where and how you will serve.”

“You, clop who just came in, name?”

“Road Layer sir.”

“Don't call me sir, I work for a living.”

Senior Veteran: Tolan Harris

MOTH. Dark ops kill team-1: [Big Dog]

Temp MOTH barracks

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

December 24th

2169AD/106AC

“Come on kid what the fuck is that?... Come on harder, faster, you can hit harder than that you bitch!” I yell holding focus mitts up as my fellow nanotized MOTH slams his fists and knees into them. The knuckles of his right fist was split and bleeding with a layer of glistening bone white lanky nanites squirmed under the split skin.

“Talked to Gutsy lately?” He asked as he jumped and sent a knee towards my face. Blocking the strike I pivoted, ducked under a kick and thrust my palms out.

The kid I sponsored since his enlistment took the hit full in the ribs and flew across the room and smashed into an impervisteel support strut leaving a sizable dent. “Yeah, she aint bad for a clop. She's settling in pretty well, but she has a long way to go before the guys trust her.”

Fallon twisted violently earning a rather nasty wet pop from his back before slamming a fist into the floor as he stood. “What the fuck! God damn it!” He yelled driving the heel of his metal hand into the beam.

“You left yourself open with that last one Ice. Next time follow it up with something else right away don't give ‘em time to catch their breath.” Douglas said tossing two bulbs of water to both of us.

“Alright, that should be it for today. Let's get the team and find the shittyist bar around.” The onyx guard continued.

“How are we gonna pay?” Fallon asked as we walked out of the nanotized gym and into the normal SOCOM gym. “You didn't liberate any cash from the clops?” Douglas asked.

“No, i've been dead.” Fallon deadpanned.

“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Glancing around I saw Wraith and Amp standing at the bench heckling a force recon marine as he struggled to lift the two hundred pound resistance bar. In another corner Bender and an army ranger from the 95th roughnecks were sparring a large kleese armed with only stun knives, it didn't appear to be going well. And finally the last member of MOTH team-1 Hijack, was having his ass handed to him by a pair of female, S.E.A.L.Ses? SEALS?

Fallon seemed to catch on to my train of thought and spoke up. “Hey I've got a question.” He said walking up to the two women who stopped kicking Hijack before turning to regard him. “What MOTH? Come to collect your buddy?”

“No not really. But this has been bothering my for months now so maybe you can clear it up?” The nanotized kid propositioned.

“Sure. Shoot.” The first woman said crossing her arms under her breasts.

“Ok so Seal stands for Sea, Air, Land. Right? And that's from the old United states.”

“Correct…”

“And SEALS stands for Sea, Air, Land, Space. And that's what the NAC has now.”

“Again correct. Are you going somewhere with this?” The woman asked leaning back on and shifting into a rather annoyed stance.

“What's the plural for SEALS?” That got her, woman looked like someone had kicked her in the chest.

“Um, seals?” The second woman who looked to be in her early thirties said after a second or two of thinking it over.

“Hang on! Wouldn't it be Sealses?” Another man spoke up from beside them.

“No, tha-that's not right. It would be seals.” Hijack said to the man standing back up. But then someone else from the other side of the room spoke up. “No, That wouldn't make any sense. It's already a plural.”

“Im telling you it's SEALSes. What are you gonna add an extra S to seals? That wouldn't make any sense.”

“No its-it's seals? Right? No. God damn it, now you've got me thinking about it. Thanks dick.”

Growing tired of the nonsense I decided to cut off gunny Fallon. “Alright let's figure this out and put an end to this. All those who say Seals raise your hand…” Twelve of the podheads in the room raised their hands. “Okay, All those who think its Sealses, raise your hands.” Again twelve other hands were in the air. “Fuck!”

[Veteran] Captain: Marcus Teigh

NACS: Defiant. IND-0361-B17

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

December 24th

2169AD/106AC

“Locks disengaged…. cutting umbilical.”

“Defiant to, mother bird open the hatch.”

“Galactica control to Defiant, hanger door opening stand by… call the ball.”

“Doors’ open I've got the ball. Defiant disengaging in three, two, one. Mark, transferring control.”

“Stand by… Ryoko, my star ship, I have the stick.”

On the display I watched as Matthew my helmsman maneuvered the two hundred and thirty meter stealth frigate from its moorings. Small puffs of gas were ejected from ports along the hull propelling the Defiant out of the internal docking bay.

“Safe zone reached… coordinates entered. Ready for test. Beginning war game.”

“How does this thing work again?” I asked my android navigational officer while floating inverted over my command chair.

“Basically what that lanky “15” said is that the device has two settings. The first literally rips open a hole in our local space time and creates a temporary alcubierre node that we use to enter subspace. Once inside the tear, we enter subspace and travel the distance. And when we reach our destination we open a hole into realspace which will open just long enough for our ship to exit. Now the other setting, which is the one we are using now opens a temporary einstein rosen bridge or wormhole at the place it wants to jump to. The far end of the wormhole opens first, then the wormhole projects itself back to where the ship is and pulls the ship through. Apparently the reason the ship comes out of the far end of the wormhole a hectosecond before they enter the wormhole is because of the tiny time lag between when the far end of the wormhole is created and when the near end reaches back to the ship.” He said without taking his eyes off of the controls.

That completely blew my mind. “...What?”

“Basically it has two settings sir, one for long range, the one that opens an alcubierre node that we fly into. And the short range one that we are testing now that basically pulls us through.”

“Wait If this is the short range setting, then how did Galactica teleport out this far from human space?” I asked taking a sip from my coffee bulb.

“From what the flayed told us about what happens when the claw ship hit the Gally during that battle it basically supercharged the drive. Giving it a one time use long range jump that it then initiated sending us here after it was destroyed.”

“If that's the case, then why don't the flayed that are with us just jump back to lanky space instead of flying around with us?”

“Maybe they cant sir?” My Exo offered walking through the threshold to the bridge. “Perhaps “Perhaps they're too small to produce the energy output needed to open a long range wormhole. I mean 1 did say the Galactica, Donnager, Manitoba could open a hole into subspace with the drive. But that most of our other ships can't, so that would stand to reason that it is a power problem. I mean the Gally has what, Four type-six hydrogen fusion reactors? And the two annihilators have two each?”

“Hmm, that could explain why claw ships usually travel with a docked seed ship. They have enough power to spare to be able to use the long range setting.”

“Almost like using a dropship to deliver a tank instead of having it drive on the highway. It will get there eventually, but using the dropship will get it their faster.”

“Alright, People back on track. Navigation begin jump prep.”

“Aye aye sir!”

“Galactica actual, This is Defiant, we are L-drive charging. Clear wave.” On the display, the blue carrots marking the Galactica and her escorts began to drift from my ship.

“Spinning up the main drive, wavelengths are stable”

“Fingers crossed people. Begin jump prep… Three, two, one. Jump.”

“Triggering L-drive now sir!”

The image of the mining station hanging in the bottom right of the displays was abruptly washed out with white light. It took several seconds for the sensors to come back online but when the first images began to appear on the displays the station was gone. Instead of hanging on the bottom left of the screens was the systems gas giant.

“Jump successful!” The navigational officer yelled. A cheer went up throughout the bridge. I smiled pumping a fist before clearing my throat. “Alright, people, tactical what's our status?”

“L-drive is cooling down, reactor stable”

“Armor is at 100% sir with all weapons intact”

“Status of stealth coating?” It wouldn't be much help for our little stealth frigate if its main purpose for existence was diminished by this exercise.

“Coating status 100% captain, we’re hidden from radar.”

“Long-range coms are slightly on the fritz, we’ll get that fixed quickly sir.”

“Excellent. The Donnager should be arriving shortly.” And almost on cue, the space in front of our ship seemed to shift before a spiraling crimson hole flashed into existence before the massive siege breaker flew out of the tear in subspace.

“That's fucking cool.” One of the SI troopers stationed on the bridge said.

“Tactical, engage stealth, no active scanning, passive only. Helm Cut the engines, lets coast. Nav how long till the drive is back online?”

“Aye, sir. Switching to passive sensors..”

“Understood Captain, killing engines now”

“Count, zero five minutes until L-Drive ready.”

“I've never been so glad we don't use windows.” My Exo said as our diminutive ship passed within two thousand miles of the siege breakers ventral section.

“Windows in space are dumb, at the ranges involved you can't see anything,” I replied clicking my heels and landing beside the tactical.

On the display, the symbol marking the Donnager flashed an angry red for a simulated hostile. There was a cone emanating from that marker symbolizing the ships active scanning. As we watched in silence that cone swept around randomly like a searchlight.

“What's the counter?” I asked eyeing the torpedo magazine count. Unlike the big missile cruisers like the hammerhead class, Indianapolis stealth ships are equipped with exclusively with nuclear and plasma torpedoes in our magazines.

“Count, zero one point five minutes and steady sir”

“Tactical, lock plasma torpedoes, to these points on Donnager's hull and hold fire.” With a sweeping gesture, I sent the targeting packet to the gunnery crew.

“Target points received sir, standing by for your go” As we watched the “spotlight” sweated over our position before continuing.

“Stand by. Sir request to active on scanners. We can't keep working with” My Exo whispered as we watched our screens update with fifteen-minute old data.

“Negative, that would be like lighting a flair in a dark room. If they don't know we're here that sure as hell would let them know. Let them pass.”

“Sir, engineering believes they might be able to speed up charge time by 2%”

“Do it, helm stand by to engage engines.”

“Sending clearance, count zero one minutes till drive is ready”

“Engines on Standby. On your mark.” on the display the spotlight began sweeping back in our direction.

“Engineering reporting back in, calibration complete count is now 45 seconds”

“Gunnery put the fish in the water, but don't engage their engines. Helm, stand by to flip us about and move us out to point zero nine, mark two six seven green… maneuvering jets only, execute”

“Aye, sir. Fish in the pipes now and ready to swim.”

“Understood Captain, moving us to point zero nine, mark two six seven green”

“Fish in the water.” On the display, three whitish-blue carrots appeared beside Defiant's hull.

“Helm engage reactors, maximum burn, mark two six nine, point nine three one gold. Execute” I said before strapping into my crash couch.

“Aye aye, sir! Waking the reactors up and opening the throttle sir! Mark two six nine, point nine three one gold!”

“Captain, the count is now 30 seconds”

“Tactical, engage in active scanning. All hands secure for a full burn. Five, four, three, two, one. Burn.” The ship bucked as her two drives burned at maximum acceleration.

“Active scanners coming online, we’re in it now sir!”

The displays blinked to life updating with new information that wasn't several minutes old. The new displays painted a different picture than we were expecting. The Donnager was resting twenty thousand kilometers to our stirn, sweeping its active scanners back and forth before snapping that spotlight right at us as our drive came online.

“Shit. Helm, evasive. Gunnery light the torpedos,”

“Here comes the juice.” The helmsman said as the ship rotated on its axis and blasted on another vector. Then All I could do was fight to not pass out as the ship blasted its drives at a sustained twelve-g burn. “Cutting the leash and letting them loose captain!”

“Drive…. count!” I yelled as I felt my eyes beginning to turn to jelly under the acceleration. On the display, the three missiles slammed into the Donys hull.

“Count 5..4..3..2..1..zero! Drive is charged!” As we watched the Donnager swiveled its port railguns in our direction.

“Begin jump prep! Three… two… one… jump!”

“Jumping now sir!”

There was a flash and the next thing we knew we were back at the mining station. “Jump successful.”

“Kill the engine!” My Exo yelled from his crash couch.

“Killing engines now!”

“Go for turn around burn, and bring us back to Galactica, nice and easy.” I said reading the reports coming in from my screen. We had several reports of broken bones, two strokes, and one death. “Not bad for a high G burn.”

“Aye aye, sir! Bringing us home safe and sound”

“I wish we had that steroid mix the Nordics use on their ships. Instead, the NAC goes for the cheap stuff. It always makes me sick.” One of the SI troopers said before unceremoniously throwing up.

“I think that was a successful test.”

Liaison corporal: Mii’ora

UEC mining station: Galavant

Civilian sector

Distance from sol: unknown

December 24th

2169AD/106AC

After our shift at the recruiting station ended Avery had departed to meet with his team leader, the onyx guard Douglas. As he walked back in the direction of the temporary base FOB we had set up in another park Charlotte exited her tent and came to my side dressed in her civilian clothes.

“Come on, show me around mon amie. I've never been to a former city before.” She said before grabbing my hand pushing me into a changing tent.

“Well, I believe there's a recreation center to the north of the favelas.” Mii'ora called out slipping out of her battle armor leaving her only in a set of tymerian issue S.I ACUs. “I do not have any civilian clothes with me Captain Dunois.”

“Don't worry about it I'm sure we'll find something cute while we're out.” My friend responded cheerfully as I walked out into the sunlit habitation dome. The two of us then began our walk into the city proper.

We passed storefronts as we walked together, and the freed slaves among the population seemed to marvel at our presence as we walked among them. Several of them thanked us, thanked me and the others of the slave cast who joined with the humans for rising up against our masters.

The feeling is… unsettling yet not entirely unwelcoming. It feels like I am giving back to the community that raised me. Eventually, the two of us made it out of the PRC or slave slums as we call it and into the colony proper. This is where the shops, bars and other forms of recreation could be found, and where our adventure began ultimately ending in the two of us at some form of a bath.

The curator of the bath had been kind enough to allow the two of us the use of one of the private baths. And when we entered I could feel the humidity doing wonders for my scales. My pre shed skin finally begins to soak in the moisture as I slid out of my ACU before slithering into the water to soak.

The bath was in fact quite large, large enough to hold at least half of an ATLAS-3 mech, so there was more than enough room for just the two of us. When Charlotte finally came in she had an orange towel wrapped around her breasts.

“Oooh, dieu qui se sent si bien.” She sighed as she too slipped in before taking a seat, submerging herself up to her neck.

"Oh, I just love a good hot bath," said Mii’ora as I gripped a large rock with my tail, "It keeps my scales so soft and supple. When it's time to shed my skin, it almost all comes off as one piece."

"It's almost too embarrassing to admit I like smelling like a lady," said Charlotte. “Especially when hanging around Avery and his people.” she sighed “Any other time we'd get dolled up as much as we want. In the military we've gotta be just as masculine” she smirked and said with a wink “No room for perfume and pretty faces”

“She knows how you feel. Sometimes it can be a tad much.” Miiora laughed lightly. There was something about being with Charlotte that let her express her more feminine side.

As we sat the two of us gazed up into the sky, watching the stars beyond the one-way ceiling and habit dome beyond. There is space above our heads hung the Galactica, her bulk hanging close to the colony. From here we could vaguely see her crimson running lights, and the massive triple-barreled primary weapons panning and tracking a comet as it passed by.

“Miira, what do you think of your team?” Charlotte asked as I draped myself on a large false rock. “What do you mean?”

She let out a sigh before “Well I know how you feel about Avery, that's a given I wouldn't be surprised if half of the people on the gally knew. But what about you know Trombley and the rest of them?”

“Michael Trombley is… well, Trombley is… to be honest, I feel a kinship with him like a brother. I have known Durge long before I was a free female. As for Anthony Forbes, Always has a joke or knows how to make me laugh Kresha it is good to have him back he's just fun to be around. Bra’tac is my brother and it is good to have him back in my life. Sugar Watkins is a fine addition to the team, and a good fire team leader, especially since Avery Fallon, can not be with us as long as he used to be.”

“It's good to know you're getting along with every… wait don't you have someone else on your team?”

“Yes, Levoy… something about the Levoy creature unnerves me. He seems to get along with Avery extremely well and the two of them seen so close. I wish I could relate to him as much as Levoy seems to be able. But he just unnerves me so...” I was cut out of my musing by the bell-like laugh of my friend.

“What is it? Why are you laughing at her? Do you not see...” I asked feeling rather self-conscious. Have I made an error somewhere in my exploration?

“Miiora, your jealous… of an android.” She laughed trying and failing not to break down. “Oh…” I whispered sliding from my perch and into the water.

Eventually the two of them moved from the bathhouse, which in and of itself had been expansive, and instead, they looked toward the oversized city. Someone one of the men from the 6th had called it a Megacity, which wasn’t the right name, but it seemed to fit.

As we walked we passed a courtyard where a destroyed Siafu sat. The machine knelt in the middle of the cobblestone courtyard, it's pure white armor was scorched by dragon fire but still held crimson crosses on its shoulder plates and head. The cockpit of the machine was a ruin, with a huge draconic combat knife embedded in its gorget.

Several men and women in glossy black armor with midnight blue highlights knelt around the machine. Each of them held ancient European style long swords, but the swords were a far cry from those used by the human's ancestors. The according to the leader of MOTH team-3, James “Crux” Tongea the blades of the templar are forged of impervisteal and held a monofilament edge.

“We die for For god, for earth, and the saint. Ferrum Corde. Deus vault.” The leader said before standing. “Ferrum Corde, Deus vault.” The rest called in response.

With that the Templar stood and began to disperse, moving away from the siafu mech. As we passed the leader of the Templar looked up his he was an aged male. Looking to be in his mid early to mid-fifties, his short-cropped gray hair and wrinkled face disguising the deadliest ATLAS pilot in the COG. For a time Casper Williams, a medal of honor recipient held the title but he betrayed Avery and joined the UEC.

The aged man smiled kindly before joining us on our walk. As we walked and talked I came to know the moth team leader more. He was a kind soul holding the air of a village elder my mother had taken my clutch and me to see on Tymer. He held a deeply ingrained sense of honor a stark contrast to…

“Do you hear that?” Charlotte asked cutting Tongea off. Tilting my head to the side I widened my membrane and listened. In the distance, we heard a slight grinding noise. “Yes.”

The three of us broke into a run and soon found ourselves bearing witness to quite a puzzling spectacle. There in the middle of the road My suiter his MOTH brothers and several other pod heads with various colors of berets pushed what looked to be an ancient rail car down the street.

“Three, two, one, PUSH!” Avery shouted pushing. His nanite enhanced muscles bulged, and sweat beaded and rolled down his bare chocolate skin as he strained.

At his side, two men with green berets moved forward and picked up a large wooden pole before taking it from the back and moving it to the front of the car. “What the hell are you doing!?” Tongea yelled stepping toward the special forces troopers.

Without skipping a beat Avery turned, “Well sir, there was this bar whose owner said they wouldn't serve slave beasts. So we are… liberating… this tram from the confines of its UEC oppressors.” sure enough on the side of the tram the words “Mashers bar and grill” shined in glittering text.

He seemed to nod at this while by my side Charlotte simply touched her fingertips to her forehead. “Hmm, is that so… tell me trooper, where exactly are you taking what must be a key strategic asset?”

Avery seemed to catch his second wind as one of the pod heads with a white beret came up and poured a brown fluid into his mouth. The brown liquid reeked of alcohol strong enough that I could smell it from the sidewalk. “To a secured location at the top of this hill.”

“I see.” He sighed. Turning she saw the familiar forms of my squad coming around a corner seemingly oblivious to the whole ordeal. “Tell me… trooper is there anything you or these brave men with you require to complete such a crucial mission?”

With that, the pod heads crowded around one another in a huddle before Avery waved them off shushing them. “Shut up… uuh, beer sir.”

Tongea seemed to ponder this for several seconds watching the grown men in front of him squirm like hatchlings. He held their gaze for several more seconds before laughing. “Mmmm, excellent. More beer is surely needed to complete such a crucial endeavor.”

For the first time since before Avery was taken prisoner by supreme commander Rarity and tortured, I laughed. Avery looked up and smiled before laughing as well. Soon there were thirty-odd humans and formers laughing in the street.

Supreme Commander: Allikil Krysk

Balkonir surface

Nekropolis Hive

Changeling federation system: Brynka

Distance from sol: unknown

56AE

The salmon mained neophyte queen clutched in my top left claw squirmed as I held her aloft by the throat. Her brilliant red eyes glared daggers at me as she kicked and scratched at my silver and black gauntlet. Sucking in a rasping breath as I crushed her windpipe she croaked out final hate-filled sentience. “Your kind will not take our hive, beast. None of you have any right to it, not you, and not your slut queen.”

“My queen is safe on my homeworld inferior. I have faced Miasma and silenced Druhila. The fate of you and your queen Calliphora will be the same as theirs.” With a gentle tug, I clenched my claw into a fist. Crushing her throat, and shattered her carapace in a shower of pressurized green gore.

The movement to my right caught my attention and in retaliation, I struck out with my top hand. The changeling praetorian hissed as it advanced on my position but that is all it did. When It was within range to use its weapon I had already struck, punching my sword through his chest and out of his back.

The beast coughed and continued to hiss as it clawed at me, still trying to get to me even after I had killed its charge. With a twist of my wrist, I dragged the blade up and out through his shoulder gifting him a quick end.

From the shadows, another changeling moved to attack me. But as it lunged three cobalt bolts of magic slammed into its carapace. Behind me, another of my zaltule brothers scuttled forward bolt caster in hand. “Look at them scurry away brother. These creatures are indeed inferior to the Kleese.”

“Do not underestimate our foe brother. They do not flee from our assault but are instead falling back farther into their hive. No doubt to protect their egg chambers and their queens. With Luna’s grace, their over queen Caliphora will be there…” I say over both our clutch link. With a flick of the wrist, I clear the blood from my blade before checking my wrist computer.

A 3d map appears on my computer showing the twisting subterranean tunnel system. Many of the hives on this cleansing have been excavated under mountains. But this one is different, its complex of tunnels crisscross the entire mountain, honeycombing its way from the bottom to the top.

In the sky, I can see three of my super destroyers hovering over the mountain range pounding entrenched positions with concentrated fire. And in orbit I knew my three Kleese battlecruisers as well as a detachment of Shatter rocks fleet secured the high ground, keeping the hive isolated from the ACM fleet engaged throughout the system.

And on the ground twelve flashing cubes marked the different landing teams. Over the past several days' multiple attempts were made to strike the mountain with nuclear weapons but all have failed to do more than paltry damage. So in an effort to save time and by proxy lives, I have decided that despite my fellow commander's objections. To come down to the planet and remove the head of this resistance cell and old breed changeling hive, personality.

“Zaltule assault manapul, continue your advance, bring honor to the warrior caste. Armored manapul, separate into twos and commence a pincer maneuver on this group of hostiles.” My voice echoes slightly in my helmet as I eye the pad and my surroundings.

“Fleet master, a proto hive queen has been spotted falling farther back into the hive. Grant us the honor of hunting her down.” The first man of Assault manapul four said. His group was slightly farther down into the caves than I and my own manapul. ‘I must note his performance should he survive the battle.’

“Negative, your manapul is too far ahead. Hold your position and await reinforcement, then advance along this route. The over queen is here, I can smell her necrotic stench from here…” I growl into the speaker in my helmet. “As by your command fleet commander.”

Cutting the link I focus back to the task at hand and eye my own manapul. Nine Kleese soldiers of the worker cast, two young adult drakes, seven earth ponies, five tymerians, and finally twelve Kleese of the zaltule warrior cast.

Their remodeled Kleese style battle armor is scuffed from the days fighting but still shines dully. Unlike many of my fellow supreme commanders, I have not failed to outfit my ground forces with adequate equipment. So many of my peers think to have the best, and most ships will make one unstoppable. But to see the folly in that line of thinking one must only look to the examples of Rarity Belle, and supreme commander Ninka of the eleventh fleet.

“What are your orders fleet commander?” My second and primeus in command asks from my side. Turning a pupil in his direction I see his bronze and black colored armor gleaming slightly from the light of his blaze staff.

Hir'kell held the staff weapon in two big claws on his left side. The condenser at the tip of the weapon was folded back, and its aperture was dialed to emit a dazzling cobalt blue force blade. Clutched in his right top hand like a pistol or submachine gun is a condenser rifle, a relatively new design meant to operate the same way as the larger variants but on a smaller scale.

Our eyes meet for a brief second before I sweep them over my fellow zaltule and then my regular troops. “We will drive the inferiors from this hive, burn them where they stand and continue our march to glorious conquest! For the UEC, for the Empire!” I yelled igniting my swords enchanted edge and thrusting it into the air.

Around me, the Kleese in my manapul ignited their blades own enchantments, or thrust their force blades high. Instantly the air filled with dazzling blues, oranges, and reds, before filling with our battle cries.

Thrusting my sword farther into the cavern I yell out. “First Manapul!” Before dropping my sword arm to my site and raising an earther weapon. A mat black M-66, a trophy from one of their elite Onyx Guard. “Forward!”

Author's Note

Happy holidays and im sorry for the late update. I am moving into a new apartment and that has been the focus of most of my time.

Also I am looking for some original characters. So if you have some that you would like to see in the story send me a private message. They can be any race short of an adult dragon, alicorn, or draconis.

Chapter 7 Moving on

Supreme Commander: Allikil Krysk

Balkonir surface

Nekropolis Hive

Changeling federation system: Brynka

Distance from sol: unknown

56AE/3RD age of conquest

My eyes scanned the tunnel as my manapul pressed farther into the mountain. Suddenly a swirling ball of salmon colored magic came sailing towards us, illuminating the dark passage as it went. Snapping my arm out I fired my grapple feeling the bit bight into the stone before locking and pulling me out of the way with a violent yank.

Slamming spikes first into the wall I watched the magical projectile sail past my manapul who each manage to hug the wall or dodge out of the way. Nodding to myself I switch my helmets vision mode to ultraviolet revealing a group of six concealed changelings, their carapace glowing a pale yellowish white.

With a raur I released the grapple and leaped free of the wall. Bringing my sword around in a mighty punching stab I feel it's enchanted edge bite into the closest changeling's chest. She went limp as she was impaled to the ground. With a snap I bring my rifle up and fire the earther weapon one handed toward another changeling, a praetorian.

The M-66 bucks in my hand releasing its hoarse report as I stitch a line of flechettes up the males chest. Behind me there one of the beasts lets out a gurgled hiss as it is impaled on Hir'kell's blazer staff. The beast fights weakly before with an effortless yank my second pulles the weapon up and out of the infiltrators abdomen bisecting the creature in a shower of green blood.

The remaining three regrouped and raised their weapons in time for a hail of gunfire to rack their bodys. They jerked back and forth like puppets before their strings were cut and they fell to the ground in bloody heaps.

With a wave of a hand, three of the tymerians in my manapul hefted their rifles and sprinted forward hunched low with their tails trailing behind them like the raptors of earth's past farther into the caverns.

The sound of gunfire rose from the passage, and the blue flashes of condenser rifles came to meet them. Nodding to Hir'kell I checked my wrist computer to check on the progress of the assault.

Many of the tunnels have been cleared leaving only the main central chamber. As I tracked my pupils across the individual cubes representing the various manipuls under my command my HUD flashed with green ready lights.

“All mamapuls ready for final push. Serpent manapul, you will move with the tanks and keep them unmolested. Tanks fire incendiary charges into the chamber, this will drive them from their positions and into the open, as their kind instinctively fear fire. Remaining manapuls hold and move forward on my signal. We mustn't allow over queen Calliphora to escape.” I said receiving another wave of green affirmatives from the manapul leaders.

“Serpents forward.” I said camly before switching four of my left eyes visual feeds to one of the serpents as they moved forward.

The Serpents are a new design of vehicle designed in recent months to combat the earthers mechs. Reverse engineered from stolen UAF siafu mech designs by supreme commander Rarity and princess Twilight.

Magic based weapons, and enhanced speed and flexibility allow for the mechs to be superior to their original UAFCOG designs. But still the machines possessed several flaws, flaws the NAC’s ATLAS, and NE's Gungnir do not lack. Flaws that despite my warnings have been ignored by many of my fellow supreme commanders, and the council of royals have gone ignored.

The machines are to fast for starters and simply lacked any reliability. On top of this the machines simply could not walk, instead they were propelled by four slick wheels with two in each ankle like a roller skate. These wheels would constantly get stuck or jammed, and the overly engineered joints and actuators were too large prone to failing under stress.

To compound it all the machines had zero sense of balance, instead they relied on a tail that hung down from behind the chest of the machine to act as a kind if counter wait. And finally comes the “clincher” as the earthers say, with the death of Casper Williams, and his slave mate Min'baku the machines lack any truly skilled pilots, nor the means to train them. As it stands only nine of the original thirty Serpent pilots trained by Casper and Min'Baku still live.

‘But they are all I have so I will make do.’

On the pad I watched expanding rings beginning to bloom into existence among the amassed ACM troops and old breen changelings. And from the cavern mouth we could hear screams and shouts before cannon began to echo down the tunnel. Then as the smoke started to waft up and intonour caverns I gave the order. “Secondary manapuls hold for five units then move in. Tertiaries move in at fifteen...”

I changed the magazine on my rifle and hefted the weapon. “Primaries begin the assault. For the conclave... For Keshol!"

We charged, with myself and my brother zaltule at the head of our spear formation. Tossing two kleese plasma grenades with my two free hands I turned four changelings to a fine puree before we burst through a and unto the vast central chamber.

The chamber was massive almost a kilometer in diameter, with pods if glowing pinkish white eggs lining various divots in the ground. Towards the center of the chamber a vast swath of the ground was a blaze and I could see the silhouettes of two serpents through the flames, sending bolts of orange magic into confused changelings. The bolts bursts from their weapons exploding into wispy bursts of particles.

Another shell sailed from one of the chamber entrances and burst against a centralized structure of crystalized changeling secretions. Then as I watched the tanks began to wheel down the slope as two hundred kleese from the worker and zaltule cast began sliding down.

Leveling my rifle I fired into a particularly large group of changelings that appeared to be rallying near a rock formation. The tungsten nails slammed through their primitive armor, shredding their exoskeletons and the organs beneath.

A flashing threat icon drew my attention and I swiveled a pupil to see a changeling tank turing its turret in my direction. snapping a grapple line to the side as we slid down the steep hill I swung to the left avoiding the blazing green ball of magical energy as it slammed into the cavern wall.

Retracting the line I opened a channel to the light troops. “Lights move in, eliminate the hostile armor.”

Raspy affirmatives came in and all along the hill I began to see my light troops burst from the cloud kicked up by the kleese advance. The pegasus, gryphons, and neochangelings flew low to the ground sweeping their rifles across the changelings. This served two purposes, first it threw off the enemy line forcing them to tear their attention from my warriors, and two drawing at least a third of the changelings into an aerial battle against their equestrian counterparts.

On the ground however the second part of the lights cohort burst past my position. To my right I watched a human on a rapid attack speeder explode past passing a meer two feet from me. As he moved the two machine guns on either side of the vehicle barked their reports, before four tymerians flew past him forming a phalanx around the vehicle.

My sight seeing was cut off as the terrain leveled off and I broke out into a full sprint. My four legs clicked as my armors plates slide against one another. What followed was a blur of blood, screams and vicious close combat.

Hir'kell found his way to my side in the melee, and together we rallied our kleese brothers to our position, before thrusting the spear tip of our assault into the heart of the enemy's line.

When the ACM and changeling lines broke they rallied to their leaders side. The changeling queen Calliphora had exploded from her vial castle and into our ranks.

“Come scum! I have sat behind my lines long enough!” she seems to rush to cover and rally any changelings near her “for the hive!”

I swiveled a pupil in her direction as I finished off her heir. The changeling princess gurgled once as I withdraw my blade from her torso with a twist. Before tossing her twitching corpse into the dirt at my side. “Like the rest of your race, weak, and inferior.”

“Bastard.. At least i am FREE..while you remain a slave, blind to the truth” she draws a rune scimitar. “And you will only see it too late” her muscles tense up ready to engage

“The Lunar princess has seen fit to spare my homes last city. We have served the UEC since the beginning, and we will continue to serve and expand the reach of the kleese empire far after your kind are gone.” I responded turning my whine body to face her before activating the runeic edge on my own sword.

“If you truly believe that.. Then words are useless” her eyes gain a sharp eige “Just remember these words, one day they shall betray you.” she charged in, quick as a flash “And you will find the tables set to zero!”

Side stepping I stitch a like of flechettes across her body attempting to end the fight quickly, only for her to raise a salmon colored shield at the last second absorbing the shots. Muttering as I am forced onto the defensive I fix the rifle to the magnetons on my abdomen and pull my second sword from its holster on my thorax.

“Kretek!” The weapon snaps out, folding into its shape before locking into place.

She quickly recovers and tries to get around me “the UEC is destined to ruin everything!”

“The UEC is the only way for my people to survive! You should be grateful beast, were it not for them. The kleese empire would have erased your pitiful hives from the stars long ago.” I said pivoting around to face her, keeping my swords at the ready. From my second right eye I could see Hir'kell stalking into a better position with his blaze staff held low.

“But we would have died fighting!” she quickly shoots a dart of magic at hir’kell before creating a blinding light “unlike you who became the toy of the lunar bitch!”

“Hold your tongue, beast. Lest I cut it from your skull. The lunar goddess has blessed me with a purpose again, unlike the rest of the council, she sees the merit in having true warriors at her side. Unlike your kind who surround themselves with pitiful imitations.”

“Second, are you injured?” I inquired over our secure manapul channel. “I will live, supreme commander.”

She quickly dashes in with a horizontal slash trying to use the light as cover “show me your so called ‘merit’ here and now!”

Bringing my top left arm around I parried the blow before using the lower arm to uppercut her in the stomach. Her armor buckled and cracked as I brought my lower right down and slammed her into the ground. “Is this the best the over queen of the Necropolis hive can do? The humans are better warriors than you, and they lack any of the added strengths provided to every other race.”

“Gha!” she crys out rolling away and hopping up “then maybe they will see the promised throne..” she returns to her ready stance glaring at me “i know my end nears..” she fires off a barrage of small magic bolt “but i shall leave my mark!”

The bolts slammed against my armor, blasting scorch marks into its surface before I was able to raise my barrier. On instinct I thrust my arm out and grappled over to a large rock. Using it as a shelter from the barrage I activated my armors camouflage.

The armors surface began to warp and twist as photo reflective panels came to life giving my a kind of adaptive camouflage. Not entirely dissimilar to that used on the COGs HEBA bug suits.

“So now you hide!?” she fires a strong magic blast at my cover “where is your honor?! Maybe my vision WILL come true..”

Through a great force of will, I do not rise to her challenge and instead stalk my way around to the side where one of my fallen brothers lies. With a quickly motion I pick up his blazer staff and diel its aperture to its narrowest setting and throw the weapon at her. Hearing the distinct crackle of charged particles she turned in time to see the blue white force blade sear through her horn. With my primary threat eliminated I unlimnerd my rifle and stitched a line of flechettes across her left wing bringing her down.

“Ahhh!!” she falls to one knee from the hit “damned coward..” she quickly gets back up and charges at me rage filling her eyes. “You truly are a craven toy for that lunar whore!”

“There is no, honor in defeat wench.” When she reached my position, I blocked her blow, and barred down on her. Her diminutive five foot six frame proving to be no match for my nine foot and six hundred pound mass.

Almost immediately her sword arm buckled under the strain and she tried to to dance away. Unfortunately she seemed to have forgotten the key rule in combating a kleese. Never get close, so as she moved I snatched an arm out and grasped her by the maine and pulled her in before crushing her sword arm with my other free hand.

“Aaahhh!” she tries to kick me only to give up as her stamina runs out “so, this is how my hive end.. At least i know that karma shall come to pass..” she shoots me a weak smile “let me share..my vision..as the defeated..”

“Then speak beast. As you fought honorably I owe you that much.” I said holstering the sword in my left hand and shifting my grip from her maine to her throat.

“I see worlds burning.. Moons ripped asunder against a mighty foe.” her breathing seems to slow down in my grip “your world..equis..and many other homeworlds..turned to ash.. As one..race takes..it place..on a throne..” she puts a weak hand on my arm with a small smile “but it will not be alone..”

“I know not..what it will be.. But it.. Will not be..a princess..” her breaths become shallow “for.. I saw their horns..broken upon the ground.. And wings bent gruesomely..” i can see her eyes slowly close “and you.. A broken being.. Left alone to suffer.. Shunned.. By.. all..” her eyes close as her last breath leaves her body.

With a grunt I thrust my sword through her chest before tossing her aside. “The queen has been slain. And once again we have proven that none are greater than the Sixth fleet!” Thrusting my sword into the air a cheer went up through my troops.

Senior Veteran: Tolan Harris

MOTH. Dark ops kill team-1: [Big Dog]

Manitoba Sim deck: Ambush scenario

Earth: Brussels Germany

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Pitbull, Snow Viper, and the Amplifiers crawled low through the brush to an elevated position overlooking a clearing. Down below us roughly sixty recruits walked in a staggered line, talking and joking around with one another.

“On hijack’s shot.” I called out, resting my N-4 on a rock. A shot rang out to my right, the crimson bolt of supercharged energy seared into the chest of a basic lieutenant. “Light em up. K.T.F.”

Instantly the crowded of recruits changed from a poorly managed unit into an unorganized mob. Like chickens with their heads cut off they ran every which way as we fired on their position. In moments the entire first rank of the recruits line were cut down.

Down below several recruits attempted to rally the others with varying degrees of… “success”. One such group of recruits roughly five of them had formed a small fireteam and returned fire in the direction they believed the fire was coming from.

Unfortunately their six o'clock was not where we were, and they were promptly blown to pieces by four grenades from the kleese's mark 21. Another group with Fallons government assigned girlfriend at its head was actually properly engaged until a blaster bolt from her sort of boyfriend slammed through her chest. She crumpled to the ground like a dropped sack before a fragger sailed over the recruits heads, bounced once and detonated with a violent cru-CRUMP!

The double explosion sent shrapnel flying in every direction shredding the recruits light armor and their flesh. With a signal from Wraith our kill team who have better weapons than the basics we command, stood to a crouch. I reached into a pouch on my thigh and pulled out a cylindrical device. With a twist I activated it, waited for the light to turn green and hurled it into the air.

The smart grenade beeped once in my HUD before a small motor sent it sailing into the nearest group of cowering recruits. Around me my moth brothers were doing the same, sending their own smart grenades up and letting the relatively dumb AI brains select targets. As soon as the final grenade hit the dirt they all exploded.

Body parts, blood, and other unsavory things flopped down all around us as we ordered our respective squads to push into the group of survivors to finish them off. They were a sorry sight those who hadn't died in the explosion were either dazed or dismembered in some fashion. We picked them off with almost zero effort.

Two recruits proved to be a hassle however. One my HUD marked as recruit Amethyst Spark, stood and fired her side arm at Fallon. The android beside him however had other plans. Levoy who was beside him moved to inter space himself between her and Fallon, opting to take the small flechettes full in the chest.

The rounds bit into his lightish armor and whitish blue blood seeped from his wounds, but he still stood. This seemed to startle the sultry recruit and as she fumbled a reload he closed the distance, picked her up and hurled her into a tree. There was a sickening crunch as the back of her neck met the wood and she flopped down in a heap with a broken neck.

Another recruit, by the name of Leaf Shadow had the extremely bad luck of revealing himself within arms reach of Durge. In one swift motion the zaltule snatched two arms out and tore the stallion in half. But here's the fun part, the wesley bastard had pulled the on an old fashioned UEC grenade he had on his webbing and when he died his now limp hand let the trigger go and the two of them disappeared in a short but violent explosion.

“Woah! That guy was a badass.” Hijack called out and I was inclined to agree. But that seemed to be the end of it until I heard the distinct sound if a shotgun being racked.

Turning I came face to face with another recruit. He was a tall beanpole of guy who stood around six six. My HUD marked him as recruit McGill, he eyed me and I eyed him in return. He held a shotgun in his hands, not one of the UEC shotguns mind you, no he held an honest to god COG shotgun. One of the big auto shotguns that fired eight gauge flachettes.

“Well I be…” That's all I got out, before McGill shot me in the chest. The flechettes tore through my armor, and I was dead before I hit the dirt.

When I finally climbed out of my sim pod I was mad. No furious would be a more apt turm for my current temperament. That bastard shot me before I could even get a word in edgewise but at the same time I held a kind of begrudging respect for the man. He knew I would have laid his ass out before he could react, so he took the initiative, and KTFed me.

Then came the laughing, high and low my fellow MOTH brothers didn't let me forget the fact that I had just been killed in a god damn training sim. The humiliation is supreme and the jokes at my expense are entirely justified.

“Hahaha, you are the worst! You fucking suck! Oh my god. I thought you were gonna do something not just sit there and take it!” Hijack laughed, hanging down and slapping a hand against his knee.

“That's just embarrassing.” Amp laughed leaning on a pod for support. Even Fallon stood their shoulders shaking as he tried poorly to hold in a laugh.

“Calm down guys, the recruits are coming out.” Wraith said between laughs.

NACS: Manitoba

Enlisted Gym

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC/56AE

It wasn't that he didn't trust her. Gusty had proven herself when they escaped. She had no love for her kind, and in a strange way she wanted to see them accept their eventual end.

Regardless there wasn't a reason to worry about the Equestrian as she neared the machine he was working on. He watched as her horn glowed, and after a moment her muscles seemed to become more defined. He watched as she began to match what he was doing, and then she began to slowly surpass him.

Avery felt the prick of competitiveness as it awoke in him. He began to match her, pound for pound, until both of them had maxed out the machines. Once that happened the two of them stopped. Gusty's horn glowed once more and he watched as her body became that of a more feminine figure. Her yoga pants and sports bra certainly showed the excellent shape the Equestrian Sergeant was in.

"Want to talk about it?"

He looked at her, and shook his head. “... I don't know.”

She leaned against the wall eyeing him side long, as he took a drink from water bulb. As he did he could taste the almost chalky metallics of the nanites in his blood as he had cut his mouth recently. "It's not easy. I know that."

"I suppose you would."

She laughed, the sound was mirthless, "More than most. A good deal of the others simply don't remember anything between being revived," she moved around to him, looking him in the eyes, "But I get a front row seat to what my kind gets to look forward to after all of this ends."

She stretched, "I get to remember everything, and I know how hard it is to deal with the fact that you were dead. Your body was destroyed, broken, and there's no way it should be together, but instead you're alive, well, and for the most part you can't really process it."

She sat down, her eye contact never wavering, "It doesn't get easier. There is no magic spell that makes you forget about it. You either become an unfeeling, uncaring, sociopathic little thing, or you force yourself to find something worth going on for."

Avery smiled, "What's your reason?"

She grinned, "A nice man I've met. We both enjoy talking, and neither of us are against a causal romp. I'm fine with letting him experiment, and he's fine with me returning the favor. It's nice to find someone that I can be myself with," she smiled at him, "and you've got someone like that too Avery. You have got Miiora, but that doesn't mean that your reason is the same as mine. It can be sure, or you could be like Firefly."

He looked confused. She shrugged forgetting for a moment that she was speeking to a human that was not born in the UEC.

"Long before Luna and Celestia. Firefly was a Pegasus, very hot headed, and she had the most uncanny luck to survive. We were defending our home from a group of dangerous beings when she was brought down by a spear," she laughed again

“she survived, regained the ability to fly, but it wasn't enough for her. She wanted payment back in blood. She was the first out on guard duty, the first to attack, but it was never enough. It was years later, when she had gotten too old, too weak, that she confessed that what kept her going was wanting revenge. For a Pegasus to be grounded is almost the same as taking away who they are. It's a fundamental part of who they are, and without it they're lost. She might have only been wounded, grounded, but in way it almost as if she had died and then was reborn."

Avery looked at her, "Did she get her revenge?"

Gusty nodded, "Compounded several times over, but it wasn't enough. Her last words was that she was empty," Gusty got up, and swished her tail, "I'm not your mama, and I won't try to tell you what to do, but I will suggest that you don't follow her example. She might have been loyal, but Firefly couldn't ever really get past what had happened to her."

Avery nodded slightly his eyes flashing slightly as he used his implant to record the story, "Are you past it?”

Gusty shrugged before turning to leave, "I'm living with it. That's about all anyone can do really."

Auxiliary Sergeant:Gutsy

NACS: Manitoba

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

107AC/56AE

I groaned, leaning against the wall, feeling the bite of death. It was the same as ever, and I waited. I waited for the damned bastard to appear, to inform me of what I would never obtain. He didn't fail, and there he was. His black robes gave the illusion of him simply floating, but that wasn't the case. No, I knew that his lich like body was walking silently toward me. He came to rest, his hand griping the bell that was once the source of his power.

"Enjoying my gift?"

I spat at him, "As much as ever."

He laughed, his voice sounding like crackled and old, and I watched as he knelt down near me, "The humans, they're trying to contact me. To employ my gifts. Tell me, what would billions be like to the lord of Tartarus?"

I closed my eyes, "You can't."

He laughed, "Of course I can. I can give them immortality, give them the ability to defeat your kind, but you will never perish. No, with that other wrench having the same gift you'll simply continue to be," he laughed again, "And i'll have an army that will bring all into my fold."

I tried to move only to feel my body betray me. I growled at him, and soon I felt myself lifting into the air,

"We've got a few minutes, and you've forgotten your place. Perhaps a reminder is in order?"

It stepped into the room, and I felt my blood run cold. It was pony only in the most basic of shapes. It's dark form made from the collection of necromatic flesh gathered over the years, but that wasn't what frightened me. It was the most basic sadistic drive it had. Every horrible part of my species was inside of it, and It strolled toward me. I felt it lean me forward, I cried out, not able to hold in the terror as I felt the horror grab my coat. It pulled and I felt my skin tearing.

"Remember your place, or otherwise each time you come here, our mutual friend will be waiting."

Colonal: Darnell “Snow" Freeman

NACS: Galactica

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

In the ready room the pilots of Valkyrie, Razgriz, and black knights squadrons sat around talking to one another before the CAG Eagle walked in and onto the dais.

“Okay thank you for coming… As you all know our supply situation is getting grim.” He said before leaning in into the table and fiddling with the various controls.

“Our air supply is being replenished by the station as we speak, as are some of our food stores, but the water in our ships fuel tanks and potables are in the red. On top of that the amount of fuel for our fighters is dangerously low, seeing as how we weren't able to resupply after Tearus.” The colonel paused then letting the news sink in.

“To remedy this the fleet will be jumping to another system with the help of the navigational data the ground pounders managed to acquire. This is the system in question, we are calling HP-696 With a supply station stationed in the orbit of its third planet. The generals plan is to jump Galactica into the orbit of this gas giant to shield our emissions.” His voice trailed off slightly as he adjusted the tactical display zoomed out to show the system in question.

“The system we are going to has two stars. A red giant and a sol like type k star. four rocky planets, and two gas giants. As well as four Alcubierre nodes spaced around the system, two at the ecliptic, one between the orbit of the third and fourth planets, and one at the far end of the system's orbit..” He said gesturing to the various celestial bodies in the system.

“Upon arrival Galactica will deploy one if its two ghost ships to scout the system. Defiant will disengage from gally and engage ita stealth before making another jump here, to fourth planet in the chain. And the one nearest to the station…. This is where we come in.” Eagle typed several commands into the panel and the image swiveled to show a blue silhouette of the Defiant.

“The black knights, Valkyrie, and Razgriz squadrons will disengage from the Defiant along with. A single wing of Flayed fighters will be fitted with special relays and will act as our communications satellites. If anyone detects hostiles in the mission area they are to maneuver into tight beam range of one of the flayed and beam a message to the Defiant. From there we will all regroup and return to the Defiant, and advance to the station where the MOTHs will secure the CIC and send an all clear signal to fool any hostile ships….”

“From there the manitoba will jump into the planetary system and secure the area around the planets space elevator where in the Galactica will move into position and begin a refueling operation. That is where we will come back into play the gally won't be able to maneuver while docked and so we will be working closely with mech teams on the hull to coordinate the defence while they hook up the necessary equipment and protect the cables. Any questions?... good, we deploy in twelve hours, good luck, and good hunting.”

Chapter 8 Shiraui

NACS: Galactica SD-002

System: Galavant

Distance from sol: unknown

January 7th

2170AD/107AC

There was a commotion throughout the passageways of the NAC's lost flagship as hundreds of newly enlisted troopers struggled with one another to get a view of the many viewscreenes lining the walls. Inside of the station one could be forgiven for making the connection to an old earth send off celebration during the second world war. When people would line the streets and docks to see the soldiers and sailors going off to war.

Streamers, confetti and raucous cheering echoed throughout the streets as the former slaves on Galavant station watched the massive ship that had come to their aid disconnect its umbilical and begin to slowly drift away.

“Hyperspace engine charged and awaiting your command general.” The Tymerian who was operating the helm this duty shift said.

“Very well, open a fleet wide channel.”

“Your on sir.”

“All hands this is the general, Galactica is about to jump for the first time and into presumably hostile territory. We are low on the fuel we will need to make it back home in once peace. This might be our only chance to get this fuel unless we can find some help out here. I expect everyone to do their best and give me one hundred and ten percent, lets make it home and show our family's that galactica and her fleet is still in the fight... All hands Action stations.”

Cutting the channel with a hand motion I took a seat and strapped in. “Anything you want to say sir. I mean this is technically the first real hyperspace jump in human history.” Barron's XO asked him.

All around heads were not turning in his direction. After all his crew was to well trained for that, but he could tell they were listening in. “Alright this is for the record… Hold my beer.”

With that the residents of Galivant station and the watching crew of Galactica looked on in awe, as the space in front of the ship crackled with electricity before it suddenly burst into a swirling whirlpool of cloudy bluish light that sucked the massive ship into its maw before disappearing just as suddenly as it appeared.

[Veteran] Captain: Marcus Teigh

NACS: Defiant. IND-0361-B17

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

January 7th

2170AD/107AC

“Mister Fallon do you think you can control that thing when we get out there?” I asked the MOTH who was working as the tactical operations director for this duty shift.

“I have been talking to her for a while to get ready for this mission skipper. In reality i'm more of a back seater, the only reason i'm there is because her original… pilot i guess would be the best term died in the last battle, and they don't have the ability to grow a new one. On top of that it can't transform anymore, do to the damage it took so its stuck in inmomorebesde. Besides it does all of the flying itself. I guess i'm just glad the physical controls aren't that much different from an atlas, since most of it is verbal.” The man explained, as he did so I couldn't help but be impressed by the intimidating armor he wore.

As a stark contrast to the rest of the bridge crew with the exception of the SI guard who wore standard SI battle armor. Bridge officers wear regular vac suits incase the bridge loses decompression during a battle. Fallon however has on the new MOTH armor, its smooth glossy black contour and perioticly flashing visor painted an image I wouldn't want to see in a dark alley.

‘Attention all hands stand by for sudden deceleration. Exiting hyperspace un three, two, one, transition.’ The generals voice said through the oneMC. On the display the swirling blue tunnel of subspace warped before dissipating and being replaced by a vast star field with a large orange and white gas giant hanging in the lower left hand corner.

“Alright sir, the last fighter is in the bay, and the Flayed are in. We are ready to proceed with the mission.” One of the deck officers said tearing my attention from the lizard lover.

“Very well, Helm take us out, disengage umbilical.”

“Aye sir, disengaging umbilical.” There was an audible clang across the hull as the Galactica unhooked from Defiants hull. ‘Defiant this is mother bird, you are in the green, door is open, free to disembark.’

“Affirmative Mother bird, Defiant is leaving the nest.”

‘Copy that Defiant, Mother bird has eyes on, superstructure clear… you are go for acceleration, Good hunting defiant.’

“Alright, miss Kr’nel, three second burn, two G sustained.” I said eyeing my tactical display which showed the gas giant we had creatively dubbed as BG616-6k. The massive super jupiter gas giant projected a magnetic field that hopefully would shield us from detection by ant ships in the star system and hopefully the planetary system as well if anyone was out here.

There was a claxon before the high G maneuver was done and I was smashed into my crash couch as I watched the small chevron of the Defiant move away from the large triangle marking the Galactica. “Helm kill engine and run silent. Navigation layin a course for the fourth planet in the system.”

“Course laid in, on your command captain.” The ensine working the navigational commands said from her post.

I eyed the screen warily, before drawing in a breath. “Begin jump prep.”

“Aye sir. Beginning jump sequence.”

“Coil is charged, vibration is low. Spinning up L-drive.” Another more raspy voice called out.

“Wavelengths are stable… coordinates locked. Ready to jump on your command.”

“Do it.”

“Three… two… one…” The operator said as he drew what looked like a glowing red key from one console and slid it into another in one smooth motion before twisting the key. “Jump.”

Supreme Commander: Rarity Belle

UEC: Element of Magic DS-362-B

System: HP-696

Distance from Equis: 224 light years

56AE

“Damn that kleese. Who does he think he is keeping my fleet here.” Supreme commander Rarity lamented as she paced the deck of her bridge.

At their stations the various techs, and bridge officers worked scanning the area around the planet sweeping large sensor cones across vast sections of space. “Well I'm glad we're here first, if the humans show up it means We can show Krysk what we're made of.” A newly revived rainbow dash said from spot near the commander's chair.

“Woah!” A sensor tech called out, the mare nearly jumping out of her chair.

“What is it?” the calm voice of sub commander Polar called out over the din of sudden the commotion.

“I-I don't know sir, the scope is showing a massive neutrino burst two million kilometers from our position.” The sensor tech said as her superior came over to lean over her shoulder to see the scope for himself.

“Hmm… It could be worth checking out. Supreme commander, I suggest we dispatch a Corvette to search the area...”

“No.” Rarity interjected slicing a hand through the air. “We will go ourselves, tell the fleet to hold position, take us to those coordinates.” The unicorn commanded before proceeding to her station.

“Right away ma'am. Setting course, estimated arrival time… four standard hours.” the sensor operator said as the ship lurched slightly as it lumbered towards the position neutrino burst was detected.

Captain: Charlotte [Ice Queen] Dunois

Valkyrie squadron

Attached Auxiliary: veteran Fallon

NACS: Defiant. IND-0361-B17

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

January 7th

2170AD/107AC

“Valkyrie one-one Stand by for launch.” The flight operator said from inside of the control deck of launch tube three.

“I copy, Ice queen beginning final checks…. Check is good.”

“Solid copy ice queen, cats got the ball. Call it, go no go.”

“Cats, Calling it, go for launch.” I said calmly as I watched the man in the control capsule give me one final go signal. One open palm held vertical with two fingers of the other hand touching it. And In response I gave it a thumbs up, before knife handing a hand forward.

The support robot in the launch tube gave me another hand signal before folding its left forearm behind its back and dropping to a knee to point its right hand with two fingers extended towards the end of the launch tube. In response I goosed the engine and braced myself before the magnetic catapult launched me from the NAC stealth ship.

After exiting the Defiant I set my fighter to fly in a holding pattern as Doll, vixen, and Lynx, were launched from their launch tubes. Meanwhile I watched one of the ships freight elevators open before a lanky flayed fighter in its infantry form rose up to stand on the ship's surface. ‘Iceman, and Shiraui. Requesting permission to disembark.’

“Permission granted Iceman. Free to disembark.” With that the Flayed's organic jetpack and leg thrusters flared laughing it into space trailing a faint line of pink sparks in its wake.

“Iceman in the air. Valkyrie squadron let's proceeded to the mission area.” I said watching the previously damaged flayed maintain formation with my squadron. Shiraui had been damaged in the Tearus system, and had been damaged even further in the battle for galimare. As such the alien construct had shed most of its now useless avionics leaving it as a kind of organic space mech.

“Icequeen, Iceman.” Avery said as his face appeared appearing on a display on my console.

“Icequeen copies, go ahead iceman.” I responded as I fired my maneuvering jets, vectoring my course towards our mission area. ‘Lights are green, Im proceeding to my station.’

“Roger Iceman. Clear to proceed.”

‘See you there ladies. Shiraui lets go.’ Avery said as he disconnect the tight beam connection. Through my panoramic display I watched the flayed burst ahead of or formation.“Understood. Jumping.” Shiraui said in a creepy childish female voice before she suddenly flashed out of existence.

“That guy’s fucking weird.” Lynx said in a tight beam to Doll, Vixen, and I. “I mean who would willingly crawl into a flayed. Its like he doesn't know its a damn Lanky, or doesn't care.”

“Well, I bets it has something to do with those nanites. Did you hear they can't reproduce the effect in the lab? Or maybe the UEC did something to him when they had him in that lab.” Doll responded as both Doll and Lynx's faces appeared on my display.

“Well i hear, he's some kind of pervert who likes lizards. Have you heard he actually proposed to that tymerian on his team? Uugh, that's disgusting.”

“Hey, Lynx maybe you should lay off the guy. You know he's like the captains best friend or something.” Doll said in a warning tone.

“What, that guy? There's no way, he's a fucking loser. I mean sure he's hot but that's about all he's got going for him. Besides he’s a PRC hood rat, and the captains the heiress to the Dunois community.”

“Just because he came from a PRC doesn't mean anything. Besides that hoodrat has the medal of honor.” Doll says coming to Averys defense as I force myself to take a deep breath to calm down.

“Well I think Veteran Fallon isn't that bad. Besides he's a Moth, they don't let just anyone become a moth. Their literally the one percent of the COG, next to the onyx guard. Besides he is hot, and i've seen him around with that tymerian on green deck. They make a cute couple. So lay off Lynx let the man do his thing.” Vixen said finally adding her two sense to the conversation.

Lynx let out a puff of air before responding. “Fine then, lets ask the captain. Icequeen. What do you think?”

“I think you should stop talking about things you don't understand Lieutenant, focus on the mission. Before you really say something you'll regret.” I fumed before cutting the connection before I lost my cool.

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Flayed Auxiliary: Shiraui

Specter upload, SD-0624-3: Armor

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

January 7th

2170AD/107AC

“So Shiraui, what have we got in the area?” I asked as we basically teleported to our assigned position in space. “Nothing at the moment, but that could change. I am detecting elevated distortions and what could be a hostile pattern at these coordinates.” She said as she highlight a section of space on my HUD.

It's weird in here, everything in this cockpit is organic and fleshy like a womb. Not the wombs the ATLAS-3's use but the actual human kind. There's veins and arteries in here and there is a steady thrum almost like a heartbeat somewhere.

“Master I am detecting elevated brainwaves. Are you in distress? Would you like me to tear this lanky apart from the inside? Though if t may say that, that would be counterproductive to our current mission.” Armor said helpfully from his spot in the cockpit behind me. Barron had insisted I bring one of the combat robots with me just incase Shiraui decided to do something to me, like it would help is she just crushed me inside of her cockpit.

“Yes thank you Armor. No I don't need you to kill Shiraui shes fine. Its just weird in here.” I said as I shifted in my seat as Shiraui maneuvered around silently.

“OH im sorry, I had no intention of causing you any discomfort.” The lanky construct said as I saw a hand come up to its chest, in a very human, very unnerving maner.

“No... its fine Shiraui don't worry about it.

“Oh ok then..”

“Hey armor how about some music? It's gonna be a long few hours.”

“Very well master, what would you like me to play?”

“Something old, I've always liked the classics.” I said stretching my arms in the semi spacious cockpit. “I have never heard classical human music before. The human my original placenta was based on didn't have any memory of it in his DNA.”

“That's just criminal. When I was coming up in the belt this old rockhopper introduced me to this stuff on a salvage operation.”

The music began to play from my buckets speakers and out of Armor's chassis. “Now this is music Shiraui, not like that new shit today.” I said as I started to bounce my leg in tune to the rhythm.

Eyeing the instruments I circled a point of interest for Shiraui and my cockpit view panned over as she moved her head in that direction. On another screen I saw 3d image of her form repositioning it self as she used tiny puffs of gas to maneuver. Before half of her faceless head slid away to reveal a large eye like lens.

The image of the point i had circled zoomed in revealing it to be an earent cloud of stellar gas. With that crisis averted, Shiraui recovered her eye and began to pann her head around in a slight swirling pattern. On impulse I checked the air and saw the air inside the cockpit was breathable.

‘Whelp don't need this for now.’ I thought to myself as the music changed before reaching up and pressing the seals on my bucket taking it off and letting it drift beside me on a tether. The air in here is kind of humid, but comfortable… weard.

Watching the screen I reached into the supply case they had fitted into Shiraui's cockpit I pulled out a nutrient slush from the container. As I sipped the strawberry ish flavored slush the song changed and I felt the seat below me shift slightly.

It was subtle a clockwise and counterclockwise motion worrying something was wrong I glanced at Shiraui's diagram, and saw that she was making the movement herself. Swaying both her hips and arms back and forth slightly as we used both the rigged and her own passive sensors to scan the area.

“Like the music huh?” I asked the strange lanky. This thing acted a lot different from the other flayed in the fleet. It might be because she lost her placenta as she calls it. That might have caused her to mutate and become more independent, but that's just a guess.

“Oh yes, very much. It is quite stimulating. It appears your fellow humans have arrived.” She said cheerily as she panned her head around to watch the four gungnirs of Valkyrie squadron coast past almost ten kilometers away.

The next few hours passed with the two of us talking and getting to know each other. Occasionally I would ask her a question she didn't know and she would fidget in a kind of cute way before she would tell me she didn't know. Or she would ask me something I couldn't tell her and I would have to be that asshole and steer her in another direction.

Once, into about our second hour she asked to feel me. Now some have called me an idiot and like and idiot I thought ‘That was a weird but, im sitting in a lanky right now so were way past weird at this point. So fuck it how bad could it be.’

“Sure.” I said to the lanky fighter. Now that was probably the stupidest thing I've done in a while. What happened next wasnt something I would be forgetting any time soon.

Shiraui said “Ooh thank you so much.” as her image made an oddly excited motion before the cockpit constricted around me. The walls pressed into me and small glowing caterpillar esk “feelers?” began roaming around my body and armor, Fucking nasty. Then all of a sudden just as I was about to draw my knife and start slashing they withdrew and the cockpit returned to normal.

“Thank you again Mister Fallon.” She said before continuing to relay messages, conduct passive scans, and sway in her odd little dance.

I actually fell asleep the for part of the third hour as Shiraui and Armor talked, and by the fifth hour I had finished my third nutrient slush and tossed it aside to float the around the cockpit as Shiraui and I sang along to the song that was playing.

“There are walls and there are bridges!
But no problems when you're free.
An adventure past the horizon aaalways beckons me! Never say die, Iron Eagle, Nothing's forever, now or ever, Never say die, Iron Eagle
Never look back, never say die!” We both sang quite badly, as her swaying became slightly more noticeable. But just as the guitar riff started something seemed to catch her eye just as I caught the anomaly on the screen as well.

“Shiraui send a tight beam to Charlotte and the Defiant. Uec super destroyer and minor escort, on ingress. Count… Zero-two hours until it's able to detect the Defiant.” I said quickly before tossing my slush behind the seat and slipping my bucket on.

“Understood. Beaming now.” She said before pivoting to face the Defiant's position. “Defiant, this is Shiraui from team three, we have detected two enemy corvettes one enemy escort ship inbound. Along with two squadrons of fighters, with a super destroyer in the rear.”

‘You are at the extreme edge of our sensor envelope. We've had them on our scopes for a while and are running silent, we were only just able maneuver the dish in your direction. Icequeen do you have the data?’ Defiant beamed back to Shiraui who then relayed the message to Charlotte.

‘Affirmative, recon data secure. Ready for rtb and retasking.’

‘Alright, Valkyrie and Shiraui return to Defiant.’ As the transition cut off I felt Shiraui flip us around before being slammed back into the organic seat. Watching the screens I saw Charlotte and her people flipping their fighters around and burning back toward the ship.

As we sped towards the Defiant's position a dark thought crossed my mind and I turned in my chain to adress Armor. “Armor, at our maximum acceleration will we be able to reach Defiant in time?” I asked I linked into his UI with my implant.

“Please hold pilot….” The OS said as I began seeing simulations running. Each of them showed that Shiraui was more than fast enough to reach the Defiant. But the Gungnirs just didn't have the time to get to the turn around point and decelerate to the Defiant before the fighters caught up with them.

“Iceman to Defiant, Valkyrie squadron will not be able to make the rendezvous before the Uec fighters can intercept them. Please advise.” I sent to Defiant making sure to send the data packet containing the simulations as well.

Several minutes passed as the message traveled the distance and several more for the reply to come back. During which time a pit grew in my stomach as I watched the red triangles marking the UEC fighters drawing closer and closer.

‘Iceman, Defiant actual. New orders. You and the other Flayed are to regroup and delay the UEC advanced party until Defiant can take in Valkyrie squadron and successfully jump away. After you detect our jump you are to jump back to Galactica as well.’

“... Understood.” Was all I could say as the message played. I thought they could just fire some missiles or something but I guess that just shows how much I know about space combat.

Pressing an organic button I activated the L-com connecting directly into the synapse of the other flayed and their “Pilots”. “Flayed flight, this is Iceman, regroup on my position new orders just came in. Transmitting now.”

As the message went out I felt and saw Shiraui fling her legs out in front of her firing her thrusters at half to decelerate. “Iceman what are you doing maintain formation!” Charlotte yelled as came to a violent halt.

“Orders from top, i'm staying to make sure you guys get back. Get your asses to the defiant so I can get the fuck out of here.”

“What that's suicide! I can't believe..”

“Look, Im backed up, as long as Armor survives to let them know I died I can be revived. Hall ass.” I said before cutting the connection.

As I watched Valkyrie squadron sailing off into the black three white flashes appeared revealing the other three lanky fighters as the light from their jumps dimmed down.

Taking a deep breath I felt Shiraui turn around as she and the other Flayed formed a diamond formation. With an exhale I felt the nanites boil and began to see brilliant red fireflies fluttering in my peripheral vision. “L-drive charged mister Fallon. Please Stand by.”

Then came the keening loud and piercing like nails being driven into my ears. But unlike before I was able to manage the noise, sift through it and activated my implant. “I'm ready to take control whenever you need me to Shiraui. Armor, what do you think?”

“Four flayed against fourteen UEC fighters, and three UEC corvettes? I would say your chances are low master.”

“Sure Shiraui. Armor can we jam their communications when we arrive? It might give us an edge if they can't communicate.”

“Affirmative pilot. With Shiraui's help we should be able to properly interrupt their transmissions, however I do not possess the proper jamming packet.”

“Um mister Fallon can we listen to some music again? The other flayed's placental pilots are...”

“That's it Shiraui. What about radio music, will that work?

“It might work Master, I predict an 20 to 40 percent increase in our survivability should it work. Fuck it, lets have some fun with it.”

“Alright, let's do this people.” as I rested my hands on the sides of my seat I saw Shiraui retrieved her weapon from its hooks on her back. The large blaster weapon was essentially a larger version of the N-4 I use in my day job. As Shiraui lacks the racks and organic ordnance pods used by her brethren the crew chief saw fit to outfit her with something else so she could rely on something besides her spike cannons.

“We understand and acknowledge the Iron pattern.” the Flayed sayed as one before we disappeared in a flash of light.

Supreme commander: Rarity Belle

Sub commander: Polar Light

System: Gibraltar

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

56AE

“There it is again mistress, that makes two Neutrino… wait three bursts.” The sensor operator said from her station.

“Commander, incoming communication from recon flight leader. They have made contact with four unknowns.” Came the voice of the communication officer.

“Put it on the screen.” Rarity ordered as the operators sent the image to the window. Upon seeing the image the supreme commander shuddered. Three of the dreaded lanky fighters were floating out in space ahead of her small flotilla.

At their center was another of the fighters unlike its brothers it lacked the black coloring and armor plates or bulky weapon ports. Instead this creature possessed a glossy bone white hide with pink and glowing red veins highlighting its feminin frame.

It's forearms were still topped with the distinctive organic ordnance launchers it's kind used as ranged weapons. But perhaps the most curious part of the creature was the weapon it cradled in its hands. It a matt black weapon, its blocky yet sleek appearance and distinctive shape gave it away as of earther make.

“Communications alert the reconnaissance scene they are to advance towards their original target. If the report was true I think we have found our lost earthers. Helm full reverse return us to the planets orbit and tell the fleet, I want them on full alert.”

“Right away.” The helm said before the floor began to rumble as the ship began to turn slowly turn back towards the fourth planet.

“Ma'am sending the message to the fli….Gah!!” The operator began before the communication channel began to blare with white noise.

“What is that!” Commander Polar shouted as he covered his ears trying to drown out the sudden and violent screeching noise.

“Something is trying to get… into our communication network!” The comms officer yelled as on the screen the three lanky fighters fired six of their glowing red jellyfish like missiles towards the fighter screen.

Instantly the fighters broke off to avoid the missiles but do to their close proximity two of them crashed into one another as. “Stay on…” was all the flight leader was able to say before all lines of communication went dead.

“Hello, Clops and calebs, and thank you for tuning in to DJ Fallon and the fresh tunes! We hope you enjoy earth's classical hits.” A familiar voice called out over the channel.

“Fallon? Isn't that the guy you captured a little while ago Rarity?” Rainbow dash asked Rarity who ground her teeth. “Yes, I was told he and those with him had escaped. But how did he get the tartarus off I wander… unless....” her line of thought was cut off as music began to blare out of the speakers.

‘Oooooo’

As the music began the four lanky contacts on the screen seemed to fall backwards before their engines ignited sending red and pink sparks into space behind them. In their wake several of the fighters broke formation to follow the lankys.

‘It's just a ball of dust! Underneath my feet, It rolls around the sun, doesn't mean that much to me!’

“Damn it!” Rarity shouted at her advanced formation slamming her palm into her command chair. And as she watched the bone collapse lanky slammed its claw into the cockpit of a cocatrice fighter.

Chapter 9 Noise

Shiraui/Fallon

Gibraltar planetary system

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“Oopah! Shiraui behind us!” Fallon shouted eyeing the screen before his chest was crossed with pink tentacles. “On it.” The world seemed to spin around him.

Half a second later he felt as well as saw that his ride had flipped herself upside down and though the screen could see the rifle being aimed before searing red bolts tore out of the weapons barrel.

The first two shots flew wide of their target as they tracked but as he focused on the fighter the third, fourth and fifth bolts found their target. The bolts of super charged energy tore into the Uec fighter's shields before breaking through and striking the fuselage.

Bursting out of the path of the destroyed scragged Shiraui lined up on another before that fighter exploded into a brilliant display of crimson light. Turning they saw another of the flayed burst past their position in its fighter mode. The lanky with the marking “13” fired two probe missiles before transforming into its wendigo form and slamming an open claw into the nose of another fighter.

Snapping her head to the side Shiraui burst to the left with so many Gs that had Fallon been an unaugmented he he would have surely died. Several bolts of golden magic seared the space where she had been before Shiraui flexed her left hand and swiped the cockpit of a cockatrice in half with her claws.

[Missiles incoming, nine o'clock vector seventy.] Armor said prompting Shiraui to fire her thrusters to jink out of the way.

“Jump.” The lanky construct said as she watched the missiles looping around to track her. Catching movement out of the edge of her visual radius she disappeared in a flash using her L-drive to avoid the missiles.

Reappearing a split second later she and her human placenta found themselves beside one of the Uec corvettes. Instantly one of the condenser cannons began to slowly turn toward her. An act she stopped by bursting up to the cannons crew canopy and slashing away the glass with her claws.

Shiraui watched gleefully as the enemy of the whole flailed and died in the void before firing her gifted weapon into the turret's control cluster. “Hehehe..” The damaged flayed giggled before turning and slamming her clawed fist through a window.

“Good bye.” Shiraui said as she grabbing a fist full of fleeing slaves and Uec personnel as the shield came up. With a violent tug she drew her hand out before shoving the bloody mess into her mouth.

“Alert multiple inbound contacts at nine o'clock, twelve, and five o'clock.” Armor reported as Fallon placed his hands down onto the arm rests of Shiraui's seat and activated his implant. “Oh no!”

“Shiraui, give me control.” He said as he felt his hands being encompassed by the fleshy control surfaces. “Okay. But be careful please. I've never had a human before.”

Feeling slightly sick Shiraui watched helplessly as her body slammed its hand down. Long claw marks were dug into the hull plating as her pilot used her free hands three and a half foot long claws to slow her momentum. As she did this she felt her legs kick out before what passed for her feet came down bringing her into a crouch on the hull.

With just a little luck
A little cold blue steel
I cut the night like a razor blade
'Til I feel the way I want to feel!
The way I wanna feel!

The rifle came up and began to track before her other hand came around and began to work the underslung pump action. The weapon bucked in her hands as grenade after grenade sailed into space to explode against the shields of the oncoming fighters.

The first explosied into a brilliant display of pyrotechnics before the second's shields failed and peeled off to come around for another gun run. Then apparently seeing a chance as the final fighters shields fell and it began to bank away she had kicked off of the ship and fired her thrusters.

In a split second Shiraui had found that her body had caught up with the fleeing fighter. An alarm from Armor drew her attention and she saw the other fighter burning hard to catch up with its comrade. But her placenta must have foreseen this as he maneuvered her body in such a way that used the previous fighter as a shield, before thrusting a fist toward the offending equestrian.

Three bone white penitratos speared out of the organ on her left forearm and into the fuselage. And as the fighter detonated she watched as she flipped up and around to fly inverted with the original fighter before she turned and she saw the fear in the pony pilots face as mister fallon aimed and fired the energy weapon into the cockpit.

There was a blast of heat and searing pain across her back as a large bolt of magic passed her. Snarling and chirping in anger she wrenched control from fallon and jumped back to the corvette who had managed to graze her with its energy lance.

When she appeared in front of the half dome of glass that protected the bridge she could feel the rage bleeding off of her human and into her. Through the window she delighted in the fear of the enemy before slamming her fist into the glass. Once then twice, and crack started to form. Then a third and a forth made the glass begin to chip and star sending lines across the entire canopy. Finally as she saw the bridge crew running from their stations she reared back and with a final punch put her fist through the glass.

Screaming horrified faces streamed passt her through the breach she had created. Shirauri clenched her fist and fired a penetrator mine deep into the bowels of the ship before bringing a foot up to brace against the glass.

“Hehe, one corvette down.” Then half kicking half firing her thrusters she blasted off of the corvette and into space with a pirouette. A display that Fallon had to admit was quite the elegant display.

“Shit, Shiraui, that destroyer blew past us. Tell the Defiant they'll have company soon.” Fallon said as he turned in his seat arching his back against the tentacle restraints. Even as Shiraui fought to keep the nanotized MOTH in place for his own sake he strained to keep his eye on the UECs equivalent of a destroyer as it burned past the fight.

“Im sorry, I can't jump yet. I have to regenerate my drive before I can.” Shiraui said as she slowly turned to face the rapidly shrinking escort ship.

Fallons only response was a resounding “Fuck!”. As he slammed his fist into the fleshy side if Shiraui's cockpit. “Ow, please stop that hurts.”

“Sorry.” He said before taking a his helmet off and taking a breath of the warm humid air. Closing his eyes he sat back in the seat and listened to she sound of what he guess passed as a heartbeat.

[Veteran] Captain: Marcus Teigh

NACS: Defiant: IND-0361-B17

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“Jesus, there goes another one.” The sensor operator said as he stared dumbly at the holo image.

“Tehe, fighter down.”The eerie voice of Shirauicrackled through the speakers as another red blip disappeared.

“Damn… those things are freaking scary man.” The Space born infantry guard said not to helpfully from his position at the railing.

“Captain.”

“What is it lieutenant?” I asked the key turner. Turning in my chair to look the girl in the eye.

“Um sir, the L-drive is red lining, it needs to cool down or something before we can coil, charge, and jump again.” She said with concern in her voice.

“How long until the drive is operational?”

“Unknown sir, the lab says it might be anywhere from thirty minutes to another hour.”

“...Alright keep me informed, I want to know the instant the drive is back up and running.”

“Understood captain.”

“Doll your the last in the pipe. Lights are green Call the ball.” I heard the flight controller say as calmly as she dared to the irate french pilot.

“I've got the ball, coming in.” Eyes glued to the tactical display I watched Lynx's fighter come in before the deck shook slightly as she made her landing.

“Another fighter down. Only twelve more to go.”Shiraui said over the radio before let out a yelp just before a bang resounded off of the bridge's entrance hatch.

With a sigh I swiveled my crash couch around to face the hatch being mindful to keep the tank in my peripheral. “Enter.”

The woman who entered was in her mid twenties, blond and incredibly irritated. “Captain Teigh, what in the…” The heiress of the Dunois family began before a new transmission came through the speakers.

“Skipper its Iceman, that tango blew past me. You're going to have some company real soon, single escort class ship.” Fallon said before I turned and disregard captain Dunois. If we just got the message that could only mean it was several hours old at least.

“Captain, contact at extreme range, just appeared on sensors. Single ship looks like a… single dominatrix class escort ship. Frigate flass.” As my sensor operator began to relay the relevant information I began to flash through the scenario in my head.
Q

‘The L-drive won't be ready to go for at least another forty-five minutes… let me see. If the data we got from those deserters on the gally is right then the dominatrix class should have three medium energy rakes, six plasma quarles and condenser turrets, ten missile launchers and a medium rated shield. That leaves me outclassed in raw tonnage and fire power…’ I thought to myself as I leaned forward eyeing the tactical plot. Around me the bridge came alive with the sounds of the ship being brought to battle stations.

“Action stations, action stations, all hands report to designated zones, damage control teams to stand by. Action stations, action stations.”

Leaning back I felt as well as heard the ghost ship creaking as if to shake out any cobwebs. ‘My ghost ship has two twin linked rail guns. Nine penetrator missiles, seven frag missiles, six plasma torpedoes, two ERMs in her racks and three twelve megaton nukes.’

“Captain, they just swept our position with an active sensor.” The Sensor operator said before the tactical officer spoke up. “Two fish in the water, inbound vector twelve twenty nine, and twelve twenty eight.”

“Orders sir?”

“PDCs. Return fire, fire two penetrators. Flip and burn for six, then kill the engine and reengage stealth. Dump the heatsink if you have to.”

“Aye aye sir! Returning fire now.” The gunnery crewman said before the ship vibrated with the reports of its point defence cannons coming to life.

“Turning and burning now captain!” Gs slammed me into my crash couch as I watched two torpedoes burst from my ships Icon mid turn. The two penetrator torpedoes then cleared the hull before flipping back around to face the oncoming ship and firing their drives.

“Killing engines… now!”

“Switching to passive sensors...and we are gone..”

Shiraui/Fallon

Gibraltar planetary system

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“Gaagh! Fuck off!” Fallon yelled as he was knocked forward against my restraints as Shiraui was hit in the back making her cry out in pain.

Taking control again the nanotized MOTH maneuvered Shiraui into a sort somersault. Rolling with the explosion and coming out inverted he felt himself lifting her arms and firing the blaster cannon coring the fighter and making it erupt into a brilliant explosion.

[Pilot incoming. Warning we are outnumbered two to one.] Armor chimed in as Fallon redlined Shiraui's thrusters taking the two of them into the debris field of the destroyed Corvette.

Blood, coolant, bodys and small chunks of ship bounced off of Shiraui's hide as Fallon had her hug her back against what used to be an interior passageway. “Shiraui how are you doing?”

Risking a peak around the corner the flayed in question she saw the two fighters that had been pursuing her fly off. Drawing back she breathed a sigh of relief and placed a hand against her chest. “I’m fine, I can still fight. And my drive is almost done regenerating and should be done in about two minutes. But with all of the damage we are taking I may have to assign cells to regenerating my surface.”

“So you need armor?... I've got it.” Fallon said as he moved Shiraui further into the destroyed ship's wreckage. Passing through several corridors large enough for adult dragons to pass through Shiraui began to wander where her placenta was taking her before they came to a stop in front of a damaged blast door of some kind.

“Armor run a scan will it work?” Fallon asked as he maneuvered the lanky construct around the piece of metal roughly two thirds her size.

[Please wait… scan complete. Thickness two point two feet… Adequate.]

“Perfect. One ballistic shield, coming up.” Was all Fallon said as Shiraui felt herself reaching out before she ripped the door from its mountings. Satisfied her placenta grasped her left claw around the red “pull here” emergency handle. “Let's rock.”

Flipping back around as Armor changed the song and channel to keep the UEC from regaining comms Shiraui's blasted out of the ship and back into space.

Scanning the operation area Fallon spotted 19 just as it's port engine was struck by a UEC missile. Damaged the fighter transformed and seemed to roar soundlessly in space. As it did the red parts of its body began glowing even brighter before a pulse of eerie red light emanate from its body.

Then entire fighter shook as three more missiles struck its armor and the entire thing exploded into a brilliant shower of crimson sparks and glowing debris. But before he could react Fallon half felt half saw two more waves wash over himself and Shiraui.

As the the red wave washed over Shiraui and her placenta she could feel the keening in his head reached an unbearable pitch. As a human he couldn't handle the methods of communication used by the lanky whole, nor her creator the one. Despite his conversion via his pattern's ignorant use of their L-blades.

As the pain of the sound washed over Fallon the fireflies that had been creeping at the edges of his vision since the start of the engagement vanished, replaced by a crystal clear view of space as if he was neural linked to armor's mech chassis.

“Mister fallon, are you... aagh!” Shiraui, worried about the readings she was receiving from her human placenta asked.

With clenched fists he jammed Shiraui's throttle forward. Activating his implant Fallon forcibly took control of the damaged flayed. “Eight left. Eight on one.” Her pilot said in such a cold voice it sent shivers down what passed for her spine.

[Pilot bogey inbound point 672.921 mark bravo. Distance fifty.]

Seemingly on autopilot Shiraui felt and watched her body twist around to face behind and slightly below her. The cocatrice fired its guns as it came and in response Fallon swung the improvised ballistic shield into place taking the hits on its face.

[Pilot bogey inbound point 354.041 mark alpha. Distance one hundred kilometers. Warning we are outnumbered two to one.]

Arching both his and Shirauis head to the side Fallon saw the fighter was coming from the exact opposite side as the previous one.

“Come on!” He yelled as he dragged the riffle up and fired two bolts into the cockpit of the fighter. As the second erupted into a shower of flame and debris he burst to the side to avoid the debris and thrust the tip of his rifle over the edge of his shield.

Keyed into the rifles targeting reticle he aimed and fired the weapon from around the shield scoring four hits on the cocatrice before it too dissapered from his contact screen. “Six. Shiraui keep me updated with the count.”

“U-understood. Sixty seconds. Incoming!” Shiraui shouted before Fallon backflipped of the path of two dumbfire missiles.

“You'll have to better than that.” Her human placenta said before he blasted her thrusters again and rammed the “shield” into the offending fighter as it passed. The cocatrice crumpled as its hull buckled under the sudden blunt force before exploding.

Kicking her legs out Shiraui felt herself being thrust in a completely opposite direction. However just as she thought she had over committed to the move her left arm came around, swinging the shield into position to block three bolts of gold magical energy.

[Pilot the shield is losing its integrity.] She heard Armor chime in. Sensing something coming Shiraui threw herself into a backwards spin just as two rockets sailed within a hair's breadth of her left leg.

Looking around Shiraui felt a gut wrenching feeling as Fallon took control and flung the shield towards the nearest fighter. “Five”

“Uum, thirty seconds left.”

[Pilot the Corvette is attempting to break contact and burn for the Defiant. Protocol 2.]

Another graceful flip and Shiraui found herself burning towards the distant UEC ship. Almost immediately the ship's two rear facing plasma quarrels opened up. Twisting down and to the right she avoided the first bolt of burning green energy before rolling to the left to narrowly avoid another from second cannon.

Thoughts of someone named Miiora filled her placenta's mind. She felt Fallons need to protect this person and the nanites inside of him telling him to kill, creating a sickening cocktail of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her. Taking what passed for a breath among her kind, feeling the stellar gases fill her air sacks she felt and sensed her placenta doing the same.

When she came back to herself she felt she flicked the firing selector she felt a wave of anxiety wash over her followed by an eerie icey calm as her placenta came too. The rifle in her hands discharge sending a long beam of red light toward the ship. She marveled at the beam for something in the whole drawing parallels with the beam weapons used by The One's claw ships.

Cutting the beam short to save energy as the first turret exploded, Fallon twirled Shiraui around a second ball of plasma before pushing the throttle as far as it would go. Instantly the G-forces of the sudden boost in acceleration smashed him against the seat.

Pain exploded from his back as he felt something wet pop and his vision constricted to almost a pinprick as the accelerometer passed fifteen-G and continued to climb. A shout of alarm from Shiraui brought the Iceman's attention to the sensor panel.

Linking his implant to the rifles targeting reticle he leaned the construct to one side presenting the smallest silhouette possible. Flicking the selector he proceeded to spray the area behind him filling the space between the fighter and Shiraui with bolts of energy. [The Corvette is pulling away pilot.]

“Shiraui, I need more speed.”

“But you could really hurt yourself mister fallon.” Shiraui said Fallon watched the corvette's icon begin to crawl farther away. “I can handle it.”

“A-alright, please hold on.” With that Shiraui snaked more tentacles around Fallons form and dumped what little reserve power she had left into her thrusters. The result was immediate, and just as he began to black out Fallon's suit began injecting him with the adrenaline cocktail known as The Juice. Instantly the encroaching darkness receded and Fallon pulled back to fly parallel to the Corvette.

[Warning: energy rake inbound]

Catching the primary close range weapons of the UEC heading his way Fallon threw Shiraui into a roll that caused the miles long magical beam to miss its target and pass by harmlessly with several inches to spare. “L-drive regenerated mister Fallon.”

[Veteran] Captain: Marcus Teigh

NACS: Defiant: IND-0361-B17

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“fire thruster two. Helm sixty degree ventral starboard roll, execute.”

“Thruster two, ventral roll sixty aye.”

“Sharron what's the status of our launch bays?” I yelled as I wiped blood from my visor. Below me I felt the stealth ship's engines roared to life.

“The tubes are inoperable sir, we have crews working to clear the debris but it will be ten minutes at beat before the tubes are clear.”

“Damn, what about Shiraui and Fallon are they still alive?” My XO asked before a claxon began to blare.

“Captain, the UEC ship has found us again. They are…” an explosion rocked the hull and the sensor operator's call out was cut off as a support beam snapped off and crushed her in her chair. Almost immediately the inactive captain Dunois rushed over to man the vacant station.

“Damage report!” I yelled as the deck bucked under under my crash couch making it gimbel violently.

“Hull breaches on decks nine through twelve. Stealth coating damaged and heatsinks down, we can't go stealth skipper.”

I gripped my seats armrests making the synth leather creak before coming to a decision that might just save my crew. ‘Alright girl, let's give em hell.’

“Helm engines hot, full one eighty flip max burn… take us on this vector. Tactical fire ERM torpedoes. Gunnery I want the PDCs and rail guns to give them whatever we can when we pass them..”

“Communications, send a message to the fleet. We are engaged with the enemy and requesting aid.”

“Aye sir!” My bridge crew shouted as the klaxons began to blare once more. “All hands stand by for High G, secure to crash couches.”

The seconds ticked by as I watched the icon marking the UEC frigate turn in our direction. The hull groaned and damaged pipes burst before it felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest as the ship flipped on its axis to face the frigate and accelerated.

During the flip two electron resonance missiles burst from their tubes before flipping around and blasting towards the UEC ship. Now as we accelerated I watched the missiles streaking ahead of my relatively much slower ship. Minutes passed during which we watched the missiles twitch and dodge incoming UEC countermeasures before slamming into the shields of the ship.

Those shields flared arcing with electricity before flaring violently and failing spectacularly. the entire ship then went silent it’s electronics fried for several crucial minutes as Defiant came barreling towards them.

When the moment came for the UEC to regain their sensors and control we were practically on top of them. “Tactical Fire a full spread of plasma and penetrator torpedoes, knock out their shield generator, and energy rakes. Let's see if we can make this an even fight.”

The hull shivered as the point defence cannons and port railgun swiveled to track the UEC ship. On the tactical plot the space between our two ships instantly filled with the streaks of thousands tracer rounds. Like the wet navy ships of old the Defiant gave the UEC frigate a full broadside perforating the larger ships hull, chewing large sections to pieces with the PDCs.

Then just as the lights aboard the enemy ship began to flicker on the twin linked railgun opened up. The reports of the weapons were silent but the vibration and recoil of the guns resounded throughout the hull.

The light flickered as the guns drew power followed by the boom… boom… boom of the railguns firing on the Defiants relatively small frame. The results were spectacular the UEC ship was struck just as its shields flaired back to life only for those shields to bow inwards from the first impact. The second salvo cracked the shield and the third shattered the dome of pearl colored magic like glass. Allowing the fourth and final salvo to slam into the ships lightly armored hull. Tungsten slugs pierced the hull going through decks bulk heads and personnel, perforating compartments before punching through the opposite side.

The entire event took less than three or four seconds before the Defiant had streaked past the UEC frigate. “Fire.” With a pop we heard six torpedoes burst from their tubes.

“Fish in the water.” My tactical officer said before a violent flash of light appeared almost two million kilometers off of the bow.

“Report.” I yelled watching the torpedoes flip from their launch vectors and fly back along the ship toward their target.

“Shiraui has destroyed the second corvette captain.” the sensor operator reported before klaxons began to blare once more.

“Vampire, vampire incoming missiles at vectors six ninety-four, six delta three, six twenty-seven and six eleven-three. They have entered the maximum engagement range and closings fast, estimate zero four minutes until impact.”

“Tehe, Only Three left.”

“Change PDC priority targeting. Come about stand by for CQB.” Minutes passed as I watched the displays showing the four amber missile icons inching closer and closer to the Defiant. Then all at once the ship's PDCs spun to life spewing thousands of flechettes into the black.

As they drew closer te missiles began to take evasive maneuvers in an attempt to improve their chances of hitting their target. But one by one the three of the four were struck down by the point defence cannons. “Captain the L-drive is…”

Defiant shook violently as the final missile ran the gauntlet of PDC fire and slammed into her hull. Consoles exploded in the CIC as lights flickered, the smell of smoke, burning plastics and rubber filled the air as the red emergency lighting kicked on.

Leaning over and wiping the blood from my visor. I jabbed my finger into my arm wrest hailing my chief engineer. “Shojiro! Damage report!”

“Skipper… L-drive controllers and Main comm dish are gone. Fires on decks two through fifteen, and bulkheads nine to sixteen are exposed to vacuum. Fire control for the port railgun and reactor two is about to overload I have to dump its core before it explodes!” She yelled between yelling to the damage control teams.

Hanging up I pivoted my chair as a desperate Idea came to mind. ‘With the comms dish down we can't alert the fleet. Not unless…’

“What are the chances that the Galactica would be able to detect a radiation burst from its current position?” I asked cycling through the various damage reports until I found what I was looking for.

Captain Dunois was the one to respond, shouting and coughing from her smoking console. “From its current orbital position… very likely but we…”

“Tactical load the mark nines into their tubes. Set them to maximum yield, three point dispersal, two second delay.”

“Two second delay, tri dispersal, maximum yield, aye captain. Twenty seconds.” the tymerian shouted as his clawed fingers danced across the display. “Skipper the UEC ship is closing to minimum engagement range.”

That made my blood run cold at that range about five to fifteen kilometers the UEC's smallest ships could deploy their energy rakes. A nasty energy blade that ran along a track on the hulls of almost every UEC ship that could cut through the thickest hull plating like butter.

“Energy build up at the escorts aft projector. Its rake is coming online.” Dunois reported as she waved the the smoke away.

“Neutrino burst detected off the Uec ship's starboard bow.” The sensor operator said bringing the sensor feed up on the tactical plot.

Space seemed to warp for a split second before a violent and insanely short lived flash of white light filled the right side of the UEC ship on the screen. When the light died down the escort ship had dropped its shields just enough to deploy its main weapon and a long golden beam burst from its tail end.

As we watched the energy rake began its acceleration along its track before a line of pink sparks hit the emitter at its base. “Zoom in that image quadrant, B ninety zulu six.” I said as we breathed a collective sigh of relief as the beam that would have eviscerated Defiant began to flicker die.

“Aye.” The image zoomed in before as the synthetic behind the sensory station began amplifying the image, removing the noise and compensating for time lag.

The image showed Shiraui, the Flayed had ramed herself sholder first into the base of the emitter and was firing her weapon into its track and inner workings. “Defiant, whatever your gonna do do it fast. Before they another emitter online.” Fallon said over the tac-link. Before Shiraui shouldered her weapon and jammed a penetrator mine into the whole she had made.

“Roger Iceman, radiation warning is in effect level four. Buy us all the time you can. We will send reinforcements when able.” I said as I received a thumbs up from the tactical station.

“Solid copy, Let's do this Shiraui.” Fallon said calmly. Followed quickly by an energetic “Right!” from Shiraui as I watched the flayed kick off of the hull and arch its back to fire it's rifle one handed sending a tight six round burst into a condenser turret.

“Mister Xel'der, execute.” Instantly there were three distinct pops as the multi megaton metroplex busters burst from their tubes. “One five seconds until nukes reach minimum safe distance.” The tymerian reported.

Catching movement from the corner of my eye I saw Captain Dunois turn in her seat and I waved her off knowing she was next to useless on the bridge at this point with the main dish gone. Instantly she unbuckled and jogged off of the bridge and down towards the hanger deck. Minutes passed until I received a report that Valkyrie had managed to clear and force their way through a damaged freight elevator.

Vtrn Fallon / Aux Shiraui

Gibraltar planetary system

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Flying along the hull of the escort I drifted
Shiraui around a destroyed turret and towards one of the external shield generators. “Woah low bridge!” I felt Shiraui take control and kick herself into a roll passing over an external tubed walkway.

I could feel Shiraui's excitement feeding through the link as we flew along. Her soft giggling eventually became infectious and eventually the keening and anger I felt drained away to be replaced with a sense of joy. I wasn't quite at the point of laughing but It felt like I was a kid with a new toy.

“Coming through!” I yelled over the music as I brought Shiraui's “armored” left shoulder around and bashed through a glass tube. Dropping low I sunk Shiraui's hand into the hull drifting around a sensor antenna until the pulsing shield generator came into view.

Shiraui spotted and marked a large window on the half dome's face, and I locked her feet down onto the hull. Her thrusters fired and I sprinted towards it firing the blaster. Once, then twice cracking the glass until it stared violently on the third and by then we were airborne and crashing through the glass.The crew in the compartment screamed silently as they were violently sucked into space.

[Highlighting structural weak point.]

A large red glowing crosshair appeared on the spinning arcane structure. It marked one red highlighted cylinder below the central point. Shrugging I leveled the blaster cannon and fired three shots into its face.

The entire generator began to rumble and shake out of sync before explosions began to rack its surface. “Oh shit! Shiraui get us out of here!” I yelled taking a step back. In response Shiraui took control and kicked off of the exploding generator and launched herself out of the window.

As we flew out we came under fire from several UEC shuttles that the escort ship must have launched in an attempt to get rid of us. “Fuck.” goosing Shiraui's engines I breaked as hard as I could to avoid a hail of intersecting fire. They had me bracketed and with a quick mental command Shiraui vanished but when we appeared behind the two shuttles they exploded.

A collision alarm blared and I rolled out of the way just as two Gungnir fighters shot past my position. In the corner of my bucket’s HUD a box appeared revealing Charlotte's helmeted face.

“Highlighting targets…. Shield!” I yelled as three blindingly bright flashes appeared around us. All at once all off Shiraui's feeds cut out and she switched to a millimeter wave feed leaving me with a crude wireframe outline of the area around us.

I could feel my skin crawling as waves of radiation washed over us as my nanites fought to neutralize the radiological damage. Obviously the lankys had failed to mention the minimal shielding inside of the Flayed's cockpit.

When the light died down and Shiraui turned the displayed back on I saw Charlotte had pulled alongside Shiraui and shifted her fighter into its Valkyrie mode. “Bien?” She asked her face a mask of concern.

“I'll live. Talk to me Armor.”

[Tertiary energy rake has begun its warm up sequence. Recommend immediate intervention.]

“On it!”

Supreme commander: Rarity Belle

Sub commander: Polar Light

UEC super Destroyer : Element of Magic

System: Gibraltar

Fuel station orbit

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

56AE

“Radiation bursts supreme commander!” The sensor pony yelled before three small stars flared into existence around the stricken earther ship. Instantly the window darkened to protect their vision from the earthers barbaric nuclear weapons.

“What is the status of my escort?” The pirple maned unicorn asked folding her hands behind her back as she struggled to ignore the music still blaring over the speakers.

Its not like im walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death.

“It appears to be intact and engaged with earther fighters.” Earth pony responded before the image updated showing the golden beam of one of the escort’s energy rakes.

‘Perfect when the earther ship fails to report back the rest of its fleet will be forced to come in blind and we will catch them completely off guard. Krysk’s plan was completely… what's going on?’ The element bearer's train of thought was cut off as the rake cut off. Space to the left of the battle began to warp and spiral, and the fighters that had been harassing the escort all at once broke off.

“Neutrino burst!”

“What!” She shouted twisting to face the source of the unwanted news. “Incoming, Star swirl forming.”

Turning back to the window she watched the image expand and pan out as a the warp in space shifted before bursting into a swirling cloudy vortex of red and white. Through the vortex two massive human ship came barreling into space suddenly appearing on her ships sensors.

“Silhouettes match, ninety-nine percent match. Zero two annihilator class siege breakers. It's the NACS Donnager, and the...” The sensor pony was cut off with a wave of a well manicured hand.

“The Manitoba.” Rarity spat rage leaking from her every word. As she said this the two ships dashed out of the vortexes they had created. Their one thousand meter long hulls pulsed with light as they passes on either side of their stricken cousin.

Dozens of railgun batteries and Point defence guns swiveled and as the two ships passed beside the comparatively miniscule escort the space between them turned into the ninth circle of Tartarus.

Thousands of rounds courtesy of the rotary PDCs, and hundreds of slugs from the two ships compliments of light, medium and heavy rail guns. All of which lanced out to meat the two hundred meter escort. The earther saying “There's always a bigger fish.” crossed her mind as the once proud escort was transformed in a matter of seconds from a display of UEC power, into an unrecognizable cloud of expanding debris.

The bridge of the super destroyer was deathly quiet as the two human ships decelerated and pulled alongside the tiny two hundred meter ship. No pony, slave or other member of the UEC in the flotilla spoke as more starbursts began to appear around the three ship.

First one, then two, four, six, nine, twelve. One by one and two by two more and more ships burst into existence around the two ships. Running the gambit of almost thirty ships.

Ten Corvette class frigates, five of their destroyers, six of their big hammerhead linebacker space control cruisers, four of the leathy class siege breakers, one recolored UEC luna class super destroyer, two smaller UEC cadence class destroyers, and finally two more of the behemoth annihilator siege breakers.

Fred Johnson, Donnager, Astrid, Manitoba, Matayo, James holden, Yorktown, Minsk, Yamato, and Vancouver. Ten of the COG's siege breakers floated in space chilling the blood of the bridge crew and for the first time Raritt was glad Krysks was present and had pulled so many fleets together. She knew no one fleet could stand against the shere firepower on display even stranded as they are.

“Neutrino burst. It looks like something big is coming through.” The dry fear leaden voice of the sensor pony said as the screen panned out. Indeed if one were to see the COG formation as a whole they could see a huge vacancy directly at its center.

Space warped for half a second before the behemoth dreadnought burst into existence at the fleets center. Its ugly grey hull was covered in vast empty spaces where it appeared these other ships would dock marked almost half of its almost one and a half mile long hull. Amidships at its dorsal and ventral sections were absolutely massive three barreled turrets, at four hundred meters long they looked like something that belonged on an ancient seafaring warship.

She read the name on the side of the ship, burning it into her memory. “NACS Galactica.” Taking a dread filled breath and swallowing the rapidly growing lump in her throat she tossed aside her pride and gave the order. “Send word to supreme commander Krysk, We have made contact with the enemy.”

Author's Note

I appologise for the wait, I moved into my new apartment recently and I havent had much time to work on anything. Since I have been busting my ass at work and struggling with a bit of writers block.

Chapter 10 Hurry up and wait

[Veteran] Gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

NACS: Manitoba. Grey Deck

Gibraltar planetary system

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Hours passed, as I waited in the queue to land aboard the Manny and reunite with both of my team and my fiancee after a stop by the medbay, mess, and shower. As I waited one of the first things to happen after the Galactica's arrival was the almost immediate destruction of a lone UEC super destroyer that had broken formation with the retreating fleet around the refueling station.

The ship appeared old and lagged behind it's obviously much new and there for faster counterparts. And like a pack of wolves the “lost fleet” as we had taken to calling ourselves, took advantage. Instantly and at extreme range the spinal mounted gauss cannons aboard the James Holden, and Yamato charged and fired instantly downing its shields and opening it to attack from the alpha.

I watched on Shiraui's bank of networked monitors as the Gally's ventral particle accelerator began it's lumbering swivel to track its target. What seemed like minutes passed and as Shiraui began our taxi into the Manitoba I saw it. My helmet simulated color for the naturally invisible particle beam showing a silvery beam lancing out into space.

As we taxied into the bay I watched perfectly straight beam lance out from the Galactica and travel towards the super destroyer. That beam reached out, and out and touched the fleeing ship. It seemed to linger for several seconds on its hull burning, vaporising armor as it delivers yottawatts of energy before the beams punched through heralding the ships ultimate destruction.

When the light died down the ship floated lifeless for several seconds with three holes, that glowed white hot burned straight through its hull before exploding. When I finally landed, with Shiraui pulling herself through the barrier membrane and clamping down onto the deck I could hear a faint cheer going up throughout grey deck.

Humans and formers were clapping and cheering as I guided Shiraui along one of the mech walkways. When we reached our destination Shiraui backed into one of Snow Viper's spare creshes. The cresh was covered in a thin layer of plastic and a full team of what could only be bots and androids waited inside to detox the both of us.

Her displays went dark and I sagged in the seat as Shiraui released her tentacles. Then there was a wet crunching sound as Shiraui opened her chest to allow me to exit her “cockpit”.

When I finally managed to crawl out and onto the catwalk I took off my bucket and took in a long refreshing breath of recycled air. “Excuse me, please remove your armor so we can begin your detoxification.” A voice said from beside me.

Turning I saw two men in grey coveralls with a “synthetic” patch on their shoulders. Both of them looked the same, mid thirties, and had the same black hair. “Sure. No problem.” I said as I began to strip off my armor.

[That was quite unpleasant mast…] Behind me there was another followed by a set of metallic footsteps as Armor managed extricate itself from Shiraui's chest. And was almost immediately sprayed down with an absorbent foam.

“Thanks for the ride Shiraui, that was one hell of a trip.” I grunted as I stretched, earning several wet pops from my back before stepping into the detox cube the two synthetics had brought with them. When she didn't respond I turned around and saw her tilt her shovel shaped head to one side.

“Something wrong?” I asked feeling somewhat self conscious about my state of nakedness. ‘That isnt it, she's always technically naked.’

Her blood soaked lower jaw… beak? Beak parted slightly emitting a short lived but ear splitting chirp, forcing me to slap my hands over my ears. Almost immediately she closed her bean and began to act almost apprehensive, bashful mabey.

Then she seemed to have some kind of epiphany as a team of myrialos mechanics and bots came and retrieved her weapon and place it in a rack beside her. Shiraui then reached a hand up and with two fingers seemed to massage a spot on her neck where her throat, or I guess where her throat would be if she was human for a few seconds.

When she was done with... whatever she was doing she moved her hand away and folded her hands in front of her. The blood around her mouth was gone and the spot where she had massaged had been modified with some kind of gill like organ.

“It was quite enjoyable, a-and I thank you for the experience but…” She began as she started fidgeting slightly with her hands. As she did this her eyeless head drifted between the deck about twenty feet down and myself.

“But, What?” I asked as I gave my left forearm a twist earning a pop as the bionic disconnected from the socket before handing the bionic to one of one of the med techs.

“Well um you see. Even though I am successfully… linked with you. I still don't have a placenta, a-and without one I wont be able to work with the other flayed. I won't be able to… link, to properly connect to the whole, to coordinate with my pattern.” She sounded… I guess sad would be the word? Dejected definitely, she was essentially cut off. Like an ATLAS without a pilot but in reverse, she is organic and can adapt, and show initiative on her own. But without a pilot or placenta she cant slave herself if she wanted to to the other Flayed to operate as a cohesive unit.

“Well…” I sighed as my arm was handed back to me and I snapped it hack on. “What did you have in mind?”

“I-I was w- wondering if you would mind. To terribly i-if I… joined your team?” She stammered out like she was a kid asking a parent for candy.

“My team? Why my team? There are alot of other's you could join. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm against it but I'm Armor's pilot. I can't just ditch him and be your pilot Shiraui.” I said as I stepped out of the detox box and back onto the gantry and began the process of put my armor back on.

Instantly she began waving her hands in front of her face. “No no that's not what I mean at all! I don't want you to abandon Armor. What I mean is that I can't operate without being networked as you call it.” Shiraui exclaimed before she appeared to droop and began fidgeting again like a nervous schoolgirl in one of those network shows.

“You wouldn't even have to pilot me if you don't want to. But I need to stay linked with placenta. And…”

“And the only ones who are able to link with you are Me, Harris, and Loomis… I see your problem now. I don't need to be inside your cockpit to stay synchronized. And because we already are it would be easier to stay connected to me, rather than approach either one of them and risk having them turn you down.” I said as I finally managed to get the final plate of hard shell into place on my pants.

“In a sense yes. I truly enjoyed our first time together and would like to experience it again. But now that we are linked I should, in theory be able to operate even if you are not in my cockpit as you call it. Within reason of courses, I guess If we were to be separated by to great a distance…” Damn, the poor girl… thing, sounded like I just kicked her dog, and ditched her at prom night all at once.

“Then you would be back to square one. Alright, I understand. I'll have talk to Loomis and get it approved. And if he says no then you have to understand…”

She placed her hands on her chest and seemed to simulate a sigh of relief before speaking again, almost bouncing with excitement. “Yes I understand. Thank you for doing this for me Mister Fallon, I'll try not to become an inconvenience. Perhaps it might help to think of me as just a spare mech to use when Armor isn't available.”

“No need for that. Your a person, a very large person able to tear through hull plating. But still a person… well Lanky. Alright, we should have a few hours to a day before we reach the target planet. I'll talk to Loomis and if everything works out get you introduced to the rest of team Fallon before we head out.” I finished putting on my battle armor and did a little hop hearing the ceramic clank twice before fixing properly. ‘Love this Legionnaire armor.’

“Oh alright, goodby mister Fallon.”

“Talk to you later Shiraui.”

[Vtrn] Onyx Guard: Marcus Loomis

NACS: Galacitca

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“Approved, Fallon, I'll call you when I need you.” My fellow nanotized trooper nodded once before disconnecting the vid. Leaning back in my chair I scratched at my beard before leaning forward and opening a terminal.

[Enter verification code…. Verification accepted]

[...Progress update to Weyland-Yutani corporation, Dunois development, and NAC Psi-ops science divisions. Onyx Guard Loomis reporting. Transmission pending…]

[The crew and fleet are unaware that their current danger is only necessary because I purposely sabotaged the Galactica's system core before the battle several months ago. The crew believes I am nanotized as well but they couldn't be further from the truth. The amplifiers injected during project quantum saw to that….]

[For several months I have cataloged the changes to subject Fallon and subject Harris. My mission under Weyland-yutani special order 937 is to study, evaluate and if possible return with a viable specimen of the Nanotized subjects for further study…]

[...In a surprising turn of events subject Shiraui XX-121 appears to have reacted positively with the lanky nanites residing inside of Subject Fallon. However do his proximity to the tymerian Mii’ora is proving detrimental to his development. Other outside sources such as Charlotte Dunois, other members of his team. It has not been easy easy to carry out my mission. However I have used my authority as subjects acting commanding officer to gain access to the two subjects more often….]

[Loomis out.]

[Veteran] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

NACS: Manitoba SB-A-041

26RTI, Squad quarters: Snow Viper

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

When the hatch slid open and I crossed the threshold into the dark compartment. I could hear the soft breathing and light snoring of my squadmates as I activated my implant to use its night vision mode. Something I learned to do after the first time I stepped on Miiora's tail.

Moving silently around Durge's sleeping form I crossed the compartment to my birth and began striping my armor. Once I finished hooking to a stand I navigated the minefield of limbs, tails and discarded food canisters. With a grunt I slid the hatch to the shower open and entered the side compartment. Ignoring the sound of one of the stalls in use I crossed chamber, entered a free stall and washed the remainder of the anti radiation jell from my body. Powering off the shower I stopped to shave, noticed a large garbage bag beside the door that wasn't there before containing a shed skin and stuffed it into the trash shoot before exiting.

When I finally made it back to my birth the events of the past day and a half finally caught up with me. I plopped onto the mattress style crash couch and was out almost before my head was on the gel pillow.

A Few nightmare filled hours later, my implant woke me up and I almost immediately know something was off. First off I felt oddly claustrophobic and second was the added weight latched onto my person. Silently and as smoothly as possible I brought my bionic around to my right hand and popped open the compartment holding the monofilament knife. Taking the handle in hand I looked down to see Miitoa’s snake like head resting on my chest with her maw rested just below my collarbone.

When she finally began to stir she shoved her snout into my neck and sleepily inhaled deeply before drawing back slightly and cracking a slitted eye open. The eyris was gold and widened slightly when she saw me looking back at her as grin split my lips. “Hello there.”

“Hello my love. I was worried you wouldn't not return before we were deployed again.” She said quietly as she pressed her muzzle into my neck again.

“What? You weren't worried about my safety?” I asked as I placed the knife back into its holder in my bionic, before wrapping her in a gentle hug.

“Always, she worries whenever we are apart love. But I knew you had Charlotte with you.” her voice was muffled slightly by me neck before she pressed her maw against my lips and we shared a kiss.

We stayed like that for several minutes. Her deceptively lithe and if I may say quite attractive frame wrapped around me, with her tail and legs wrapped around my lower half. While my arms or arm depending on how you see it held her torso tight to my chest. And some part of me wished we could could stay like that forever, but the rest of me wanted to KTF.

But when the one MC chimed on with a deceptively calming “Bing-bong” we knew we had to get up. With a sigh and a final lingering kiss I sighed and sat up. “Come on Miiora, time to KTF.”

She slid forward and took a deep inhale, no doubt getting my scent or something or another sliding back. “Very well.”

With that I slid the curtain back and stood up in the still dark compartment. Activating my implant a turned on my night vision and dawned my battle armor before turning and helping Miiora do the same with hers. Latching seals, tightening straps, fastening buckles and rechecking those seals, before checking her battle armors secondary battery to make sure her suits heaters didn't crap out on her since her species cant regulate their body heat.

Once the two of us were kitted up, her in her dark blue Spaceborn infantry battle armor with her helmet tucked under one arm, and me in my Liegonare kit with bucket in hand and lit cigarette in my mouth. I walked over to the compartments door panel and flicked the lights on entering full sargent mode.

“Get the fuck up you apes!” I yelled slapping several of Durge's legs as I watched my squad startled awake.

My old cadet corporal Watkins was the first up and out of his rack followed quickly by Gutsy. And immediately they began yelling and barking at the others who were not awake yet.

“Trombley, Forbes! Get the fuck up, and kitted out now!” Watkins yelled throwing open their curtains and almost yanking them out of their bunks.

“LETS MOVE PEOPLE! Were deployed in ten! The boarding crews will not wait! Move your ass marines! And make sure to check your seals for vacuum.” I yelled lighting another cigarette.

“Hey gunny you know technology i'm not a marine!” Levoy yelled as he fastened his grieves.

Snatching my cigarette from my mouth and pointing it at the synthetic I snapped a quick. “Shut the fuck up Levoy.” Before the one MC chimed on.

“Combat stations, combat stations, all hands combat stations. Mech crews report to muster.”

“Alright lance you heard the man, let's move, Watkins mind the kids.”

“Got it boss.” The man with the unicorn horn hanging from his neck called out as I put out my cigarette and fastened my bucket.

Sparing a sidelong glance at Miiora I hardened my self and logged out of the compartment with Miiora, and Trombley close behind.

“Hey Iceman, you ready to KTF?” Big Dog asked as I met up with his lance, Pitbull.

“Always.” I replied slapping him on the back as we passed met up with the rest of our section in the mustering station.

“Yo Ice you sure your lance can keep up?” Grayson asked as the Amplifiers made their way up to us.

“I might have something up my sleeve Amp.”

“Really like what? Your lance is…”

“If your a good by Amp you might find out.” I said earning a good look at his middle finger in response. Our lances laughed as Wraith and his lance came in.

The laughing and rough housing intensified when the hatch opened and four members of MOTH team-3 entered the room. At their head was Crux Tongea the best mech pilot in the COG. The aged man like the rest of his team was dressed in the older MOTH battle armor.

“MOTH team-1. where's your leader?” He asked in calming voice.

“He isn't here colonel. And he doesn't have a mech.” I said coming to attention before the man.

He grunted at that before resting a hand on the pommel of the sword at his side. “Unacceptable, It is better to lead by example. Inspire greatness through action, not words, remember that. Your lances will be under my command.”

“Yes sir.” Was the only reply I could come up with before the deck shook and a metallic clang rang out through the ship. ‘The refueling tube is locked. Any minute now...’

“Green light, green light.”

“ATLAS Pilots, Deus Vult!”

[Vtrn] MOTH: Avery Fallon

NACS: Manitoba

Snow Viper

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“Greeting Mister Fallon.” Shiraui greeted us eagerly as my Trombely, Miiora and I rounded the walkway into our bay. “Did your meeting with mister Loomis go well?”

“Yep, your on the team. Welcome to Snow Viper…”

“Ooo, thank you so much mister Fallon! I promise you won't regret it!”

“Don't worry bout it. Anyway allow me to introduce you to your lance mates. This is degenerate Trombley callsign and mech name Camouflage, and this is stunning female beside me is Miiora callsign and mech name Habu.”

“Uuum what's up.” was all Trombely said as he froze at the sight of the flayed that stood a head taller than our ATLAS mechs. Mainly because she had a head.

“Greetings, Shiraui.” Miiroa said from my side before kicking off and drifting to the walkway in front of Habu's cockpit.

“It is a pleasure to meet you both! I can't wait to work together.” Shiraui said bowing her head slightly as Trombley and I kicked off moving towards our mechs.

“Armor, open cockpit.” I called out to the ATLAS-3.

[Acknowledged]

The clamshell opened and I extended a hand to halt my drift before standing on the bottom hatch almost twenty feet from the deck. “Hey Iceman want the L-blade again?” our chief asked from above me.

“No give me two autocannons. And one of those blaster cannons, like Shiraui's got.”

“Why do you want one of those? Ain't got as much range as a regular ballistic.” He asked making two hand signed to the crews working the ordnance crains.

“Less moving parts. Less parts to brake.” Reaching over I shoved my N-4 into an alcove before opening the mechs womb with a mental command.

The coffin like capsule opened and I crossed my arms before dropping into the seat. Closing my eyes I heard the capsule close followed by the cockpit itself. Then the amniotic fluid was pumped into the womb and for a fraction of a second I had the sensation of drowning before I regained my nerves and took a deep breath filling my lungs with the oxygenated amniosis. [Synchronize Y/N]

[Y]

[Weyland-Yutani ATLAS-3: Sierra Delta-6624 online.]

There was a flash and when I opened my eyes I was almost twenty feet tall. My mechs arms and legs became my own, its pistons, and hydraulics my muscles, and its sensors and camera feeds my eyes and ears. Thanks to the ATLAS-3's womb and the neural link used by all ATLAS mechs for all intents and purposes I am armor, I am become fury.

looking down I saw the crew chief giving me the thumbs up which I returned before contacting my lance. “Lance report go no go.”

The corners of my HUD flashed as three boxes appeared, all showing heartbeat monitors, but only two showing pilots inside of their cockpits. The last belonging to Shiraui only showed me her non face.

“Camouflage, good to go.” Trombley said clapping his hands in his cockpit before fixing his harness.

“Habu, is ready to depart.” Miiora said with her tail flicking switches behind her before settling it into a secure cradle.

“Shiraui, ready and waiting.”

“Snow Viper set.” I reported to Crux as he pinged me on the tac-link.

“Alright listen up people. Snow Viper will advance with the Templar and protect collar one. Pitbull and Amplifiers will move next and move to collar three. Leopard and Ghost collar two, Saber and Ruler collar four.”

“Copy.” We all replied before the lights in the bay turned from red to yellow. “Get set.”

“Snowviper one-one in the move.” Taking a step forward I grabbed the blaster cannon from its cradle and held the weapon at a low ready. Turning slightly I looked to see the others leaving their creshes to follow.

Satisfied I turned and stomped my way past several other bays before coming to a halt at the head of a queue of other atlas mechs. “Woah Iceman is that what you had up your sleeve?” Amp said

“I don't know man, that things pretty creepy.” another pilot said over the company channel.

“Glad its not on my team.”

“I don't think they like me very much.” Shiraui said over the squad channel.

“Its alright Shiraui, they don't need too. Besides they don't even know you. Give it time and I'm sure they'll warm up to you, just like the people on the Defiant.”

“A-alright… I'll do my best.”As we talked The light in the airlock started to flash.

“Stand by…..” Crux said from his position at the head of our line.

That's when the deck shook and the distinct sound of sudden PDC fire could be heard faintly in the hold. “This is the General, hostile fleet detected on hard ingres. This was a set up, all hands combat stations set condition one throughout the fleet.”

“You heard the man people. Up and out!” Crux said as the airlock finished cycling and the lights turned Green.

“Templar, Deus vult!” the moment the hatch opened he fired his mech jump jets and vaulted over the deck and onto the ships hull.

Stepping up to the threshold before firing my own jump jets. “Snowviper, Kill Them First!”

Chaper 11 Thirty on one thirty

Liasson Cpl: Mii'ora [Habu]

NACS: Manitoba

Gibraltar planetary system

System: HP-696

Distance from sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“… Camouflage cover your sectors! Habu close that gap!” My suiter yelled.

Muzzle flashes from the end of his wrist guns illuminating his armor while at his side the recent addition to our lance Shiraui, fired her cannon casting them both in an eerie red light.

“Hooo! That's all of ‘em boss.” Trombley sighed as the last missile exploded almost one hundred meters away.

“Not yet, that was only the first wave. Lance form up, watch eachothers backs. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

“Iceman, I can not see anything in this debris, her sensors are picking up many false readings.” I said as I reloaded my flechette rifle and fell in behind my suiter.

“Keep your head on a swivel Habu. Stay cool, just Icequeen taught you.”

For several moments we watched the vista pan and felt the Manitoba twitch underneath us as it maneuvered. In the distance one of the PDCs swiveled firing streames of pearl white tracers into the void.

Suddenly we halted a raised hand from my suiter stopped pur advance. “Stand by, we have fighters and dropships coming up from the planet. Top thinks their gonna try and get in close and take out the PDCs, punch a hole in our grid, and give their people a straight shot at the Gally and the Manitoba.”

“Snow Viper actual, Templar actual: how copy?”

“Solid copy Templar. Go ahead.”

“I don't like this Iceman, This isn't their usual strategy. Usually we would be swamped by now.”

“Agreed. Recommend regroup. Break... I just got this image capture of one of the incoming dropships from Icequeen. Sending now.” A window appeared in the corner of my heads up display showing what looked like a flight of UEC shuttles. Even now, several years after being freed from the UEC the sight of a single flight of buffalo shuttles made my blood run cold. As in her past that sight usually meant a pacification force was coming for someone in your area.

“Wait for iiiiit, there, freeze and zoom into section twelve.” The image stopped the rear most shuttle shifted sending a wave that cleared the lingering clouds behind it.

Emerging from the clouds were several shuttles that did not fit the UECs standard design. There were no smooth sweeping shapes, no graceful appearance, or garish livery. Instead these ships were closer in design to the dropships used by the COG, built for function rather than form making them more of a dropship than a shuttle.

Grey black in appearance, they displaced nearly twice the mass of a buffalo and bristled with weapon hardpoints. In a way not dissimilar to the NAC's dragonfly gunship. Four powerful vtol engines carried them towards us as well as a quartet of quad rocket pods, and a mean looking double barreled nose gun. The light from the systems stars glinting off of their red cockpits. But what had my human compatriots and myself confused was the symbol emblazoned on the sides of the incoming unknown dropships.

The image zoomed in again before clearing to show a deep purple octagon with a deep crimson V cutting it in half. Then emblazoned on the surface of the backdrop were two silver and gold spirals resembling a galaxy.

“What is that?” Avery Fallon asked with a sharp edge to his voice.

“No idea, but I don't like it. Form up with my lance Snow viper Crux out …. All embarked personnel, stand by for second wave.” Crux said before cutting the link.

Off to my left I could see Crux, standing grew grew 3

“Alright people. This is where the fun begins.”

Supreme commander: Alikill Krysk

KES: Particular Justice

System: Gibraltar

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

56AE

“Exiting subspace, supreme commander. In three… two… one… transition.”

“Sensors, status report.”

“Second assault force on route. Seventh and twelfth fleets transitioning and moving into position now supreme commander.” My sensor operator, a grey scaled tymerian bearing the mark of the kleese empire on his uniform reported. With a wave of my top left hand I brought up the sensory input screen as well as a visual feed. The display flickered at my gesture before coming into focus.

The image before my eyes set my heart to racing. Near on thirty earther vessels all built to standards that would do any ancient kleese fleet prefect proud. “What are the statistics?”

Hir'kell swiveled a pupil towards one of his screens before standing strait on his four legs. “Fleet commander, with the final fleets exiting their warp jumps now. We now outnumber them nearly four point three to one.”

“An overwhelming margin against any normal opponent, a notion these humans are far from. This will be an even fight. Alert the fleet, space out and overlap shields. Focus fire on their siege breakers before that heavy battleship. Tell the ships commanders to maintain an evasive pattern, make the humans work for their kills…”

My orders given I took a deep calming breath. It would not do to become worked up and unprofessional in front of the men as that would be bad for moral. “Weapon crews batteries online, ready plasma cannons and energy lances. Launch fighters and bombers and raise shields.”

“What of the missiles sir?” One of the few equestrian appointed officers asked. Grunting in annoyance as I watched impressed at the half sphere formation the humans were adopting to deal with an attack from multiple vectors.

I folded both sets of hands behind my back as I clamping my hands together to cover the excited shaking. As I watched the humans fire their missiles and torpedoes eight, twenty four, sixty seven, then one hundred and fourteen, as the seconds ticked by more and more missiles popped from their housings and spread towards my task force.

“They would not get through the earthers defencive screen at this range. We close in and use them there. Sixth fleet, weapons free, for the Kleese… for the conclave!”

Space

COG: Lost fleet/UEC: Taskforce 2

System: Gibraltar/HP-696

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

Distance from Sol: unknown

Engagement range: 700k mm

56AE/2169AD/106AC

Space ignited both sides of the conflict showered in the silver light of Galactica's main batteries as it fired again and again. Methodically taking out UEC super destroyers with every shot of its triple barreled guns.

On screens and through windows both sides watched as the space between the two fleets began to fill with ordinance. Missiles, torpedoes, plasma quarals, railgun darts, gauss cannon slugs and gigantic bolta of sizzling plasma all mixed together into a riot of color. And behind the opening salvos from both sides flew swarms of fighter craft. While on the hulls of the human vessels PDCs whurred to life and mechs turned swiveled their weapons and readied themselves.

As the faster human shots struck their targets nearly a dozen of smaller UEC vessels vanished in violent displays of newtonian physics. Shaken several small corvette and escort commanders broke their formation and swiftly found themselves swamped in penetrator missiles, and plasma torpedoes.

Then came the turn of the UEC, as their slower weapons fell on the mostly unshielded yet impervisteal armored COG fleet. Hulls melted, were flesh vaporized, or burned away revealing the guts of several human vessels who continued to fire their weapon in desperate defiance until their reactors either went critical or died.

Crimson lightning arked across the hulls of the siege breakers as they coordinated their firing solutions, staggering their fire for maximum effect. One by one they fired their weapons at half or quarter charges before a lance of crimson energy reached out from the flagship of Supreme commander Krysk to touch the Yamato.

Armor boiled and vaporized as the zaltule plasma lance struck its target taking the siege breakers main weapon offline. Seconds later five more volleys of boiling plasma slammed into the defanged Yamato before its escorts moved and interceded their own hulls with another voly.

But to no avail and as dropships, mechs, fighters and escape pods launched, many in the joint UEC task force watched one of the COG’s harrolded siege breakers die. Its hull split in two by its reactor overload, but as it died the ships dissipating AI fired every weapon at its disposal even as the ship rapidly disintegrated its core.

Radiation warnings blared across the fleet as the Yamato fired its racks of massive orion seed killer missiles. The massive pykrete missiles burst from their hardpoints on gouts of nuclear fire racing ahead of the dying ship even as the ship emptied its racks before vanishing in its own nuclear fireball.

The siege breakers fire shifted from the smaller UEC vessels to the six kleese ships that made up the backbone of Krysk's battlefleet, knowingthst those ships were the larger threat. Concentrated fire from the Donnager and Manitoba flashed through space at fractions of the speed of light before slamming into an ricocheted off of the overlapping reinforced shields of the six ships.

The next siege breaker to be decommissioned was the NAC:OPAS Matayo. As concentrated condenser lense fire from Rarity's seventh fleet splattered against its hull. However unlike its sister ship the aging Leathy class siege breaker expelled its grid of mechs, fighters and dropships before its commanding officer twisted a key, tearing a whole into space in front of the ship before a swirling tear in subspace pulled the ship through. A fraction of a second later another tare reappeared and spat the rapidly accelerating ship out in the midst of the closest UEC fleet.

Condenser cannons turned ponderously aboard the comically small UEC super destroyers around the human vessel as it burned for all it was worth. Spinning slowly its vast arrays of railguns and PDCs raked everything in its vicinity it accelerates towards the shielded kleese ships. Scoring no less than three kills, before the belter built siege breaker speared straight through a smaller luna class destroyer. Splitting The UEC ship two as it was dashed against the Matayo's armored bow, before the flaming vessel barreled into the protective barrier around the kleese ships.

The shield flared brightly as it attempted to absorb the kinetic energy of millions of tons worth of starship being dashed against it. But just as the shield seemed it would withstand the blow it suddenly crumpled as a voly of railgun and gauss slugs truck it. Now undeterred the remains of the Matayo and her dead or dying crew continued onward to dash itself against one of the Kleese battleships.

Both ships crumpled under the force of the collision, explosions rocking their hulls before they broke apart. With one of the Matayo's engine pods separating and being sent into the hull of a super destroyer taking both ships out with it.

Space

System: Gibraltar/HP-696

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

Distance from Sol: unknown

Engagement range: 400k mm

56AE/2169AD/106AC

Between the two warring fleets a white and blue Gungnir-2 in valkyrie mode kicked its leg out as three fighters closed in behind it. Tracking its wrist gatling towards the repurposed shrike as it screamed past her, its blond pilot fired her jets backflipping as it transformed back into fighter mode to avoid a gun run by one of the UECs new breezee interceptors.

Banking to follow the earther fighter, the rainbow maned pilot of the commandeered nac fighter craft rolled hard to the right before a stream of tracers forced her to break off the maneuver. Arching her back and neck captain Rainbow Dash saw another fighter, it's autocannon spitting gouts of flame as it burned hard towards her.

Her fighter shook and rolled wing over wing as a missile slammed into her shield. As she rolled she saw the earther pilot scream past getting a better look at the earther shrike. Recognition struck her and she ground her teeth before slamming a fist against the canopy.

“Red tail.” She spat as she managed to get her own shrike under control. When she spotted the fighter she had shut down over Tearus it was using its maneuvering thrusters to flip around so it was flying backwards while facing her. “Buck!” She shouted goosing the engines as Eagle fired his cannon at her having used up all of his missiles in the first volley.

”Come on bitch.” the Tuskegee trained pilot grunted as he was pressed against his crash couch. “Knight one on your six.” a voice cried out over the tac-link before he broke off pirouetting his fighter away from a pair of dumbfire missiles before a flash from behind him precursored a small shower of debris.

“Thanks Snow.” The Galactica's CAG said as he watched a black avenger fighter soar past his canopy, its forward swept wings folding forward into its fuselage as it gained speed to chase down a blue and gold pegasus fighter.

“You again!” A revived Spitfire yelled. Banking her fighter around a hail of cannon fire as she spotted the fighter that had shot her down over bagmare.

But just as she manoeuvred to fire her condenser guns a streak of gold particles swept past her as the fighter she had been chasing with the others shot past her. Behind the transforming fighter prime captain Shining Star was hot on its tail with his breezee interceptor.

“Come on, come on, come on.” The unicorn pilot muttered, the engine screamed in Star's ears as he struggled to keep behind the earther. His scopes screamed at him as he watched the reticule bouncing between having and not having target lock as the earther jinked and swerved their fighter.

Tone came and he fired his missiles fully expecting the ordinance to fall short of finding find their targets. Waiting for the earther to transform into its mech form and begin shooting down the missiles her was surprised when a stream of tracers came from nowhere and struck them out of space.

The explosions from the missiles illuminated the earther fighter as it transformed in the eerie orange glow before arching it's back around one of his shots, aiming its left fist at him twin rotary guns spinning. Firing two more shots he quickly spun to the side avoiding a stream of grenades before the fighter with the white and red snowflake logo transformed and followed him.

“Icequeen, Manitoba reports unknown contacts are deploying mechs onto her hull. Looks like their taking a page out of both our and the lankys handbooks.” A voice called out into Charlotte's comm, it was Doll her wingman.

“This is what Avery would call a shit show. A total charly foxtrot…. Nothing we can do now, we have our job to do, the others have theirs.”

‘Please Avery be okay and make it through this… Miiora make sure he makes it through this.’

[Vtrn] GySgt: Avery “Iceman” Fallon

Outer Hull

NACS: Manitoba

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“What the fuck is that thing?” One of the basic pilots yelled as what could only be some kind of UEC mech was deployed onto the hull. The thing looked weird like it had toomer's on its arms or something.

Miiora had told me about her sister piloting one of those things when they came and got me and Harris. She had said they were extremely dangerous but as I punched my fist into ones cockpit and pulled out a rapidly dying caleb I couldn't help but wonder why?

“Is this a fucking joke?” I asked as with a jerk of my hand. My hand clamped shut tight crushing the human traitor with a shower of blood before tossing what was left in Shiraui's direction. “These things are terrible.”

“Careful Iceman, they may be weak compared to our 3s but the twos and ones aren't made of as stern stuff as ours. Nor are their pilots as skilled as the two of us, Be mindful of that.” Crux said as he took a step back slashing his sword up and across his opponent cutting it in two from hip to shoulder before sidestepping and in one seamless motion to stabbed his sword through the cockpit section of another of the siafu rip offs.

“Your right. Snowviper, form up, barricade formation just like we practiced people. Shiraui follow my lead.” I yelled into the squad channel as I watched Shiraui tear the cockpit cover off of another mech before biting off the upper half of the pilot.

“She obeys.” “Got it gunny.” “Okay.” Around me my lance formed up facing the oncoming borders. As one Trombley and Miiora dropped to one knee and brought up their left forearms. Imperva Steele ballistic shields unfolded from their forearm housing's as they slammed them down at an angle as their icarus mountings swung up to aim over the shields.

stepping up behind Miiora I folded my own icarus mountings up and networked our firing solutions setting them to auto fire. Then nodding my sensor bubble at a nervous Shiraui who stood behind Trombley I leveled my rifle with one hand and aimed my other arm cannon at another target before letting loose.

Instantly the difference in training and discipline between the groups of attackers became apparent. The ones carrying the UEC crest either charged on mass or held their ground firing back. They died in drothes their suited bodys being torn to shreds by strings of flechettes or blaster fire.

But the ones carrying the other silver and gold sygle had me worried. These were true professionals, disciplined and unflinching in their purpose they slowly pushed our line, advancing by squads. ‘These guys are in another league compared to the usual plebs Uec sends after us.’

Hearing the click of my feeded running dry I turned to the side presenting a smaller silhouette
“Changing.” I said cooly as I fired my rifle one handed and snapped my arm up with a jerk.

The spent canisters in my left arm disengaged and ejected sending them spinning off into space as a new set were slid down from my bicep and into the housings. “Good.”

Stepping back I leveled my .50s and sent a string of high caliber flechettes into the chest of a suited UEC marine. “Maste… Iceman, they are getting…” Miiora didn't get the chance to finish as a streak fat flashed past the manitoba and struck the unshielded Galactica's starboard hanger pod.

A blinding flash of white light ignited from the point of light drowning out the sights of battle and forcing my lesser suited lancemate's machines to cut their visual feeds to protect their vision.

“Holy! Shit!” Someone shouted unhelpfully over the tac-link's company channel.

“Ooobah that was a nuke. They nuked the Gally!” someone else shouted.

‘This is bad the situation is getting out of hand.’ I said to myself before turning to look towards the advancing troops. They were stopped dead just like our own from the flash of nuclear fire. “Crux…”

“I know, I see it. My Lcom is damaged I cant hail anyone. I'll follow your lead Fallon. We have to take back the initiative.”

“Copy.” I said before cutting the link and opening an open channel. Putting on a brave face I glanced towards my hud spotting Miiora's elevated stress levels and to a lesser extent Trombleys. Shiraui however was as cool as I was if not more so.

Stepping up I fired my jump jets and vaulted over Miioras back. Charging forward I clamped the rifle to my back and withdrew my right hand into its housing, extending the close combat spike. ‘Armor we need a moral boost. Transmit lance visual to allied units.’

[Acknowledged]

“Feel the power of the Cog!” I shouted charging forward and jamming the spike up and into the cockpit of the enemy mech just as it turned to see what was coming its way.

Not a second later the white and black of Crux's own ATLAS-3 came barreling in slamming its ballistic shield into a mech pinning it down before running shit machine through with his sword. The two mechs crumpled sparks of blue and white flew from the two dead machines as I stood up and waved to at my lance trying to look like an action hero adding in an over the top wave forward. “Come on you apes! You wanna live forever!”

It worked, I think a little too well because almost at once damn near every mech that i could on the surface of the Manitoba and probably the fleet rose from their cover and charged the enemy.

[VTRN] sgt: Andrew “Amp” Grayson jr.

Outer Hull

NACS: Manitoba

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Bursting forward I fired my jump jets, sliding under an overhang strike from one of the mechs. Rolling with the momentum I clamped my feet back down and sprang up jamming my close combat spike into the head of the serpent.

Then catching movement in my peripheral I snatched my autocannon from its rack and fired my jets again. Careful not to launch myself into space I strafed around the edge of an enemy hold out firing thirty millimeter shells into the crowd.

“Fucken love this shit!” One of my lance mates yelled as he jumped over the same position I was firing at ejecting a grenade and crashing back down on the other side.

“Come on baby get some!” My second Subs yelled firing his own autocannon from the hip. “Holy shit would you look at that!”

“What?” I asked as I stomped my foot down on a panicking caleb. A connection request popped up and I opened it in a window on my HUD. The image showed Fallon, Crux and their respective lances cutting through the enemy line.

Iceman twisted around pirouetting his machine before snapping his fist out to connect with the fist of one of the UECs mechs. The weaker machine's bulbas hand crumpled before a flash of silver courtesy of Crux's sword severed the limb from its body.

Instantly the machine retreated only for a bone white hand with fucking glowing red claws to crash through its back and out of its chest. The lanky thing then flexed its hand and with a twist yanked the claw from its kill. Taking the pilot with it and shoving the kicking and screaming mare into its mouth.

Beside them Camouflage and Habu fired their weapons from around their ballistic shields, their weaker ATLAS-2s not being up to the task of prolonged close combat with the serpents.

Taking and shouldering his rifle Iceman sent three bolts of searing red energy down range as Habu and the flayed seamlessly stepped in. Taking positions one beside and one behind the two began firing their weapons as well sending bolts of energy and strings of flechettes straight into an enemy squad. “Sector three lance leaders… enemy fighters have broken through and are heading your way.”

‘Shit that's right on them.’

Turning and firing my own weapon into the chest of another mech I saw Fallon eject the charge pack from his rifle before slamming in a new one and attaching it onto the icarus mounting to be folded onto his back. While Crux retracted his sword and mag locked it to his hib before reloading his arm guns.

Turning his back to their backs to their teams Crux and Iceman trood back to back, as they thrust their fists out firing streams of tracers towards the fighters. Flechettes and grenades from the two Atlas-3s arm weapons rose up to meet the fighters as several of the PDCs swiveled in their direction adding their own fire to the defence.

In return two fighters broke off and began stitching two lines of bolts towards the two team leaders. Without taking his right hand off of the incoming wave of fighters, Fallon stomped one foot to the left and swung his left fist in the direction of the two about to strafe his team.

His sole remaining icarus mounted blaster cannon unhinge and swung up to track along with his right arm as he sent a string of tracers into the first of the two fighters. He was about to frag the other just as a several bolts from the flayed blew it apart.

“Come on, why won't the gally get in the fight?”

General: Tyler Barron

NACS:Galactica SD-002

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

“Nuclear detonation on the starboard hanger pod. Armor holding no major damage”

“General, ventral particle cannon is down again.”

“Recovery crews have picked up as as many of the Yamato and Matayo's evacuees as possible.”

‘Damn it, this isn't good, there's no way they should have known we were coming.’ I said to myself as he watched the tactical plot. As my suit marked that my blood pressure was spiking and felt that I was sweating bullets. ‘Is this what it was like during the siege? When entire battle groups were lost in just a few minutes… is that what's going to happen here?’

A thunderous clap filled my helmets speakers and I looked down at surface of the holo table to see Ryoko's avatar looking back at me expectantly. Infact looking up from the avatar I saw that almost my entire bridge crew was staring back at me.

‘...Come on Tyler your grandfather got through harder spots than this and he did it with the Leathy. You've got the best crew around and a battle group who would die to protect this ship… the ship that's their only way home… the ship that malfunctions almost daily because it was rushed out of the dock before its final shakedown run… the ship that got them all stranded out here….’

Looking back at my new XO I saw the man was doing his best to keep my bridge crew in line. Colonel Tiegh who was brought over from the critically damaged Defiant was cool as ice and was snapping orders before clomping up to my command chair, his mag boots clicking as he walked. The man looked at me giving me a once over before his eyes locked on my face, but not my face I noticed after a half second but my cracked visor and blood smeared visor. Leaning in he pressed his helmet to my own to transmit without the comm.

“General Barron, your injured sir, perhaps it would be best if you report to the med bay.” The old man said in a whisper just incase someone was listening in.

There it was, he gave me an out, a way to leave the bridge and let the an adult take control of the situation. ‘Maybe I should…’ I began to think but the thought of having to walk back onto the bridge crossed my mind. My crew would know the old man had run out on them, and no one would be able to trust my judgment again, always be second guessing my decisions, and they would be right to do it.

The ship rocked again light flashing as he looked at me with his hard eyes. “We have a responsibility to the people out there general, pull yourself together you can do whatever this is in private. If we make mistakes here people die sir. Anger keeps you alive general, but fear doesn't get just you killed. If you can't…”

Taking a deep breath I looked back at him. “Thank you colonel. Your concern for my health is noted.” I said sitting back up.

He gave a small almost invisible smile before standing back up at my side. “Of course sir my mistake.” Swiving back around I stood and eyed the tactical plot.

“Ryoko I want firing solutions for the dorsal gun on the lead ships plotted and fed to the gunnery crews. Astro navigation, plot us a course out of here I want to jump as soon as we are full up, we can refuel the ships on route….” I began barking out orders to my crew and they all seemed to be relieved as I sent a priority connection to my CAG.

“Eagle this is Galactica actual. Pull back to minimal engagement range, be ready to do a hard landing, we are pulling out as soon a Galactica's tanks are full. Anyone not on board one of the remaining ships when the time comes is getting left behind.”

“... Eagle copies galactica actual. Yes sir.”

“Gunnery crews report ready and waiting. Gun is hot.” My myrialos gunnery officer reported from her seat her chitin covered body glistening slightly in the light.

“What's our refueling status?” I asked as I watched the marker for the annihilators the NACS Vancouver wink out, replaced with a flashing red Icon and a blinking recovery beacon. ‘Dead all hands lost.’

“Fifty percent on mIn tank general, ten on reserves. They weren't filled before we left port.”

“Let the boarding part know the timetable has been moved up, tell them to be ready to leave the station. Ryoko set a timer, two hours then we are leaving.”

“Yes sir.” Both the communications officer and the admin AI said together. A split second later a flashing orange timer appeared waiting for me to give the order.

“General, several fast movers incoming from mark twelve nine seven Y.” The operations said.

“Alright people, let's get Galactica in this fight. Start the clock. Shields up, bring the flack and railguns online. Reroute power from the ventral gun to the shields, Gunnery All batteries lock on targets and engage, full volley, fire for effect..”

“All batteries volley fire aye.”

“Shields up aye.”

“Starting the clock, Stand by… Its about to get loud.” The ships AI said as she gave a very sloppy salute before disappearing.

Flayed Auxiliary: Shiraui

Outer Hull

NACS: Manitoba

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

76,297,491: the birth time

2170AD/107AC

“Maintain formation! Galactica actual, We need a Corvette and resupply over here now! Collar one, PDC twenty-two.” Mister Fallon shouted as he stomped to the side and deployed his trenchcoat. Sending shards of shrapnel towards a missile aimed at his mech.

“Understood Snow viper one-one, NES Switzerland Pike will be on station in zero two mikes….” I heard the voice say before tuning out the conversation.

“Two minutes People!”

“Christ. This sucks.” He muttered under his breath before punching his hand into the cockpit of an enemy mech. Then the sky flashed again, backlighting his form as he pulled the pilot from her machine and crushed her in his hand, before kicking the now limp mech into space.

“COME ON!” Camouflage shouted as his shoulder mounted gatling swung up and fired into the swarm of enemy patterns.

My weapon clicked empty and rather than struggle with putting in another charge pack I dropped it. Letting the “blaster” float beside me as I kicked my legs up just as mister Fallon had when he was in control of my body and twirled to join my placenta and the other human. ‘I really should find a way to hold that weapon when I'm not using it… That might work?’

Pink tags raced across my vision as I linked to Mister Fallon. Reaching out several million times a second I found the connection to his subconscious and suppressed the call of the one. My arms came up as I trickled power to my firing maws. Feeding into mister Fallon I felt his need, his want and turned my back on him and this other human.

“For the COG! In the name of the lord!” The older human shouted as he ran a mech through with his sword.

Finding several targets I tracked both arms towards my targets and fired two penetrators. The bone spikes slammed through their shields and pierced their cockpits. Turning around and finding more targets I soon found that the three of us Crux, mister Fallon, and myself, had formed a kind of triangle formation as we shifted our fire to cover not only our lances, and the cannon but each other as well. Whenever mister Fallon would move I would step into fill the gap followed by Crux who would step to fill the gap I had made.

My vision swirled, in the right panoramic as three spinning circles marked two missiles as they raced from a pair of fighters towards the point defence cannon. Sidestepping I swung my right arm around, my pinkish maw shell came to a rest beside the white, black and red armor of Mister fallons machine's left arm. Fire exploded from the four barrels of my placenta's wrist guns as I routed power to my firing maws. The maws glowed before several yard long spikes burst forth.

The two missiles exploded followed closely by the fighters that launched them. That's when mister Fallon's left arm snapped back while he continued to fire with his right.

“Fuck! I'm out!” He yelled before his shoulder weapon pivoted to compensate.

“Here!” Crux shouted ejecting a spare ammunition canister which my placenta caught. “Make ‘em count!”

“There's to many of ‘em!” I heard Camouflage shout as he slammed his shield into an enemy mech opening miss Habu up to shoot it in the chest.

“We must hold Camouflage.” Miss miiora said taking cover behind her mate? To reload her weapon before snapping back around and putting several rounds into the chests of an advancing squad of armored infantry.

“Yeah, I know that Habu, i'm just saying if this keeps up for much longer my guns gonna overheat.”

I began to feel power draining from my arms and almost immediately, and without provocation mister Fallon pivoted to sweep his arm over my sector while his other continued to fire on his own targets. The glowing red dome that acted as his main camera housing pivoted as well in his chest. Twisting from right to left the camera dilated and contracted as he continued to fire both of his weapons on separate targets.

“Aaaaaagh…!” He screamed as I felt The One that protects The Whole reaching out to him through our link.

“Love, on your nine!” Miss Habu shouted as one of the enemy mechs blew past her and Camouflage heading straight for my placenta.

I felt something take control and soon found that I had telescoped a long blade from my firing maw. Giggling I fired my thrusters and slashed the left leg from the enemy's machine sending it's torso barreling into my placenta raised primary knee joint.

Without breaking stride his machine slammed its clawed ped down onto the arm of the struggling mech as it tried to right it self. With his molester pinned mister Fallon cooly and while still firing his right arm’s weapons at a target I couldn't see, swept his left arm down. Sparks and short lived explosions rocked both the serpent and the Manitoba's hull as he swept his left arm up and down across his would be attacker before his arm snapped back up to fire at something else.

“Lanky, Get back in the fight.” The one known as Crux said as he ducked to one side firing both sets of arm weapons into the machines torso.

“R-right sorry.” Was my only response before I glanced up seeing the sky full of tiny pinpricks of light.

A cheer went up as the light from another explosion cleared showing the imposing and oddly inspiring bulk of the human pattern still docked to the station. One of its hangar pods were darkened from two blast marks on her dented armor.

Then sections along its alligator head seemed to split apart as dozens of hatches slid open allowing large quad barreled turrets, and smaller two barreled turrets to unlimber themselves from the ship's hull and aim up into the black. As I watched space around the decently sized human pattern, that had remained relatively unresponsive until now suddenly came alive with the brilliant orange flashes my brief delbe into human history before my placenta came returned, told me was flak.

Those flashes of light around the human ship highlighted the name of my first friend's temporary home. The letters shining a brilliant white against the darkened black of the ships grey hull spelling out the word. GALACTICA.

Chapter 12 Thrice cursed orphans

Supreme commander: Alikill Krysk

KES: Particular Justice

System: Gibraltar

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

56AE

“Druhar, you fool, pull your super destroyer back the enemy battleship is coming online. Follow the plan.” I ordered my fellow supreme commander as I watched his super destroyer begin burning hard for a false opening in the humans formation.

Swiveling a pupil and extending a hand I manipulated a view screen to show the Galactica. Her massive bulk flashed with the explosions of countless flak explosions and point defence fire.

‘Their fighters seemed to have fallen back into the protective screen of their fleet…. that could mean they know they are at a disadvantage and plan to make a stand. Or… it could be that they plan to retreat… but with the mothership ship docked and its escorts in need of fuel they might not be able to get far… I will have to probe them… let them make the first move and react. And then counter attack.’

Focusing on my foolish compatriot I watched his super destroyer making a mad dash for the COG's mother ship. His ship's weapons flared sending bolts of shining colorful magic to slam harmlessly against the Galactica's shields. ‘Inturesting, their shield is invisible, a clever choice as it would fool most opponents into thinking their ship is unshielded.’

“Black flag” The voice of a Human voice called out before the ship that was the bane of supreme commander Rarity’s bow seemed to glow.

The Manitoba panned slightly as I watched it track its target as heat sinks rouse from her hull. Those sinks crackled with heat lightning vaporizing a swarm of missiles ment for its hull. Then the front of the ship blue shifted as the siege breaker fired its main gun at full power.

Almost simultaneously the super destroyer beside Druhar's flagship was struck by the tungsten slug slammed into it at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. The gryphon ship ceased to exist as a coherent structure as it was torn apart by the unflinching laws of physics. A blinding flash of light filled the view screen as the kinetic energy of the weapon was transferred creating a small sun.

When the light finally died down the super destroyer had been replaced by a cone shaped cloud of expanding gas and radiation. Then the Galactica moved as Druhar's ship drew even closer. Unlike its smaller companion the ship did not turn to point its bow weapons at the gryphon's ship. Instead its large tri barreled turret turned, like a tank the turret tracked its target before its three barrels glowed hot before suddenly being blasted back into their housing's.

Unlike with the Manitoba's gauss cannon, the result was emediet. The shields of Druhar's vessel instantly shattered as three enormous sections of the hull began to glow a blinding white. Then it happened, like an angry god had taken a disliking to Druhar's ship the glowing sections were violently blasted away leaving perfectly circular if ragged holes blasted straight through its hull. The gutted ship hung in space for several seconds, its inertia carrying it on its course before exploding.

Taking a deep breath I swiveled my pupil back and eyed the tactical table. ‘That would explain the opening in their formation. A powerful weapon, but…’ I cut off my train of thought to bark an order to my sensors operator.

“Teli’roan run a scan of the Battleship. And transfer the readings to me.”

“Yes supreme commander running scan…. Sending now.” my fellow zaltule said from his station.

‘Hmm. A powerful weapon indeed… but… yes the ventral weapon appears to be offline… and that makes to times I have seen the weapon fail to function properly… i will need to take that weapon offline before I can commit any more of my capital ships to a frontal assault. The fool tried the hammer, now lets try the scalpel.’

“Hir’kell, give the order brother… deploy red squadron. To probe the Galactica's main gun, but be mindful of the flak if they are unable to successfully deactivate the weapon safely I do not want them to waste their lives in a foolish attempt to do so anyway.”

“By your command Supreme commander…. Red squadron deploy.”

[Icequeen/ Shining Star]

Gungnir-2/Breezee

COG battle group airspace

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Transitioning Charlotte kicked her fighter’s thrusters out and arched her back as she tracked her arm gatlings towards the Uec fighter that has been hounding her. Before firing her jetpack and backflipping over the breezee which spiraled away from her oncoming fire.

[G Warning, G warning...] Charlotte's fighter virtually yelled at her during the duration of the maneuver.

Shining star gritted his teeth against the G forces applied to his body as he fought the blackout before vectoring his thrusters, maneuvering it into a flat spin and firing two bolts that only just missed the transforming fighter. “Damn.”

Armor blackened by the passing bolts Charlotte transitioned again from infantry to valkyrie mode to strafe her target before transitioning yet again into fighter-mode to follow her opponent as it blasted along the hull of Manitoba. Squeezing the trigger, twin streams of grenades blasted from the gatlings, stitching several lines across ships hull as she burst her guns.

Star barrel rolled his fighter around the stream of a PDC but was forced to pull away when a bolt of crackling red energy sized past his canopy as he neared a group of seven mechs and a weird organic-looking mech clustered around another of the PDCs. Alarms began blaring as a laser lock was detected by his fighters computer. One of the mechs below him had painted him with a targeting laser and not two seconds later the alarms changed from laser lock to a missile lock warning.

Turning and craning his neck as he deployed his flairs and decoys he could see the missile following him. Glowing red the “missile” swirled around the decoys and just as it was about to hit him a blue bolt of magic sailed through space detonating it.

Looking around his canopy he saw his wingmate coming around on his six o'clock only for Cherry, to be swatted from the sky. The culprit, a light grey and red fighter of the design of which had never seen. It pulled hard a high-G maneuver he saw its tail markings, three black claw marks over a set of crossed bones under a lanky skull. But it turned before he could get a look at the fed symbol under the skull and crossbones.

‘What is that!’ He yelled at himself as the large two seater fighter settled itself menacingly in his rearview. Two large angled intakes framed either side of the cockpit section and from the side of one of these intakes came a missile. He dodged only for his original opponent to appear and fire wrist weapons into his cockpit.

Charlotte watched the thrice-cursed orphan wag its wings at her. The Rio of the two-seaters giving her the thumbs up, before it flipped and flew off.

[Eagle/ Rainbow Dash]

F/A-31 Shrike mk2/ F/A-31 Shrike mk1 EQM

COG battle group airspace

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

With most of the bombers having been turned away or blown to pieces, all that was left were the fighter craft from both fleets. The dogfight that ensued could only be described as harrowing at best, suicidal at worst as COG and UEC fighters engaged one another at knife fighting range. Both sides able to actually see the other not with the aid of cockpit zoom, or cameras, nor with radar or dradis lock, but with the eyes, they were borne with, and at ranges where a single mistake could mean certain and violent death.

Flashes of pink light flashed past Eagles canopy as he flew low only a scant few meters from the hull of one of the COG ships. The space to either side of his fighter coming alive with the condenser bolts sent after him before he yanked hardback on the stick kicking the pedal hard.

“Woah that's two more down! Who is that?”

His fighter's nose jerks up as he pulled into a split S before making an about face at its apex. Inverting his fighter and maintaining his vector Eagle could see the sights of battle the ships hull speeding under him as he focuses on his target at hand. Squeezing the trigger his shrike's gatling spewed a stream of tracers towards the captured and repurposed shrike he had taken to calling “bluebird”.

“Don't know I wasn't able to get a good look at him. Anyone else?”

Bluebird pulled a hard bank narrowly avoiding the string of grenades before repositioning, firing off another salvo of pink condenser shots as it looped around an antenna and came at him. Backflipping his fighter Eagle watched Blue Bird sail past him before he blasted his thrusters following hot on her drive tail.

“No idea but I'm glad he's on our side.”

His hand sailed across the vectoring controller and accelerator as he watched his target pitch, yaw, and corkscrew in and out of his targeting reticle. Nevertheless, his right hand never left the yolk and never missed a chance to fire off a string of grenades having long ago run out of missiles.

“Holy, Zulu squadron is down? What the hell? Hey, we've got seven fast movers inbound I to think I can see em in the glare.”

Rolling and changing his vector, Eagle followed Bluebird around the superstructure of the Donnager, giving his cannon small bursts tracing before finally catching the enemy shrike in the wing. Stitching a four-point trial and causing a trail of smoke to trail behind Bluebird as it pitched itself coming belly up.

“Yeah I've got em, coming in from the Manitoba's port dorsal bow. Seven forward swept flying wings. Same symbol as the dropships on the wing.”

The high G maneuver took Bluebird and as if braked by air the fighter slowed forcing him to shoot past. “Eagle, Eagle on your six. I'm on it.” His wingman said as she came up be behind bluebird firing her cannon.

“He just downed another one. No make that two. This guys on a roll!”

In response Bluebird twisted into a modified flat spin, turning like a coin on its end the UEC ace sent two bolts of pink magic searing through the armor of Black knight two. Her fighter broke apart sending shrapnel and gouts of short-lived flame on its final vector as Bluebird leveled out to follow intent on following its target, only for a hail of tracers to rack its hull courtesy of Eagle who had flipped around and was turning back towards his opponent.

“Yeah! Got ya you fucken clop!” He shouted as he watched the bastardized shrike explode.

Looking around he saw the fighters the other pilots were talking about on the tac-link. The new fighters flew in a tight formation while beside them a streak of light intercepted one of our corvettes, a missile. Explosions burst from its insides before the entire thing went up in a violent orange explosion. A single silhouette sailed from their port side, taking a position as the lead fighter in the formation. The light from the explosions around them highlighted their dull brown and black coloring and reflected off of their red cockpit canopies.

Suddenly a missile appeared on my screen, straining my eyes I could see the space to space missile's drive burning hot as it speeds up to intercept the new fighters.

In response the entire squadron pulled hard relative up deploying a screen of flairs behind them before breaking formation into a sunburst, leaving behind eight separate trials of flairs. The fighter that must have had fired the missile, blasted through the chaff and flares, turned and burned hard as cleared the spider-like pattern. The light of the flairs around it revealed to be one of the NAC's bleeding edge and grossly expensive new interceptors.

As it drew closer I got my first look at the fighter rumored to match if not exceed the performance of the NE's new Gungnir-2 the NAC's Northrop Grumman F-28 “Allycat”. As it turned and burned for all its powerful engines were worth, wings folding out as it did.

Light grey with a set of red stripes on its thin wings, and with one big red stripe running from the top of its nose down its cockpit stopping halfway to its tail thrusters. On its damaged, and useless in space, left stabilizer were a set of three jagged claw marks painted black over a red wolf's head. Each jagged mark representing a mothership lost, while they survived. ‘A three-time orphan?’

“Holy, I think he's going for it.”

“What, alone? Is he fucking insane?”

As if on cue his momentum was halted and the avenger spun, doing an aileron roll as it blasted its engines. The big fighter with an almost sixty-foot wingspan shot forward, wings folding back as it followed the enemy flight leader. Spinning around Eagle blasted his own engines following the friendly fighter his computer had told him was from the dead NACS: Tombstone's Wolfpack squadron.

As he did so he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head he saw three more F-28's roll into formation with their flight leader. Each held three claw marks on their tails, and engines burning hot the big two seaters formed up and shot past Eagle like he was standing still.

“Jesus that's fast!”

“Oobah I think that's the wolfpack!”

“No way I thought they went down with the Tombstone.”

“I thought they died with the Leathy at helghan.”

“It doesn't matter now, Black Knight squadron let's get in there and back them up.” He barked into the Tac-link as I rolled my fighter around an antenna.

“Right/copy/Wilco/gotcha/acknowledged/understood/Yes sir/ this one obeys!” Came to the response from fully half of Black Knight squadron as they formed up to with Valkyrie and what was left of Razgriz squadrons.

Wolfpack squadron shifted into a spiraling circular formation, their bellies facing one another before splitting off to pursue the new enemy squadron forming a four-pointed star with engine wash.

Captain: Charlotte “Icequeen” Dunois

Gungnir-2

COG battle group airspace

System: HP-696

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

The Wolfpack flight leader my squadron and I had broken off to support barrel rolled around an oncoming missile.

The light from the systems twin suns glistens off of the fighters single eye logo as it did so. At the peak of its arc, it slowed wings unfolding as it slowed to shoot down the missile before flipping over firing a string of cannon fire into the first of the new enemy fighters.

“It dodged! These guys are good.” Vixen called out as we watched the circle shaped fighter roll on its axis to fly back like a human fighter. Narrowly avoiding the stream of grenades by mere meters before returning fire with its own cannon.

A string of green tracers reached out missing Wolfpack-1 as it pirouetted before flipping onto a new vector and burning hard. My reticle chimed and I squeezed off a stream of grenades from my gatlings towards the enemy flight lead who fired ventral thrusters shooting straight up to avoid my tracers. “Merde!”

A new alarm blared in my ears as I watched the red canopied fighter turn and burn after Wolfpack-1. Turning and burning, I followed the trio of fighters as they passed dove flying dangerously close to the Donnager's hull.

“Hang on Kitten I'm gonna show me something!”

The F-28 banked and yanked hard to starboard, swooping up and around a stream of tracers fired by the crescent. Before leveling out again and rolling hard to port and pulling back hard, coming around hard as the UEC fighter ended its own maneuver.

“Yeah that's what I'm talking about Wiseman.” The fighters Rio yelled from her rear seat looking up at the Uec fighter.

Side by side the size difference between the two fighters was almost comical. This close I could see the big American fighter taking up almost twice the space of not only the enemy's craft but my own. Its wings spread out wide as it braked, firing powerful belly thrusters into a backflip that saw the Uec fighter passing by. Before Wolfpack-1 leveled out firing their main thrusters to catch up with their opponent.

“I've got tone, firing two.” The Rio reported and as I formed on a successor to the ancient tomcat. A flap opened under the wing of the F-28. Releasing a missile the fighter rolled slightly before the missile ignited its drive, burning hard forward for its target.

[Warning Missile lock, Warning Missile lock ...]

“Merde!” Glancing at my rearview monitor I saw another of the crescent fighters had gotten behind us. The right rocket pod on the crescent fighters wing burst to life five times in quick succession.

“Pas assez bon!” Pulling back, flipping the transition switch, and launching flairs I was kicked in the back as my fighter was jolted forward when the thrusters snapped forward.

The wings folded back like a beetle and the arms unhooked allowing me to track and shoot down the first of the missiles with the left gatling. Pushing the pedals and activating the sensor turret I felt the targeting laser tracking my pupil as I locked onto another three.

My feet thrusters fired kicking my back and up to avoid another of the missiles allowing me to shoot it down with my right gatling gun, while the turret shutdown thee. And opening me up to shoot down another as it came to close. Seeing the Uec fighter banking around for another shot I presented my aide to the oncoming fighter before popping a wing out and sending a pair of missiles toward it.

The fighter dodged the first missile, rolled and shot down the second, only to run into a stream of grenades from my wrists gatlings. The fighter hung there for several seconds, during which the canopy blew out sending the pilot's ejection seat off into space before the first missile having flipped slammed into its backside.

Space flashed as the Galactica fired her particle cannon again. Following the trajectory, I watched as one of the super destroyers in the enemy fleet disappeared in a flash of light. Followed by another titanic explosion as one of the siege breakers explodes a result of concentrated fire from no less than twenty of enemy ships.

Flipping around I turned in time to see the enemy flight lead turn and fire two missiles into the side of one of our corvette's. The missiles slammed home inside of the smallish ships port side airlock before detonating taking the entire ship with it.

Pilot “Apollo”- RIO “Fury”

F-28 “allycat”

System: HP-696

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

56AE

“I've got eyes four o'clock high!” Fury called out his hands flying over the controls, while he swiveled his head and eyes between looking for the fighter and the dradis screen in front of him.

“I see him, I see him,” Apollo yelled causing our fighter to spiral around in an attempt to get behind the alien ship. “Come on, come on baby, come on!” He chanted as the fighter rocked and rattled under the strain the pair were putting on it.

A new alarm began to blare as Fury snapped his head back scanning for the source of the aspect lock. “I've got him, tally one five o'clock low, coming to six marks two, shake em off!”

Our forward thrusters fired, and Fury and Apollo could see the wings vector out as their plane inverted breaking hard. The enemy fighter flew past firing its own breaking jets, the two pilots and the Rio looked up at one another as the two fighters passed meer meters from one another.

New movement caught the attention of Fury and he called it out. “Tally new bogey on ingress seven to twelve, X two twenty, I've got a lock.”

“I see him, firing six,” Apollo said banking the fighter to follow the crescent fighter as a missile popped from the housing to obliterate a nosey UEC pegasus.

“Good kill. Two more.” Fury called out. As he was thrown against the side of the cockpit as Apollo got in behind the crescent-shaped ship. “Going for mixed guns kill.” the pilot yelled before pulling the trigger on the yolk.

Twin streams of glowing red and yellow tracers lanced out from both sides of fighters nose. The shots missed as the two fighters banked hard one performing flat spins in an attempt to get behind the other.

Overshooting their targets both fighters goose their engines shooting into a spiraling pattern with each one attempting to get behind the other. Their maneuvers were cut short however as a large dual colored condenser beam sailed past them, striking the Galactica's shield, backlighting the two fighters as they shifted into a double helix passing one another in their attempts to take one another down.

“Come on baby, almost there,” Apollo whispered rolling the alleycat hard to starboard firing the belly, wing and dorsal jets to turn faster and get inside of the smaller fighters turning radius.

Squeezing the trigger a stream of blazing red blaster bolts roared from the left side of the nose. The bolts of sizzling energy slapped into the port wing of the crescent fighter making it flip over. But rather than exploding the tough little ship rolled back over and disengaged from the fight with fire and smoke trailing behind it.

“Alright, one more, fuel at fifty. Let's do this Apollo. I've got him he just took down Razgriz two and is Snow's tail. Ventral starboard side eight o'clock.”

“I see em. Hold on.” They burst forward the thrust gravity of their engines blasting them forward at a sustained three G. While in the distance the first of the damaged siege breakers, and it's escorts vanished in a burst of light white.

General: Tyler Barron

Executive officer: [VTRN] colonel- Marcus Tiegh

NACS: GALACTICA SD-002

System: HP-696

Distance from SOL: unknown

S170AD/107AC

“The Fred Johnson and her escorts have successfully jumped to the rendezvous point.”

“What is the status of the Astrid?” I asked feeling the ships weak artificial gravity field fluctuating.

“The Astrid reports her L-drive is charging and should be jumping soon, she is recalling her fighters and bringing in her mechs.”

“What of the Manitoba and Donnager? Those are our only two annihilators we can't afford to lose them.” Tiegh asked managing to keep his footing as the ship shook again from a lucky missile impact.

“Donnager reports no serious damage to the superstructure, but the main gun is close to overheating.” The Donnager's AI said appearing on the hollo table.

Nodding I waved a hand over the holo table showing me another view of the battlefield. “Those big ships and those around it are tearing us to pieces. And their fighters aren't doing us any favors either. Targeting solution on the leftmost ship in the formation.”

“Sir? There are ships closer to the battle group than them?” My chief new gunnery officer a tymerian by the name Ni’ranu asked. My previous one having been killed by an exploding console. A questioning tilt to her head and curl in her tail.

“This is obviously more than one fleet if the iconography on the ships is anything to go by. And something tells me the UEC wouldn't use ships like those kleese battlecruisers. That means the one in command of those ships must be the one in overall command.”

“What makes you say that?” Tiegh asked leaning into the table. Where one of the AI holograms flickered out with the destruction of another my ships.

“Typical UEC doctrine is to rush the enemy, try to get in close where their energy rakes. Those ships aren't doing that, instead, they are sitting back and hammering us with their own long-range weapons as we do. Those ships are…”

The ship rocked as a violent explosion rocked the hull sending several of my command not strapped down properly, or magnetized to the deck crew sprawling. “Status report!” I yelled feeling blood running down the side of my face.

“Another nuke sir, from the Kleese battlecruisers. Fire control to the dorsal particle cannon is offline, The shields are down, power fluctuations have overloaded their coils. Engineering reports another ten minutes to get the shields back up.”

“Damn it.”

“We don't have ten minutes. Those ships will be on us in nine.” Tiegh grunted as the lights flickered red.

“Tank status?”

“Main tanks full, A, and B, reserve tanks full, C and D will finish shortly..” The operator said from his seat.

“No time, it's time to go, connect me to the fleet.” Turning I got a nod from both Ryoko and my com tech. Nodding and fearing a fatal communication error I picked up the receiver to the fleet emergency comm.

“This is the General, all ships recall. And set course for the dandevus system, Galactica will stay on station for six minutes to pick up any stragglers. Anyone left after that….” I paused, dreading what I was about to say next. “Will be left behind. All ships begin jump prep ”

Hanging up the receiver I turned to Ryoko and Tiegh. “Start the clock.”

A Big red countdown appeared in the corner of the holo as I read the battle. One by one ship were giving their consent for my orders, all save the Donnager, and the Manitoba and her 3 exUEC escorts.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked the small AI dressed like an ancient world war 2 pilots. In response, the Manitoba's AI Roland stood up straight and folded his hands behind his back

“Captain, Packer's says he refuses to leave the Galactica to fend for itself, and that if you don't like it you can report him at the nearest fleet command station,” Roland said with a cheeky smile on his face.

“So he told me to shove it. Fine bring the Mani and Donny in closer to Galactica so we can overlap our defense grids. And Synchronize gauss cannon shots.” I said with a sigh.

“Sir, pardon my interruption but you are still connected to the space elevator… which is attached to the station” The Donnager's AI said.

“Not for the long, helm, cut the cord. L-drive, begin jump prep.”

“Aye, sir.”

Supreme commander: Alikill Krysk

KES: Particular Justice

System: Gibraltar

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

56AE/3rd age of conquest

“Their main weapon is down commander. Shall I press the attack?”

“Indeed, move the fleet in closer and engage. But be where I believe the humans know they have been backed into a corner. Are the secondary fleets stationed as I requested?”

“Yes supreme commander, the 10th fleet reports its sensory ships are stationed at the intervals you specified.”

“Excellent, now we see what our opponents will do next if they…”

“Commander Krysk the Battlestar is moving.” one of the few Humans on my bridge crew said. ‘Why does he call it a Battlestar I wonder?’

Looking up from my datapad I watched as the massive ship began to move. Its six enormous drives flared a brilliant amber, the blue at its aft, as it began ponderously twisting its considerable bulk toward the battlegroup.

“What are they doing?” Commander Polar of Rarity's seventh fleet asked via the hologram communicator.

“An interesting tactic. Genius really.” I commented drawing questioning looms from my peers and two watching royals.

“Explain.” The hologram of Princess Celestia demanded furiously, flickering as the space elevator continued to twist and turn under the ministrations of the large human vessel.

“If I am correct in my thinking. And I suspect that I am given the three traitorous vessels with them. The humans know that the UEC's targeting is largely based on not the only aspect, but visual, and your crudely integrated versions of Kleese all specs….” I began folding two of my arms behind my back and fingering my sword with another.

“Why I never, Princess please allow me to discipline this, this uppity slave for…” Supreme commander Rarity Belle began only to be cut off by a look from the Luna princess.

“Be silent Rarity, this is not your operation to command, and should it fail due to your incompetence I will personally see to it that you will never command anything larger than a slave barge again. Please continue Krysk” The hologram said cooly.

On the screen, I watched as the space elevator finally snapped as the Galactica rolled hard. The result was a titanic spray of water and debris rapidly expanding in the direction of our battlegroup. ‘Inturesting.”

“As you can see the humans have filled the space between our fleets with water,” I said as I watched the UEC radar begin to mark thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of individual targets. Nodding I waved a hand giving the signal for my operators to switch to all specs targeting.

“How?” The changeling commander asked, his hologram leaning forward as he no doubt eyed an unseen terminal.

“It is quite simple, they have used the reflective properties of the rapidly freezing water and debris as a form of improvised chaff,” I explained reviewing and approving a new firing solution as I did so.

“Tachyon pulses from the enemy fleet.” My sensor operator called out drawing my attention.

“Woah huge power surge coming from the Battlestar.”

“On screen,” I ordered, ignoring the questions streaming in from the others in the fleet as well as the Royals.

The screen panned out to show the entire human fleet. Then one by one, flashes of light appeared at the end or in the middle of the human vessels before flashing to their front, causing them to blink out of existence in flashes of white light.

“What's happening!” One of the commanders shouted as she watched the humans escape. One by one until only six ships, the galactica, Donnager, Manitoba, Shining Star, Glimmering Wake, and Black Arbitrator. The final three were the three aforementioned traitorous Ships, that had defected from Rarity's fleet during the Helghan incident. And were now stationed around the three ships using their shields to cover the much larger vessels.

“Krysk you fool, you have allowed the Earthers to escape!” Princess Cadence yelled, both her and Princess Twilight appearing beside the other two royals.

“Incorrect, If you and your niece who personally. Who denied me the assets I would require to eliminate the Humans here. My original requests for more Kleese vessels have been turned down at every turn. Or perhaps if your dreadnoughts… No.” I said calmly as I watched the Galactica retrieve a virtual swarm of dropships from the station before blasting the useless hulk from its hull.

“Subcommander Hirkel, Have the alpha teams completed their missions?” I asked ignoring the squawking of the royals who were not here to participate in the battle. I knew I had the blessings of the only two truly princesses who mattered.

“Yes Supreme Commander, the packages have been placed.” He grunted, fists clenched as he listened to the Royals and their lackey's bickering.

“Excellent with our contingency in place, and their main weapon offline, we can finally begin. Helm, take us in, full evaluation. I want the secondary reactors brought online and their energy fed to the shields.” I ordered cutting through the din of the argument.

Snapping the sword from its holster I telescoped and ignited the blade, bathing the area in light. “Brothers of the Kleese, warriors of the sixth fleet, today we meet our enemy on the field of battle, Honor for the Conclave, glory to the empire!” To reinforce my orders I thrust the sword into the air and let out a guttural war cry. One by one the zaltule warriors around me mirrored my actions.

“Glory to the empire!”

Space

System: Gibraltar/HP-696

Distance from Equis: 235 light years

Distance from Sol: unknown

56AE/3rd age of conquest

2170AD/107AC

The Galactica swung itself around to face the now rapidly approaching UEC battlegroup while beside it the Donnager and Manitoba began firing half power bursts from their Gauss cannons. Their captains having come to the deposition that using staggered patterns of nuclear-tipped penetrators, and flechette rounds would be better.

Around the three ships orange, pink, and blue shields flickered as staggering amounts of firepower pounded against them. Their exUEC escorts pumping ludacris amounts of energy into their shield generators as they closed in. Using maneuver jets to dock inside of the deployment bays of the larger ships, the Shining star, Glimmering Wake and Black Arbitrator slid into inside of the ships and into the oversized bays meant for COG destroyers and light cruisers.

There was a buildup of light as the Galactica slid into position between the two annihilators. At the nose of its alligator head, a triangle of three large bore barrels flashed one after another, burning white hot as she fired her secondary weapons. Anyone inside of her hull or on her surface could hear the Titanic, BOOM...BOOM…BOOM of the mark three Gauss cannons firing.

It was luck that saved the three Kleese ships, as their evasive maneuvers meant they would not be hit by the ninety-six-ton L-crete slugs. Instead, the three enormous slugs slammed into three unlucky targets. The truly biblical amounts of kinetic energy transferred to the first two UEC super destroyers instantly transformed two top of the line UEC ships into an expanding cone of superheated plasma.

The final shot, however, missed its target completely. Sailing at almost three-quarters of the speed of light, it flashed past the UEC fleet before they could properly detect it, leaving a sparse trail of brilliantly glowing red particles in its wake. However, rather than sail off into space to be a hazard to someone else several thousand if not millions of years from now the black and glowing red chunk of Lanky ship hull slammed into the planets moon at three-quarters of C.

The flash from the impact was so bright that every camera, video feed, and window, in both fleets cut all light to protect the vision of the viewers. When the light finally died down as the ships AI's continued the battle even when their organic inhabitants could not, the stunned organics saw that a massive white hot crater had been blasted into the moon's once green surface. A cone of glowing debris trailed out from the impact crater sending large chunks of rock off into space, that would fall like rain back onto the once habitable moon its surface.

Seeing their chance the three remaining Cog vessels burned their engines hard. Burning at a solid four G and increasing, the three ships rotated their large banks of railguns and began to volley fire their turrets. While Galactica shifted her flak guns to forward fire sending a protective barrage ahead of their formation like a swarm of UEC missiles began to empty from the enemy ships.

In response the Cog ships decided to take off the gloves and opened their own torpedo and missile tubes, sending first twelve, then thirty, then ninety plasma torpedoes and nuclear missiles off into the inky black.

One by one the missiles and torpedoes were either shot down or slammed into their targets. The shields of the Cog vessels flared as dozens of UEC ships died under the hail of fire before the three ships finally began to near the UEC's medium engagement range.

The first over-eager UEC ships to engage the Cog vessel were dashed against the hulls of the much larger human vessels in a method very reminiscent of Lanky seed ship attacks. Then large turret-like structures on either side of the Galactica's large alligator head began to glow an iridescent whitish blue before beams projected themselves from those turrets.

The beams lanced out, in a method not dissimilar to UEC energy rakes. However, instead of being used like energy blades, the beams were short-lived, lasting only several seconds as they speared into the hulls of UEC ships. In response, Krysk"s battlecruisers closed in. Wading into the fray the three remaining Kleese battle cruisers angeled their plasma lances, and massive arrays of weaponry and began to slug it out with their larger opponents while the.

Shields on both sides flared and failed, missiles impacted. And as the majority of the Uec battle group watched the heavily modified ships of the sixth fleet exchanged fire with the earthers. The humans Point defense cannons and railguns sweeping back and forth across the hulls of their targets, perforating or punching holes into the hulls of Krysk's fleet. While Uec plasma quarles, condenser cannons, and missiles burned large scars into the ships ablative armor.

On the surface of the human ships, Numerous mechs swarmed still fighting the boarding party and firing wildly into the air as they struggled to aid the Point defense cannons in shooting down missiles. While Earther fighters swarmed around the three ships each one coming around to the various entrances on the smaller annihilators or simply slamming skids down inside of the large over and under hanger pods on the Galactica.

The regular Uec ships watched, transfixed on the battle as the minutes passed. The two groups of ships savagely battering one another savagely, before the earther ships flipped around. Using their large drive cones to slice an unlucky group of destroyers and cruisers to pieces with cones of superheated plasma. Turning three hundred and sixty degrees the three superficially damaged human vessels angled and fired their gauss cannons at one hundred and eighty degrees and fired a salvo at the same time the remainder of the Uec fleet got their collective shit together and fired an overwhelming barrage in their direction.

Sensing the attack was coming the three commanders of the Kleese ships pirouette their ships like only theirs and Earther vessels could. The shots flew wide with only the Manitoba's landing a glancing hit on the Unyielding Hierophant.

The remainder either slamming into other ships or flying uselessly into space, as the Galactica fired another volley of beams as it turned. When the rotation was completed and the full brunt of the collective UEC attack was about to make contact the three vessels flashed.

With mere seconds to go, a white light traveled from their aft to their bows in the blink of an eye. The three Cog vessels were gone in a flash of light and rippling space.

Leaving the wave of beams, missiles, plasma projectiles, fighters, and bombers to sail uselessly through now empty space.

Author's Note

Still looking for an editor and proofreader, so I appologise.

Anyway let me know what you think, one of me gave me an inturesting Idea that gave me an Idea and im actually kind of excited to see what I can do with it. So thanks, friends.

Chapter 14 Blast from the past

Part 1: Act 2 prologue

Liaison corporal: Mii'ora

NACS: Galactica [Green deck]

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Following a shuttle… no a dropship ride from the Manitoba to the Galactica captain Charlotte and I made our way to Galactica's green deck. The large park like section of the ship was vast, with grass, fake trees, streams and pools of water that were really reservoirs for the ships spare water supply used as lakes. And topping it all off was a vast panoramic view screen arching over head that was currently displaying a view of space showing the battered fleet, the stars beyond, with the vast cloud of the galaxy backdropping the stunning view.

Under normal circumstances I would have sat with my Suiter on this deck, either on one of the many benches or on the grass and stared up at the stars. We would spend hours trying to pick out individual celestial bodies that we knew, or claimed to know.

Instead my closest friend second only to Durge who had stayed by my side since my time as a chambermaid to dragon Princess Zarkir. The zaltule the warrior cast of the already formidable kleese breed for war and the taking of life, had been a trophy gifted to the princess by a neo changeling who was a potential candidates to become one of the drakes suiters. He had taken to me, at what point I do not remember and had acted as my guardian. Filling the role of bodyguard when ever I entered my seasons not many wanted to tangle with a nine foot red eyed spider, and continuing the training and care given to my by my brother Bra'tac.

Our PDPs guided us to a beach its synth sand surface meant to filter whatever particulates entered the water. There beside the gently and synthetically created gentle waves stood several other people, most of which I knew and several of which I had only a passing knowledge of.

My brother Bra'tac in his repurposed and repainted prime guard armor stood with his arms crossed behind his back, blazer staff planted blade first into the ground beside him. At his side stood a pony, I had to hiss at this I knew this pony as she had been placed on the 26RTI's command squad. She PFC Gutsy allegedly was cursed by some demon lord of Tartarus to never die, cursed to regenerate from grievous injury and feel the pain of watching ones loved ones wither and die forever more.

The unicorn stood in a tan variant of the space born infantry fatigues. Talking quietly with my brother about something or another and giving pointers while they watched specalist Michel Trombley, a young spaceborne infantry trooper I have known since bagmare practicing his knife work against Durge.

For his he was putting up a commendable effort for a human, soaking in the knowledge I myself had tried teaching him during our drills together. He fought dirty something taught to him by my Suiter, kicking sand into Durge's eyes and slashing at his sensitive abdomen with the training stun knife.

They paused to greet the two of us as we entered the clearing, however this caused the lance corporal to hesitate creating an opening for the zaltule to scuttle in grab Trombley and hurl him boldly into the "lake". We all shared a laugh when the brown furred male resurfaced with a well spirited "Im okay!".

Charlotte giggled as she watched the display. While the more ancient practice of selective breeding had come into practice, arranged breeding pairs like Charlotte and Avery's for example. They had paired in their youth but being from seperate nations their relationship had not gotten much farther than what it was now. His grandmother having been given the medal of honor and her parents being key corporate figures in the Nordic empire.

A new voice cut in as my corporal instructor from NAC boot camp made himself known. Veteran Sugar Watkins seemed to peel himself from his spot on a bench to berate the specialist for his lack of discipline, questioning his intelligence and whether or not his mother had birthed him with a pair of eyes.

It felt odd seeing the buck sergeant here, usually the man worked as squad snow viper's second in command, being the only other person to hold the title of veteran in the unit besides my Love. He like wore a his fatigue pants and a dark tan Homeworld defence shirt.

His dark skinned head was shaved bald and around his scared neck he wore a severed unicorn horn as a trophy. From my studies into human history I know that normally in days past, such as before what the humans call the Lanky Siege waring such things would be frowned upon, if not outright forbidden. But in these times after the siege humanity's military became more lax about such things, as long as your accessory didn't hinder your performance, or that of the troopers around you it was generally allowed.

This was the reason I still wore the necklace my lover had gifted to me on my hatching day on bagmare. He didn't know the significance of the gift at the time, not knowing that the necklace he had undoubtedly liberated from a corpse. It usually was a testament to the never ending love between the giver and the recipient, meant to be something unique to the couple. Something that bound them together and spoke volumes more than mere words could. Similar to the human's engagement rings, or perhaps a wedding ring would be a closer analogy.

The necklace was originally a fine gold depicting two roughly humanoid shapes, which what appear to holding hands coming together to form a heart shape, in the center of the heart was a brilliant ruby. After our relationship had continued further and when he eventually had learned about the piece of jewelry significance however.

He stole it, and must have had worked some kind of magic, or pulled some tailes. Because when he returned it to me after I had gifted him my heart scale. On the peer as we watched the Galactica launch from her drydock for the first time together. It was immaculate, utterly Avery, and to me at least utterly beautiful.

Now not only gone were the scratches and wearing it had no doubt accumulated from its previous owner. But its gold surface was a brilliant shined and restored to a pristine condition. Its' pendant modified with one of the humanoid features replaced by a coiled ruby accented serpent, the two figures still formed a heart but at its center was a second heart in the rough shape if a scale, allegedly forged of a fragment lanky seed ship. He said it was taken from a piece of the late Burbanjack's own L-blade. I wear the necklace even now, under my tunick entwined with my dog tags.

I had to smile at the memory of my Love's late team leader. The man had always seemed like a parental figure to her Suitor whenever she had spoken to or seen him. Avery looked up to him, put him on a pedestal as something to aspire to. The old Veteran had cared deeply for the men under his command taking their safety and well being, not only on the battlefield but off as his own personal responsibility. It was he who encouraged me to first engage my Suitors romantically, and for that I will always be thankful.

I ran a claw over the pendant as I laughed with my friends. Laughed until heads turned as a new group drew near. Four human in grey or black Liegonare battle armor sans helmets closed on our group. Their mood was serious, drawing our revelry to a close and causing tensions to rise. The mood toward special forces troopers or pod heads among the rank and file like myself was cool at best, dangerous at worst, when at times of rest. Their need to call any non pod head "Basics" or "crunchies" didn't help much either.

Big Dog wore his armor's lower half and a tight black short sleeved tunic with an atlas moth displayed on its left pectoral. I have not spent much time getting to know him do to his standoffish attitude. But he looked out for Avery, and the two of them had helped one another escape Rarity's capture and that made him an ally. He like Watkins for Durge and myself, was Avery's instructor corporal when he went through boot camp.

Beside him was Wraith, dressed in full kit he painted an imposing picture, especially with the long barreled blaster strapped over one shoulder. Another person I haven't known, but yet another member of my suitors team. Avery had told me stories, and that he, Wraith was the best sniper he had ever known. Telling me that he had once, before the reformation of the COG he had seen the man shoot an SRA pilot out of his fighter in mid strafing run, while under fire.

Beside him was X, the legendary Helldiver. I had a passing relationship with the middle aged human. But the stories about him, shrouded him with an aura of reverence. Before I had met X I had been under the impression that Helldiver survival rates were abysmal. Many of them only surviving to their fifteenth jump. That number had staggered me when I had read it, the idea that the duel purpose, recovery shock troopers would be so willing to join a brotherhood such as theirs. Their missions usually saw them dropped onto lanky controlled planets to recover records and technology with no support.

Fifteen drops, was the expectation, but with over one hundred missions under his belt, X was the exception. He wore Legionnaire armor instead of his usual Helldiver HEBA bug suit. Instead of being completely blood red its plates were a dull matt black, with a single red chevron so deep it was almost black rested over his chest plate.

Finally my eyes fell on my suitor as he spoke with the venerable Helldiver at his side. He wore Legionnaire armor as well, unlike whenever he did drills with our squad. Then he wore standard battle armor with the MOTH attachments, like the jump pack. He like the others wore that jump pack now, with his helmet clipped to his hip. And at his hip was a new addition, the cross guard of a sword with a glimmering green peridot in the pommel. 'A gift from crux? It would make some sense, he has seemed to take avery under his wing after the Burbanjack.'

Avery's mocha skin seemed to highlight the dull glowing red rings of his activated ocular implants. They stood around for several minutes ignoring the nervous tension in the air as several more humans and formers arrived. Levoy the synthetic human apothecar...medic, was the only one of the group of four that I knew.

"Thank you all for coming…" X began running a gauntleted hand across his face. "We have news, and a mission. Veteran Fallon, explain the situation."

[Veteran] Sergeant: Sugar Watkins
NACS: Galactica SD-002

Jump point: alpha
Distance from so: unknown
2170AD/107AC

Four days until Defiant departure

"Move your ass!" Veteran Fallon shouted into my ear as I crawled through blood soaked mud. His helmets speaker amplifying his voice to unreasonable levels making my ears ring.

Red stained mud clung to my half naked body almost drowning me as my back was sliced by razor wire whenever I rose my self up slightly to breath. Around me the others "chosen" for this assignment were in similar position. Prone on their stomachs with mud cracking almost every surface of their bodys. All with the acception of Durge who physically couldn't get into the position.

After being selected he had informed us of just how fucked we were unless drastic action was taken. And how each of us would be used to see to the survival of the fleet by taking out the Defiant, and scouting ahead of the fleet for anything and everything that might be of use. As well as partaking in any clandestine actions that arose during the mission, be it taking out a high value target, starting a civil war, or aiding any ACM outposts we run into out here on the galaxy's edge.

And that's exactly where we were, after the first day when we had meet the rest of the team, and gon over the plan. News had come down, that the astro navigation people had finally decided where we were. Our fleet and by extension this part of the UEC rested only about ten eight thousand light years from the very edge of the galaxy, leaving only a thin veneer of stars between us and the void between galaxies. Unfortunately just because knew where we were, didn't mean we knew where Sol or COG space in general was in relation to us.

Anyway, after the first two days of introduction and some general testing X and Fallon decided that the lot of us weren't up to the task at hand. And so they and the other two MOTHs with them decided to give the lot of us a "crash course". That meant an extremely shortened version of MOTH school for most everyone who would participate in ground operations. Or and if you were lucky or unlucky depending on who you asked, Helldiver training.

"This sucks." Trombley grunted from behind Miiora who was getting the "Special treatment" from her own boyfriend.

"1169, I don't give a fuck! Either you crawl or I will put your ass through the recycler myself. And make you run this bitch again fresh off a revive, trust me!" He yelled before throwing a ball of mud into the young man's face. "It's not fun!"

"And you!" The gunnery Sergeant yelled, turning his attention to the prone forms of Captain Dunois and Miiora. He must have seen something particularly distasteful because he bent a knee and kicked something in the mud earning a pained growne. "What the fuck is that! You think your funny!"

Without skipping a beat he rose from his crouch over the two prone forms and drew his side arm. There was a mechanical whur as the weapon game online before he fired it into the mud. There was a scream before the two forms "shot" past him. "Not so funny now is it!

What felt like hours past before we made it to the end of what X and Iceman had so wrongly named an obstacle course. We all exited the course some helping others and as one we crashed onto the sandy beach in one large Multispecies heap.

"Not bad!" The Gunnery sergeant yelled walking up to us with his cronie Big dog in tow. "I'll tell you what, I think you've earned a brake." As he said those words the group let out a collective sigh of relief.

Fallon got a far off look in his eye as he glanced in Miiora's direction, his implant flickering to life as he pressed a the fingertips of his metallic hand to his head. He stood there for several moments eyes squeezed shut before turning and walking away.

"What was that about?" I asked the tymerian. Her body language oozed concern and a want to go to check on her fiancee.

She turned a slitted eye to regard me for a second before returning her gaze to the retreating form of the Gunny. "I don't know."

Auxiliary Flayed: Shiraui
NACS: Galactica SD-002

Jump point: alpha
Distance from so: unknown
2170AD/107AC

From my cradle I watched my placenta slide on his back feet. Across from him was the human Crux, his silver battle plate glistened slightly in the chamber. The two held archaic bladed weapons in their small hands as they circled one another, before Mister Fallon dashed forward swinging his sword in the ridged way a neophyte would. "Stop using standard attacks, use the unorthodox."

Across from me Miss Mii'ora worked on her machine, diligently and elegantly flipping in the zero gravity environment. She switched between her machine and Armor. Alternatively running maintenance on Habu and cleaning Armor.

Did they know their machines were at least partly formed of the enemy of the whole, the Cybar? Did they know that if the Cybar, if those infernal bio machines had their way they all would either be dead or enslaved? The Cybar were a prime enemy of the Whole, like the ape like humans, the Tabrin scarabs, the Zelephlur molluscs, the Brikel foxes, they survived the great test.

They thrived on the chaos the whole had become. And when The One had first been formed and used it had pushed them out. Eradicating their vial non forms, and scattering their fleets to the stars never to he seen again. Did they not know that the machines they so easily used were truly masterpieces of design? Many had tried to tame at least some portion of the Cybar's need to kill. But all had failed, and when they failed they did so spectacularly.

My attention fell back to my placenta as he back stepped drawing his blade across his chest in an attempt to parry the older humans blow. He would have failed had it not been for the enhanced reflexes attributed to the nanites in his body. "How often must I tell you boy, control my central line."

Some philosophers in the whole, long dead and forgotten, but not quite so. Had theorized that the Cybar and the creators were two sides of the same coin. One working in the macro scale, and the other in the nano. But both sought the same the base building blocks, the quantum. The Cybar seek to understand The Quantum, to defend themselves from it, while the creators used it, as easily as the humans breath, and sought to teach others.

The day the Cybar warriors clashed with The Creators. the Creators cast them aside with mighty sweeps of force, and displays of their will. But they in their Indomitable might were still mortal. The Cybar in the end, laid the creators low. Destroying their worlds, and scattering their allies to the edges of the galaxy in exile.

Mister Fallon sidestepped a sword thrust from Crux, raising his sword he was denied his victory with a swift elbow to the side of the head. My placenta's mate hissed as she witnessed this but was waved off. Crux dashed in low, his armors thin red cape billowing out behind him as he shifted his weight and kicked Mister Fallon's legs out from under him.

My placenta crashed hard to the deck, splitting his shoulder on an errant screw and spilling blood onto the deck. This didn't stop him however, and in an blur of motion he dashed forward resuming his assault on the older man with a renewed fever. "Faster, destroy my focus!"

Mister fallon swiped once more his blade colliding with his opponents before he leaned back, planting a bionic hand on the deck and rotating into a savage back kick that Crux stopped with the flat of his blade. Sensing the follow up, the caped man used the microgravity to his advantage and back flipped over a follow up backhanded slash from his protege.

He came down and delivered a power armor kick to Mister Fallons unarmored chest before firing a concussive blast of compressed air from his gauntlets, forcing Avery back and to the ground. My Placenta tried to rise but a sword tip at his neck ceased his attempt. "You have gotten better boy, worthy of the blade you cary. But you are to easily excited, to quick to attack and not quick enough to step back and think."

"Noted." Mister Fallon said as the blade was lifted to his feet by his mate, who fussed over the deep bone colored gashes that lined his body. I could feel it through our connection, his nanites boiling and working to stitch the wounds back together. He would need another injection, something I would see to when next he entered me.

His mate used her tail to kick off into the air and back to her machine as he lit a cigarette. "Wish you were coming with Crux, it sure would make the job a lot easier on me."

"Mm… So do I, but someone has to stay behind and show these new recruits what end of a rifle fires the flechettes."

"I know that's right, those boots are terrible, especially the ones that came in from the ACM. At Least the turncoats from the UEC have some knowledge of small unit tactics. The fresh people are going to be the easiest for you to teach I think."

"I agree, I won't have to get them to unlearn bad habits."

COG SPACE

Steel world: The Spire

2170AD/107AC

Tideman stood at his office window at the top of the repurposed mile high atmosphere exchanger. He watched the clouds pass below and the light of the city below them. He watched the blood red iron rich ocean waves at the edges of that city. And the glittering of the impervisteel rings, life blood of the COG navy's industrial war machine hanging around the moon.

"Director, with the fall of Orion, and the dropping number of candidates for the other special forces branches the defences corps is severely limited. I fear at this point whatever assets we have now and whatever comes through in the next cycle will be all of the pod heads we get for the rest of the war. Unless we can buy ourselves more time." The Director Tideman's adjutant a veteran and colonel by the name of Miles Kaydor said.

"I fear that won't be enough to deal with the current political situation." Tideman remarked as he zoomed in the view on his smart window to get a better look at the newest Galactica class battleship being built in orbit over the city.

"I agree, the Coalition's representative governments are growing tired, war weariness has started to set in and they have begun to make mistakes."

"I know what you mean. If the council… have started trying to strike deals with the enemy then this has gotten worse than we thought. And with the loss of ninety percent of the Onyx Guard and their training base we have lost a key strategic asset."

"The people are in shock Director. I feel they might have lost faith. Besides Rea… Sandalphon, Orion was our best hope of survival should earth fall. And now… now Steel world is our last fortress among the stars. Our last hope."

The Director let out a long sigh before turning to face his adjutant. "... Kaydor, if we don't do something soon the COG will fall. Either by the Lankys, the UEC, or by the hands of our own leaders incompetence and cowardice. Did you know during the siege, the upper class, the political elite, and their families tried to abandon earth? They cut their ties to our home and they and those troops loyal to them left us behind to fend for ourselves."

"I was aware. It's because of them that we lost Saturn. Their ships were not in position and we were over run. We sent a strikeforce to the colony they ran to, and took back the ships and personnel they stole. We arrested them, president Maxwell was tried for treason. That was the first time the COG formed. The Council tries to hide that right from us. And actively work to subvert our authority and yank our leashes when we get too close to something they don't like. Just look at the Onyx Guard at first they were the best, respectable. But after years of political appointments backroom dealings, and ineptitude they were neutered, turned from the best we had to offer into the Council's personal attack dogs."

A chime rung and he began the task of descending the spire and taking a repulser cab to the local delegation house for yet another round of senseless meeting. It went on for hours before finally coming to a close.

When Tideman finally extricated himself from another useless question and answer session with Council house committee tasked integrating alien minority species into the defences corps special operations bridades. The committee had all kinds of studies that justified their reasons. But Tideman had suspected that this session was really just a probe to see what the COG were up to in lew of the problem at Orion.

Tideman had gone into the meeting with his usual poker face and had given his usual common sense reasons why the special forces, MOTHS in particular had to remain human only. At least the house wasn't asking once again for special exceptions for non-males.

'Not after what had happened the last time.'

For the COG generals and NCO corps the backbone of the MOTHs this issue was never up for negotiation. They saw it as a ploy to once again lower fitness and training standards in another attempt to weaken the Coalition. It already showed in the casualty reports. The troopers to come out of the training depots in the time since the Coalition started allowing Formers into the military were of noticeably lower quality. This was really the goal. To the Council and the house the Coalition was the real threat. And for good reason.

The distinguished delegate from Baru had even had even wanted to allocate funds to develop a new non-drill sergeant based boot camp. Replacing the fundamental training overseer since time immemorial with a new kind of instructor called a "Military lifestyle and career coach."

Tideman, who never laughed in public actually guffawed and quickly covered it up with a cough. The colonel who served as his adjutant Kaydor may have actually sworn audibly within the holographic council chambers. Because of course the council could never be seen on steel worlds. After that things got real quiet and the focus group was quickly ended and rushed out of the door.

It was these people who had taken the backbone of the coalition away. And if they had just cut the Coalition's leash at the start of the war it could have at least been better by now with less filled body bags. They had forbidden the deployment of war bots they had forbidden the tactics necessary to win the war, instead seeking a solution that best suited them and only themselves.

'They were nervous.' Tidemanthought to himself as he walked out of the citadel. They had reason to be because the Coalition had the constitutional right to end the Council, the house, and the Senate if it choose to. In an emergency the Coalition the military arm of the COG could invoke the 19th article known as the champion clause or simply "Artical 19" contained within the Coalition Of Governments' constitution.

This allowed them to assume control of the government for up to ten months. Most of the generals had said for years that such a maneuver was nearing execution. But ten months didn't buy a lot of time to do what needed to be done. Every House, and Council, member had to captured and tried legally. And then new elections had to be held so the Big Two could be restored and free of corrupt influence. The senate was a bit easier it could simply be dissolved and then it was up to the individual worlds to elect new senators according to local customs.

But all of this was politics, not something the Coalition wanted to participate in. And the coalition no the galaxy needed something where that wasn't something it was designed to participate in.

As he and his adjutant stood inside of a beautifully expansive boarding lounge. He noticed quickly that it had grown quiet. Taking a glance around, carefully, as to not show he had noticed he saw that the place had been vacated save for himself and Kaydor. As he locked down his notes and sealed them with a code an old man, and a young woman entered the entered the lounge.

He, the old man was a scrawny steep shoulders burber type in a suit that looked so expensive the price of it alone could feed the population of one those new type six residence blocks for a month. Long broken nose, whispy white hare.

He made straight for the Director of the Coalition with long strides that made it clear his intention was to engage the director in conversation. He had come seeking an audience come hell or high water, whatever that meant.

At his side the young woman, though young was a relative term for her kind stayed silent. Though her chitanus black hide reflected light slightly and her wings fluttered every now and then. She was a changeling, one of the old breed, a shifter, the line troops called them to distinguish them from their new breed cousins.

"Excuse me Coalition Director Tideman…" started the man. But the adjutant Colonel, a short Iron grey bulldog of a man cut the berber off five steps out. Tideman knew Kaydor could kill the man in about two point four seconds with his bare hands alone.

He was even a little faster than Tideman who did PT with any SI, TA, or SF team he could find every day. He took took pride in running young troopers into the ground as he dragged them through sixteen miles of the most grueling terrain he could find, In formation at the double. It was pleasing to see them throwing up, it was displeasing to know that at his age he could make them do that.

There was a time not long ago where that would have been an impossibility. The young troopers were to strong for that, but not now the effect of constant meddling by the house and council had taken a toll. Tideman especially liked runs that landed on pay day because the NCOs and battalion commanders practically begged him to ruin their troops for the weekend before they ruined themselves in the bars. It was not uncommon to have troopers passout in their racks for upwards if twenty four standard after Director Tideman had finished one of his little runs.

"The Director has another appointment to keep, and we're already late." Kaydor said in his usual don't make me kill you stecado bark.

"I was just wondering if he had a moment for an old martian from Zealand." Tideman heard that and so did Kaydor. Zealand was a bad conflict. It had been a little bit before Tideman's time but the Veteran who had been his first NCOs had been there and they told him some pretty crazy stories about that brutal conflict.

Stories from one of these men stood out to him now. He had spoken about a group of people who were organized to be an experimental unit, something that was meant to be something like a mixture of a modern day MOTH and Helldiver. A shock trooper and a special operator rolled into one. As he thought back racking his mind about what he remembered about the organization he recalled a paper presented to him by one of the members of the first graduating MOTH class.

The MOTH had written his theses in the MOTH academy on this now defunct batch of soldiers. The Martian's had formed it after Mars was seeded by the Lankys. Formed by a man who's men had called the T-rex.

The Legion they called themselves, it was the Legion that had fought back the Lankys on Mars, the Legion who served aboard the Leathy when she took Zeus Hope, and again at Souls End. It was the Legion who had landed on earth after the Lankys invaded. It was them who engaged them first.

And it was the Legion who had died to a man when they had made their stand rather poetically at San Antonio Texas, in the blasted out ruins of some run down ancient fortress. As the story went in 2082 the T-rex, and a hundred other Leiges held off almost four hundred Lankys for three days. They were wiped out to a man, but they never did find the T-rex's body. That was back in the days before we had weapons that could kill lankys effectively. They did it with original mark one M-90s and M-80s, war bots and the first prototype ATL mechs.

The good mechs not the ATLAS-3's the moths use now, but the real shit kickers the House didn't allow us to pursue. The stuff the RnD people are only now figuring out how to surpasses and should match with the newest iteration of the ATLAS-4. And if the rumor mill was accurate, it was whispered that the people at Wayland have already completed the designs for the next generation after the 4s.

As the old man talked, talked about things Tideman hated to hear, things the House, and Council were plotting behind his back he. Things that if it ever got out would spell the end of the coalition and the Cog as a hole he knew what he had to do. The COGs people needed hope, they needed something to rally behind. A rock that wouldn't waver in the face of whatever was thrown its way, they needed the Legion.

The one percent of the one percent, what was that old term for them? The heartbreakers and life takers.

STEEL WORLD

COE Medical Lab

Coco Pommel

Immortality test 37

2170AD/107AC

“There you are. Have you thought about my proposal?”

Coco looked toward the Bipedal Goat and shook her head, “What would I get out of this?”

The goat laughed, “The best kind of reward, revenge. You would get to pay them all back, and I would help.”

Finally she held out her hand and he gripped it,”Good, let the humans make the connections. Allow them to discover true immortality, and they will be our means toward the vengeance we both crave.”

With that she awoke, her skin and coat looking brand new, and around her ashes from everything else lay about her.

“Test thirty-seven, napalm, complete regeneration. You're due a break, feel like some Oriental food?”

She looked toward the mirror, the human tester at least let her know what was happening, and he didn't wipe her mind and keep her as a sex doll. She nodded, “Some of the vegetarian noodles please.”

As she walked across the floor to the room to.change she considered what Grogar allowed her to remember. She wanted the humans to become immortal. They could become eternal Peacekeepers, and somehow she believed they would be good at the job. What needed to die would die, what needed to live would live, and all of her kind would taste sweet fire as it engulfed their flesh. Stepping out she gave a slight smile to some of the other scientists that were working with the overseeing her tests. Of course they had been kind enough to let her design some clothes, something she remembered enjoying quite some time ago, but even as she designed memories of Rarity would sneak into her mind.

She wanted Rarity to suffer the same fate she was cursed to suffer. To never taste the relief of death, to always feel every once of pain of dying, only to be brought back to life to feel it again. She could think of some interesting deaths for her former mistress to experience. One of which was having a long shaft inserted in her nethers and then rammed forward until it exited her mouth. Only to have it removed, and while everything repaired do it again. To keep her on the brink of death, at the moment, never to feel an ounce of relief.

“Yesss.” a voice hissed.

She looked around trying to find the voice.

“Our masssster was right. You are certainly one of ussss,” the voice hissed seductively.

“Who are you?”

Just beyond her vision she caught a view of something moving in the shadows. Slowly, as if the very shadows themselves were pulling together, the being formed. She watched as it took shape, and surprisingly it was shaped more like a human than a pony. She could see two ram’s horns on either side of its head, but it looked female. She watched as the creature walked toward her. She couldn’t help but look down and she noticed that her lower half was more equine like. Her feet had a single toe which a large hoof covered.

“I am my masssster’sssss ssssservant, but you may call me Lilith, or if you want a pony name I did go by Bagatelle Addolorato.”

The name struck a cord with Coco. It was a name she could barely remember, but it was one that came with a warning. Slowly she looked at the being once more and realized what she was. Bagatelle Addolorato had been a cousin to the Sirens. The old story of the Sirens was fairly well known among fisher ponies, and Mainhattan had been something of a fishing city at one time. The story had stuck around the docks, and she had done her best to make some friends in that area. Both because it made buying some of their goods cheaper, but also because there had been a colt she was interested when she was much younger.

One of the stories she had heard included the Sirens’ cousin, a succubus known as Bagatelle Addoloratio.

“You know the Sirens?”

Bagatelle smiled, “Ssssssomeone remembersssss, that pleassssessss usssss. Yessss, I remember the Sssssirensssss, they were far too greedy for their own good.”

Coco noticed that everyone else was passing her, not seeing, or paying Bagatelle any notice.

“Why can’t they see you?”

Bagatelle touched one, causing the woman to shiver, moan softly, and then leave the room.

“They haven’t been touched by my massster, but you have. You can sssssee me, where they cannot.”

[VTRN] Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon
NACS: Galactica

Jump point: alpha
Distance from so: unknown
2170AD/107AC

12 hours before departure

"So you've tried everything?" I asked Gutsy as I longed on one of Shiraui's hanging tentacles like a hammock.

"Yes." Was the unicorn's only response as she and the other members of my ragtag team filled out mountains of paperwork.

"Chainsaw."

"Yep."

"Shotgun to the face."

"Tried it."

"Vat of acid?"

"I wouldn't recommend it."

"Grenade down the throat?"

"Yep."

"Wow."

"I've been at this for almost two thousand of your years. I even jumped into a volcano once." Gutsy said tiredly as she leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

That was an interesting one. I leaned forward almost falling off of Shiraui's tentacle as she swayed while listening to music. "Woah, you survived a dip in lava?"

"Yeah, it was a rough six months."

"Soooo what can you feel it when you regenerate?"

"Well I can feel something. I am aware of what's happening I guess it depends on what caused the death."

"So what if I cut you in half will there be two of you or…"

"No one half will regenerate and the other stays dead. It's like a."

"So like wolverine rules?"

"Umm, actually mister Fallon, I think she would be closer to that one super hero… what was his name?"

"Deadpool?" Trombley chimed in not looking up from his improvised desk.

"Yeah that's it." I said turning the page of the book I was reading on my PDP.

“Hey! Anyone seen veteran fallon? Got something for him from up top!”

Shiraui stopped her little dance so I could turn and face the guy talking. Taking a hold of the large tentacle I vaulted to the deck. "What do you need?"

“We got some new toys you will love veteran! You and your team”

"Well what are you basics waiting for? Bring it in."

“Aye aye veteran! Bring it in boys!”

The entrance to the loading bay turned "wreck room" slid open to allow a group of six basics wheeling in carts with several containers on them."

“And don’t ask me to explain it sir, all i know is that this shit will make you like death inself”

Kicking off the deck I glided to the box marked with my name and punched in my credentials on the panel on the side. Immediately the box slide open to reveal what was inside and I had to stop myself from screaming like a kid on Christmas. The bag inside had the triple inverted chevrons of Misriah Armory embossed on its face.

"An Nk-6! Dude this thing is amazing!" I said pulling the blaster battle rifle from the box and unwrapping it from its teflon bag. The weapon was jet black, not like the dark grey of the N-4.

"I don't get it what's so special about it?" Charlotte asked as she put her code into her own container.

"You don't understand. These have twice the stopping power of an N-4 and twice the range." Taking the weapon I composed myself and took a step back. And with a satisfied smile I watched my team, open their containers.

Several hours later I stood bucket on, on the ramp leading into Defiants hanger. At my side stood Harris, and Wrechs, glossy black of their armor matching the finish of my own Dark Ops armor.

"Think their ready?" Wraith asked as we watched the crews loading the last of the supplies we will need onto the ship.

"We trained them the best we could." Harris said as Shiraui and our mechs stomped up the ramp past us, the former stopping to wave at me as she passed.

"I wish we could have had more time. I just don't know if i'm ready to lead a team, even if X is here..." I said as the pilots past us by with their fighters and dropships. I nodded to Charlotte as she passed, fussing over her PDP.

"They'll have to be Fallon, you'll just have to hope you trained them to the best of your abilities." X said, through the secure S-com suits in our armor.

I was about to respond when my team entered the bay dressed in their shiny new armor and carrying their bags, blaster rifles and flechette guns slung across their backs.

The aliens had modified versions obviously but if one were to cut tthm out of the picture. One could he forgiven for thinking they had just stepped back in time. Or for that they were watching some historical reenactors getting ready to relive the battle of Rex's last stand.

Each of them wore the same color my armor took depending on the mission. Their armor like mine and that of my brothers, was a throwback, an honest to god blast from the past. Some of their armor was greyish green, and two among them wore the black. But everyone on my team, everyone here wore the armor, and the colors, of the Legion.

"Veteran Fallon." A black armored man said walking up to the front of the group. His new ID logged him as DO-26. But I knew from the sound of excitement in his voice, and the roster on by buckets HUD that it was Trombley. "We are ready to go."

"Alright then. Kill Team Viper…. Time to KTF."

Chapter 15 Legion's last stand pt.1

[VTRN] Gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

Enroute to UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

The door slid open to reveal my assembled kill team. Each of them filed into the small room and sat before a holotable displaying the target system that would be our first stop in our search. It wasn't a very notable system simply consisting of a single red dwarf and a small host of barren rocks in close orbit. It felt odd, standing before my own team. When only a few months ago it was me in those same folding chairs waiting for Burbonjack to give us our briefing.

Checking the clock I went over my PDP one more time before plugging it into the table. Miiora and Bra'tac were the last to enter both of them like all of my team, were dressed in dark grey ACUs.

Taking a breath I began the briefing. "Alright Kill team Viper. The Skipper has identified a soft target…" swiping my finger across the table I brought up the aforementioned target system.

"This is Altonix, from the information given to us by Gutsy and the captain of the Glimmering wake we know it rests on the edge of one the UEC's Alcubierre node chains. That means, normally there's only one way in, and one way out. The target is this…" with another swipe I blew up the image to show a UEC relay station.

"The UEC call it a relay station, somewhere they pass information through, and link ships to for orders and generally anything we would use one of our own comm nodes for. Now our scout drone has detected at least several dozen life forms aboard the relay. So our rules of engagement are the usual. We go in, get the data, KTF any clops or celebs, and free any slaves. This should be an easy mission, quick In and out…."

"How will we be inserting?" Trombley asked taking notes on his PDP from his seat beside Miiora.

"We will be inserting via black fly dropship. After Defiant jamms their signal, and Roland who is on loan from the Manitoba, tricks their sensors we will be going in."

"When will we be going Veteran?" Gutsy asked from her seat in the back.

"Defiant makes transition to the mission area in three hour. Be ready in case the time table moves up. Thirty minutes."

"What are we going to do with the slaves?" Miiora asked.

"We give them the option to either come with us or let them stay, it's up to them. But either way if they become a liability we cut them loose. End of story. If that's all, dismissed."

They all stood and began to file out of the room as I turned to X who stood leaning against the bulkhead. "Not bad for your first Briefing. I'll get the kids ready. You should take some time to yourself that's an order." The seasoned helldiver said before kicking off of the bulkhead and floating to the hatch.

Sighing I scratched my bionic, "Damn ghost itch." I grunted before walking out of the door, my mag boots clicking as I did so.

A message caused my PDP to buzz in its poly plast pocket on my leg. Retrieving it and opening the app I saw it was from from Shiraui. With a few swipes I opened the file and was greeted with an image of her eyeless face. "Uum mister Fallon, I'm sorry to bother you but it is time for out link."

"Right...." I said before turning a corner and taking the corridor down to the hanger. "I'm on the way."

"Welcome." Shiraui greeted me as I entered her hanger. Usually the bay would have been used to hold extra parts and spare drop ships, but since the fleet was running low on space ships after the last assault the bay was in stead converted into a creche. After all it was really just a glorified extra large closet with a freight elevator in it that we used to move her to the hanger and out onto the hull.

But to Shiraui it was her room and she enjoyed it. And I could feel that enjoyment through our link as I drew closer to her bay. I had to be honest, It felt kind of nice to not be truly alone. She could feel and influence my emotions, she had said as much, and to a much lesser extent I could feel hers.

Reaching the hatch I paused as the two war bots who stood guard scanned me before a synthetic seated at a desk waved me on. "Your clear, go ahead Veteran."

Nodding as the door slid open I stepped in. The hatch closed behind me as I was greeted by Shiraui standing beside a rack of Bio-pods. She appeared to be studying them as well as had several arrays of tentacles dancing across several PDPs. I noticed several changes to not just her person but to the bay itself as I drew closer.

First off she had appeared to have grown a close approximation of a tail, no doubt the result of the vast number of hostiles she had eaten when the Galactica was attacked. The appendage appeared to be the source of several of her long tentacles. And the final change to her appearance was a sort of dress like situation made of oddly familiar black scales.

The second thing I noticed was the increased heat in the bay. It must have been almost eighty or ninety degrees in here. But the thing that was most notable was the smell which had a kind of floral aroma mixed with a sugary pastry smell.

"It smells like someone made cookies in here." I said as I clicked my heels and deactivated my mag boots.

"W-well I did sort of, um... ask the captain if it was alright if I had an oven." The flayed said as she turned to face me taking a knee to lower her eighteen foot frame to look at me. She then reached out a hand and snaked out three tentacles to gently grip me and bring me to her.

That caught me off guard."W-what? What do you need an oven for? You don't even eat right?" I asked completely befuddled. "I mean I've watched you shove whole fist fulls of people, screaming people, still alive into your mouth, and eat them…"

She looked down shifting her head away slightly as if in shame. "I just wanted to try cooking you all something. You know… as a thank you for taking me with you." She said in a sad tone, using her other hand to ruffle her dress.

"No, it's fine, really… I'm just surprised how human you can be. Given… well you know." I replied holding onto one of her claws as she moved me closer to chest.

"Really? Its alright That's fantastic! I was worried you…" Shiraui almost shouted returning her eyeless gaze to me and bouncing slightly on what past for the balls of her feet. The sudden movement forcing me to clamp my bionic onto the claw I was using as a hand hold. The claw large enough and dexterous enough to not only slice me in half with zero effort, but to flay me alive.

"Don't worry about it. But, do me a favor, just run it by me when you want to try alright. Wouldn't want you to feed the team people by mistake." I laughed as she moved me to what would be below her left breast. The hatch blossomed open and a small swarm of glowing fireflies flew out as I stepped in. Shiraui shuttered as I kissed my hand and ran it across a small plaque on the wall.

"Are you ready?" She asked as I leaned back and closed my eyes activating my implant.

"Ready."

There was a flash as my neural link was activated. The nantes in my body working to link themselves to the lanky I was sitting inside of. I opened my eyes and saw saw the world through Shiraui's eyes. The link felt odd, felt off, it could be because she was a lanky and im a human, or because she was what passed for a female and I was a male.

But it didn't matter, when I was linked be it to an atlas inside its womb, or inside Shiraui's seemingly hyper advanced cockpit. I felt powerful, like I could move mountains, do anything, like fight a hurricane and win. But that was a dangerous way of thinking, the kind of thinking that would get you and your people killed.

'And if it were up to me, it would be the first thing I would teach.'

Shiraui, the unique flayed I had come to call friend, began humming to herself as we link and she shifted her attention to other things. As she turned I brought myself back and seemed to float in the vast mind that made up Shiraui's synapses. I heard distant voices, just out of ear shot.

Then a sharp pain shot into my back followed by a cooling sensation flowing through my body. "Sorry! I wasn't paying attention." I heard Shiraui say as she shunted me back into my meat suit.

"Its fine, what was that?" I grunted feeling my muscles tightening before tentacles came down from the walls and began working over my shoulders. "Just a faulty synapse, you drifted too close to one of the wholes connecting nodes. Just I injected you with a fresh batch of nanites."

"It's alright, it just startled me is all" I smiled, and sat back in the seat and just listened to the soft thrum of what I guessed was Shiraui's heart.

"Mister Fallon…" She asked in an innocent voice.

"Hmm?"

"Could you tell me a story? The data I have on human history is so limited."

"Alright Shiraui. Have you ever heard of the Legion?"

"Ooh yes!" She squealed excitedly bouncing and rattling me inside her cockpit.

"My old placenta, no that's not the word you'r pattern uses… Pilot, my old pilot had some memory of them in his DNA when he was grown in me. They were formed after my kind conquered mars, before I was spawned. What was left of Martian Congressional Republic military came together and formed the Legion after they limped back to earth. That's where the term KTF came from." Shiraui said proudly.

"Well, not much is known about what really happened after the fact. We do know that they were crucial in the ten year war to take mars back, which if we're being honest we never did. And a few skirmishes with belter rebels who tried to blow the sperm and egg stations on Io. But have you ever heard the story of Rex's last stand?"

"No, who is Rex?"

"The general T-Rex was one of the last heroes of The Siege, that's what we called the first war with your kind back then. It was a hot Texas summer, when the Lankys landed. Most of Mexico fell in a matter of hours and as the shovel heads neared the border the legion, who had just completed another campaign made landfall. Those old legis fortified an old pre spaceflight fortress and made their stand. And at their head was a man..."

"What was the man's name?" Shiraui cut me off, sounding like an exited kid. Like I was the first time I heard the story almost twenty years ago.

"The mans name, was Tyrus Wrechs"

Legion General: Tyrus Wrechs

[T-Rex]
NAC rad zone: Texas, San Antonio

Radiation levels: 538 RAD/h
2082AD/12AC

"Impact!" I shouted feeling the gut wrenching crash as the bipod slammed into the radioactive dirt.

At once the pod's door exploded outward and I jumped out onto the blasted sand, the M-80 LHO rifle clenched tightly in my hands gloved. "Move it Legis!" One of my NCO's LS-65 shouted off to my left.

There was another thunderous crash off to my right as one of the big MCRL mechs crashed into the ground. Mech rose to its feet rotating its torso backward as its legs carried it to our rally point. I felt the urge to cover my ears as the mechs shoulder mounted gauss cannon fired kicking up dust and rocks that pelted my armor as I stomped past.

In the distance through the sound of the incoming bipods I could hear it. The titanic ear splitting trilling wale, that all lankys made. "LS-43, what's the distance!?" I asked as I stomped past several more legionaries who were only now getting out of their drop pods.

"Large hostile contacts at relative six o'clock, seven kilometers and inbound. They know we're here!" The crackling voice came back over L-com.

As we drew closer and closer the combat controllers with us were calling down railgun strikes from the fleet in orbit to take out the tall dilapidated buildings around us. With only seven kilometers before the shovel heads reached us, that only gave us a few minutes to get set up.

We past a sign and a computer welcoming us to something called the Alamo museum and I watched a brute of a Lieg drop kick the door down. "Up to the roof, set up by squads! Mortars in the courtyard! Rockets and machine gunners on the corners! Move it legionnaires."

Sprinting up the stairs and onto the roof I past dust covered displays with ancient looking weapons in glass cases. "What's the deal with this place!?" One of my legionnaires shouted as we blew the door to the roof.

"Don't know, dont care. LS-43, distance."

"Their hallen ass sir, if they don't slow down they'll be on us in ten."

Stomping out onto the roof the sky opened up large sheets of rain began pelting our armor as the sky grew grey. In the distance a thick mist could be seen, as well as the storm walls created by the Lankys atmosphere exchangers. Huge black clouds could be seen in the distance swirling, as if battling for dominance with the natural atmosphere of our home world.

My grey green battle armor ran slick with rain shining in the dull light as if a carpenter had just shellacked it. "Here they come! Through the mist!" Someone shouted.

Sliding to a halt I slammed down stomach first as I brought up and sighted in on my rifle. Behind me I could hear the mechanical whirring of THK's as they stomped into position behind us. As well as the muffed steps of my non comms as they walked the lines slapping helmets and grunting angrily at their subordinates. Then they arrived, like monsters from some ancient story the first batch of lankys lumberd out of the mist. At my signal the Mars gunners let loose with their rockets, sending ninety milometer rocketing towards their targets.

The red striped missiles rocketed out and slammed into the first few targets. Each high explosive rocket created a large fireball that billowed out in a brilliant display of pyrotechnics. But despite the show it was obvious to those watching that something was wrong, very wrong. Because for one the lankys that had been hit were while not undamaged weren't dead. That meant that whomever had loaded the launchers before the drop had done so with thermobaric rockets, instead of the much more effective, and requested LHO rockets.

As a result the wounded lankys lowered their cranial shields and lumberd back behind their advancing line of nine. "Fuck, Rockets reload and fire at will! Machine guns light them the fuck up!"

There was a pause as the machine gunners drew beads on their targets and the electronic whirr of electric motors filled the rooftop. Then the space between our shitty fort and the advancing lankys turned into the seventh circle of hell.

The rotary machine guns spat out streams of glowing tracers that connected with the lanky's unnatural joints like laser beams. Black blood shot from the first two lankys as their limbs were blasted from their bodys. Instantly however the lankys behind leading two dropped to all fours and leveled their cranial shields, sending the streams of tracers to spark off into the mist around them.

Another salvo of rockets soared out these being much more angular as I watched pass. The LHO rockets crashed into the cranial shields of the advancing lankys, injected their isolated explosive and detonated.

Chunks of cranial shield exploded outward as the lankys began to fall as a result of the LHO salvo. Then the Mechs came into play, as one the four mechs slammed their heels down and anchored themselves into the ground before they fired their shoulder mounted gauss guns.

The lanky on the left exploded as a result of the kinetic force of the rounds hitting it. And the ones to its left and right lost limbs to the sudden and violent barrage. Then the mechs raised their right arms and began to fire their arm mounted rail guns. While much smaller less powerful than the gauss cannons inlayed into their left soldiers, the railguns the mechs had, had a much higher rate of fire.

And then, as I watched an entire squad who had been dropped to far our be swept aside like yesterday's trash with one single sweep of a titanic hand. I heard one of the most glorious sounds any soldier hears in combat, and one of the most frightening. My grandfather had told me stories of them and as I looked I heard the he low growl of an ancient looking A21 rolling low and slow over the horizon.

"Good morning Legionnaires, you appear to have a bug problem. Got any targets for me?" The pilot said over an old radio channel.

At once I marked targets with my weapons designator. Getting the signal the A-21 rolled in and unleashed hot death on the enemy. Firing its 40mm rotary cannon and unloading its rocket pods on the wounded troop of lankys. With its prey turned to a fine puree the flying tank banked and made to fly away, before a bone white three clawed hand shot out of the mist and swatted the plane out of the sky like a toy.

"Holy shit. Behind us!" Someone called out over the tac-link LS-18. Zooming in my helmets visor I watched a column of tanks, and a platoon of NAC soldiers rolling out of the poison myst. It was like something out of a nightmare, and as we watched, dozens of lankys began to file out of the myst behind them.

At its head was the largest lanky I had ever seen. Normal lankys stood on all fours at almost sixty meters, or eighty if they stood on their hind legs which more and more they had begun go do. This beast of a lanky stood at almost eighty meters on all fours.

Small explosions rocked its body from below and I watched in horror the beast let out a titanic chirp so loud, that even from four miles away my helmet had to shut out all outside noise to protect my hearing. And even then the noise the sheer volume of the cry was like someone had shoved burning spikes into my ears.

Clearly agitated, the lanky brought up a hand and slapped it down hard enough that I felt the concussion of the impact from here. Instantly the sound of a mass zero life signees signal reached my ears, as almost sixty lifesigns greyed out.

Almost as if it wanted to add insult to massacre, the beast made a fist and sweaped its forearm across the ground. I watched petrified bodies and vehicles went flying off into the distance like a child had just thrown a tantrum. Then the beast seemed to look up, its huge eyeless head felt like it was looking right at me as it slammed another hand down and stood up.

Drawing its fist back the titanic lanky hurled a tank at us. If it was a human I would have complemented its technique but all I could do was fight my body's primal urge to throw down my rifle and run away. The ball of ruined metal that had once one of the NAC's centaur tanks sailed through the air at a speed my helmet clocked at almost three hundred miles an hour, and slammed into one of the mechs like a runaway repulser train.

"Dude we're so fucked!" Another Legionnaire shouted before the beast reared back and let out a scream so loud it hit our line like a hammer blow.

One if my noncoms spoke up. "Keep it together LS-12"

Taking a deep breath forcing the lump in my throat back down. I opened a company wide channel. "Guns up people, either we stop these things here. Or we die trying. I'll be damned if I'm going to let Earth end up like Mars.They can't kill us if we kill them first."

[Veteran] Gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

"I'll end it there for now. I've got to get ready." I saw Shiraui nodd on her cockpit silhouette.

With a grunt I waited for the cockpit to blossom open and kicked myself out. Floating down to the deck I turned and made my way to the hatch. "Be ready alright, and be careful."

"Yes Mister Fallon." Was her response before she giggled. "KTF."

Turning back towards her I called out to her, "Don't forget nothin."

"What does that mean?" She asked with a tilt of her eyeless head.

"I'll tell you later." I laughed as I walked out of the bay.

Chapter 16 Black armor

[Veteran] Gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

"Begin jump prep. Nav."

"L-drive is charged, stellar coordinates locked.

"Comms?"

"Jamming is engaged."

"Tactical."

"Railguns are hot, tubes loaded"

"Boarding party?"

"Ready to go. " I reported

"All stations reporting green light colonel."

"3...2...1… jump."

The entire ship vibrated before the colonel's voice came over the tac-link. "Lucky-13 you are go for launch."

"Wilco. Alright kids hold onto your lunch!" The pilot shouted before the dropship rocketed forward on its launch rails.

Opening a new window on my bucket's HUD panned my head around to watch the ghost frigate Defiant and her Ex-UEC escort shrink away. Movement caught my eye as I watched Charlotte and her wingman's gungnir fighters burst from their launch shoots. "Escort is away."

"This is Shiraui, I am disembarking." The flayed said as I watched a dorsal freight elevator on the ships exterior slide open. Her dull bone white body seemed to absorb the light from the systems red star as she crouched and jumped off of the hull.

Shiraui, being much faster than Chatlotte's gungnir covered the distance between Defiant and Lucky-13 in seconds before coming up behind the dropship. She had her tail wrapped around her blaster cannon as she followed behind us, using the dropship's stealth package to enhance her own natural stealth capabilities.

Half of her face slid away to reveal a large glowing pink eye. "Their weapons aren't tracking us."

"Contact in ten. Gutsy, send our credentials." X said from beside the crew chief.

"Got it."

Cutting the camera link I looked around the cabin our armor had been shifted from its usual neutral grey, to a glossy black. "Hey gunny do you think anyone know how L-drives work?" Camouflage asked from his seat across from me.

"Don't ask me. I'm not paid enough to know that kind of stuff." I responded feeling something coil around my leg. Looking down I saw that Miiora who was seated to my left hand wrapped her tail around me, something she had started doing almost as soon as we had started dating.

"I don't know, that shits all to confusing to me." Big Dog my assistant team leader, and fellow nanotized trooper called out from his point in line as he patted his blaster rifle.

"You think that's confusing? Man, not only is the coalition fighting a race of eighty foot monsters that will make you shit in your baby pants. But a collective of aliens, who have literal bipedal mythical creatures on their side, who can use actual magic. And all the COG in its infinite wisdom, gave me a flechette rifle at the start of the war to fight them." Sugar said checking his double checking

"True, but I'm just glad they're ground troops don't have anything more advanced than 20th century weapons." Wraith chimed in.

"True, and their standard issue weapon a shotgun. But you are incorrect in assuming that all of their infantry are equipped with 20th century weapons. Look at the humans who have sided with the UEC they are equipped with old battle armor, mark-1 M-66 rifles. There's a good reason why we don't just walk into their fire anymore, because we don't know who has those weapons in their units. And now that they have their own mechs our advantage is slowly slipping away." The squads synthetic Levoy said as he patted Wraith on the back.

Bra'tac Miiora's brother usually quiet and contemplative then chose that time to speak up. "Indeed, and do not forget Veteran Watkins, that in my time as Supreme commander Belles prime guard. I was and still am equipped with my lance. Which fires beams of condensed magic, similar to your blaster rifles which fire plasma."

Glancing over I gripped my fiance's hand and noticed her gold slitted eyes staring back at me. "Nervous?" I asked over a private channel.

"Yes love. I'm worried that…" Miiora started but was cut off as a low drone sounded in the hold. "Later alright."

I stood up the UP-armor kit I had selected for this op weighing me down slightly. The lights inside the hold changed from a cool blue to an angry red. "Five seconds."

"Alright people! Stand by. Watch your fields of fire, check your corners. Time to KTF, GK82 and TS2 you're out first!"

The dropship shuttered as we entered the stations small hanger. "Were good, they think we're a supply crew here to drop off fresh slaves and supplies. Two crew members and two security personnel in front." The dropship pilot said before slamming the back hatch down.

With a smile I gestured for the two war bots to jump out of the dropship. Following just behind the two bots as Lucky-13's landing skids touched the deck, I turned and was greeted with the sight of an unseen third security guard.

I didn't shout a warning for the clop to drop his weapon or get on the ground as he fumbled for the pistols at his hip. Instead I leveled my blaster ventilated his face, turning what had been an equine head into a ruin of smoking bone, and scragged brain.

Miiora rashed out from behind me and rebounded off of the landing skid, using it as a springboard to land just behind GK82 as it leveled its small wrist gatling and mulched the three clops and single drake that had come to great us.

"Clear." Wraith called out followed by Trombley or Camouflage as that was his official call sign now patting me on the back. Nodding, I raised myself from my crouch and waved my hand forward gesturing for Durge to scuttle his big but down the ramp. The zaltule, warrior cast of the kleese lumberd past me carrying his heavy mark-36 like a rifle.

"Alright, Habu, Wraith, Bigdog, Durge your with me. TS2, Gutsy, Camouflage, Sugar, Bra'tac, Levoy, stay here and hold the buss."

They flashed an acknowledgment as X my real team leader walked over to join my group. "Alright GK, Durge your on point Habu and I will be right behind you. Big Dog, Wraith, X your on rear guard."

Standing from my crouch I stacked at the hatch leading farther into the station and waited for the bot and the spider to open breach. They did, GK was the first in and declared the left was clear almost at the same time Durge called out in his thick chest vibrating baritone "Clear right."

Satisfied I turned the corner and followed the two eight and nine foot tall killing machines down the vibrantly colored, and dazzlingly lit corridors. As I walked Miiora almost glued to my side the whole time I couldn't help but marvel at the two hulking beings that lead my fire team. GK was a hunter killer something outlawed by the Coalition all fathers decades ago, after some massacre before I was born.

And Durge, well he was a nine foot tall four armed, four legged tarantula thing. That could wield the successor to the Mark-19 like an assault rifle, and rip a fully armored man in half with his bare hands, or claws in this case. Or if he got really randy either bite your head off, or just bite you with those six inch fangs and inject you with so much neurotoxin that you immediately go into shock.

Both of them were perfectly designed for no other purpose than taking life, something both of them enjoyed. "Hatch on the right, Durge, neutralize."

"Yes Veteran." He boomed as he scuttled up to the hatch letting it slide open as he leveled his weapon. Smiling as I jogged past I watched as Durge began firing his weapon the second the door opened. Four booms from the mark-36 was the only noise the kleese made before turning and using a free hand to toss a grenade into the room, before jogging back to us as I pushed up to fill Durge's evacuated spot.

Advancing down the passageways I became slightly fixated by the dazzling lights and swirling pastel patterns on the bulkheads. That's when it happened the first real contact with the enemy.

We had just rounded a corner when I found myself face to face with one of the flying clops. The equestrian flared its wings in surprise as we came face to bucket. It made the first mistake it didn't have hands on its weapon one if those slug throwing shotguns they were so fond of.

We were to close for ranged weapons, to close for her, or myself to bring either of our weapons to bare effectively. So I did the next best thing, fell back on what my first pod head commander had drilled into me so often and so hard that it had become second nature, instinct.

In a blink I grabbed the woman because with that frame how could she be anything but. Picked her up slammed her back first into the bulkhead. She let out a grasp, more of a pained croak really as I felt several ribs crack under the force of my body check. Shifting my weight to keep her pinned between my armored bulk and the wall I relieved my right hand and drew my combat knife from its shoulder harness.

My motion was quick, practiced and I watched with a glee that almost sickened me to the bone as I drew a bloody line across the mare's neck. That same utter happiness filled me as I watched the shock of the utter violence I had just done, done to her, register in her brain.

She tried to scream, but all that came out was a wet bubbling gurgle as I resheathed my knife and watched the light in her eyes die. Was she a mother, someone's friend, a sister, someone's daughter? I didn't know, and I pushed off of the wall and watched her head flop on a patch of skin. Head back like a flipped down hoodie, severing the weakened spinal cord with a push and a sick with a sick crunch, I didn't care.

Her blood soaked the arm assembly armor and that just made me mad. Mad enough that when another UEC soldier idiotically drew in close, I used all of my nanotized strength and kicked him square in the chest. Bones crunched and organs pulped as I watched the young drake slam back into the opposite bulkhead, denting the metal with a wet crunch. He didn't get back up but put two bolts in his chest and one in his head, just to make sure. Hearing the sound of rushing footsteps I whirled around and clamped my gloved hand over the mouth of a caleb before gripping, and tearing the mans lower jaw from his body in a shower of blood and gore.

A flash of movement caught my eye and as I pivoted to bring my weapon to bare Miiora shot past me and crashed into another tymerian like a missile. Rearing her head back she as she stood crouched on his chest, Miiora slammed her helmet forward. Smashing her visor into the larger males scaly face. His snout crumpled under the force of the blow, and dark magenta blood spattered against her armor glass visor as she head butted him again.

The male staggered back as from the two blows and fell on his back as Miiora followed him down. He tried to fight back as she crawled up his body, his amber eyes fixed on the PDW she had shoved into his chest. With two quick trigger pulls she put him down, the serrated anti personnel flechettes tearing through his comparatively weak armor like wet paper.

Hustling to her side I dropped to a knee and as one we leveled our weapons on the last clop in our line of fire. The unicorn, this one with an alabaster coat and large hazel eyes reacted quickly and threw up a shield to protect itself.

Our battle armor and weapon computers linked and fire my N4 and Miiora's PDW worked in tandem to simultaneously weaken and pierce the shield. Half a second later the shimmering blue shields shattered and the mare was riddled with dozens of blaster bolts and serrated flechettes.

She jerked like a spastic marionette before falling unceremoniously to the deck. Nodding once to each other we turned in time to see GK stomp humans head flat against the floor, and Durge crush the neck of a second in his large claw.

X however was standing in a circle of four dead clops looking no worse for the experience. As he cleaned his blaster rifle's bayonet on the fur of a gutted pony. Miiora and I glanced at one another as the legendary helldiver moved past us.

"Alright people, we need to make up for time." X said bringing up a schematic of the relay station on our HUDS.

Activating my implant I cycled through the various comm channels Roland and Shiraui had hacked. 'Security team bravo has gone dark. Same with the team quester. Security teams delta, gamma deploy. And someone tell find out who is attacking us! The computer doesn't recognize the figures on the feeds.'

"I agree, I don't think we will be able to make it to the data core before they manage to set up a worthwhile defense."

Closing the windows on our HUDs X looked at each of us. "Then it's decided, we split up. Iceman, take Habu and Durge. Draw their attention, mabey see if you can find the slave collar control room."

"Hooyah. Alright Habu, Durge, Wraith, reload those weapons and get set." I said as the group continued down the corridor and stopped at a four way intersection.

Looking across the corridor I nodded to X to which the older podhead flashed me a thumbs up. "Good luck, lei-troopers." With that he made gestured for his half of the team to move up the corridor.

Slave housing block

UEC system: Altonix

Blazing star relay

Distance from Equis: 362 light years

56AE

"Mommy what's that noise?" A child asked her mother as the sound of rapidly approaching gun fire washed through the barracks. "Get away from the window honey, it's dangerous."

The reports drew closer and soon those slaves brave enough to venture from their cell like quarters began to hear distinct sounds amongst the growing sounds of combat. There was the steady steady and short booms of their masters weapons, as well as shouts. Controlled at first but as the seconds passed, they could hear their masters control of self slipping away, replaced with panic. According to what the soldiers were saying, whomever their attackers were they seemed to be set in advancing despite the hail of bullets heading their way.

Like so many of their kind they were left in the dark about the goings on outside of the UEC. While many knew of the rumored Anti Conclave Movement, almost none among the slave cast of the UEC save those on the frontline, had even heard of the North American Commonwealth. Let alone the Coalition of Governments that governed earth and her Colonies as a whole. To them, humans were just another unfortunate race to fall under the UEC's might and be forced to serve.

Yet unlike the main three races to serve the Equis, humans had no natural advantages that explained how they survived on their storm covered world of Camelot. They were not strong and aggressive like the arachnid Kleese, nor were they natural hunters like the reptilian Tymerians. They were not medically inclined and aquatic like the crustacean Myrialos, and nor did they possess the furr and pack mentality of the lesser known wolf like Hidori, the list went on.

Humans unlike every race the UEC had come across, seemed to lack even a single trait that would have let them survive on the planet they had called home. They did not breath carbon dioxide, which was in an abundance on Camelot, no thick coats to protect from the heavy rain, or natural protection from the radiation or poison that lingered in the air before the UEC expeditionary fleet had arrived almost one hundred of their years ago. Some of them possessed weapons and technology when they were found, that implied otherwise however, implied that perhaps the humans did not evolve on the uninhabitable rock that was Camelot. And yet...

Now, ahead of horrifyingly familiar sounds of UEC weapons they heard the reports of weapons completely unfamiliar to the group of slaves. They heard a slow and steady pom, pom, pom, from some kind of heavy weapon slowly advancing up a nearby corridor. The rapid fire of a weapon that sounded like the wicked offspring of a rifle and an air powered nail gun added its hoarse report to the advancing noise.

The UEC was all they knew, for some races for a thousand of human years. They were an unstable force, and an immovable object merged into one. And still their masters continued to retreat, giving ground to an enemy, their servants could still not see. These masters whose deadly suppression teams would be sent down at a moments notice to any world that fell under their rule.

A shadow flashed from the doorway leading into the barracks. Slaves leaned out of doorway or pressed themselves against windows to see, to get a glimpse of what was happening. Two humans, recent additions to the relays relatively small slave quarter hooped and hollered, sounding for all the gods, like the hairless apes the mindless savages their masters insisted that they were. More shouts, from the masters, calls for support, calls for retreat.

Then through the door fell a body. Not the body of a monster, because what else could cause their masters to flee. But the body of a pony, the body of a female unicorn, a filly really judging by her apparent age who's ruined corpse had been blasted in half at the waist. Partially mulched organs, and a segment of spinal cord spilled onto the pristine white ground as bright red blood gushed from the mares corpse to pool around her. Her lifeless eyes stared straight down at the deck as if she had been running and had been shot in the back.

Around her more of the master races filed into the barracks. Rushing around or stomping over the corpse of their comrade in their rush to gain some distance, to just get away from the monsters that were pursuing them. Several of the masters stopped, prompting others to do so as well as their slaves watched them flip tables and pieces of furniture so old they belonged in a museum. Something dedicated to furniture so tacky, so utterly ugly, unappealing and run down that all the races in the galaxy should come to see.

One master a zebra stood from his improvised cover and hurled a grenade down the hall he and his comrades had just evacuated. In response, two bolts of sizzling crimson energy slammed into him, one searing a smoking hole into his chest, the other blowing straight through his helmet to blast out the back of his head in a spray of blood, bone, and sizzling meat they knew had once been his brain. The master dropped, unceremoniously to the ground in a heap like yesterday's trash.

The slaves, taken aback by the sheer shock of what had just happened watched as a second pair of bolts ended the life of another master, followed quickly by another pair to take yet another life. Whoever or whatever monsters were committing this slaughter, they weren't fighting with the emotion, the passion, nor the sick sense of honor their masters showed. Instead their way was cold, calculated, and utterly devastating.

In ones, twos and threes, searing red energy lanced down the hall like the second hands of analog clocks some of the slaves had in their quarters, or the beats of a metronome. Each was shot aimed expertly, each bolt taking the life of yet another master. The other weapons they had heard before then made themselves known sending streams of tracers, or large semi explosive slugs to add to the death being brought by the senders of the bolts.

In a panic two final masters stumbled into the chamber, slapping their digits into a master control panel causing the doors to slam shut. Instantly the incoming fire stopped, and from the opposite end of the chamber another small team of masters arrived to reinforce the first.

"How many?" One of them asked another. As the group began reloading weapons and checking wounded. One of the masters a large stallion, swept up a large drum fed auto shotgun from a fallen comrade and aimed it at the doors. After all that door was two feet of solid steel, with bolts several inches thick meant to stop even the most tenacious and ferocious of rogue kleese

The leader of the first group gulped. Her voice almost meek, lacking the usual mirth or superiority the slaves had gotten used to hearing from this mare. "Four."

"What?.." the original speaker a changeling, the human slaves called "Blinkie" behind his back began to ask. When a sharp *Bewoom* was heard from the opposite side of the closed door. Instantly the lights began to flicker sporadically before going out all together, replaced a second later by the dull ember red of emergency lighting.

Not a single being in the chamber spoke a word as a chilling silence broke over the room's occupants. Slaves retreat from windows, and masters readied weapons, flicking safeties, and muttering soft prayers to whatever gods that particular master followed if any.

The seconds ticked by, and soon what felt like a small eternity had passed. Sweat beaded on the foreheads of several of the masters, and one simply broke down, throwing down his weapon and sprinting full tilt for the door back the way they had come...

The sealed door was blasted apart, in a shower of sparks, debris and flying shrapnel. Thick black fog filled the portal, and a single ruby bolt sailed through the smoke, striking the fleeing colt between the shoulder blades. Blasting out of his ribcage and striking the wall at the far end if the hall.

So stund were they by exploding door that no one reacted to the two cylindrical objects that sailed out of the smoke to clatter onto the ground with a pair of metallic clangs until it was too late. One of the cylinders flashed and popped, so suddenly and so violently that it not only blinded two of the masters immediately beside only but blew out the eardrums of several of those in the immediate area.

The second cylinder however, was the real star of the show. It exploded once sending shrapnel in every direction transforming the neatest master from a sentient being that was potentially hundreds of human years old... Into both a mass of pulverised meat and a fine viner on the nearest wall. Then a small capsule propelled into the air by the devices first devastating detonation, exploded as well not a fraction of a second after the first, filling the air with even more razor sharp shrapnel.

Another cylinder, this one larger than the previous two followed the same arc as its predecessors and landed in the middle of a group of staggering, bloody, and generally stunned survivors. It popped, an internal device causing it to spin in place as it realised smoke into the room.

Seconds later, after the smoke had partially filled the barracks. The slaves, saved from the two grenades by the ballistic windows meant to keep them from escaping saw them. The monster, no, monsters that had wrought such death in such a small period of time made themselves known.

Demons in human form, garbed in glossy black armor glided into the chamber in total silence, the sounds of their foot falls only being audible to the hunter races among the onlookers. Armor, that reflected the red light in such a way that it seemed to make them glow, emanate an aura of such mallace that it made several of the slaves, mostly children, want to crawl under their covers, or run to their parents arms and wish for these monsters in black to go away.

The two demons spread out, not a word being shared between them as they drew knives and butchered the stunned ponys beside door. Before turning their attention forward, and raising their strange rifles towards the masters.

Sizzling crimson lanced from their weapons striking down several masters. As their bodys fell the slaves watched as a second pare entered the breach.

These demons bore familier formes, the first of the two held the slender and almost universally accepted grace and beauty of a tymerian maiden. Like the serpents she had evolved from, the grey armored maiden appeared to slither forward towards one of the masters. Occupied as was he with sweeping his weapon across the chest high smoke, jumping at the shadows cast by his own comrades and those made by the two crimson eyed demons. He didn't see, nor did he have time to react to the maiden's approach before it was to late. Her left claw shot out tearing the human sympathizer throat open, gushing scarlet blood over her partially domed visor. Prey defeated, the maiden took up position just on top of the body of her fallen victim, using it as cover before firing her weapon into the crowd of masters as they slowly came to their senses.

The fourth and final demon to enter the common room was unmistakably a kleese. Its four powerful legs propelled most of its nine foot bulk into the room. Its abdomen bobbing slightly behind it as it leveled its weapon before unleashing with a series of shots that exploded several masters where they stood.

Again, like the humans, the Kleese and the tymerian, shared no words. And almost as if they were controlled by some malevolent entity the four demons, because how could they be anything but, corralled their masters into one area, and as the maiden and the kleese pinned them down. Locking the masters in place while the two humans gilded around and flanked them from the sides and from behind.

The entire engagement lasted all of forty seconds. Forty seconds where the slaves watched in equal parts abject horror, awe, and morbid fascination as the group slaughtered the masters that had abused them for so long. Killing them all, and sparing none.

And perhaps the most terrifying part about the whole ordeal was that all the while the four demons. The two who took the forms of black armored humans, and the two who so cruelly macerated as the tymerian, and the kleese, were completely silent. None of them called out a target, no labored breaths or cries of in pain when hit, or cheers in victory. Not a sound between them, beyond that of the firing of their weapons, or foot falls.

Not as they regrouped in the center of the chamber. Not as they meticulously slashed the throats of their victims. And not as they nodded to one another and moved on to sow more death elsewhere on the station.

Not a word.

[Senior Veteran] Xavier Rodriguez: X

UEC system: Altonix

Blazing star relay

Distance from Sol: unknown

2170AD/107AC

Taking cover and advancing slowly behind the war bot, I sighted in on the small team of poorly trained security officers. These jokers might have been trained well enough to deal with the occasional emaciated slave, or breakup a drunken brawl. But against the likes of Big Dog and myself, they would never stand a chance. Never mind the war bot that even legionnaires trained on the off chance that they might fight bots had trouble bringing down? Not a chance in hell.

The N-4 bucked in my hands as I sent blaster bolt after blaster bolt into the center mass of the clops trying to stop us. GK's wrist mounted blaster spat streams of that downed another two traitorous humans, while Big Dog put down another with a shot to the neck. In less than ten seconds we had neutralized the security team and soon found ourselves advancing towards the data core.

Opening my implant I checked Iceman's progress, he and his small four man team. The kid and his team had released the slave collars. And they were now making good time for the stations command center, legion time.

"Master, I require several minutes to download and transfer the data. And while I do not require a physical connection to the core to do so, I will need to maintain a minimum distance of three meters for maximum bandwidth." The war bot said as it extended a small antenna from its back.

"Understood, start the download. Big Dog we're holding here. Shiraui, what does it look like from out there?"

"From what I can tell, their is group of around twelve that have broken off from their pursuit of my placenta.The group advancing on you are ten hostiles of medium size, and two of larger scale possibly adolescent dragons, larger Kleese of the Zaltule cast, or bull minotaurs. Mister GK82 and I believe that your current plan places the odds of your survival at bellow 52 percent."

"Well that's just great, no wonder Iceman keeps you around. Your such an optimist." Big Dog joked as he changed charge packs.

"You really think so!" The flayed squealed, in her strange childish voice.

"Definitely, your ray of fucking sunshine." The big MOTH grunted sarcastically under his breath as I looked around, checking the bulkheads, decks, and ceilings.

"Big Dog, how much debt cord do you have?"

"About thirty feet, why?"

Soon I found what I was looking for a maintenance hatch. Walking over and trying the handel I found it stuck, tightly locked. Snapping my fingers to get Big Dogs attention I gestured to it. "Hey kid, open this."

"Yeah, whatever. " He grunted indignantly before walking up to the hatch wrapping a gauntleted hand around the handel he used his nanotized strength to rip the hatch out of the bulkhead. "There you go old man."

"Alright get in there veteran."

"I think I see what your trying here. Give me your monofilament wire I think I've got a plan." Said the nanotized MOTH as he tossed his rifle into the tube and crawled into the passage.

"Shiraui, how long till they get here?"

"Five minutes at their current speed. My placenta is calling. Good luck… Mister R.."

"Its, X, lanky."

"But …"

"No.."

"Very well, Well then what's your plan? Please… You have to tell me…"

"Well, if you must know. Its an old Legion trick..."

Security Team Theta

UEC system: Altonix

Blazing star relay

Distance from Equis: 543 light years

56AE

'Team theta, what is your progress to the data core?'

"We are rounding the corner now sub captain. Chip, take point." The human in charge of the security team said. The simien wore the old armor of his people and carried one of their rifles.

Nodding the distinguished soldiers of the UEC security corps rounded the corner expecting to see an army of grey and black armored humans. However as they moved forward the UEC soldiers instead were greeted by a completely empty hallway.

"What in tartarus?" The son of the duke of Baliin said to himself before looking back to the squad leader who gestured forward. "Right."

The group of highly trained officers pressed their lead. It appeared that they had beaten the black armored invaders to the data core, giving their team the time they needed to set up an ambush and take out the beasts that had attacked them. Most of the personnel on the station hadn't been backed up and so when they were slain by this enemy they stayed dead.

The group made it halfway down the hallway before a series of sharp twangs from behind them drew their attention. "Hault!" The human shouted pivoting and pointing his bulky weapon back the way they had come. But the hall was clear, no black armored humans, no sizzling bolts of crimson magic.

"Something is very wrong here." The teams minotaur said as he pivoted on one large muscular hoof.

"I agree. Lets double time, I think we're only a few seconds ahead of them." The team leader said, gesturing for the team to continue forward.

Chip nodded yet again, moving before his team had refocused their attention, he sprinted five steps down the hall and stopped abruptly. The stallion let out a sharp scream before that too was cut off just as abruptly. Looking up, startled by the noise the rest of the team witnessed their teammate standing at an awkward angle in the middle of the hallway.

"Chip, what's…" The colt's mate said before Chip wheeled around holding his gushing throat, dark arterial blood spraying from the finest cut they had ever seen.

Chip took a single step backward to catch himself. Only to trip over something drawing a thin line of blood over his left leg before falling backwards. Then to their horror the security team watched as the noble pony's body literally fell apart.

He fell backwards through a latus of wires so thin they could only see them because of the blood that coated them. The wires, using just the weight and momentum of his fall cut through his flesh, bone, and body armor like it wasn't even there dicing him to pieces.Blood sprayed as ruined organs and body parts spilled and plopped onto the pristine floor.

With their way forward obviously cut off, security team Theta rushed backwards in an attempt to avoid the maze of floating blood coated wires. At the head of the retreat were the minotaur and two pegasus.

They only made it another six meters before being caught up in a spider web of thin wires, not as thin as the razor net they had seen before. Several of the three unfortunates teammates stepped up to cut their comrades free only to be blown to pieces as the entire network of wires exploded.

Dazed and in shock the teams last pegasus, in a panic took to flight hoping to get to the data core by perhaps rushing through a gap in the razor wire. Instead the mare simply reacted like a water balloon being hit by a tennis racket. That is to say she exploded into a shower of diced meat and blood as she sailed directly into a second latus set higher up and farther down the hall.

That's when it happened, as the rest of the team was in disarray. Scared and panicked as they were, as their team leader struggled to get them under control the attack came.

The team leader saw and instantly dropped to the deck as two figures leaned out from the corner at the end of the hall and unleashed hell on his team. Crimson bolts of energy slammed into and through the weak body armor of his compatriots as he, a descendant of one of the original Camelot marines fell back on his grandfather's training. He raised his M-66, lined up a shot on the left most targets center mass and returned fire.

He watched the shots land, saw the sparks but his opponent didn't drop. He shifted attributing the incident to perhaps the man had an up armored kit and sent two more five round bursts into the black armored troopers armor. This time the man on the other end of the hall reacted, he fired three bursts from his energy rifle that spattered on the body the security officer was using as cover and whirled back around to the relative safety corner provided.

The second man shifted his fire then, shifted to keep the human pinned down as his fellow black armored man did something. Pinned as he was the human sympathizer was perplexed when a dull whine could be heard from beside him. Turning to look to his side he saw a cylinder sail out of an open maintenance hatch to his right, propelled by a small roaster at its rear.

He didn't know what it was, but as it let out a rapid series of beeps he had a rough idea. And had only enough time to utter a single word. "Fuck."

The cylinder exploded twice sending shrapnel in every direction, and killing every member of the security team. A few severely wounded members of his team were left alive but only long enough for the two black armored men to stroll down the hall and shoot them dead execution style. But the human sympathizer who was the team's leader knew none of this the fragger had ended his life with its first explosion blew up in his face.

[Veteran] Gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

'Iceman, status report.' X asked over Tac-link.

"Stacking now, breaching in 5."

'Copy.'

Switching my buckets vision to millimeter wave I planned my head to the side scanning the locked hatch to the control room. "I count nine, two to the left, two on the right, three in the center, two in the rafters." As I relayed this information to my team I marked the presumed hostile silhouettes with yellow markers.

'Breach Iceman, we don't know how much longer we can keep their signal jammed.' Colonel Tiegh said his message being relayed from Shiraui, then off of Charlotte, then Doll's fighters and finally back to the stealthed Defiant.

"Got it, Habu your on me. Wraith, Durge your in back. Signal ready."

"Ready, Set, ready." Miiora's hand tensed scoring new scratched on my back armor as I brought up the detonator and flipped open the safety cap.

"Breaching!" Depressing the button I dropped the detonator as the det cord on the door exploded. Smoke kicked up as I pulled a bang grenade from my belt and hurled it around the corner. "Banger out!"

A flash of dazzling light and a defining bang came from the other side of the destroyed door, followed by a scream. "GO!" I shouted as I cranked my buckets external speakers to the max, sholderd my N-4 and stormed into the room.

"Get the fuck on the floor!" I shouted as I rounded the corner and fired two blaster bolts each into the stunned forms of the two clops on the left. Behind me I heard Miiora fire two bursts and watched two more yellow carrots change from yellow to black.

A new sound came to my ears, the distinctive sound of a shotgun bolt being racked. Turning I reached a hand out hooked my hand around Habu's carry handle and yanked her backwards. Almost simultaneously I felt and heard the shotgun go off.

But unlike the tine onboard that UEC ship I had the Up armored attachments on kit. Instantly the imperva steel chest armor ablated away, as I felt the force of the blast threaten to knock me off my feet and onto my ass. But I was still alive and looked in the direction the blast had come from, where a human who was in the middle of switching targets.

The woman did a double take as she watched me I through my now useless N-4 to the floor I drew my side arm and smiled under my bucket. The hand cannon stile pistol whirred as it as ths it came online and I leveled it at the women's face.

The woman's only response was a choked "Wha.." before the weapon bucked in my hand. It's overly large plasma blow blowing her head to pieces spraying the wall, and various computer terminals with blood and bits of seared meat. "Damn, I prefer this."

A weight impacted by back, and I was about to whirl around when I felt a tale travel up my leg. Refocusing I sighted in as Habu settled her smaller frame against my back and raised her own weapon.

"Iceman! On your right" Wraith called out. Splitting my attention I fired another round into the chest of a dragon, blasting a foot wide hole through his torso.

Pivoting I snatched the hilt of Bourbon jack's sword from my belt swinging the weapon in an arc just as Crux taught me. The blade telescoped out like a nightsticks and at the apex of its arc bit into the rapidly approaching stallion. The sword's monofilament blade sliced the clop in half from hip to shoulder.

"Repot." I called out over tac-link. As the smoke finally cleared and I got to survey the damage. Eight dead, one mare on the ground, no wounded.

"We're clear I think..." Wraith called out before a new voice cut the man off.

"You, you black knight. You be the leader of these monsters am I correct!?" the mare called out from her prone position on the floor.

"What gave you that idea?" I asked flicking my external speakers.

"Your sword, only a leader of some esteem would carry an honorable weapon such as that." She said getting to her feet… hooves.

"What?" Giving Miiora a sideways glance I gave the woman a tilt of my head. Looking at her she did seem to be dressed differently than the rest of the bridge crew, mabey she was the commander? Some kind of noble mabey?

"I am baroness Snow Petal third cousin of…"

"Whatever lady. Hurry it up."

"Yes, I would like to make you a proposition… If you can defeat me in a duel then I will allow you to proceed with whatever you came here to do and not alert the rest of my people to what transpired here."

"Ok? And what do you get if you win?" I asked deciding to humor the mare as I watched the rest of my team beginning to police the bodys and scanning computers.

"If I win, the you, and your group of savages swear your allegiance to me. Do you accept?"

"Sure. Come at me."

The unicorn smirked before her horn flared a brilliant gold and a finely ornamented sword appeared in her path. She closed the gap fast for a clop and sliced her blade in a horizontal slash. Instead of falling back or bringing my own sword up I stepped into the attack. Using the flat of my blade locked her sword onto the guard. Extending and wrapping two bionic fingers over the nobles I used by nanite enhanced strength and bionic limb to lock her arms in place with one hand and leveled my side arm with the other.

The mare's eyes grew wide as they fell on the barrel of the hand cannon as I placed it between her breasts. "I win."

I pulled the trigger, there was a flash of ruby light and the mare's back exploded outward into a macabre pyrotechnics display. Tears rolled down her face, ruining her makeup before her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell like a wet sack.

"Was that really necessary?" Trombley asked as I sent X the all clear message.

"Not really." I said cleaning the blood from the blade on the dead mares white uniform.

"X, do you have the data?"

'Got it, GK is sorting it now.'

"Alright, let's regroup and do one final sweep, then round up the slaves and get out of here."

'Sounds like a plan.'

Tambelon

Altar of Grogar

Tartarus

Grogar smiled as he heard the sound of the bell. His bell, the same one that Gusty had managed to cut off from the mortal realm. Of course in doing so she trapped him here, and the bell had been silent, but now, now he could hear it. The faint sounds of it ringing. He looked at the pony before him. She had been one of the unfortunates that didn’t have her essence backed up, and thus when she died she found herself in his tender mercies. So far she had discovered what it was like to be split roasted with phalluses made of sandpaper. Others had some interesting fears, that he gladly allowed them to experience. One of their numbers was afraid of operations.

Naturally he was tied down, and autopsied while he screamed for mercy. Mercy, these foals didn’t understand there was no mercy, and he would only gladly bring all of their kind to his domain. But then, the humans were close, so close to discovering the frequency that would allow them to tap into immortality. The moment they did he would graciously give them the freedom from death, and in return they would send every single last one of the ponies to him. He didn’t get to play with the last Princess that was here as long as he would have liked. Her essence barely stayed before those damned machines of theirs whisked it away. But it was no matter. There was an entire red light district full of delights for the princesses. And he would ensure they felt every single humiliation that was due.

“Father, can you hear me father? I wonder if i am getting to you” a feminine voice calls out to him “i bring gifts and news” a succubus forms from the shadows with souls in tow, all of them ready for Grogar’s ‘tender touch’

"Yes, my creation. I can help you. What is it?" He replied going over what information he would trickle to the humans next.

“Fresh souls for you father, once trapped in limbo are yours now~” she bows to him with a smile “and i believe i am close to my goal now…” a frown crosses her lips “but… there is a problem…” she looks away slightly “or two…”

Grogar let out a huff and took a deep breath before replying. "What is it now?"

She takes a deep breath before answering “farther… she and her brother are currently stuck on an ice world...it took me a long time just to contact you…” she bows again “not only that, i fear something almost impossible happened, but i am not sure…”

"Yes, I believe I might know the world of which you speak… Coco has been studying the humans between their… tests."

“Father, a… an incubus may have been born… bonded to a mortal…” she braces herself for any pain

"Preposterous! Lies, How was this done!?" He yelled, his words coming out as more of a snarl as he shot from his throne to seemingly tower over the succubus.

She falls over in fear feeling his power “father, i-i do not know, but from what i understand…” she weakly gets up from her fall “the mortal himself was ‘made’ using an odd crystal…” she stares at him “but... there is good news…”

Grogar sighed as he felt the ebb and flow of the power around him. "What mortal? Explain quickly my patience grows thin."

“The mortal himself is of a NEW race…” she tells him with a smile “something called ‘pandari’... made BY humans to help them as equals!” her smile gets bigger “what’s more, they tap into a power without trying OR knowing!”

"Truly? Interesting, I have heard reports of a race with a natural connection to what the Creator's called the quantum. But I have yet still to feel the pull of the crux. Perhaps the Humans are not… tell me do you believe these creatures these pandari can deliver me the pony's souls?"

“They have the skills, the tricks, and when paired with humans…” her grin truly grows demonic “they could utterly wipe them out…” she falls to a knee and bows her head “even more so...with the incubus bound one with them…”

He leans forward, fascinated. If another race.could combat the ponies he might not even need the humans. "... As they are now, would they be able to do what you say? On their own, if I were to stop aiding the humans, could they deliver me the princesses?"

She gains a frown “sadly, with all i have said… their numbers are to few…” she looks up to him “they have the potential father...they would need more time…”

"And time is something we do not have child… have you felt it? The humans, the equestrians and their war have set into motion something I have not forseen. The Cybar are awakening… and the being the Creators have made to stop them have changed since I have first seen them."

“I have father…” she gains an aura of determination “yet i feel the ‘pandari’ will be a great assest to you…” standing up her determination still strong, she asks him “if you permit me, i can gain the loyalty of the young incubus AND of the pandari to aid the human!”

"See that you do… but before you go. Tell me, what of the human you safeguarded in Raritys prison? The one with whom Gutsy now finds herself accompanying?"

“He has grown stronger father” a proud smile crosses her face “i feel it in the small fragment i left...he grows faster that you could imagine…” she puts a fist to her heart “along with a few others near him”

"Keep, a close eye on the one Gutsy travels with. Besides the boy, I feel the presence of something much older… almost as if it had been touched by the quantum… or perhaps, even the Cybar?"

“I shall have the fragment do so father…” she bows once more, and i shall see the pandari pulled into this and the incubus brought before you...if you so wish…”

"Hmm? Yes, see to it that the incubus is brought to me. I will not have a rogue deamon loose, not after last time… and as for the boy's companion… this… X. Look into him."

“I shall father, and...may i ask one last thing?...” a blush, a rare thing, crosses her face.

"If you must."

“The incubus… i… i wish to train him… personally…” the blush grows brighter

"Do as you will with the whelp. But see to it that it does not interfere with the work I have given you. Our time is short… and I feel the clock may ring it's chime sooner than I had planned."

“As you command father!”

"Excellent, be gone." He commanded with a wave of his hand.

“Enjoy the new souls too father” she fades back into the shadows a bit to quickly, leaving the souls behind.

Grogar sat in his thrown contemplating this new information when a thought came to the fore of his mind. "Bubonubon."

A new demon responded appearing in a swarm of pus spewing flies. The demon wheezed sounding as if a mountain of mucus was lodged in its rotting esophagus. "Yegsh my lloorghd?"

"Bubonubon, third of my demons and third line of succession. I have a mission for you. Recent events have called Slurkary's loyalty into question. You, third of my favored creations, lord of the plague host will keep an eye on that succubus. I will not have my plans undone by one horny demon and her pet projects. Furthermore to aid you in your task I grant you this boon."

"My lord… I..." The demon laughed as the old goat waved a hand toward the it's undulating frame, causing spikes of blued rock to spear from the earth to inpail the demon cutting off the demons sentence. Black blood gushed in a torrent from the fatal gaping wounds. "Thank you." Yellowed froth drooled from his mouth sizzling the floor where it landed.

Grogar then reached out taking his staff in one hand before rising it high and slamming it into the ground. A concussion made if ruby light and twisted energy blossomed between the lord of tartarus and one of his favored creations. The eater of life materialized in the throne room with a thunderous crash of displaced air. The fractured links of the chains that bound it rattling as they fell to the rocks.

It tipped back its fowl head, insectoid wings flaring out. "Pokstak, well met brother!" Bubonubon laughed from his position on the spikes. "Bubonubon. Take your blessing… now." Grogar said recalling the spikes that impaled the demon.

"Yes father." Bubonubon leaped at the other demon's throat, ripping it away as if he were skinning an animal kill.

Through the gash he made came a detonation of black screaming smoke. A hurricane storm of black shining flies that blasted outward and engulfed the chosen of Grogar. They left the body of the eater of life to crawl into Bubonubon.

The flies swam up into the gaping wounds given to the impaled demon, and down his throat. He welcomed them, taking everything they gave. Bubonubon's body twitched, writhed distended to accommodate the transformation eating him from the inside out. His back swelled amidst the crackling of fracturing bone and enchanted steel plate, and dance flutes of fissured horn burst out, each one spitting flies like smoke would belch from a chimney. He had become a hive for the things, a living nest for the eternal plague.

"Thank… you… fathghur!" Bubonubon coughed, taking a wheezing breath, a dull buzz could be heard droning throughout the inhalation.

"Go Bubonubon. Host of the life eater hive. Go and fulfill your mission. Show the ponies the might of Grogar, and the third host."

"Yes father." Bubonubon half gurgled, half wheezed. And with that The newly mutated demon slammed a fist against his breastplate before disappearing in a spray of puss and buzzing flies.

Chapter 17 Nanotized

Experimental Lab - 186-a

Prison Compound

Rarity Carousel

56AE

The lab was something she would be proud of, if it was her own. Instead she was a prisoner of that damned slave Krysk, currently a very nude prisoner, shackled to a table where those that took her hostage had been running a large assortment of tests upon her. Naturally she braved through it all. She was one of the heroines of her kind. She was their better, but without the ability to feel the arcane, without being able to hear the swell of magic, to use it so willingly, she was lost. Part of her wished that they would simply exterminate her, allow her to be reborn, but then the humans knew what would happen, and would rather she stay where she was.

She understood at this point that her friends couldn’t terminate her. If that was the case she was simply doomed to whatever fate the doctors and guards had for her. One guard, a rather rotund one, leered at her quite often. She would never be one to brag, after all that was not befitting a lady, but she had considered using his obvious perverse desires as a means to escape. It wouldn’t be the first time she had used her body in such a way. She still shuttered as memories returned of Blueblood. He was a rather handsome pony, and a Prince, but his attitude toward her, and others of lower station, made him something of an undesirable. Still, she had allowed him access to what carnal pleasures she could grant, and in the end it had gained her access to a far bigger budget in research.

Of course she had denied that such a thing happened when Rainbow questioned her, but it made it no less true. She understood at the end of the day she had prostituted herself out for more to work with, and now, now she was planning on doing the same again so she could escape. She watched him looking at her, the leering smile on his lips, the eyes that took in every curve. She’d seen his kind before. When he came into the room to remove her to her cell she would play upon those desires. She’d make him feel as if he had a chance, that she could be his, if even only for a moment, and if push came to shove she would allow him to have her. Then she would wait until he was truly distracted, and she would strike. She waited as he walked into the room, hearing his raspy breath, and she watched as his fingers touched the shackles she was bound with.

“She ready to be moved?”

The lone doctor nodded, “Yes, I have to admit having one of her kind to study without the danger of them using their horn is fantastic! She has entire glans seated under where her horn was! I believe they regulate the telepathic and telekinetic abilities they have!”

The guard grunted, “Sounds interesting Doc,” he looked at her, his hand grazing her left breast as he reached to unlock her shackles, “Don’t think of doing anything funny.”

She gave a coy smile, “I would never, I am after all a lady.”

As he unlocked her she felt him pull her arms behind her, locking a pair of shackles there, and then he held still for a moment, “Okay, you know the way, hop to.”

She began to walk, following her plan, letting her hips sway a bit more, thinking of every single lewd thought that could cross her mind. Allowing herself to become aroused, and knowing that she could use it on him. She entered into her cell, and he stepped in behind her.

“Like last time I’m gonna step out, and then you’re going to put your hands through the slot. I’ll unlock you then.”

She looked over her shoulder, “Perhaps, this once, you could unlock it here, for me, please?”

She saw him swallow, he never expected this.

“I… I can’t do that.”

She bit her lower lip, “Please, just this once? Surely a strong stallion like yourself could handle someone like me,” she winked, “Perhaps, I could do something to show my appreciation?”

He swallowed again, removed the taser he had, and then proceeded to unlock her.

“I feel teeth and you enter a world of pain.”

She nodded, lowering herself before him, wanting to gag for what she was doing, but she never showed it. She fished him out, feeling the weight of it, and realized that he was a decent size. She gave him a lick, suckled at the head, taking in how different it was shaped to what she was used to, and then she began to take him into her muzzle fully. She tasted the salty taste of sweat, smelled the undesirable stench of his musk, but she continued to fellate him. She felt him grab her shoulders and push back. He mostly picked her up, and turned her around. She knew this was coming, she had hoped it wouldn’t, but the way he watched her, she knew it was bound to happen. She felt him spread her legs open.

“Good girls can get unlocked early, maybe even get some yard time,” he whispered.

She felt him enter into her, and she wanted to crawl away. She felt so low, so cheap, but it was necessary. She needed him to be distracted. He began to thrust harder into her, with so much abandon, and then it happened. He dropped his taser, his hands resting on her cutie marks. With that moment she thrust back against him, grabbed the weapon, pulled away, and watched as his pleased look became one of horror.

“Good boys get to sleep.”

She pressed the two buttons unleashing the full voltage on him, knocking him off of his feet, and then she ran. She ran past the door, down the hall, and she spotted the office he used. She ducked into it, raiding what she could that was unlocked. It wasn’t much, a single card, an extra pair of pants and a jacket, both of which found their way onto her, and a small device she’d seen him use before. She picked it up and slipped it onto her muzzle. Looking through what appeared to glasses she was rewarded with a mobile terminal. She sighed, moved her eyes, and once again rewarded with the fact that it used eye movement to navigate. She quickly found the route out of the prison that had the fewest guards. It would be difficult, but with no magic to speak of it was what she had.

She walked, keeping the thought of what she had just done at the back of her mind. She didn’t have time to consider that she had sold herself for a chance at freedom. As she walked she felt something odd, something cold. It bothered her, but she ignored it until she was near the first exit the mobile terminal had mentioned. Then she felt it again. She turned, and for a moment she saw a pair of red eyes shining before they flashed away. She shook her head, and worry filled her mind. Did the humans have some kind of mechanical beast that would let them know she was free? She began to hurry, getting through the door with the guard’s card, walking with a purpose, but attempting to seem as if she belonged. Of course it would only work at a glance. If anypony, or anyhuman, took a moment to really study her they would know that she was a pony. She began to move through the hall, through the labyrinth of passageways the mobile terminal showed her, and she saw the last door. She opened it and she felt the coolness of the night sky. Stepping out she heard a sound, and turned to see what it was. Again she saw nothing. Counting it as nerves she moved with purpose again and she felt something grab her tail. She let out a very unlady like gasp, turned and saw the shadowy figure.

“Ssssuch a hurry…”

She cringed. She’d heard the voice, for a brief moment, when she revived Coco.

“Wha..” she began before the figure pushed her with a strength that would put Applejack to shame. She felt herself ram against the pavement,

“We are the sssssame you know? We use ssssex to get what we want… Oh, but you… you are a presssssent for sssssssomepony else.”

She began to talk before the shadowy figure clamped her muzzle shut.

“But… I want a tassste.”

The figure became smoke, and suddenly Rarity stiffened as something caused her broken horn to ache. She screamed, unable to help it as the horn itself mended, and then she felt it inside of her. Her own hands moved across her features.

“Yesssss, lovely… I ssssshall enjoy my time in you.”

The voice was not her own, and she felt her body getting up. Suddenly everything became dark. Then light flooded around her once more. She looked to see the figure, a being that had goat like horns on her head, a human like face, but pony legs on her lower half. She moved toward her, reaching out and grabbing her right breast as she kissed her. She felt the intense heat from her touch and cried in pain before the being let go.

“My father wisssshesssss to give his newessssst sssssubject her dessssire and grant you immortality. Ssssso he asssssked that I give you a preview of what your kind hassss in ssssstore…”

She watched as the female touched her head, and the female laughed, “Of all of the thingsssss to be ssssscared of.”

Suddenly she was gone, and Rarity breathed a breath of fresh air, until she looked at her hand and realized that it was beginning to wrinkle. She tried to wipe it away, but it only spread, and suddenly a mirror appeared. Before her was not the beautiful pony she had been, but instead a twisted old nag that looked as if she was death herself.

“NOOOOOO!!!!!”

Her beautiful mane was gone. All that was left was a few strands of bone white hair. She had hair on her tail, her beautiful coat of fur had become spotted gray and white, and she looked ancient. She realized that she looked what she envisioned herself looking like without the technology that gave them near immortality. She closed her eyes, trying to will the illusion to disappear, only to open them to a new horror. She was inside of a living tree, no a grove of trees, all of them grown together to form a building. It would be something that Fluttershy would have loved once. She could hear her friend crying, and she walked toward the room only to see a thick pink gas leaking in through the window. She watched as everything it touched began to wither and die. She backed away from it, trying to escape, only to feel it engulf her.

She closed her eyes again, and this time she saw the being before her, but she kneeling before someone else. She began to talk but the other being stepped forward. She’d heard the stories. She’d heard what Gusty had stopped. How she had faced Grogar, and how she managed to somehow lock him away in Tartarus, but she had believed it to be merely an old story to frighten foals. Instead she saw him there. His blue coat looked almost skeletial, his horns looked yellowed with age, but his eyes, his red eyes were full of malice.

“Kneel!”

Rarity felt herself kneel in front of the ancient ram.

“In case your feeble mind can’t grasp this, I’m not physically there, but neither are you. My servant is currently exploring in your body. Which means that your soul is in the aether. What my servant allowed you to experience is a mere fraction of what your kind can expect. You however… I am giving you as a gift to my newest servant. I believe that you will do well with true immortality, but know this. You are mine. At any time you displease me I will bring your soul back here, and I will personally ensure that you experience the worst torture imaginable.”

“I am nopony’s….”

Rarity didn’t finish before she felt herself lifted by an unseen hand. Suddenly she was strapped to a large wooden cross. Her arms already strapped down began to experience the feeling of spikes being driven into her wrists. She screamed at the pain, then she felt the same as her hooves were staked together. She cried and felt something cut into her side. She moaned in pain only to find herself once again in front of Grogar. She wept from the pain, but there was no marks on her.

“That is small piece of imagery from the humans. Something from their beliefs about one of their kind,” he laughed, “They’ve began opening themselves to me, and I’ve learned such wonderful things I plan on sharing with all of you. Now, do you want to behave, or should I continue to discipline you?”

She shook, “I am no…”

The hours moved at a snail’s pace for Rarity as she was treated to some of the tortures Grogar had waiting for them all. She almost believed that she had experienced everything, or she did until she saw a former underling of hers. Crawling on the ground, weeping as a strange being walked behind her. A leash and collar was attached to the mare, and she noticed that she was openingly bleeding from her tail. She watched as the mare’s bowels were pulled completely from her only for her remain alive and still screaming. She watched as Grogar approached her.

“Now…”

“I am your servant and anything you ask I will do,” Rarity said quickly.

Grogar smiled, “Good, you will return back your body soon.”

[Auxiliary] Liaison Corporal: Mii'ora

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

Several hours past as we swept the relay from top to bottom killing any UEC holdouts on the way. But eventually they stopped coming, and the relay was declared clear. With their masters dead or being executed the now free slaves of relay station Altonix were given free range to do as they wished.

Many rushed to the hanger where I found myself now. Her Lover telling her "Habu, Durge, when we meet up with X and Big Dog, go make sure the slaves don't get themselves killed. Be… I don't know personable. "

She had done what my love had ordered. She and her longtime guardian had separated from the fireteam to follow the growing mass of freed slaves. It was refreshing almost nostalgic to be alone with Durge, walking the halls of a UEC installation.

"Do you think they will join us, sha'zo?" Durge asked in almost perfect tymerian, depolarising his helmet.

I side eyed him watching as one of his black pupils swam to face me. "Ji, I think they will. Especially those with hatchlings."

"Hmmm, indeed. The two humans in their group seemed to be eager to fight back against their masters."

"Yes well that is part of the charm of their species. They are always so passionate about… well everything. Have you seen some of their art? It is beautiful, the feelings those people put into their work is inspiring."

"I agree. I personally prefer the piece "A pale dot in a sea of stars" done by the artist, Natalie Garrow before their war with the lankys started…" He began using his two free hands to pull his PDP and swipe a message over to my helmet's display.

Flicking my tongue out and with a series of rapid blinks and tongue toggles I had the picture up and displayed in the lower left corner of my HUD. The painting was simply breathtaking. The image was that of an artist's rendition of the pale blue dot picture she had seen in her study of human history.

A canvas of black was interlaced with thousands of stars and swirling nebulae. The vast gas cloud of the karaden sea, what the humans called the "Milky Way" stretched from hosison to hosison canted so it cut a line from one corner to the next. All of the colors, all of the imagery subtly focused the eye to one single focal point at the painting's center. There glowing slightly, illuminated solely by a beam of light was a single almost insignificant blue dot the size of only a few pixels on her HUD's display. Earth, the human homeworld.

"It is… saddening to know that the humans had once held such hope for the galaxy. To explore, and see just what the cosmos had to offer. To boldly go where no one has gone before. But instead…" I trailed off thinking about what the humans could have done, could have achieved had their war with the lankys not happened.

"Yes, their war with the lankys has stunted their naive view of the galaxy. But still they persevere, defying the fate the gods have laid out for them. They almost ruined their homeworld, they fought back. The lankys arrived and they were forced to fight for their homeworld, on their homeworld, yet again with the blood of heros they persevered. Their worlds were taken, transformed into storm covered worlds that can never again support human life. They found new worlds and moved on. The humans have achieved so much in the short time they have been here. While all our people have done in that time has been to wallow in our own self pity. Your people perhaps less than my own. The kleese… how far we have fallen since the days of the empire. Since the days the Zaltule warriors would bring order to our system and the workers toiled to keep our queens happy…. Now look at us, a fractured people…"

"The Zaltule are some of the finest warriors in the galaxy. I have yet to see a warrior you or your kin could not best in battle, shol'kek." I replied coming to his peoples defence as I watched a tymerian hatchling run to her mother.

"But we are too few in number Mii'ora. Too scattered to make any real difference. Mine is a dying breed sha'zo, reduced to a single queen hidden deep below our homeworld's last city. The UEC only see the workers and attribute the casualties they took in their war with the empire to them, and not the Zaltule. They do not even recognize that we are a different breed. But the Humans, humans recognize us for what we are. Individually the humans may be weak. But they make up for their shortcomings with guile, ingenuity and sheer stubbornness. Yet despite their damages, and beating they have not completely lost their youthful nature. They are a hard people, but they can be kind, and honorable in their special way. And so when we offered our services and they accepted, the UEC might not see us for what we are, but they will face the wrath that is the Kleese warrior cast. Feel the hammer that is the Zaltule."

'I think this is the most he has talked since he and I joined up with the NAC's military. It's kind of nice, almost like before the war.' I thought to myself. A small trill escaped my throat as we walked and four of Durge's eyes flicked to me.

"You laugh?"

"I am simply surprised to see you talink this much Durge. Since we joined the humans you were quite." I replied jovially.

"Hmmm…" He bellowed. "Indeed."

We soon found ourselves nearing the hanger, the former slaves having flocked to it after hearing that a ship or rather a shuttle was docked. Entering the hanger we watched as the former slaves marveled at the Blackfly dropship and the fireteam mingling around the dropship's perimeter.

I chuckled at this, seeing a father pick up his son so the hatchling could get a better view. "I believe this is what the humans call a case of… de… dadja…"

Sensing my hang up Durge cut in, hanging the Mk36 on the thick silk sling he had made for the weapon. "Deja Vu. And yes If I remember correctly this is almost exactly how we reacted onboard the Dragons Breath over Camelot. Only Pogel was with us at the time"

"Yes well. For a kleese, Pogel was a kind soul."

"He was not zaltule."

"True… but let us get underway." I said clipping my weapon to its strap. Eye-clicking my helmets external speakers on and taking a calming breath, honoured that my love would give me this duty. "Excuse me everyone. Could I have your attention please." I called out to them, depolarising my visor revealing the upper part of my face.

The former slaves turned away from the fireteam around Lucky-13 to face Durge and I. "I have an announcement and a proposition for you…"

I was cut off as an explosion from deep inside the station reverberated throughout the relay. My heart dropped as I looked back the way we had come. Soon distinct but far off sounds of blaster fire could be heard before, only a few seconds later to me mixed with the sounds something else.

[Veteran] gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

With the "kids" put away, the adults could play. Or however that old saying goes. We moved leapfrog down the corridor weapons at the ready. Shiraui who had pressed herself against the station several minutes ago had reported that she had decided several more lifeforms deep inside the bowels of the comm-node.

With them being that far into the station her senses hadn't been able to detect them. She had said, either that or they were shielded. Meaning they were guarding something OTHER than the data core. That meant whomever was stationed down there wasn't just another glorified security guard. It also meant they could possibly have a way to alert the rest of the UEC as to what was going on here. Time wasn't on their side and that meant, the adults had some work to do.

"Sirs I am detecting several organics on the other end of this door. What are your orders?" The warbot said as it stood in the middle of the passageway pointing both its wrist blasters at the door.

"We're running out of time, if we haven't already. We go in hard, fraggers and bangers first. GK goes in first we move in right after, total KTF." I said earning a nod from X, Wraith, and Big Dog.

"How are we on charge packs?" I asked changing my sidearms charge pack. "I've only got three left."

"I'm down to two." Wraith reported as he changed his rifles charge pack.

"I've got three." Harris said no doubt wishing one of us had thought to bring one of the two scatter blasters we had brought with us from Galactica.

"I've still got half of mine kids, I've got four left." X said his voice dripping with self confidence.

"It'll have to do. On three." I said as I placed a strip of det cord on the offending blast door.

Stacking up we counted to 3 and blew the door. Instantly a stream of high caliber gun fire came through the smoke to meet us. "Fraggers and bangers!!"

"Banger out!" Big Dog yelled tossing the upgraded flash bang behind him through the door.

"Fragger out!" X called lobbing the grenade around the corner and ducking back into cover.

Our buckets protected us from the titanic bang and flash of the banger. And a fraction of a second later the screaming was cut off by the double crump of a fragger explosion. "Go!"

GK stepped around the corner and leveled his wrist blasters. Red carrots and silhouettes began appearing on my HUD as the warbot marched into the smoke and began marking targets and neutralizing them according to threat level.

With a nod to Harris the two of us surged into the room blasters up. A mortally wounded mare dressed in the UEC's military uniform staggered to her feet ahead of me. Smoothly I raised my weapon and put a blaster bolt through her face as she turned wide eyed to face us.

Around me my kill team was engaging the enemy. Bullets ricocheted uselessly off our battle armor as we build our way through their ranks. Then as we cleared the first rank movement up ahead caught my eye... movement and a flash of blued metal.

"Blazers get down, GK cover!" I managed to yell, diving to the side just as a beam of dazzling green energy lanced out to score a molten streak into the bulkhead where I had been a fraction of a second before.

"By your command!" GK boomed taking several stomping steps forward and unleashing a torrent of blaster fire with his wrist blasters hozing the opposite end of the corridor with bolts of red energy.

"Who the fuck are these guys!" Wraith shouted as a lance of golden energy sizeld over our heads followed closely by a blue and then the green beam.

"Prime guards. Their like the UEC's Onyx Guard. I count three. Unless they have one in reserve." I said pressing myself into the deck adding my own fire to the others.

"Ice, we need to press we can't give them a chance to dig in. Take Big Dog. Bounding overwatch." X suggested firing two rounds from his rifle.

"I agree. GK leapfrog."

"Acknowledged." The old warbot growled clomping forward on its powerful legs, crushing the skull of a dead pony with its first steps.

"Lets move." I yelled watching the beams switch priorities from us to GK.

Pushing off the deck I sprinted down the corridor to the closest bulkhead support and slid into it. Slamming my into the strut, my shoulder exploded with pain as one of the blazer's beams grazed my shoulder left pauldron.

Looking over as I leveled my weapon around the corner and began firing I saw the black ceramic and Impervasteel had absorbed the lion's share of the damage. The scorch mark where the beam had struck was glowing a dull yellow, the ceramic absorbing and dispersing the majority of the heat. And below I could see the partly exposed meat of my inner shoulder, glowing red nanites swam in the wound working to seal and close the damage. While a sheen of liquid bone white nanites worked to heal the wound as a whole.

It would take several hours, but I would live. I smiled the little bastards made Harros and I pretty damn hard to kill without something that would kill us our right like a grenade to the face, or a shotgun to the chest. 'But that doesn't mean a lance across the chest from one of these things won't kill you.' I reminded myself as I watched X and Wraith surge past me and move to the next set.

"SET!"

Finding me next cover I waited for X and Wraith for open fire before gesturing for Big Dog to move forward. "Moving."

Breaking out of cover, lungs burning I pounded my boots into the deck and threw myself flat as I reached the next strut. The prime's were getting desperate now, sweeping their weapons across the passageway in hopes of cutting us in half with their weapons powerful projectors.

I raised my weapon and fired a round into the chest of one of the primes. It was only a glancing hit and the well armored guard rolled backward and out of cover with the hit. Switching targets I leveled my pistol and pulled the trigger, only for the weapons grip to buzz and click with a red light.

"Fuck, I'm dry!" I yelled flicking on the safety, shoving the hand cannon into its holster and rolling into cover.

Beside me I watched as GK moved past me his thick armor glowing with white hot streaks from where various blazers had beamed it. Undaunted the war bot stomped down the hall and into the midst of the prime guards' hold out.

"Move!" X yelled as we watched GK's left arm assembly get severed at the elbow by a blazer on its blade setting. Pushing up and ignoring the burning in my shoulder I surged down the passageway. Our nanotized muscles carried Harris and I down the hall and into the smallish compartment.

My eyes locked onto a tymerian male, shifting his weapon back to its ranged configuration. The condenser at the end of the staff like weapon shifted tapering slightly to a point as he swung the weapon around to face me.

Our eyes locked my bucket's visor meeting the glowing eye slits of his enclosed helmet. I brought my left arm forward opening the compartment that held my monofilament knife. Clenching my teeth as I drew the knife with my right hand I launched myself across the room towards the bull tymerian.

Time seemed to slow, his tail slapped the deck with a loud clap and his weapon's condenser burned a brilliant gold. And half a second later a sering pain exploded in my right thigh a fraction of a second before I slammed into the tymerian like a linebacker.

We both hit the deck hard and I went down on top of him, stabbing, pressing my weight onto my opponent. Over and over again I stabbed the knife into him, in the ribs in the stomach, in the chest but he just refused to die. Movement in my peripheral caught my attention and I threw myself to the side in time avoid a swipe from his claws that would have cut right through my undersuit and sliced my neck open.

With my weight offset the bull bucked knocking me loose enough to get that tail into play. Just as I came back for another round of stabbings a tube of raw muscle slammed into my side. Three wet pops assailed my ears as three of the ribs on my right side shattered from the Impact. The blow knocked me completely off of him but not before I cut a gash across his helmets left eye lens.

Blood leaked from the now useless helmet as let out a pained hiss and retracted his helmet and rolled onto his stomach. Dropping to all fours he opened his maw releasing a deep guttural bellow. With another tail slap he dashed forward no doubt hoping his specie superior speed and agility over humans would aid him.

In fact if I were a regular human I would have been dead the first time his claws had raked against a weak point in my chest armor, cutting it open like wet tissue paper. But I'm not a normal human, so instead of being nine different kinds of dead I'm only half dead.

Seeing an opportunity I fainted to the left toward the fallen blazer staff. He fell for it shifting his angle of attack to take him toward the fallen weapon. However, shifting the weapon in my hand, aimed and hurled the knife at the tymerian. The monofilament blade sailed in a perfectly straight end of end arch slamming home in the base of his tail.

He stopped dead, howling and writhing on the deck in pain as the equal parts balance/weapon/ and sensory organ spasmed and gushed torrents of dark magenta blood. Digging deep I put weight on my injured leg making sure not to look at it, and hurled myself into the writhing mass of armor and deep blue scales.

I slammed my knee into the bastards chest armor. Knocked the air from where I assumed his lungs were and caving in the breast place. With my enhanced hearing I could hear the distinct sound of bones breaking despite the battle around me. He groaned in pain as I drove my knee into his breastplate, once then twice then three times before crawling over him to wrap my hands around his neck.

He choked and sputtered battering me with his claws and trying to take me with his leg talons before a blow to the side of my head managed to knock my bucket free. Pain exploded from my left side as I brought my head down in a headbutt, scales shattered and bone splintered as I brought my head down again and again until the prime lay dead at my feet, either from his pulverized skull or dead by asphyxiation I did not know.

With a snort of disgust I retrieved my bucket from its place on the ground and snatched up the primes fallen blazer. The weapon was deceptively heavy but surprisingly balanced. Eye-clicking my visor's auto diagnostic I saw that I had taken a hit to the left kidney. I winced at the sudden shot of pain as the flow of adrenaline began to ebb.

The battle around me was short lived, I saw X shove a knife into the throat of a pony, and Big Dog tear the lower jaw off of one of those diamond dog things. Like me he was nanotized, and like me, he also knew the distance that being able to perform such superhuman feats brought.

A sudden realization hit me then, perhaps as a side effect of the blood loss. But as I watched Big dog I finally realized just how different he and I were from normal people now. Because of the lanky's unnatural interference, because of our own willingness to use the L-blades we had become something more. As different from a regular human as an Atlas is to a hydro car. A word I had read once in a book flashed through my mind. 'Transhuman'

"Clear, Fallon, get back to the dropship. You're in no condition to continue." X said as he turned to look at me. I don't know what it was, but for a brief moment something made me hate him.

"No…" I grunted growling through gritted teeth as I heaved myself to my feet fighting off a wave of nausea as I waved away Wraith who had come over to lend a hand. "I can still fight."

"Look I don't know how you're even still alive. But…" I couldn't see his face but I could guess that he wore a look of disgust. Revulsion at the fact that I was touched by the Lankys and made into something more, while according to reports, so many others had not.

"No you don't. And you never will. Harris, We have a mission to continue."

"Thats what Im talking about."

"Fallon, that leg looks bad. If you don't get back to the ship you might lose it. If you don't bleed out first." Wraith said, no small amount of adoration in his voice as I leaned on my stolen weapon like a walking stick.

"Shiraui, will my nanites keep me alive, at least until I can finish the mission?" I sent to Shiraui over a private channel.

"... Yes, but you will need another injection as soon as possible. The system of nantes in your system are overextending themselves and are starting to die as a result."

"Then I lose the leg. Let's move. Were almost out of time." I spat to Wraith as I straightened and continued down the corridor to what the data says is the final blast door.

When the door opened, I followed behind GK battered the old war bot clomping along gesturing with its one remaining arm. There was a cell in the center of the compartment, and there at its center was an old breed changeling dressed in an ACM uniform, chained to the deck. She looked half starved, beaten, and when she saw us she tried to scurry away fear evident in her face.

I couldn't imagine our luck, if she was here that meant that we could probably get the locations of supply basses, high value targets the possibilities. We could even find a way to contact the ACM...

The woman looked up at us and recoiled slightly upon seeing me. 'I must look horrible.' I thought to myself.

"Don't worry ma'am, We're here to help. Big Dog, break those chains and get her in her ready to move. Lucky-13, spool up the engines and get whoever's coming on board." The big man didn't respond only moved forward to break the chains.

'Got it Iceman.'

"Kill team, back to the dropship." Wraith and X nodded before moving back the way we had come.

[Auxiliary] Liaison Corporal: Mii'ora

Dark Ops kill team: Viper

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

In the end all of the ex-slaves had decided to leave with us and as we were in the process of loading the last of them into the dropship the rest of the team arrived in the hanger. I watched X and GK82 enter first before turning away and walking up the ramp and into the packed troop bay. Stopping briefly to help a tymerion youngling her and her mother secure themselves into their crash harnesses.

A sudden rush of activity erupted in the hold as the ships engines roared to life and I heard my love's fire team come up the ramp. With a smile I turned only to have my blood run cold as my love stumbled into the drop ship's hold.

He looked like death, like one of those walking corpses from one of those human screen shows. A clean perfectly symmetrical three inch hole had been blasted clean through his armors side, where my own helmet's computer said one of his kidneys should have been. A gash of blisterd and twisted metal drew a wicked bleeding line diagonally across his left thigh. The wound was so deep that the faintest hint of chard bone could be seen under the oddly slowly bleeding flesh.

At his left shoulder was blister of ince molten ceramic where the marks of a near miss was on display for all to see. And finally there was his helmet where a deep but non-lethal gash could be seen. Deep magenta blood covered his armor, mixing with his own crimson.

There was only one weapon that I knew of that could do this much damage. And Avery Fallon carried it in his hand now using it in tandem as a crutch to keep himself and his brother moth up.

Many of the civilians gasped and backed away, while Durge and Trombley moved to aid them. Instead of accepting the aid however the two walking wounded lightly but violently shoved their would be helpers away before my love helped his old instructor into his crash couch.

The two did this silently before touching their visors together. The two shared a conversation out of the tac-link before they nodded to one another and my suiter stood back up with a great effort and began the trek to his own couch, the one beside my own.

Shifting uncomfortably I decided to make my way to his side and made to help him into his own seat. Instead, as he reached his seat and I leaned in placing my claws on him to help he looked at me. This close in I could see his helmet's black visor glowing a faint red from the mass of what must be emergency messages on his HUD.

He reeked of blood and the chalky metallic of his nanites, that even now worked to seal and scab over his wounds. I placed my hands on his shoulders and began to shepard him into the seat. But instead of accepting my aid he drew his hand from the hole in his side and planted it in my breast plate before gently pushing me away leaving a bloody hand print that glowed a faint crimson with the cool bioluminescence of nanites. "I'm fine."

His voice was wet and grating as he basically threw himself into the seat. "Pilot…" He growled before he grunted in pain as a fresh river of chalky crimson blood oozed from his kidney wound. "...Dust off."

Instantly Lucky-13 lifted throwing off, the sudden movement throwing off my equilibrium making my stumble forward, the blood soaked deck rushed up to meet me. But I never felt the impact, instead my love had snapped out a hand almost faster than I could see and hooked his bionic into the crook of my elbow.

Cold and unyielding the metallic fingers locked me in place as the dropship rocked. Turning I saw him gesture with his helmet to the seat beside him a movement so subtle I might have missed it had I not been looking. My love was in pain, and couldn't be seen to show weakness in front of us, especially not the civilians.

I smiled slightly now understanding his previous hostility and took my place in the crash couch at his side. When I was finally locked into place I felt the elegant bionic slip from my elbow. Looking over I saw my suiter's head dip, chin tucked into his half melted gorget.

Training took over then, training and my want my need to not lose him again. And so, as the dropship sailed back towards the Defiant I unhooked his medical kit from his webbing and began to attempt to seal his wounds. It wouldn't be long before we went to battle again and I wouldn't waist even this time we shared.

Chapter 18 Recover

[Auxiliary] Liaison Corporal: Mii'ora

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

UEC Colony system: Altonix

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

By the time we had finally landed back on the Defiant, my suite had gone comatose. At first, I had started to panic but a message from the Shiraui creature helped settle my nerves. The nanites in Avery's body had forced him into a state of suspended animation so that they could better work to heal his wounds. She also stated that he would need an injection of fresh nanites if he was to survive.

When we landed X gave me leave to take Avery to Shiraui then to the medical bay, a job easier said than done. Even with my battle weak assisted servos by the time I had managed to drag his limp bulk down the ramp I was beyond tired. And was eternity grateful when Charlotte arrives to aid me in my task? Without a word, my suiter's lifelong friend ducked under and proper his sagging left arm over her shoulder and together we worked to move his armored bulk out of the hanger and down the halls.

We made it just as Avery's gorget clicked, injecting him with a soupy cocktail of painkillers, plasma, and other stabilizers. At the door, the two SI guards having been notified waited to grant us access to the Shiraui's "quarters". Corporal Hanson a man I had met only once before nodded the hatch dommed open.

Hanson snapped his M-99 up as we were greeted with coils of bone-colored plated tentacles. "What the fuck!" He shouted startled by the writhing coils.

"Please, give him to me," Shiraui said through the door. She must have mashed herself against the door.

"Ok?" Charlotte said questioningly before the tentacles snaked past us to coil gently around Avery, pick him up and carry him through the threshold.

Following the retreating form of my love, I watched as Shiraui stood to her full height. The spot below where her left breast would be flowered open as she drew Avery's limp form close before cupping him in her hands and placing him into her chest and closing the hatch.

What felt like hours passed during which time the medical team had arrived before Shiraui opened her cockpit and using an array of glowing bone-white tentacles, she lowered him gingerly onto the awaiting gurney. Relief washed over my heart as I saw his chest rise and fall through his damaged armor.

The corpsmen quickly fixed intravenous bags to him and as they turned to begin wheeling him away I turned to the flayed that had potentially saved his life. Shiraui turned her massive eyeless head from the retreating form of Avery to me and tilted her head.

Movement caught my eye and I dipped my eyes in time to see her cockpit folding itself closed. It was utterly alien its smooth pulsing interior giving the eerie feeling of gazing into an open wound. A familiar scent caught my senses and my eyes widened as I noticed that the glossy crimson coating of her interior wasn't it's natural color. But was, in fact, a thick dripping layer of fresh blood.

"Don't worry miss Miiora.... He's safer with me."

[Veteran] gunnery sergeant: Avery Fallon

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

Tri barracks- Viper

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

My eyes shot open, implants flaring to life as I felt something hard shift on my leg. I tensed briefly and tilted my head to see what it was. And relaxed to see It was only Miiora, sleeping arms folded under her head as she slept at my side, the shifting was the result of her left horn as it slid across the side of my leg.

A small black spot marred the ivory surface near the base of her right horn and absentmindedly I reached down and began scratching it off. Almost instantly Miiora began hissing lightly in her sleep as I brought my left arm up and began inspecting my bionic arm. It's sleek ceramic and impervasteel surface giving off a slight shine as it reflected the dull light of the of my still active ocular implants.

Because of my relationship with Charlotte and her family, it was better than anything the average COG citizen could have hoped for, and I was eternally grateful. But inwardly as I saw Miiora shift in her awkward sitting position that had her sleeping with her head on my bed, I couldn't help but miss the organic craftsmanship of my original arm.

As for my left leg, that was gone before I even had time to think of anything. It was gone because I needed to finish the mission. And a part of me resented the organic parts of me that even now protested even these minute movements. "Your flesh is weak master" Armor had told me once during my recovery, and I was inclined to agree.

There was a period of drunkenness from the morpha the doctors had injected me with as they mixed with the nanites. The bionic replacement starting just above the knee wasn't human in shape like my bionic arm. This was a slightly industrial looking thing about as thick around the thigh as I would be in full armor. With a whisper-quiet mode that worked as my knee, and a four taloned claw in the shape of a cross that took the place of my foot. I was grateful that my last backup was one with my organic leg still in place, so technically all I had to do to get a new human leg was to die and get a grow. But it wasn't very pleasant the first time, so I put that plan on the back burner for now.

The doctors said I wasn't fit to return to duty. They said I would take at least a week to acclimate to my new bionic and regrown organs. They said any normal man would be dead, but they didn't seem to understand that I wasn't a normal man. With a grown and an effort, I sat up and ever so carefully lifted and positioned Miiora in bed before getting out of bed, careful not to wake her.

The quarters in the defiant were strange. Usually, squads slept by fireteams in barracks of four or five. But due to some tech stuff, I didn't understand squads were bunked in groups of two or three creating a strangely intimate environment.

The soft snores from across the small room caught my ear and I turned to see Charlotte turning in her sleep. After the relay, she had used her rank and changed my sleep station to her own which she shared with Miiora.

The thought irritated me. She, the woman I have known since our childhood knew me better than anyone else, even better than Miiora I think. Short of Harris of course who was my instructor in boot camp and my mentor afterward, as I am to Trombley and Miiora. Or perhaps Shiraui with whom I share a neural link, even now I can feel the fingers of her consciousness lingering at the edges of my own, filtering through memories and experiences of my past.

Harris perhaps understood the most, however. The two of us, and perhaps others like us if they existed as I hoped. We processed information faster than unaugmented biology allowed, possessed the strength to snap a neck with just the slightest flick of the wrist, or while fully armored move faster than most species could react. We had to limit ourselves, lowering our abilities to such a degree that in attempting to keep our comrades alive we actively endangered ourselves in the process.

Taking time to check my PDP, the time read 0426. Our squad was on cooldown for the next two days, good. I slipped on the uniform of the day on with a pain-filled grunt of effort I holster my sidearm, one of the revolver style Nteck blaster pistols, but three of those nasty nutrient bars in a pocket and walked out of the door.

The normally quiet passageway was normally bustling with activity due to the recent influx of civilians. Civilians who wandered the corridors while marveling at the ship's systems, and if Miiora's own acclimation was anything to go by were probably wondering why there were no windows.

Making my way through the corridors to the gym I was almost blown over as a sudden mass slammed into me. My legs' stump burned as the mass of orange scales coiled around at my feet.

"Shit," I grunted through gritted teeth as spears of pain lanced up the stump that was left of my leg. I shot my bionic hand out activating its mag lock to stop my fall.

"Oh ancestors, she is so sorry. My lord. Please forgive her, her hatchling..." A panicked voice called out from behind me.

Turning I was met with what could only be a tymerian maiden judging by her figure. She was attractive but not quite up to Miiora's standard. Her kind didn't emote quite the same way humans did but I was used to reading their body language at this point. She was scared of me… or she wanted to fuck me, I'm not too sure. But judging by the context of this meeting I doubted it was the latter.

"It is fine. Don't worry about it." I said forcing a pained smile as I unclamped my arm and bent down to help her squirming child up. To her credit, the girl didn't shy away much. She had run directly into my bionic. It must have hurt a hell of a lot to run into a solid pillar of impervasteel.

The kid now on her feet fidgeted with her tail as she back up from me and into her mother's arms. "You alright kid?" I asked turning to look at the woman head-on.

"I-I am unharmed sir." The orange kid said. Her mother's tail curled around her slightly as she spoke. "Are you hurt my lord? Please Forgive her she didn't mean to lose control of her hatchling. Please don't…" she flinched back as I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's fine. I should have paid better attention to my surroundings… honestly, I'm at fault here I should have heard her coming." I said before I remembered something Miiora had told me.

Holding up a hand cutting the woman off I reached into a pocket and pulled out two of my nutrient bars. "She's my… what do you call it… my kurnellorag? Said this was how to show apology." Pressed the two with the bars, the girl took it instantly her tail swaying slightly like an excited dog.

That seemed to take her for a loop and as I turned to walk away I heard her shuffling behind me. Was she following me? 'Great another one. What do I just attract strays?' I thought to myself as I limped down the passageway listening to the sounds of two sets of claws.

"Is there something you need?" I asked trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"Well, she…" she began from behind me only to stop as I held up a hand.

"Look ma'am just come over here…" I began pointing at the spot at my side, "And talk to me like a person."

She paused for a second probably taken aback by my nonchalant disregard for UEC culture, well too bad we're not in the UEC and I'm not a clop or a Caleb. The kid, however, didn't hesitate however and almost immediately she was at my side staring at me as I limped my way along.

What a pitiful sight I must have been, almost half a Moth limping along, still covered in a patchwork of bandages. Soon however the woman was at my side looking like I was about to smack her down.

"Be calm alright I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name? I'm Veteran Avery Fallon."

"I'm Fla'rin. You're a lot nicer than the other humans she's met. Mother wouldn't let her talk to the ones who let us on your ship. Who's your master? I bet they must be really important. To have soldiers as cool as yours." The kid said as she hopped in front of me.

"I don't have a master kid. Never plan to, never will." Her eyes shined with admiration as I had just said the coolest thing she had ever heard.

"You're a rebel?" She asked starry-eyed.

"No. I'm just a gear in the COG war machine. I'm a trooper in the NAC defense corps."

"Your the coolest man I've ever met!" The kid squealed making her mother giggle at her daughter's excitement.

"That's one smart kid you've got there. But don't you know Flarin? This patch right here says it all, I'm more than a man. I'm a MOTH… dark ops."

A grown met my ears and I turned my head to see an SI trooper rolling his eyes at me. "Got something to say basic?" Instantly the marine backed up shaking his head. And If the kid could get more excited I didn't know-how.

"Well, how about you? You got a name?" I asked the woman at my side.

"I am Vir'nek Master Fallon, it is a pleasure to meet you." She said with a slight bow.

"Great, now we're all acquainted," I said before turning into the gym.

For some reason, the woman and her kid followed me in. Looking around the chamber I saw more civilians in the room than the crew. But I smiled as I saw the familiar form of Durge in the sparring ring facing off against another smaller Kleese, probably a worker.

In a blur, she reached out and slammed the smaller male down. Pinning him to the deck before swiveling several of his eyes" pupils to me. "Stay down, and treat the humans with respect fool." He bellowed asserting his dominance as a Zaltule before pivoting to face me.

"Tek'ma'te Veteran Fallon. Have you recovered from your injury?" He said promoting the other crew members to stand and snap off salutes as per medal of honor tradition. Sighing I returned the salute, allowing the crew to continue their workouts.

"Hey, Durge."

We talked for several minutes with the big spider acting as my spotter as I worked on the bench. Before I finally bid Fla'rin and her mother Vir'nek farewell and returned to my shared quarters. Charlotte was still asleep strapped into her bunk. Miiora's was empty but the hatch to the combined head/shower was closed but I could hear the sound of running water.

Looking around I sat at Charlotte's desk, pulled out my PDP, propped my bionic leg on the surface smart glass surface and began going over the intel we gained from the assault. GK had downloaded several terabytes of data from the relay stations main computer. And just from my cursory glance through the summery, I saw that most of it were just garbage data, private messages and the like. But what we did gain were several stellar maps, as well as the location of several more relay stations.

However, Not all of the data was useless. The changeling we had rescued instead, was the source of the most critical Intel. A queen, an actual channeling queen was being held on a clop penal planet several light-years away. Signing in with my implant I brought up the star charts for our local cluster and displayed them on the desk surface.

'Let's see. From our current position using alcubierre nodes, we could make it there in three weeks maybe four or five if we went stealth the entire way…' with a thought, I opened a channel to Shiraui.

'If we used the L-drive to get here…' I began sending the coordinates of the prison to the Lanky. 'How long do you think it would take?'

'Hmm. If you were using the designs used by the race who designed them then maybe ten of your days. But with the current pattern you use, I would say two weeks. But I wouldn't recommend it. Mister Fallon.'

[Clarify] Armor chimed in.

'Well, the "L-drive" as you call it outputs a burst of neutrinos when you make your ingress jumps, or transitions. That burst of neutrinos is easy to detect if unshielded and if you know what to look for.'

"Mmm didn't know that… and thanks Shiraui, if you hadn't given me that Injection I probably wouldn't have made it." I said eyeing my bionic leg and flexing the four two hinged toes slightly.

The thing was weird, a circular ring connected at the ball joint in the ankle, with four "toes" in a cross pattern. Each of the five-inch "toes" was locked onto the ring at my ankle and could rotate around the ring so I could position them in different positions. All in all, it looked less like a foot and more like a crane stabilizer… or a dreadnought foot.

A shadow fell over the glowing desk as I shifted my attention back to my PDP only for it to be pushed down into my lap. Looking up I finally noticed the hatch to the shower was open and that was met with the viper-like face of my fiancee.

Below her, the smart desk pulsed and waved as it tried to figure out what command she was trying to issue. The dull light from the desk shown up from below her illuminating her mostly naked form, her underwear being nonregulation, a lacy situation I recognized as being one of Charlotte's. Not entirely surprising seeing as they both had roughly the same build, with Charl being slightly larger in the chest. Light reflected off of her freshly washed and oiled scales and giving the two horns that framed her head a soft translucent glow, but perhaps the most striking thing was the way her golden eyes danced with light.

Miiora was laying across the desk propping her chin up with one clawed hand. Her other hand rested on the lip of the desk, claws extended letting out a soft clatter as she drummed them on the plastic. Behind her, her tail swayed lazily its tip making slow figure eights in the air.

Her nostrils flared once then twice before Miiora tilted her head slightly blinking both sets of eyelids. She leaned forward continuing to sniff at me like a K9 looking for drugs. Appearing to slither towards me she braced herself on the desk before leaning her head down between my legs continuing to run her snouts sensory organs across my lap and up my chest before leaning back to resume her perch on the desk.

My muscles tensed as I prepared to explain myself before her beautiful cat-like eyes narrowed to slits. She let out a low warning hiss clearly agitated by someth… oh.

'The other female I had spoken to she must smell her on me.'. Slowly I raised my hands careful not to make any sudden moves.

I had been so busy getting an eye full that I had forgotten what my girlfriend was. She wasn't a human, her kind had evolved to be one of her worlds apex predators before they had discovered fire. It was likely she had my scent before I entered the room, it was kind of worrying. If she wanted she could smell and hunt me through water, through suits, through steel.

Miiora eyed me once again, her eyes scanning every bit of my body before opening her maw to yawn, unhinging her jaw slightly as she did so to unhinge and stretch her fangs. She leaned back to rest on the desk young flicking slightly. The soft glow of the pendant I had given her as an engagement present catching my eye as it swung dangerously between her breasts.

"I'm sorry love." She said her voice slipping into the raspy accent she had when she was upset.

"For what?" She looked down, her tail going limp slightly at my words.

"I don't like the nanite injections love. I worry that could be…"

"Look, Mia, the nanites aren't bad. If it wasn't for Shiraui and the injections she gave me I would be dead."

"While that may be true, there have also been reports of people mutating into those... beasts." She said pulling herself forward and pushing the top of her head into my chest. Sounding as if she was on the verge of tears.

"Sirens, yeah I've read the reports. I've already been assured by Shiraui it won't happen to me." That seemed to calm her down and she just started up at me. With most of her body still half draped over the desk it was kind of an awkward position to be in. Deciding I probably wasn't going to get any more work done I pocketed my PDP and stood up sweeping her up into my arms and moved back to the bed. She let out a series of low subsonic hisses that I assumed was her equivalent of a giggle.

At a buck twenty, maybe one twenty-five soaking wet she was always light even when I wasn't nanotized. Now picking her up was like picking up a rather robust rifle, still light, almost not enough to notice just awkwardly shaped.

A thought scared me as I put her down on the bed carefully, even as I laid down next to her and she snuggled and nuzzled into my side and neck. I had to be light and gentle with my touch because if I wasn't I could snap her spine or at the very least break a bone.

That thought was cut short as I felt both the tip of her tail and hand tracing both the new scar over my kidney and the seam where my bionic leg met the binoc. Turning my head to the side I kissed the top of her head causing her to nuzzle closer.

"Well, I suppose there is one good thing about the new leg…" I whispered getting a curious side-eye from Miiora. "Hmm?" She responded sleepily.

"I'll never lose my balance again," I said before a shock of phantom pain shot through the stumps of both my leg and arm. Miiora must have noticed my discomfort and held onto my side tighter.

Salvage Vessel Nostro

Bridge

Captain James L. Reynolds

The sight before me stood out like a sore thumb. We were somewhere we had no business being. Sure, I'd served, and it gave me a little leeway, but taking a civilian salvage ship into a certified War Zone was insane. The problem was money. Money made the worlds go 'round, and I needed to make a huge score for my crew. The news wave painted a picture of the new enemy for humanity, but regardless their destroyed ships typically went for about as much as any other ruined ship in the black. I looked toward my second in command. To someone that never served in the military, or served some hard time on a prison planet, they wouldn’t be able to tell why her eyes were similar to a cat’s eyes.

Of course, I trusted her vision a whole hell of a lot better than my own.

“Noel, what do you see?”

She stood a few moments longer, “Long-range transport vessel, looks like it was in a major battle, there are places near the port side that’s been ripped open. I’d wager long gunfire.”

I nodded, I hadn’t seen the damage, but I figured the Nostro would confirm everything she just said.

“Is the Nostro right? We have a UEC ship on our hands?”

She nodded, “We do, don’t know if there’s anyone left alive on board, but if they are I’m sure they’ll be confined to mid sections by now. And of course, depending on how long it’s been out here there’s a damn good chance that their air has long since run out.”

I studied the ship itself for a moment. The idea of running up against living combatants wasn’t high on my list. I was retired, but then again if we did and we still seized the ship there’s every chance we might get contracted to do recon work on dead ships. It’d be a steady gig, but at the same time, I wasn’t entirely sure how well some of my crew would take it. There was more than a couple that had less than stellar ties with any authority.

“Alright, I want you to get us close, dock up on the left side, and we’ll board her. Enviro suits on, we go in armed, and I want everyone to have their radio working.”

She nodded as she walked away.

“Captin’ Not sure how well of an idea this is.”

I looked toward the ship’s pilot, “Why Tucker?”

He scratched his bare chin, something his wife, my second in command, liked on him was a clean-shaven face. His off red hair was pulled into a ponytail, and it contrasted with the ancient shirt he’d bought before he became part of the crew.

“Captin’, it’s just… Look, we’ve been really lucky the last couple of times we tried this, but what if we run into something else on board? The last thing I want for us is to find something that isn’t responsive to civilian firepower.”

Tucker had a point, but the ship needed maintenance done to it, we all had a mighty powerful need to eat, and this would be enough to take care of both of those things. At least it would be for a good long while. I glanced at him.

“We don’t have much of a choice. The bulk of our income comes from salvage. We scrap what we can from the inside, we tow it back, and hopefully, there isn’t anything inside that will make our lives any more interesting than they already are.”

“What if there
is?”

I touched my sidearm, “Either way, we don’t have a choice.”

[Senior Veteran] : Xavier Rodriguez

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

En route to UEC prison colony: Herpoli

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

I had been on the way to reprimand Fallon when the kid ran into a pair of civilians we had picked up on the station. At first, given how he had reacted on the station's citadel I had assumed he would have attacked them. After all, it wouldn't be the first time I had seen an augmented person act erratically. That's why I had my blaster pistol strapped to my leg. I wasn't about to take any chances, not after last time… not after Francis, Not after Casper… Another kid who had seen real evil in the Galaxy, I had shown him myself. Shown him, told him about our real enemy, the Cybar and instead of joining in the fight, turned tail and joined the UEC.

"And because of my time on the Reaver…" I thought to myself all these years later. "I've lived to see those horrors made real. In the centuries of war that was to follow."

So with a sigh, I walked back to my quarters, sealed the door and crossed the room to a small locker I had brought with me. My bones creaked as I took a seat on the bed and an inventory on the only things that helped me remember. Remember who I was before I had been a Hell-Diver before I joined the COG, a more peaceful time. A time before the bloodshed, before the lankys found earth, before the expedition, before the cybar.

Inside were a set of Dog tags with the identity code "LS-01" and beside it another read "LS-23". A weathered white sleeve with a blue patch, stitched into the fabric where red letters that spelled something called NASA whatever that was. Tears threatened to fall as I picked up the last thing buried under two tattered uniforms one grey, one black, and orange.

The dull lights in the room Illuminated the old paper picture. Turning it over I read the note on the back. The faces of ten men in eerily familiar armor stared back at me. Exo, Trident, Dodger, Zack, Chun, Bolo, Frost, Rogue, Tyler, Doc, and Brian. All but one stared at me, at the old man I had become. That armor, so similar to what I wore now, they mocked me, like ghosts that had risen from the grave to torment the living.

That ship... That planet… we didn't know what we had awakened until we were strapped to the tables and the knives had started cutting. Fifty men, fifty martian marines went onto that ship, and years of torture and time spent in a kind of twilight between conciseness and death, we were the only ones out.

Then there was the woman, we didn't know how long she had been there. She came through the squads of fleeing half cybar. Walking as though she was oblivious to the return fire from Rechs and the soldiers around him. She held up one hand, her right it was slender, bony, and pale almost bloodless. She seemed like a normal if alien woman, periods of extended weightlessness had caused some humans to turn into living scarecrows.

I remember Rechs and his fireteam had no reservations about putting her down. We switched from engaging the running cyborgs who were dispersing into the passages, to targeting her. The first shots landed out almost in slow motion. Orange tracers and hot green energy sizzled from our weapons barrels illuminating the silvery walls.

I remembered that, remembered the first shots of jagged serrated flechettes and charged electricity speed toward her in slow motion. Knowing they would punch glowing times through her slender form and continue off onto the dark tunnels past her. Except the shots did not do that, instead the concentrated fire was deflected away from her as though she had some kind of personal deflector shield. Which was impossible at that time, and only just now being fielded to dark ops teams form testing.

One deflected shot smashed into the ceiling just above her head, sending a shower of bright sparks down around her, announcing her presence with pyrotechnic fanfare. Other shots simply curved away from the bright disks of destabilize energy and burning hot tracers seemingly controlled by something beyond their own force and momentum. But still, we continued firing for all the good it was doing.

And when she attacked she cut us apart like so much chaff. Our bullets and grenades missed. Not inaccuracy… the memory was still vivid in my mind. All of my shots were on point, center mass. But the streams of flechettes missed. The tracers seeming to veer off in different directions as they drew close, like a shield.

Then before we knew it she was on us. She waved her hand and five of our numbers were dashed into the pristine silver metal of the bulkheads. Their armor buckled, bones snapped, and organs were pulped. And still she came, we used grenades and they were thrown back into our ranks.

Ten men, frozen in fear simply crumpled to the deck, their armors computers notifying us that their necks had either been snapped or their hearts crushed. She was slowing, however, her face was twisted into a knot of concentration and as we continued to pour on the fire her shield seemed to be weakening. Two shots skipped off the deck at her feet and another grazed her slender left thigh.

In my mind, she loomed over all of us and she was death incarnate. Then she held one hand up to her temple, the other hand the hand that had been held limply at her side her left hand. She held it as though she were experiencing a sharp headache or were having some serious thought that needed concentration, a deep thought that needed the world to be blocked out if only for just a moment.

Then one of the marines heads a man beside Rechs exploded inside his helmet. The infantryman beside Rechs stopped firing, none of us had ever seen anything like that. And as we would have told you we have seen many strange things during our crossings of the known galaxy, or at least what was known of the galaxy at that time, which in hindsight wasn't all that much.

It was clear this woman had used her mind to pop this man's head like some blemish that needed lancing. But that was magic stuff, voodoo, something out of that old star wars movie that was so popular at the time. The opposite of the science we knew back then.

'And still, do.` I mused here in the present.

As if we knew there's a supernatural and so refuse to let it jam a foot in the door of our imaginations, less something uncomfortable jam it's the whole body in after that. Science was something to be bent to the will of the House, and Council. But what I and my friends were seeing then was power. A power that defied explanation that verged on the uncomfortable realm of sorcery and the supernatural. Because if she was not a witch then what was she? What was the explanation for someone who could destroy another with the will of her mind?

Her hand fell away from the skull, her breathing was heavy we could see she was drained by the effort required to keep our shots at bay, not to mention throwing fully armored marines around like toys and exploding a man's head. Everything was deadly silent.

Rechs tossed his rifle to the deck and surged toward her. This was always his way, and now in the present, he had found another, a moth who was always more than willing to face his enemy head-on. Where others ran from the fire, they ran toward it. He dragged the plate cutter from off his harness, martian infantrymen all kept the circular saw breaching tool on their back, handlebar above their right shoulder blade attached to their rucks.

He pulled the tool, pressed auto start, and swung it at her in a furious arch of savagery. It's spinning blade hissed to life an instant before he began slicing her from shoulder to hip. She screamed as he drove its industrial diamond circular saw into her body and she collapsed to the ground in a foamy and gory heap.

In the half-light of the mad tunnel standing over the body of the dead girl. Rechs looked like some primordial warrior who had just clubbed the other tribe's high priestess to death with a bone handheld axe, or a rock; nevermind the tech weapons and armor.

This was an ancient image. He was like some ancient warrior, he always would be. And now he stood staring down at his vanquished foe.

She was murmuring something, her gaunt almost ethereal face was splattered in her own blood. But it was still the face of a young woman. I wonder if she was as old as I am now? A victim of the House, and Councils thirst for eternal life? Or had she been born here? Looking for the promised land explorers promised land, no one had ever promised them but themselves.

Her lips moved, repeating something as she wound down letting go of this life and all that the galaxy ever was. The others leaned down to listen, I did not, though I could still hear. To me, life has always been black and white. There were no great mysteries, there was only remaining in your feet, that's how you went forward.

"I embrace the quantum. And it embraces me." She whispered, over and over as she left this world to pass onto the next. Those words would come to haunt us later because as stated before we didn't know what we had taken from that ship, we didn't know what would happen… what would come?

As I come back fully to myself, hearing that girl speaking those words in my memory I am sitting in the observation deck overseeing the flayed as it dances slightly in the ship. She, it was looking up at me, it's huge eyeless head staring into me through the view screen that acted as a window.

There was a metallic jingle in my hand and I opened my palm to find the ident tag I had worn all those years ago. I hated the name that stared up at me. Hated it because it belonged to a better man than I. It belonged to a young man, to a man who had not yet been forced to kill his half of his only when they swore not to pursue the terrible power that woman wielded, and had broken that oath. And kill the rest when they had threatened to destroy the humanity he had worked so hard, and sacrificed so much to protect.

I remembered Francis during the war, who had been so focused on being a good man, that he forgot how to be a good friend. And then forgot how to be a good man. He had almost cost the infant cog the war, and that man had been forced to do what needed to be done.

'I will just have to wait and see if the kid ends up like the others.' I thought to myself. 'He has a tether that the others didn't. Only time will tell, and I will be ready'

Now two were all that was left. One scored the edge to worn the other for the return of the true enemy. And the other stayed behind to prepare humanity for the coming storm. Their scions were already here, and no one knew it. No one but them, and lankys.

"You and Exo are it now an old man. We're the last of the old breed." I said to the tags as much as to myself. The lights flickered as the ship groaned around me illuminating the name on the tags once more. The dull light bringing me back to when the note had been written by a young man ready to see the stars.

'Accept your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. And face your future without fear.'

I read the name once more before slipping the tags back into my pocket and returning to my quarters deciding to get some sleep. The name was an old one, one I knew would return one day soon. When the chips were down, and the legion would return.

"MMC-DO-81. CPT, Rodriguez. Tryus R."

Author's Note

I apologize for the wait, I have been having an extra-large case of writer's block. Planning and story boarding for the new story ROE: Helldiver.

And have been busy coming up with the lore of my table top space marine chapter. And trying to learn how to play 40k

Chapter 19 Signals

[Veteran] Colonel: Marcas Tiegh

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

En route to UEC prison colony: Herpoli

Distance from Sol: Unknown

3 weeks from UEC penal colony Luna-71

2170AD/107AC

My boots clicked against the deck as I neared the bridge. The sound echoing throughout the deck as I held up my PDP in one hand and held my squeeze bottle of coffee, in the other. A space born infantry guard in a suit of power armor stood guard beside hatch leading to the CIC M-66 rifle held close to his chest. "Colonel."

Nodding to the man as he spun opened the hatch for me I stepped over the threshold and into the CIC. "Colonel on deck!" Someone shouted as they saw me.

"As you were," I stated before anyone could stand up. Taking a quick glance to the side as I heard a new sound I saw a small crowd of about eight children and their parents standing by the handrails on the perimeter of the CIC. 'Must have forgotten that was today.' I thought to myself.

"Status report," I asked my exec as he handed me a fresh PDP.

"We are six minutes from Alcubierre transition colonel. Starting final checks now."

Nodding I took another sip from the bulb and before taking my seat in the big chair. "Excellent work lieutenant, I have the watch. Miss Kr'nel give me a running count, mister Gibson status of civilians?"

Speaking into his link the man took several seconds to respond. "Being secured as we speak colonel."

"Running count aye, count zero five minutes, until alcubierre transition." My Sumerian helmsman said without taking her eyes off of the screens.

"Computer bring up the system on the display," I commanded swiveling my chair around to face the holo tank. Instantly a hologram of the planetary system appeared in the middle of the room, getting several excited gasps from the children.

Taking a light pen I circled several energy sources in the vicinity. "Mister Barnett, what are these?"

"Civilian haulers sir. They appear to be in a queue to access the node." The man answers blowing up a larger image of the line of ships. They were indeed UEC ships, but they lacked the size and obvious weapons ports of their larger military counterparts.

"Defiant, zoom in and identify?" I asked pointing to a ship in the line that stood out from the rest of the crowd. The ship's computer zoomed in on the oddly angular ship before rotating the image, placing it center stage on the screen.

[Vessel Identified. Mayhu class freighter. Designation Ringing Bell, manufacturer Zehal heavy industries. Point of origin, Luna orbital shipyard Maller, system Sol. Serial code 3612.752.83-9] The heavy synthesized baritone of the ship's AI boomed out over the speakers.

"One of our civilian ships? What the hell are they doing out this far? Options?"

"They could be scouting for the fleet, sir." My exec offered.

"Explain."

"Well, sir, if you will remember, about a year ago the house opened the edge to private exploration and trade. The fleet saw this as an opportunity and hired several private ship captains to go out into UEC space and conduct reconnaissance because we don't have the ships to spare do the war."

"Beginning the final approach." Tyre my Sensor operator reported from his station.

"Mister Dru'hur put it on the main monitor. Let's give these kids a show." I said with a smile, happy to finally be putting this system behind me, and finally, have a destination.

The large acrylic screen shimmers to life displaying a visual of the ancient wormhole we call an alcubierre node. The giant swirling blue sphere glistened and shimmered like water as the light was bent around its event horizon in a shimmering bubble. Swirling around ita set of four rings spun like a giant old fashioned gyroscope. 'Of course, it's on its maintenance cycle.'

"Begin final check," I said leaning forward. Even as a kid this part of space travel always excited me. The mystery of the nodes and their seemingly random placement in the galaxy.

"Nav Coordinates locked."

"Alcubierre drive is green. L-drive offline."

"Stealth is engaged and running at one hundred over one hundred."

"Turrets locked, tubes sealed."

"Hangers closed."

"Begin countdown…" I began before keeping into the one. "All hands this is the colonel brace for acceleration and stand by for alcubierre transition." My voice called out throughout the entire ship.

Turning to my helmsman I nodded. "Miss Kr'nel. Take us in nice and slow."

"Aye Colonel." The ship bucked from her ballistic heading and we were all slammed into our crash couches as the ship began to accelerate once again.

On the screen, the node seemed to sense our approach. Its rings began spinning faster as if in anticipation of us. Suddenly when we're almost eighty thousand kilometers from the node the first ring stopped dead, hanging vertically.

"Transitioning in ten…"

"Nine." We blazed past the nearest civilian vessels skipping ahead in the line as we drew nearer to our target.

"Eight."

"Seven." At sixty thousand kilometers the second ring suddenly and violently locked into place, stopping dead in line with the first leaving the remaining two to spin increase their pace.

"six."

"Five." Passing the final ship in line I couldn't help but smile as a myrialos child let out a whoop of excitement.

"Four."

"Three." The third ring locked into place as we continued to build up to a sustained four G's of acceleration.

"Two."

"One." The final ring locked into place as we reached the two thousand mile mark. This close the colossal event horizon of the alcubierre node dwarfed the Defiant, taking up our entire screen with the swirling blue event horizon.

"Transition." The sensation was strange. We were moving so fast that we couldn't perceive our passive through the node. Just one moment we were in normal space and the next the view was taken up by the swirling blue, black, and red streams and tunnels of hyperspace. Inwardly I smiled as I heard the children cheer at what, to them who have been trapped on that station for most of their lives seem to be an impossible task.

Liaison Corporal: Mii'ora [Habu]

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

En route to UEC prison colony: Herpoli

10 days to arrival

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2170AD/107AC

Gathered in an improvised classroom I sat beside Charlotte and several of my fellow squad members at stacked crates that we had turned into desks. And at the head of the "classroom" stood Avery who was still acclimating to his bionic leg, X, Wraith, and Big Dog who walked almost unhindered despite his previous injuries.

On the screen in front of the room, several two-dimensional images appeared depicting a diagram of what could be mistakenly called a city. "And that is what little we know about the layout of the penal colony." Big dog said.

"This will be a water insertion so be prepared for that. If you haven't already, report to the respawn chamber for a backup. Please, read your PDPs the ships SF A.I Yuna should have uploaded the proper files for Aquatic operational procedure." Fallon said, never in my time knowing him had I seen my mate seem so bored.

"Now for fireteam postings, and assignments." He continued earning a groan from the others in the room. "I know, but once we're done we have the day off." The mood in the room changed at that.

Trombley leaned over to whisper in my auditory membrane conspiratorially. "Finally. The sarge has been running us ragged for weeks."

"Oui. I can't wait." Charlotte's wingman Doll said.

"Must be the leg. I hear it's not syncing properly." Watkins says as X steps up and begins listing off team assignments.

"Team one. Camouflage, Gutsy, Levoy, X."

"Team two. Habu, Iceman, Wraith, Bra'tac."

"And finally, Team three. Big Dog, Watkins, and Durge."

"Shiraui, will be on the planet on stand by. Should we need support. Along with Lucky-13 and Captain Dunois, and lieutenant Terne.

"Alright that's…" he began before being cut off as the light from the holo table turned from the usual red color to a calming blue.

"X we're picking up a distress signal. Sending the data to you now." Colonel Tiegh said over the speaker.

Instantly the calming blue table was filled with what Avery had once described as telemetry data. Stellar coordinates, ship classification, crew rosters scrolled in the display while an ominous cooing filled the room.

With an exasperated sigh X turned to the table. "We've got it."

"Colonel, what do you think?" The veteran Helldiver asked.

Yuna's voice came over the overhead in response. "Protocol says we send aid. Colonel"

"How long until the fleet's supplies are in the red?" Avery asked quietly.

Levoys voice cuts through the silence. The cool emotionless tombra of his voice caught me off guard. "Five weeks. Given estimated consumption of consumable resources and current fuel usage."

Stepping forward Big Dog rests his hands on the holo table. "How long would it take to get there?"

"It's in system, so… Two days of hard burn." Colonel Tiegh responds. This response got a grunt of anger from Avery.

"She wonders Why not jump?" I offered only to get an angry look from Big dog.

"Because Habu…" My suiter begins before adjusting the hologram, blowing it out and displaying the system as a whole. Lifting his bionic be points to the sixth planet in the system. "... There is a UEC scout group at the edge of the system. If we jump they might detect the pulse."

"No." Bra'tac calls outstanding with a grunt of effort. "If I may?" He offered gesturing to the hologram.

"Go ahead." My suiter said stepping back opening the table to my brother.

Bra'tac clears his throat before gesturing to the red icons marking the UEC ships. "The Masters' ships have a unique drive signature. Normally you would be able to slip them with this ship's stealth capabilities. But if you look here, and here you can see that they belong to Raritys seventh fleet. And before I defected Mistress Rarity was in the process of installing new sensors in her ships, so if they are as far as you say then if we "go for the burn" then they will likely detect your ship."

A bang could be heard from the other end of the speaker before Colonel Tiegh spoke again. "And they'll run us down before we get halfway. Damn it. Options?"

"I say we jump if whoever sent that distress signal might need help." Trombley says from his seat beside me.

Turning to Bra'tac Avery let out a tired sigh. "How long will it take the UEC to get there once they get the signal?"

"Fifteen hours? A day at most." My brother said.

"Then it's settled. Whatever's there we need to beat them there. X, Iceman. Put together a team and report to airlock nineteen." Tiegh ordered before disconnecting the line.

"Habu, Levoy, Camouflage, Gutsy. Let's get backed up and let's go. Everyone else get geared up, you're on standby."

Several minutes passed as I followed my suiter to the armory to retrieve our equipment. Taking an M66 from the rack I slapped in a fresh magazine, placed two more in my armor pouches and prepared to move. But something made me stop a cold feeling of dread washed over me. Turning I listened to the voice in the back of my mind and took an M99 from the wall as well before filling up the rest of my pouches with ammunition for the ALHO weapon.

"A bold choice babe. Try not to hit the hull." Avery teased.

With an annoyed hiss, I turned to see him twirling his hand cannon with a mechanical whir from the charge cylindrical pack before sliding it into the holster on his hip. "Hey, is something wrong?" He asked a look of concern plane on his face.

"...No…" I began only to be cut off as he crossed the room quickly shepherding me to a secluded corner.

"Miiora you know if something is bothering you you can tell me. It's my job to take care of you, not only as your fiance but as your squad leader." he said quietly.

"I don't know love. It is just that I'm…" She sighed dejectedly. Her heart was fluttering at the rare display, and she couldn't articulate her thoughts. Didn't her love know that he did this to her?

I took in a lung full of Avery's scent. "I don't know what it is love. But something is telling me that there will be a danger on the ship. Something that we haven't seen before."

Leaning back and crossing his arms he gained a quizzical look. "Hmmm. You could be wrong. But we're a long way from home so anything could happen. Tell me, do you need to stay here? I can pick someone else."

"No. I am can still fight love. Just please, let's be careful."

"That a girl." He said with a heart-melting smile before leaning forward into give me a kiss making me give my species equivalent of a blush as I leaned into him.

'All hands begin jump prep. Three, two, one, jump.'

A flash washed over my vision as we came together. A low throb pulsing through my body as a result of the FTL jump, making me moan as he wrapped his hands around me and pulled me close before breaking off the kiss. I felt the longing for him and tried my best to suppress my mating urge as I saw him retreat slightly.

"Come on babe…" he began before slipping on his bucket. Hiding his face behind a shell of glossy black impervasteel and transparisteel. "Let's go break some shit."

'Extending the docking tube.'

"Alright, we're on the clock so let's make this quick. We go in, sweep for survivors, frag the data core and get out. Stay frosty we have no idea what caused this, so let's not take any chances." Avery said over the squad channel using his best sergeants' voice.

"Alright people. The clock starts now. Were in and out. They would have seen our signature. Habu, Iceman you're in front." Caption Rodriguez spoke up.

"Well, you heard him, people! Were not paid by the hour let's move!" Avery yelled. yelling my alternative I slid on my helmet and followed him out. He was hiding the gentleness I knew was there. That, I felt was saved for me.

Author's Note

I'm really sorry for the short length of this chapter. I've just been stuck for so long and have been dealing with a lot of stuff IRL.

I've also been kind of burned out, to be honest, and even thought about canceling the story or deleting it. So to combat this I will probably go back to how I did it in the first story and use shorter chapters. Instead of posting these six or ten thousand word tomes.

Also, I'm probably going to need either an Idea-guy/prereader or a co-author situation to help me out in case I get stuck for this long. So if anyone is interested please send me a PM.

Chapter 20 Awakening

[Veteran]Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill-team: Viper

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2 weeks from UEC penal colony Luna-71

2170AD/107AC

As we exited the derelict ship's airlock we came face to face with a shredded human corpse. The body was so disfigured it was impossible to tell if it had once been a man or a woman. The body floated in zero-G surrounded by a cloud of floating blood. Snapping my weapon up I swept the barrel of my N-1 across the passageway. The flashlight beam sweeping across the mangled forms of two other dead crew members. The lights were flickering between the red of emergency lighting and darkness.

"God damn." Trombley whispered over the tac-link.

"What could have done this?" Miiora asked from beside me as I nudged the body out of the way before creeping up the hall.

"No idea. Couldn't have been my people. More any race from Equis." Gutsy said sweeping her PDW across an open hatch. "Clear."

Remembering back to the incident on the Hellgan station an idea flashed through my head. "Sirens maybe?"

"Couldn't be. The bodies are too intact." Levoy said checking the magazine of his M66. "Look at the flesh. No signs of consumption, no bite marks or tears. No whatever did this was methodical."

"Mess hall up ahead." I called out moving up to the entrance with Miiora right behind me. "Set." Across from us Trombley and Gutsy stacked ready to enter the room.

"Go." X said before we began rushing into the room, weapons at the ready.

However, instead of coming around and seeing a room full of hostiles we walked into a horror show. Bodies lay strung across the tables or floating in the air. Clear signs of illegal weapons fire littered the walls, floor, and ceiling, all seemingly focused on one entranceway. On a hunch, I turned around to see the wall behind us littered with scorch and pockmarks, from what seemed to be weapons discharge from slugthrowers and blasters.

"This must have been one hellacious fight." Trombley mused as we moved through the room checking the bodies taking and disarming whatever weapons we could for later use.

"Woah, Sergeant come look at this."

Turning from inspecting a body with Miiora I turned to see Gutsy standing next to a corpse who's mag boots had him secured to the ceiling. "What is it Gutsy?"

"Look at this wound. It has all the hallmarks of one of your blaster weapons but it's too clean. And it doesn't have any of the residual magical aurae of a blazer." She explained holding the head so I could see it better.

"Well, it could…" I began before Levoy cut me off.

Stepping forward he aligned the body with another that was standing on a table almost five feet behind the first. "That's not all. Look at the trajectory. Whatever shot him didn't just kill him."

"Think you could make it?" I asked trying to piece together what could have done this.

"Maybe? If given time and a controlled environment. But whatever did this was on the move. Look…" the synthetic began taking a step back and began pantomiming, gesturing to several bodies in sequence.

"Whatever did this killed them. Then shifted and shot them, then these two. All while under fire, and all the while it was on the move, presumably taking concentrated fire. Whatever killed these people was tough. Nothing I can think of can do that even our best machines have a margin of error." He concluded.

"Ideas?" I asked

"Lo… Sargent, it very well could be…" Miiora began before a horrible screech sounded throughout the ship.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded as we all snapped up our weapons.

Silence filled the room as everyone listened to what was going on around us. As I listened, I began to hear a faint clomping noise, coming from down the main artery. Turning I saw everyone else had heard it as well and as we took up positions I turned to X for orders, only to see his visor had depolarised. His face was white as a ghost but I didn't see the fear in his eyes, no I saw something else, something I couldn't place.

"Get back to the ship. I know what did this." He began before slinging his NK-2 and opening a side compartment on his armor before retrieving what looked to be an old revolver style hand cannon.

"What?" Gutsy asked. Before she bumped one of the bodies. Instantly what could only be a recorded message began to play.

"To anyone hearing this message my name is captain James Reynolds. Several days ago my crew stumbled across a damaged cargo hauler at the edge of the western combat zone. We boarded and found the crew dead, we had thought they had been killed by pirates, or maybe clop raiders. We were wrong.

Onboard, we found an open cargo container of some kind. When we swept the ship we found more bodies and four bots. They were like nothing we had ever seen, far too advanced to be UEC made, and alien to be something made by humans. We had thought it was some kind of prototype war bot so we took it on board with hopes of selling it on the black market.

Two days later what I assume was the leader came alive and told us to surrender the ship so it could alert it's manufactured. We, of course, said no, and after that, it started killing the crew. My teams have destroyed the engine coupling and disabled controls to the helm. There are Formers on board, children and families below decks. We can't let those things find them. We've set a trap and are gonna try to take them down. We've already launched all of the escape pods, so we're down to this.

If you're hearing this then we've failed. Get off and destroy this ship. We can't let those things get to where they need to go. Tell my daughter I'm sorry, tell her daddy did this to keep her safe.

This is Caption, James L. Reynolds signing off. This message repeats."

"X?" I asked turning to the man after listening to the message.

"Cybar." The old helldiver said through gritted teeth.

"The hells a cyba…" Trombley began before a storm of white energy tore from down the hall and through his armor. Almost instantly his vitals flatlined, as he went limp hanging awkwardly in the air.

"Fuck!" I yelled in a mild panic scrambling to the side dragging his body to the with me.

Turning Trombley's body over I tore off his bucket and pulled his tags. Sighing with relief when I saw the glowing brass colored coin was still intact, I stuffed the neural backup disk into my suit pocket and returned fire.

"Habu sling that rifle it won't do any good firing gell rounds. Use that M-99 armor-piercing and shaped charge first. Gutsy pickup Trombley's SAW get some suppressing fire down this hallway. Iceman your with me. Levoy get back to the ship now and let them know we're on the way back, tell them to get ready to nuke the ship. Everyone gives him your coins, if we don't make it back they can revive us." X yelled taking command of the situation.

"Iceman bangers down the hall. It will disrupt their sensors for a few seconds. As soon as these bangers go off fall back by pairs we aren't equipped to combat Cybar centurions with a man down. Gutsy will go first she has the least armor, followed by Habu, then both myself and Iceman."

"Bangers out!" I yelled as I grabbed two bangers off my rig. And tossed the bangers around the corner. Instantly the streams of white plasma switched moving to shoot one of the bangers out of the air but failing to hit the other as it detonated.

"Go!" Instantly Miiora and Gutsy burst from cover and began a walking retreat to the hatchway behind us.

Trombley's SAW barked its hoarse report sending streams of flechettes down the passage toward the four silhouettes that were making their way down the hall. Sparks illuminated the darkness as the heavy tungsten nails punched through the bulkheads.

"I've never been more grateful that Trombley brings that thing with him everywhere." I said to myself before a series of defining booms sounded throughout the chamber as Miiora slam fired the M99.

Five big fat grenades like rounds meant to take down full-sized lankys blazed down the hallway blaming into the two leftmost silhouettes. The syringe-like rounds slammed home, injected their payloads and exploded tearing two silhouettes to pieces. This, however, is when the situation changed. As the two bots came fully into view they raised their weapons.

Time seemed to slow as I saw that they were aiming their energy rifles at Miiora. I saw the white dust like sabot flowering from the SAWs barrel, the creeping arc of the shotgun like M99s shells being flung from the weapon.

She passed within arms reach in slow motion. And I snatched my arm out wrapping my fingers around the plates of her armor, feeling the thick muscle of Miioras tail yielding to my nanite enhanced grip before yanking back.

Like a rope, the limb coiled went thought and just as the bolts of plasma leaped out of the bots strange weapons. With a yank, I pulled her off her feet and backward into me her weapon hanging uselessly in the air a fraction of a second before twenty or so bolts sailed into it and the air around it.

Miiora hissed and writhed in pain as I hooked her to my rig. Turning I pulled another banger and tossed it down the hallway before firing my N-1 down the hall as the first of the machines came fully into view.

It looked a bit like one of our old warbots, only more sleek, and with more organic looking bits dotted around its frame. Thoughts of ancient warriors flashed through my mind at the sight of the helmets as one of the machines, turned its helmet-like head towards me. Its six circular eyes clicking and whirring as it began to bring its weapon to bear.

Eyes going wide, I turn to wrap Miiora in my arms covering her with my armored bulk as two bolts slam into my armor. Only my legionnaire armor seemed to stand up better to the onslaught, taking the hits that went straight through Trombley's suit. Hearing Miiora scream, I got an Idea and used my implant to mask my vitals from external sensors, and collapsed bonelessly on top of her.

Miiora fumbled at my sidearm managing to pull the release latch for its holster as I heard the hot turn its attention towards her. To my surprise, it didn't shoot her right away instead I heard it clomp closer no doubt the machine didn't wish to waist munitions on a moving target. So as it crept closer I slowly move my hand to my pistol holster gripping the handle as the machine came to a stop beside us.

The intimate missionary style position we were in wasn't lost on me and I idly thought 'You know it wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a fucking alien robot about to kill us.' You think of the craziest things in situations like this. Having had to clear my head of those thoughts, I used my implant to link my visor to Miioras' visual display. The cybar was behind me and to the right, perfect.

The machine stopped, staring down at us before raising its weapon, leveling it at her head as she froze. I felt her stiffen beneath me, giving me the opportunity I needed, and so with a flick of my thumb, I set my pistol to disintegrate. And with a rising mechanical whine from my pistols charge pack I pulled the weapon from its holster and shot the Cybar machine in the chest from the prone position.

There was a BWOOM noise as the area around us was filled with red light as the football-sized ball of destabilized energy slammed into the machine chest sending it flying backward with a massive scorched hole in its chest.

It wasn't dead yet, so as Miiora began to squirm once more I used my free hand to flip and push myself up into the air, locking my boots to the ceiling and shot the cyber in the head. Ducking low and kicking off I twirled the pistol in my hand as I twisted in the air, landing on a table in a crouch before shooting the second Cybar in the shoulder stunning it and blowing the arm assembly off before X finished it off with a shot from his big slug thrower.

"Nice one kid. I doubt Tyrus Wrechs could have done better." X said approving as he reloaded his revolver. Looking around I noticed that X had already dealt with the final two machines.

Nodding to the old man I got off of the table and helped Miiora to her feet. "Habu, Gutsy, Status?" I asked doing my best to keep the concern out of my voice while giving Miiora a quick once over.

"I am alright." Miiora wheezed shaking her body like a dog and managing the dent in her tale armor where I had grabbed it.

Thankful that I hadn't hurt Miiora to badly I turned to the unicorn. Her light armor had been scorched in several places where plasma bolts had slammed into her. And if she had been a normal clop she would have died, but thanks to her freaky healing factor she was still on her feet, or hooves in this case. "I'll live. But this weapon is bucked." She spat tossing Trombleys SAW.

"Double time it!" X suddenly yelled over the squad channel gesturing frantically for us to move down the corridor.

Not having to be told twice Miiora and Gutsy helped each other rush down the passageway. Pausing I stopped, contemplating the idea of taking one of the cybar weapons. Something was telling me to take the weapon, and before I knew it I almost had the weapon in my hand before an armored gauntlet swatted my hands away and pushed me forward. "Move your ass Legi!" I heard X yell snapping me out of some kind of my trance.

Quickly and effortlessly catching up with Habu I fell into step with to cover their six o'clock. "Talk to me X. What's going on?"

"New word from the Defiant. A new ship has just emerged from the gas giant and is on ingress." He said, his voice filled with a mixture of anger, and trepidation.

"Think it has anything to do with the signal?"

"No doubt." He said as we turned a corner watching as Miiora and Gutsy kicked off into this ship's window covered docking tube. At the end of the docking tube, I could see the second fireteam waving us onwards waiting to pull us in.

As I crossed the void between the two ships I felt Shiraui pushing her way into my perception. Using the link I felt her bull her way into the back seat of my mind. 'What the hell are you doing?' I seethed.

'I wanna see. Your vitals are peaking and I wanna know why.' She huffed in that innocently cute voice if hers.

That's when I saw the reason for the commotion. Coming up from the gas giant was one of the largest ships I had ever seen. Its twin dagger snapped hulls were like nothing I had ever seen, my HUD computer putting it at almost half the tonnage the Galactica. Linking my HUD to one of the Defiant's external cameras I zoomed the image in, the ship bristled with what I could only assume were numerous weapon blisters.

"What the fuck is that!?" Big Dog yelled from the other end of the tube giving voice to my question.

Something washed over me as I felt Shirauis agitation. She desperately wanted to get out of her birth and fight the ship with all she was worth. What she had told me before The anger I felt from the flayed was so intense that I began to actually feel my nanites buzzing with a need to do battle. And at the edge of my hearing, I could hear it, the keening.

"A cybar battleship." I heard both X and Shiraui say in unison, one with seething rage and the other in abject terror.

Forcing my suit to inject me with calming drugs I tried to calm Shiraui. I was about to ask how this day could possibly get any worse before every light in the tube and the Defiant starting flashing red as an all too familiar siren started blaring through the one MC.

My heart sank as I watched space start to warp and twist. X and I fired our jets scooping Gutsy and Miiora respectively into our arms and flying down the tube. The others saw us coming and dove for cover as the four of us came to an ungraceful halt at the end.

"Defiant actual their aboard!" I heard Big Dog yell slapping the airlock controls and keying the tubes retraction sequence. Looking to X and nodding in unison, we broke into a sprint for the CIC. As we crossed the decks we passed crewmembers desperately belting civilians into crash couches and securing equipment.

In what seemed like no time we bullied our way through the guards and made our way into the CIC where colonel Tigh was busy barking orders to the bridge crew. His eyes shot to us for a fraction of a second before he pointed to the railing at the perimeter of the bridge.

A sudden shifting caught my attention and I noticed that in my desperate rush to get to the CIC I had neglected to put Miiora down. Her weight negligible to my adrenalin-filled, nanite enhanced strength. She looked at me, her helmet depolarising as I muttered an apology and clipped her into the crash couch before turning my attention back to the colonel.

"I don't care about regulations! Do you see what's out there? If what Shiraui said is true then there's about to be a grudge match and we're going to get caught in the middle of it. Miss Shuri, Flip the ship now, mister Baxter, have tubes two and four loaded and ready to fire on that derelict, and prep for maximum burn."

"Aye, sir!" The bridge crew shouted X and I stepped up to give our reports.

"Sir…" X began only to have the colonel cut him off.

"Save it X. Shiraui filled me in already based off of whatever fucked up link she shares with Iceman. Get buckled in…"

"Sir! The alcubierre tunnel is stabilizing… Obba." The sensor operator's voice caught in his throat as he turned from his station. "Sir… the tunnel something is coming through."

"Get me a visual." Tiegh ordered, prompting one of the screens to display an image of a swirling crimson vortex, a hyperspace tunnel.

The colonel's eyes widened as the image began to warp and bend. Turning to the helm operator he barked out a series of orders. "Give the word. Ventral lateral roll ninety degrees port, Maximum burn At vector, nine, six. delta. Ninety eight. Bravo!"

"Ventral lateral roll ninety degrees port, Maximum burn At vector, nine, six. delta. Ninety eight. Bravo!"

"Execute!" The colonel yelled, as I felt the ship buck to life forcing me to activate my mag boots as the already weak artificial gravity desperately tried to keep up with the ship. Ahead of me I could see the colonel stopping himself into his command couch before keying the one MC. And without a word I crossed the bridge and plopped into the seat next to Miiora.

"Siege warning, Siege warning. Lanky Claw ship exiting hyperspace. All hands combat stations, standby for maximum burn."

Chapter 21 The War in Heaven

Part 1 Act 2: Epilogue

[Veteran]Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill-team: Viper

NACS: Defiant Ind-0231

Distance from Sol: Unknown

2 weeks from UEC penal colony Luna-71

2170AD/107AC

The ship bucked hard as it disengaged its stealth field and fired its drives. The burn making me feel as if an ATLAS mech was standing on my chest. As the pressure threatened to smash me flat into the crash couch I heard the ship's AI begin announcing our progress towards the maximum burn.

When the count hit four I felt the crash couch inject me with the milk like stimulants we called the juice. And by ten Gs my vision had narrowed to a small dot as even my nanite enhanced body had to fight to keep me from blacking out.

On the tactical display, I could see that the UEC ships in the system had indeed seen what was going on behind our little stealth corvette. And if they didn't know before they certainly did when we launched a nuke at the freighter. Vaporizing the ship and bathing our ship in charged particles that mixed with our drive cores made us stand out like a road flare at night.

Keying my implants to show me an external view as our icon seemed to merge with that of the claw ship I watched in abject terror as our ship seêmed to be skimming the surface of the big ships hull. Following the shell-like contour as the lanky ship charged and fired a beam of red energy from one of its claws towards the rising cyber battleship.

"Hold on everyone! Can we jump to FTL?" Colonel Tiegh yelled as we watched the beam slice its way across the cybar battleship causing what would have to be extremely powerful shields to flair to life.

"Negative, we are experiencing fluctuations in subspace. If I had to guess either one or both of those ships must be getting ready to, or already have sent out some kind of signal. No, if we want to get out of the system we'll have to run the gauntlet." A guy with the name Barnet called out from his station after conversing with the ship's AI.

I don't know why but something about what he said made nod with understanding almost as if some subconscious part of me knew something was coming. And as I watched the UEC ships that had previously been patrolling the system began to burn towards the node, their trajectory, and speed displayed on the tactical plot showing that they intended to set up some kind of blockade around the node assuming correctly that we would have to use the Alcubierre jump point.

"Energy build-up from Bug-1." The sensor operator reported as the icon displaying the claw ship as the top left claw on Bug-1 began to pulse.

"Colonel! The Cybar battlecruiser is painting us with active sensors… torpedo launched! Vampire, vampire incoming at Mark six, point six on ingress. Time to impact five minutes."

Turning his command couch as the pressure of the sudden acceleration burn lessened somewhat. "Gunnery bring the PDCs online. And warm up the rail guns. Load cluster into tubes six and ten and return fire. X, get down to your combat stations, I think this is going to get worse before it gets better."

"Aye, sir. Damn those fish are fast, bringing PDCs online. Tubes six and ten firing, Warming up railguns."

"On it sir. Twenties, Habu. Let's move." X said clicking his mag boots on before unstrapping himself from the crash couch.

With a half-smile, I turned to Miiora, seeing the apprehension on her face. Thinking quickly of something to kick her into gear I recalled a one-liner I heard in an old movie. "This is where the fun begins."

That seemed to do the trick and as I unstrapped her and we made our way to the hatch as I began to feel the deck shudder as the PDCs roared to life.

Space

Distance from SOL: unknown

A blazing ruby beam lanced from one of Sixth-claws four appendages searing a crimson streak through the void before slamming into the glittering particle shield that surrounded the Cybar battleship. Shields flared across the ancient Cybar ship as it fired its thrusters carrying its bulk forward and into a roll dispersing the energy from the Lanky's energy projector.

As it rolled great eight barreled guns emerged from the largest of the of weapons blisters that dotted its triangular hulls. The mighty guns tracked from the small primitive ship to its new target as several of the smaller blisters opened releasing several swarms of three-pronged dart-shaped drone fighters. In response several holes eyeressed open along the Claw ships hull as it released its own swarm of embarked Flayed.

With speeds, none of the two groups of young races in the system thought possible the two groups of fighters hurled themselves through space. And in a matter of what should have been minutes the watched children watched the two swarms begin exchanging ranging shots scoring several kills before the groups merged into a massive conglomeration of organic and inorganic fighters.

"Rad warming! Gamma-ray burst!" A sensor tech aboard the Defiant yelled as alarms began blaring throughout the ship.

A massive energy spike drew eyes across the system as six-eight barreled guns began to draw power. The Cybar battleships vacuum energy reactor poured power into the guns. The children watched what looked like golden dust seemingly form from space before coalescing into the guns. To their ancient ancestors what must have looked like holy golden light suddenly blasted from those mighty guns soaring straight into the flank of the maneuvering Claw ship. Radiation warnings danced across every display in the system as the entire left hemisphere of the claw ship disappeared in a brilliant flash of golden-white light.

Aboard the Defiant three individuals clasped their hands to their heads and hearts as a wave of anguish, pain, and anger washed over them. Two of the three fell to their knees while four friends of the third had to physically restrain him as he attempted to dash to the second.

In space red particles surrounded the damaged Claw ship. Growing thicker and brighter by the second before it burst outward sending out a wave of red energy crossing the system in a matter of seconds filling every speaker and communications system with an ear-piercing screech before dissipating at the system's edge. Caught off guard by the sudden wash of energy the shields of the Cybar ship flickered having not had enough time to analyze the strange anomaly.

The long-dead strategic brain of the Claw roared to life. Now disregarding the child patterns several thousand units at its flank its hull began to glow an evil red as The-One disengaged this claws safes and began to draw power from its zero point reactor.

"Neutrino burst!" A lieutenant called out from the bridge of the local UEC Planetary defense fleet flagship.

"Raise shields!" The sub-commander in overall command yelled as they watched the blades along the claws of the Claw ship begin to glow an iridescent red.

"Rad warning level ten! Newton radiation, and unknown particulate build-up from Bug-1." The sensor tech reported as Tiegh and as well as his entire bridge crew sat pale-faced at the sight of the battle. The same thought crossing almost every human's mind, that if the Lankys had these kinds of weapons why hadn't they used them during the siege? Were they so insufficient in the end?

Eyes watched as the three remaining claws of Bug-1 moved, closing, drawing closer together coalescing power before a red glowing orb appeared between them. And as the children of this galactic region watched what looked to be a small localized star appeared in the maw of the damage claw ship elongating into a long teardrop shape. Then in a sequence of events unknown to any witnessing somehow changed from a small star into a solid jagged translucent red crystal before rocketing off into space leaving a trail of glowing pink particles in its wake.

The large building-sized crystal slammed into the Cybar's partial shields overloading them instantly and allowing the Lanky weapon to continue on to pierce straight through the hull of their mortal enemies ship tearing a great hundred-meter wide hole through both triangular hulls.

The glowing crystal continued on into the gas giant's atmosphere where it created one of the most beautiful displays ever witnessed in this quadrant since the days of the ancients, and an event that would be recorded and witnessed in the histories of every sentient race in this quadrant.

Before the eyes of the children present the swirling clouds of the Jovian planet solidified becoming a gigantic almost transparent crystal that glowed the most beautiful red from within where it's core had once been. The light from the system's star reflected the light dancing off of its surface and illuminating beautiful fractal patterns within the planet.

The crystal sat silent for several moments, during which the children marveled at the display. Before all, at once the newly created crystal planet cracked and shattered. The solar winds of the local star sending shards of crystal spewing throughout the system creating large swirling patterns of glittering crystal. As well as shotgunning the Cybar ship's hull with large car-sized shards.

The Bug-1 attempted to follow up this attack with another however by the time it's remaining claws had managed to charge the second shot sixteen beams of golden light washed over its surface.

The light from the beams reflected off of the swirling shards around the two ships casting the two in brilliant contrast. And when the light died down a second claw as well as a second hemisphere of the Claw ship had been blown away, reduced to its constituent atoms. Seeing no other choice, with its main weapons crippled whatever passed for an intelligence in Bug-one decided to simply gun its reactionless drive opting to simply ram its opponent.

This, however, was a variable the Cybar intelligence had predicted and so as the Lanky ship advanced it aimed and fired its remaining gamma-ray guns into the flank of the wounded ship. Light flashed as the ship adjusted thrust vectoring on it's Z axis to let it's now crippled prey sail by. And prey it was, as the stricken Claw ship drifted trapped on its vector the Cybar battleship adjusted thrust and closed in for the kill.

As the children watched the Cybar ship slowly closed in, like some kind of cruel murderer. In its defense, the Claw eyeressed holes across what was left of its hull as the Cybar drew close spraying its hull with enough penetrators and glowing missiles to turn the pride of the human fleet the Galactica into a fine powder.

These weapons, penetrators especially were familiar to humans as most of their fleets had been destroyed by such weapons. These proved ultimately to be useless, darkening the hull in flashes of ruby light or simply denting and skipping off of the hull is sloped armor.

The cruel Cybar Intelligence relished in its victory against its mortal enemy. It dialed the power of its guns down and began sending stems of golden light into the side of the Claw ship essentially doing the equivalent of stabbing a wounded animal to death.

So engrossed in its psychotic revelry was the Cybar intelligence that it failed to notice the cluster of swirling tunnels that burst into existence several million kilometers away. "Siege war-n...ing…" The sensor tech aboard the Defiant trailed off as a cluster of ten old looking battle-scarred Claw ships burst from hyperspace.

But what drew the children's eyes weren't the claws. No. It had reached out so many times over the eons knowing to search, knowing feeling something but never able to find it's a final foe. The humans had unknowingly destroyed many of its foes during its war with them, and for this reason, it had begun allowing other sentiments to live. Granting them those who had for the first time in a thousand years destroyed one of its ships the boon of unknown guardianship. And now it as it had reached out with the mutated placenta and damaged flayed it had somehow found its final foe.

The-One would finally be able to partake in it's created purpose and so as the children of the current watched The-One emerged not from a hyperspace tunnel, instead burst into existence flying through the system gateway tunnel.

Every set of eyes in the system eyed their displays eyes darting to the newest contact that had just come through the alcubierre node and was now crossing the distance form up with the Claw fleet at an unimaginable rate of 260Gs of acceleration.

Visual feeds showed an absolutely massive twelve kilometers long, claw ship. Its forward section didn't have four claws like it's comparatively diminutive cousins. Instead, this thing that humans could only describe as a monster possessed six large battle-damaged jagged claws. Furthermore, it lacked the pitch-black coloring of it's kind. This monster that the damaged Flayed named Shiraui had breathlessly and reverently identified as The-One, possessed a pale white carapace much like the flayed aboard the Defiant. And slung under its massive beetle shaped bulk sat a single massive protrusion, a huge gnarled claw that ran from the middle of the ship to just almost half a kilometer beyond its prow.

Veins of glowing red light spotted it's ancient scarred hull and as it picked up speed it began leaving a trail of glowing pink particles that disabled the shields of UEC ships as the humans fought their way out of the system in its wake.

In the shadow of The-One the Defiant took advantage of this unforeseen circumstance, angeling her two twin-linked railguns and sending volys of tungsten into the small defence fleet. The surprise stack scored several kills before an enterprising ships commander saw fit to launch her vessels marine laden escape pods into the Defiant as she shot passed.

Unfortunately, do to The-One's rarely used and ancient body lacking any kind of FTL Drive like it's smaller kin it was still forced to cross the vast distance of space. And by the time it had reached its escort the Cybar ships hull had mostly regenerated. And its own reinforcements had arrived in the form of two more Cybar battleships as well as the final vessel, The Creators had dubbed a Stardust Dreadnought.

And so it drew finally its bulk finally sailing passed the Defiant. In a femtosecond, The-One analyzed its opponents as the four ships began fighter launch procedures and found that it would not be able to control its fleets fighters, its body, and the ten claws at the same time while simultaneously focusing on the battle.

It focused on searching the trillions of tactical minds that had at one point been individual that made up that portion of its consciousness. It soon found an answer and so it reached out.

It reached out, faster than it ever had. Twenty-two trillion times per second it reached out. It reached out to the stars, reached out to every engram disk it had ever sent out. It backed up whatever engrams we're currently on those glowing disks and absorbed the original back up into the whole. It had its trump card, the Cybar knew it couldn't split its attention from the with the dreadnought and it's fleet to operate fighters.

But now all of its flayed at least temporarily were individually operated like a certain damaged flayed, The-Ones fighters had become sentient.

So as the Cybar fleet began launching fighters so too did The-One and the ten Claws and with that finale battle of its ancient war had begun.

Sector- 919

Distance from Hapsha: 26413 light-years

War In Heaven year: 6654183

Years since last known cybar sighting: 43218

Directive: Prevent Cybar return. Safeguard galaxy.

Objective: Eliminate the final cybar fleet.

One flayed yelled in a panic as it shifted from its fighter mode to swat a Cybar drone from the void.
A third flayed flipped on its axis, destroying another two fighters before shifting to come back to back with its cousin.

Another chirped excitedly as it swatted more of the drones from space. Turning it shifted forms mid flip and backhanded another drown sending spiraling through space exploding several seconds later.

Around the system, the two fleets of Vincent ships began to spread out sending lances of golden and ruby light towards one another punctuated by swarms of torpedoes, missiles, penetrators, massive bolts of plasma and crystals of solid glowing matter.

In the distance, one of the Claw ships exploded as the concentrated fire of two Cybar battleships vaporized it's hull and destabilized its zero point core. Meanwhile closer to the core of the system a particularly familiar group of flayed began making their way towards the dreadnought.

These flayed knew each other, somehow knowing instinctively how to find one another. These unlike many of their kin taking part in the battle we're partial to fighting on the hulls of the Cybar ships in their humanoid forms. Utilizing small unit tactics to prioritize targets of opportunity such as cooling vents and maintenance hatches. These "marines" fought their way inside of the Cybar to engage the machines on terms their formerly human minds could comprehend.

Diving vectoring another wing of flayed flew low skimming the hull of the dreadnought as The-One pounded the Stardust dreadnought with its bio particle cannon working to lower the prismatic partial shields of the Cybar.

The-One watched satisfied that its gambit had worked. The formally Human, Tymrian, Kleese, Pakra, Shinzi, and Hurkel minds occupying its flayed had thrown the cybar drones into complete disarray with their unorganized and chaotic methods of attack.

At its flank, The-One felt the death of one of its claws. The vessel had drifted too close to the dreadnought's firing arc and had been cored through by its main cannons. Then a nova-like explosion rocked the system as one of the Cybar battleships was rammed by a wounded claw rupturing the housings for both ships reactors. Causing a catastrophic meltdown as both zero point and vacuum energy reactors suddenly breached their containment bottles.

Clouds of gas and swirling crystal spiraled creating a nebula that crackled with overcharged particles. Great bolts of lightning flashed through space arcing between the planets completely vaporizing all life where they struck and bathing their atmospheres with harmful radiation.

Flashes of what could have been pain shot through the one as it's hull was punctured by one of the battleships gamma particles arrays. Followed by a flash of irritation as it was forced to tear it's attention away from this battle with the dreadnought.

Firing its massive vectoring thrusters The-One somersaulted bringing its main weapon to bear on the diminutive vessel. The entire length of the single claw glowed a brilliant crimson as particles were collected condensed and finally fired into a single massive beam that shot through space completely enveloped the battleship. Shields flickered and failed, hull plating boiled and flash vaporized as the entire ship was almost instantly disintegrated.

Angling its thrusters The-One swept the beam across the battlefield savoring the aft end from one of the two remaining battleships. And seemingly erasing three of the nine pathetically primitive UEC ships in the system from existence.

Its ventral side exploded then, several of its reactionless drives destroyed as its real opponent fired taking advantage of the compromised position of The-One. The ancient Lanky ship tried to adjust its position, losing a claw as it a prow was rocked by a massed antimatter torpedo barrage.

It rolled attempting to disperse the damage being done to its hull. Only for the Cybar to take advantage of its wounded state and pound it once more with a second volley of octuple gamma cannon fire.

Instantly the remaining Claws shifted position moving to interpose themselves between the dreadnought and The-One. The first of which being completely destroyed as it suffered almost thirty consecutive hits amidships. Puncturing its zero-point core and sending it up in a massive explosion that blackened a large portion of The-Ones hull. But managing to batter the massive vessel with enough large chunks of the hull to flip the ship back onto a proper course.

Concentrating fire the remaining four Claws conceived and fired solar shards into the remaining undamaged battleship. Its shields fell under the barrage, its targeting stays struggling to compensate for the damage before the Claws followed up with a barrage of neutron beams, and particle lances. Soon the damage being done proved to be too much and as a final solar shard landed through its midsection it exploded.

Two more claws exploded then, torn to shreds by the guns if the dreadnought. This was the moment of truth as flayed and drones swarmed around and between both capital ships. The taking its chance the final battleship attempted to make a run for the system's gateway only for the remaining three Claws to intercept it midway to its destination, losing another two of their number before the battleship was finally destroyed.

The dreadnaughts cannons angled one more time targeting the mighty rend in its midsection. However, as the Cybar aligned the shot its main targeting array was blasted to pieces by a trio of flayed. The shots fired going wide, missing The-One completely and allowing it to roll to bring its weakened hull out of the line of fire.

These flayed, The-One felt like it knew them. The first gracefully broke away from its companion and had begun destroying several of the cannons on that section of the ship. Yes, and as it flipped destroying several missiles that had been trailing it The-One placed it. This was the first of its kind based on the prototype strain that had killed it, killed and revived hundreds of times since its creation. Its placenta had been one Mary Dorson the alpha flayed.

And the second flayed however, The-One felt something strange coming from it. It felt off like it had been tainted by something foreign. And as it smashed through one of the building like structures that dotted the dreadnaughts hull it felt like it knew the answer. It had attempted communion with its template several times in the past only to be roughly silenced by some kind of outside influence.

It smashed another tower before using its claws to drag itself into an arc that traced the hull, and into one of the gamma cannons where it fired penetrate mines that perforated their housings and detonated them from the inside. Yes, it knew this pattern, its wounded flayed was linked to its template. It was the mental Ingram of Avery Fallon, and as The-One charged its bio particle cannon it watched the flayed run along the hull before smashing through an airlock to join several of its kin in the battle that raged inside of the dreadnought.

But it was the one that leads flayed the three that The-One knew the most. For it had unknowingly battled unknowingly at its side since long before many of these engram templates were even born. This template had killed and still hunted the followers of the quantum. This template was none other than the legendary human hero Tyrus Wrechs.

Particles condensed and as The-One fired its weapon into the center of the dreadnought the T-rex of the legion targeted and flew directly into the cybar Dreadnoughts DataCore ending both its own life as well shutting down the dreadnaught locking it on its current course. A course that would take the massive ship sailing straight into the systems sun.

Battery and bruised The-One recalled its fighters, ordering them to take samples and embark either itself or the sole remaining claw In the system. Before the massive ship flipped on its axis and began burning hard towards the system's gateway, its sole remaining claw escort following close in its wake.

Behind it, the final flayed jumped out of the doomed dreadnaught. And as The-One destroyed whatever UEC ships we're foolish enough to stay in the system on its way out the Dreadnought flew into the star, exploding in its corona with a brilliant explosion that could be seen from Earth in several thousand years.

A sense of calm washed over The-Whole as The-One entered the gateway intent on returning to what was left of the homeworld. Where it would at last set down and await the next great battle that would require its presence. The-One felt it something close to pride at what it had done, at long last the Cybar were defeated. It could rest and watch over the Galaxy it had originally been created to do.

Author's Note

Had a lot of fun writing this one so I hoped you liked it.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. (if you celebrate it.)

Chapter 22 Stealth Drop

Defiant

Luna-71

2170AD/107AC

When Defiant blasted through the node she was already under hard burn. Her twin drive cones spearing jets of white-hot plasma into the void as she dropped several nuclear mines in her wake.

"What do we have? Passive sensors only." Tiegh ordered standing close to the tactical plot in the middle of the bridge. It took several minutes for the sensor operator to collate the data before passing it to the tactical display.

"Binary star system, Red giant with six rocky inner planets, and two outer gas giants outer. And a smaller red dwarf almost twelve light minutes out from that." The sensor tech said as data spread across their screens.

Defiantnfell into the red giants' gravity well her captain orders the main drives spooled down and relied on the ship's damaged stealth coating and polychromatic armor and continued drifting. Hoping that despite her compromised stealth to buy the time needed to deploy the dropships and jump slingshot to the shadow of the systems ninth planet, that had several active ion storms in its vicinity. With hope, the heavy concentration of ionized particles will hide Defiant long enough for her to call for reinforcement from Galactica's battle group.

Several hours later and thousands of kilometers behind her the Defiant's UEC pursuers exited the alcubiar node. Transitioning from the node the UEC immediately began to ping the area with active and passive sensor pulses in hopes of finding their prey before they went to ground.

"Colonel, clop scanner just pinged us on a sweep. It's coming back around." The sensor tech called out from her station.

Bringing up the information onto his display Tiegh ordered the ship's AI to do a full system scan. And with an agitated sight, all he could do was watch as the progress bar slowly crept pet down the silhouette of the ship.

"Cisco, can we jump?" He asked the ship's AI administrator in a conspiratorial tone.

"No colonel. The sub is still damaged from our escape from the cyber, Lanky battle." The AI responded in his earpiece.

"Sir, sensor cone just passed over us again. I think we've been made." The ship's pilot said from his crash couch.

"I agree with helmsman Napall, there is damage to one of our polychromatic armor panels. No doubt that's where they're detecting us we must be venting atmo." The ships Exo said.

"Then do it, turn and burn, bring us in hot. We'll slingshot around the planet and deploy the Dark ops team." The colonel said before running the calculation and calling down to the barracks.

"Go for X." Came the withered voice of the Dark Ops team leader.

"Get your team ready. We're pushing up our time table, you drop in six hours."

liaison private: Bra'tac

Dark ops kill-team: Viper

Luna-71: Hiporli continent 1

2170AD/107AC

"Alright, people let's go over the details of mission one more time. Just like they did in boot camp." X called out as he clanked to the center of the blackfly dropship. "Situation, under the situation terrain and weather, who can give me the details of the AO?"

Gutsy raised her hand and my sister suiters' commanding officer gesture towards her. "Private Gutsy?"

"The AO is the largest continent on the UEC prison colony of Hiporli. The terrain is hilly and dry similar to your old earth savannah, the weather is reported to be cloudy and humid, and we're supposed to hit at midnight."

"Good, next for information, we have enemy forces, and under that, composition, disposition, location, strength, and capabilities. Who wants it?" This felt just like apprenticing under my Zaltule forbearer, or one of the platoon training sessions Avery would have us do in our downtime.

"We don't have full intelligence on enemy disposition." Wraith answered. "But the UEC is reported to have at least one a battalion of their standard infantry spaced around the perimeter of the colony, with a QRF of what should be light vehicles, with a company of prime guards near the main complex and spaceport."

'Alright boys and girls, hold onto your lunch. Drop-in Three, two, one…' I have never been inside one of the humans' shuttles while it deployed into a gravity well.

"One express elevator to hell coming up!" The crew chief shouted, interrupting captain Rodriguez.

'Drop.' My stomach leaped into my throat as the bay seamed to vanish from the small armor glass window at the rear of the shuttle.

I stared transfixed on the rapidly shrinking form of the Defiant as we fell toward the planet. As I watched two puffs exited the ship's smaller ship bay my armors reprogramed eye display marked them as "Icequeen" and "Doll". With a flash of light red a third of the window was covered by the form of the alien Shiraui, then behind the bio-mech the Defiant dissaperied in a series of flashing lights. Jumping to FTL, and all but abandoning us on this foolish mission.

[Veteran]Gunnery Sergeant: Avery Fallon

Dark ops kill-team: Viper

Luna-71 continent 1

2170AD/107AC

An alert popped into life on my visor and the lights inside of the blackfly dropship shifted from a soft glow to red. "Fifty-second warning!" I shouted.

I scanned a report showing all of their equipment was fully functional but had them double-check anyway. "Weapons check, Verify that your suits are sealed and your bubblers have power."

"Thirty seconds!"

Everyone verified that everything was as it should be and conveyed so with a thumbs up. The pilot of Lucky 13's voice came over the comm with a slight crackle of interference. "Were coming in low and slow over the coastline. About two miles from the shore, engaging drop bay."

The door slid open increasing the noise in the hold as gusts of air washed inside. "Alright, first team get set!" Big Dog's Voice came over our team link. The two of us were equipped with powered armor on top of our Legionnaire hardshell, our buckets clipped into a storage compartment at our waist.

"You get five seconds to activate your bubble shield, do not to hit the water without it. Trust me I ain't fun." He yelled as both of us started stomping down the bay slapping and kicking the team out of their seats.

Finding my place beside the now open drop bay door, I could see the rushing water streaking by below. The ocean was the color of liquid coal, pitch black. I looked over my team all standing side by side, queued up to jump with X at the lead like always.

The lights in the bay changed from a cool red to green. "LET'S GET WET!" Big Dog shouted before jumping out of the bay.

One by one my improvised dark ops team jumped into the hole feet first, arms pressed tight to their sides just like I taught them. They tucked into a ball as soon as they exited the dropship, the motion causing their semi-transparent blue bubble shields to encircle them. The shield emitters had to be small enough and light enough to find room among the bristling array of equipment and weapons. This meant the shields were only strong enough to absorb the impact with the surface of the water. They would dissolve once we submerged.

My team exited the ship until Miiora and I was the only ones remaining. Miiora, my lighthouse, my port in the storm that is this dumpster fire of a galaxy. We stood there for a moment, sharing each other's company in. She somehow even managed to look beautiful in her slender heavily modified legionnaire armor. Miiora gave my hand my real hand a tight squeeze, before leaning in and shoving her snout into the neckline of my armor. "I love you." Was all she said, all she needed to say before she straightened and jumped out of the shoot. A snicker came over the intercom and from the crew chief who sat in the sensor suite in the blackflies hold.

"Trouble?" I asked the pilots and the crew chief who gave me a negative. When the pilots gave the all-clear signal I jumped out of the ship, activating my bubble as I fell.

I felt like a fish in a dry bowl waiting to get wet. The black sea washed over my shield like I was a stone thrown from a rooftop. The thin wall of energy separating me from the ocean seamed to thin, and then it collapsed and a rush of water filled the void completely enveloping me. Sensor reading on the inside of my bucket told be that without the protection of my suit I would overheat and have a heat stroke in fifty minutes. But I felt no discomfort because my armor was fully sealed and insulated against the elements.

I did a quick check to make sure the shatterproof container holding my blaster rifle, M-66c and other equipment was still attached and not floating to the surface, all was as it should be. I released the mechanical shield generator from my webbing and with a flick of my young the light in my helmet tinted green, and I watched it sink away in the darkness towards the ocean floor.

Deploying the airbags to give my suit neutral buoyancy, I panned my head around and quickly saw a shape dart to my side. Acting quickly I drew my knife and got ready to slash at whatever predator decided to try to have me for dinner, but stopped short when the light from my bucket's beam illuminated a humanoid shape with ruby red scales, It was Miiora. She had her helmet off and a set of transparent eyelids shut over her golden eyes, as her kind could breathe on land and in water.

Using a tongue toggle I fired my suits hydro jets. Flashing a thumbs up I began swimming to the predetermined gathering point in order to link up with the rest of my team. Someone had arrived already and had set up an infrared buoy to help guyed the rest of us. Miiora and I moved silently no bubbles rising to betray our presence beneath the waves.

All of my team save Miiora and Bra'tac were breathing pure oxygen. Our rebreathers pairing with carbon scrubbers that took in seawater, separate the oxygen and then dumped the carbon back out in gentle streams. It was like a mechanical set of gills, we could stay underwater almost indefinitely through our mission required us to swim to land, considerably sooner than that.

"Well… This is where the fun begins."

Author's Note

I am sorry for the long wait and short length of this chapter. But a new job and different life situation had given me less time and drive to write.