Author's Note

ok, before I begin just let me say this... THE CHAPTER KEPT GETTING STALLED... if it was not one thing, it was another... mega thanks to carmine here for telling me more of the ROE-verse, and helping out big time... and I am looking for a editor again... P.M. me in you are interested

phase two

ROE: Frostfall
Phase 2: ready up

2169AD

Planet Fenrugha

Underground city tir

Video conference room

POI(Person Of Interest): rick james

Job: city mayor

A man walks into a dark room before turning the lights on and screens come to life with an icon on them with the words ‘fenrugha alliance’ under it. the main console asks for a password as the man types ‘fortuna’ into it and the console comes to life fully. “Welcome back mayor rick james” the console speaks out as options appear.

The man, now known as rick james, pops his back and starts a video conference call “might as well see what everyone is saying now and not later..” he quickly rubs his chin “maybe i should contact the sakala first-” as he goes to make the call, a video call request comes in from another city. “Tesla city is calling?” he answers only to get a shout.

“Hey jamie boy! You think ya can call a meeting?” an old man around 67 appears on one of the screens after with a grin. “I got something important to share!”

James rubs his ears recovering from the shout “I was just about to call a meeting dax-” he gets back to typing before asking “mind contacting winterholme and red ball for me?”

Dax gives a small nod “I can handle that boyo, i’ll call right back with them” the moment he hangs up, james lets out a sigh before making the call to the sakala.

The moment it goes though he gets a view of a female fox pandari sleeping on a lab table as he just blinks at the sight “what the hell?” james ask himself scratching his head before calling out “WAKE UP!”

“AH SHIT!” the fox pandari shouts falling off the table as the makeshift blanket get sent flying.“I had a sign that said do not disturb up!” she quickly grabs her glasses before standing up wearing nothing but her trimmed orange fur. “I swear i’m gonna-” she then sees her cam is live.

James had to quickly cover his eyes when she stood up “good lord woman!” he shouts in surprise “have some decency please!”

“Fuck me up the ass sideways..” she quickly grabs the blanket wrapping it around her. “I didn’t think they would really forward any calls to me..” she quickly takes a seat at a computer “and before you ask about my clothing, there was a really bad mess”

“Can you at least PUT some on doctor lyira?”

“Fine, fine, i’ll find some clothing..” she moans getting out her chair and gose look for clothing “I don’t know what i’ll find in here”

“The spare outfit is in container 4Z0 professor..” a monotone voice calls out

“Thank you my dear assistant!” she cries out off screen while james receives a call from crawler kapisi this time.

“This saves some time” james answers adding the call to the conference call “your live kapisi” on the other side of the feed is a man in his early 20’s and with the name tag ‘nathan’ on his captains uniform.

“I guess you know why i’m calling james?”

“I sure do nathan, but let’s wait for the others” the moment he says that, dax rejoins the call with the mayor of winterholme and the captain of the red ball joining right after “speaking of others..”

“Captain joey of the red ball reporting in!”

“Mayor AND new father windieo here..I’ve had a very long night..”

“Congrats man!” james cries out as everyone seems to join in as the air seems charged with joy “but we need to get started when why the meeting was called for..”

“The UEC the recording spoke of..”

“Exactly nathan, we’ve all seen the news right?”

“Indeed, honestly I loved seeing a new xenos race… i could tell the one that was on camera was female, I wonder what the males are like?~” they all see a now dressed doctor lyira enter the screen.

Dax nods “not only that, we made a breakthrough on gear manufacturing and upgrading” he says with a smile “expect new rifles and LMG’s when you reach a port near tesla city”

“That’s gonna help us big time dax, any news about that prototype your working on?”

“What prototype?” james can’t help but ask

“Well..i had it on the back burner for a good while working on it here and there..but after seeing the mech on the news..” dax rubs his head “i ended up moving it up in priority..”

“Damn it man..” lyira just facepalms at this “please don’t tell me your trying to MAKE a mech?!”

“I’m not?..” dax just chuckles getting moans from everyone but joey in the call “what?.. You’ve all seen that it CAN be done..”

James sighs “we don’t have the resources for it..besides, we’ve done fine without mechs so far..”

“Fine, fine, i’ll set it aside again..” dax just groans from this “so, back to the topic at hand about the UEC?..”

“This would line up to a few reports that have crossed my desk..”

“A few joey?”

“Yea, at first I thought they were seeing things..” joey pulls some files out “if the reports ARE right..then the UEC is already here..”

“Are you sure the reports are not of wildlife?..”

“It did not look like anything recorded dax..so it is a chance they could be here on the planet..” joey frowns while responding

“Well, that puts a damper on things if they really are..” james rubs his chin thinking but something comes to mind “but if so...then why have they not made a move on us?..”

Nathan rubs his chin “maybe they are having problems with the witch frost? I am sure-” suddenly, a siren starts shrieking on his feed “shit… just picked up an SOS…”

“Deal with it nathan, we’ll wrap up here” nathan ends his call as james looks at who is left “everyone, I guess we can postpone this for lunch.” a round of agreements sound off as screens turn off “guess we have a storm coming…” he logs out and leaves the room “hope we can make it”

COG: Sandalphon [STEEL WORLD]

2169AD/106AC

Near Fleet general’s office

Engineers and soldiers wander the halls of one of the many tried and true orbital docks hanging over the steel world, among them are captains Skyor and Dalos

Through a view screen they watched as the ship that would join their scout fleet docked. Unlike the lady sif whos hull possessed a sharks curves and stunning lines, these were blocky and utilitarian. Its hull was lined with five rail gun mounts on each side, and dozens of missile tubes marking it as one of their fleets NAC escort the NACS Indomitable.

While behind It two of the United African Federation's gungunhana class destroyers glided into dock. Their brawns painted arrow head shaped hulls glimmering in the stars pail light.

“more ships join the fleet dalos…” skyor states to his friend, “the fleet grows bigger...a fine send off”

Dalos yawns having woken up from a nap before arriving “more guns for me eh skyor?” he gains a grin “you shouldn’t have~”

“It’s just a simple-” the conversation is interrupted by a shout from the fleet general's office. “Hu?”

“Sounds like someone is having a bad day” dalos flatly says crossing his arms “let's wait out here?” he has a look that says ‘i want to stay out of this shit’

“We need to get this done now before we can deploy” skyor pats his friend on the back “so suck it up like it’s that soda you love” he walks in with dalos groaning as a lesser fleet admiral is almost begging for more ships…

“This is a golden opportunity! We need to jump on it, but the higher ups don’t believe me!” an SRA admiral gripes about “i know this is good intel!”

“And I am telling you general, the COG is stretched thin, we don't have the resources, nor the ships to pull from the front line.”

“But...but...there will be a VIP in the target fleet! She’s developing something!” the man shouts “her capture or death may set them back!”

“Excuse me gentlemen...we’re here for the atlas pilot being assigned to my ship and our planned route?” skyor speaks up getting both of them to look over at the two men as they entered, presenting crisp salutes to their two superiors.

The man sitting in his chair behind his desk provided a rather Lacidasical salute before speaking. “Yes, the Atlas pilot for your expedition to the stranded planet…”

“Wait...their heading to a stranded planet?” the man asks in surprise

“Yes they are. Incase you havent noticed general, we are at war. A war we are in very real danger of losing I might add. We need more resources more men, and more ships, if we are even have a chance in defeating the UEC…. the Lankys are the biggest problem though. Their newest advance has me worried. And their claw ships and those damned flayed fighters tear us up where ever we engage them.” man in charge of the COG advanced fleet said in a grim tone.

“Can i at least ask what systems they will be passing thru?...”

“I don't see why not. Scout fleet 4721, will be passing through… let me see… BG-921, LV-426, Xanther, new Arcadia, and through Hope’s gate. Before they reach the 40, from there they should go through ZK-935, and PK-666 before reaching Fenrugha.”

“Fenrugha?!” the man’s jaw drops “t-that’s w..where the VIP’s ship is meeting up with escorts! I was hoping to hit them there!”

“One fleet will not be enough to fight what could be there…” dalos points out

“Well the I suppose Nostromo could be routed after it completes its mission. But I am hesitant to risk one of our only two siege destroyers and its escort fleet so soon.”

Skyor steps forward “my fleet could lend a hand at the end of the patrol.”

“Hmm..” the general muttered to himself before leaning forward and putting in a connection request.

“Give our ships one last real fight!” dalos shouts

The smartglass monitor on the generals desk shimmered for several seconds as a connection request symbol spun before disappearing. “This is Loomis, what do you need general.”

“Colonel, who do you have stationed on the Indomitable? We might have need of your departments services.” the general asked the bearded man, whose eyes flashed with white circles for several seconds before answering. “Moth team-12. Why, need someone else? I can't deploy Apex or the Templar.”

“I want a dark ops team on that mission, im sending you a data packet now.” The general said bitterly.

“Dark ops and SOCOM don't take orders from you general…. hmm but I agree, I will see what I can do give me a minute.” The man leader of the COGs special forces said before turning and appearing to type on his PDP.

Dalos suddenly becomes tense upon hearing that they may get a dark ops team. “D-dark ops?” he looks at the

“Hmm...It looks like Teams wolf, and Saber are back from their last deployment. Let me see… What would you need them to do?”

The SRA admiral gose to speak only for skyor to cut him off “capture maybe?”

“A smash and grab? In space or in atmo?” He asked looking through files on his PDP on his end.

“Ship to ship would be best”

“Hmm, I think team Wolf would do best. They just returned to the system, and can be on board Indomitable within the day. We'll have to upload the blueprints for their new equipment to their implants so they can use your printers. And from there they will transfer to the New Orleans. Where we will deliver their replacement a fresh batch of two ATLAS-3s.”

Dalos gose a bit pale knowing that black op’s will be on his ship “oh shit…”

“Now Captain Since I have you here i also will be informing you that veteran Fallon has told me about your request for a helldiver Team. Helldiver team Nymph should be arriving within the hour with their necessary equipment and supplies.”

“I understand, and will make them feel welcomed” skyor says before asking “and of the atlas pilot?”

“Yes, For The Atlas-2… let me see. Veteran Mordred le fay should be available. If that's not all, I have business, Loomis out.”

There is a suddenly a knocking on the door “veteran le fay here sir, may i enter?”

“Enter.” The general said turning back from his desks screen.

The door opens as a male pilot seemingly 20 years of age enters and salutes “veteran Mordred le fay reporting sir!” he switches to an at ease stance “ready for orders”

“The lad looks young…” skyor says in a somber tone

“So are most of the pilots these days. Were low on troops and the damn Clops, and lankys kill them faster than we can train them.” The fleet general comments.

Dalos taps his chin “if only we could get people trained faster eh?”

The SRA admiral gets jumpy “i’m going to get my ships ready” he gives a quick salute and rushes out

“Demochenko is right, you don't have time to wait around here major. Dismissed.” the Fleet general says seeing an incoming call from chairman Tideman.

All three salute and depart as skyor welcomes mordred to his crew with dalos slowly following behind.

11/27/2169 AD/106AC

Kapisi briefing room 5

“Squad E”

Some mumbling fills a room aboard the kapisi, “Ok everyone, mouths shut and ears up!” the XO shouts out as everyone looks forward at a screen as a tank commander is by it. This is the human clyde wallace, ‘commander’ of the task force known as ‘squad E’.

“Thank you nicolis, I feel we do not have enough time to waste so i shall cut to the chase…” the screen shows the auto login sequence as he readies a pointer for a map that appears “we are being asked to send a strike force ahead of an S&R team….” the map zooms in on a section with a cliftside and a few hills as a hand goes up “yes kane?”

“Why the hell send us AHEAD of the rescue team and not WITH it?..” asks kane,a male german shepherd Pandari “if we are up against bandits like normal, they will just turn tail and run with whatever they got like normal…”

“That’s just it… there may be more to it than that…” the map gains unknown markers on it along with outlaw markers. “The recovery beacon was chirping an unknown code…” that gets the troops mumbling again

“So, just a new gang?..”

“No, we had a drone fly overhead…” clyde pulls up some photos of a convoy, only it is hard to see the combatants and most of the convoy is scrap metal “and we spotted something on the side of a few containers…” he makes the view zoom in on a container reading ‘UEC property’.

“Well hello there…” a female white fox pandari leans forward abit, her tail swaying quickly “is that really?...”

“We confirmed it in an instant…” clyde smiles at this “AND we have justification for ‘acquiring’ some of their supplies…” the drone marker goes grey for destroyed

“Fuck yea! I’ve been ready for a REAL fight!” kane hoots out flashing his fangs

“They should of checked if the drone was armed or not, they are gonna regret it…” the fox pandari taps a sniper rifle she has leaning on her.

a shy mastiff Panori girl fixes her gear “just don’t forget to spot for me Julie…”

The fox pandari, now known as julie, nods “got it melia, as long as jamie keeps us supplied out there”

“There is one question capitan...what DO the UEC troops look like?...” a human rookie known as jamie asks getting a frown from clyde

“As far as we can tell, they are a mix...like out of fantasy but with humanoid bodystyle” he puts his arms behind his back “just like a pandari…” everyone in the room gets a ‘are you shitting me’ look “I wish I was joking everyone, but we are running out of time…” he pulls up a combat roster “everyone on the roster, mount up!” everyone stands up at his shout “SQUAD E! MOVE OUT!”

Everyone shouts out “YES SIR!” and rush off after checking the roster as clyde heads to his tank as the screen turns off “it’s show time”

UEC Nightingale
56 A.E.
Personal lab/quarters of vital gear

The makeshift lab is alive with activity, yet only one soul resides within… vital gear sits at a console typing away at lines of code, a dark whisper within her mind. A whisper she is use to...

“Come now, little gear~ your big brother MUST of had that dream again~” a voice taunts her as a figure starts to take form in a nearby mirror “about that MASSIVE ship flat out DESTROYING a planet AND a whole armada protecting said planet?~” the form reveals itself as a succubus, a demon of Tartarus. “I know you saw it on his face~”

“Not now you…” vital seemingly replies as if this is normal “I need to focus Slurkary…” quickly typing code into a console before switching to a chemical station looking over what is happening. “And you are not turning me this time either…” she writes down ‘mixture #529 - lasted six months’

The demoness just grins “Come now vital, you MUST agree my words have SOME merit” she says with a chuckle. “Those, what do you call them?”

“Lankys, they are called Lankys” the lab mare blandly says “that is the name the humans gave them…” she quickly shifts over to a recovered fragment of lanky hull that has been carefully carved “and possibly made blades from them…” she then summons a tablet to herself before walking over to a large device.

The demoness frowns at her from the mirror “and you wonder WHY males are not swarming you as much as they should be…” the demoness grabs vitals reflection and uses it to bring her to the mirror “you need to get out more! Your body is killer mare…” she forcefully undressed vital making the mare cover herself.

“H-HEY!”

“Do not lie to yourself vital~” she can feel the succubus drag its clawed hands against her body gently “you have a body that even the princesses would envy~ ANY male would kill to-”

Vital tries to shake her off “l-lies!” she quickly moves away from the mirror “t-the princesses look b-better than me…” she gives the mirror a small glance

“Uh hu? Lying to yourself again?” the demoness chuckles at that jumping to another reflective surface closer to her “I bet princess sparkle envies your body! Your all natural while she must be...”

Vital grabs a medical injector from a machine in a haste “enough out of you!” she quickly puts it to her neck before pulling the trigger on it injecting herself with its contents feeling it shoot into her bloodstream “go to sleep!”

The demoness laughs at her as she fades away “you’ll never get rid of me for good mare!” she seems to take enjoyment out of how vital looks “remember! You could dethr-” her words are cut off as she vanishes.

Vital almost falls to the floor as she steadies herself from the backlash “I NEED to find a permanent fix…” she weakly grabs a blanket and wraps herself in it and falls into a seat “because she is getting stronger…” she puts her head into her hands and sighs closing her eyes “maybe...princess Luna can help my brother sleep better…” she moves the chair to the computer and tries using some family channels to get a message to Luna while the lab works around her.

Planet Fenrugha
56 A.E.
UEC colony city new staliongrad
POV: flash sentry
MOA: garrison XO
56AE

I still can’t believe I got my own room now, it feels so surreal to me...then again, captains and commanders do get their own rooms…and unpacking was a breeze to boot with the help of the reptile-like being known to us as a tymarian, but I still needed to look over those sites the governor sent me...

“Anything more is needed sir?...” my new assistant, an earth pony lieutenant asks me as I can’t help but to think back to the meeting and the hostility between the general and the head scientist...

“There is something lieutenant…umm...” shoot, I never got their name...

“Lieutenant shadow spear sir!” I saw her give me a quick salute “and ask away sir!”

I placed the site reports down on my desk before asking the question that had been bugging me “why did it feel like the lead researcher and the general were ready to fight?..”

I see the lieutenant slump a little at my question as if it just put some pressure on her “sir, may I speak freely for this?”

“Go ahead lieutenant” why do I feel I will not like the answer I’m about to get…at all...

“You cost me to lose a 20 bits bet captain…my bits were on the general landing the first punch this time...” ok, did not see that coming “they have always been on edge with each other at the start, leading to a betting pool...” I see her pull out a flask of all things and opens it “it only escalated a lot more two months ago…” what she said got me wondering even more.

“So...it began two months ago?” I take a seat leaning back thinking “all because five lost outposts?”

“They were very important to the whole plan…” she takes one hell of a swig from the flask, way more than I could “they were relay points for resources we needed” I see her quickly pick up her flask “and we did not lose them all at once”

“Sounds like you know something lieutenant...” being new here, I'll take anything I can learn “mind filling me in?” I gestured for her to take a seat

“Sure, captain” she takes my offer and sits down “I was at outpost five zeta two, the 4th to go down” I heard her sigh deeply in sorrow “it was messy, first was that damned storm that came from nowhere…”

“Hey, back up a bit” I quickly cut her off confused “how was things before it went to Tartarus and what do you mean out of nowhere?”

“We were told that there was gonna be clear skies for weeks” she leaned back in her chair “we had light winter combat gear because of that... a heavy weapons team, a few rifle ponies, some griffin scout snipers, a pair of drakes, buck, even two spider-like kenees in the base to use the enclosed spaces to the most effect, and we were on alert that day too…” I can’t help but hear her voice trembling in fear as those words left her lips.

“It sounds like you were ready for almost anything” I ended up pointing out

“It, it was really like frozen Tartarus hit us…we were nowhere NEAR ready for it!” I almost fell out of my seat when she jumps up “we were rotating shifts when the storm hit us… communications was the first thing to go out… along with two griffins falling from the air...their wings frozen in strange colored frost…” I see her body trembling as she rubs her arms almost in reflex…

“Can you describe the frost to me?” I lean forward a bit in wonder, maybe this could help me “it’s ok if you don’t…”

“No, you NEED to know what to watch for captain…” she just gives me a hard glare “The frost was red and yellow on the griffins, but on a unicorn… it was blue and black...on me…” she grips her left arm tightly “it was yellow and black…”

That gets me by surprise “on you? You mean it covered you for a bit before you cleaned it off?”

“Yes...and no…” what does she mean by… “it stuck and GREW on me!” wait, WHAT?! “It was like it was alive! And that was not the end of it…” I heard her voice trembling as she continues “it got worse when someone hit the alarm… wildlife, seemingly made of the storm itself, swarmed us…”

I gulped hearing that part “you must have been able to kill most of the wildlife before falling to the worst of it at least” I tried to tell her in an attempt to calm her down. “That must count for something”

“You don’t understand, they were SMART!” her shout honestly makes me fall out of my chair in shock “it was like they KNEW to take out the heavy weapons team before they could set up!”

“O-ok, maybe you are overstating things?...” I’m honestly getting worried here…

“I know I’m not! They first swarmed the heavy weapons team, using the storm for cover…” I see her shakingly take a seat again as i get up “I could barely see in it...tracers everywhere… we tried falling back to the base…only...” she stops as if worried to tempt fate

“Only?” I need to know more, so I’ll risk pushing the line a little…

“There was a roar… I-It still haunts my dreams…” a roar?... “when we heard that, ice sickles started forming and striking at us and the monsters…” so the storm is connected to a monster of some kind?... “from there, it got worse…”

“What do you mean it got worse?” I walked over to the console set up on my desk “there can’t be anyway it could get worse, at least you were able to retreat and regroup from it…” I begin to pull up the reports “so I am sure I could try to-” I hear her start chuckling before she completely breaks down in laughter.

“regroup?...REGROUP?!” her laughter sounded like that of a mad mare… maybe I went too far now… “WE WERE CUT DOWN TO THE LAST!” she grabs me by my shirt collar with a crazed look in her eyes “that roar sent those beast into a bucking frenzy! They…” on instinct, I punched her in the gut making her let go and grabbed her shoulders right after.

“SNAP OUT OF IT LIEUTENANT!” I shouted at her loudly, hoping I can get to her “your safe shadow spear… they will not get you here…” I pulled her into a quick hug still trying to calm her down

“C-captain...w-where” looks like that did the trick… “n-not again...not another one…” shit...she does have PTSD… “I… I’m sorry sir… it just happens when I talk about that event…” I just patted her on the back to comfort her “I...I wish I did not have to feel this pain… the dreams I have every so often…”

“At least your off the lines now, and when your ready to talk… I’ll hear you out ok?” I tried giving her a reassuring smile as I let go “for now, get some rest ok? That’s an order”

“Yes sir… I’ll try…” her trembling voice tells me she will need time to recover… “take care captain” I watched her leave my room and the door shutting behind her as I let out a sigh before looking at the data for the sites… maybe that can wait till tomorrow...