For the right price

Chapter 5: Lost and found.

Spike were walking around inside The Nordin, he hadn't really had a good time to look around and truly explore. As he walked around he noticed the crew being at their own places doing their things.

Fluttershy were inside the medical bay, looking around at the medicines and equipment while talking to Ilsa about what kind of medical supplies and equipment they needed to have to give the crew quick and efficient medical attention. For example, rather than just using cleaning solvents to clean a wound and then wrapping it with a bandage, they could purchase a droid that effectively removed all the dead skin and unclean materials from the would and then covering it with a bio-film before finally covering it with an air tight bandage.

Rarity was in the meeting room, reading something on her holopad, occasionally chuckling to herself. " I'll absolutely buy that one~ Oooh, I simply cannot skip buying that utility belt while I’m at it!" She seemed to be looking through some kind of catalogue filled with with different Black, and Spec-Ops gear.

He went through the lower levels of the ship too, Esten were in his workshop, as usual working on armour, equipment and dancing to some weird kind of music, Pinkie pie was keeping him company, also dancing to the music, making her tail and mane bounce at her motions. Spike chuckled at him as he continued down the hallway.

Rainbow dash and Applejack was in the shooting range, fighting against holograms. The holograms could only shoot small electrical charges at them, but it hurt enough to not want to get hit by one, so the girls were crouching behind some obstacles that had been placed out in the big room by machines, shouting out orders and the like to each-other, systematically defeating their hologram enemies.

The only one he hadn't seen yet was Isaac, wondering where he could be, Spike kept looking around for a while, thinking that he might be on the bridge.

He wasn't there, Ilsa had put the ship in autopilot and they were for the moment standing still, in orbit of a small space station.

"Hmm... Then were the hell can he be?" Spike asked himself, after thinking for a bit, he gave up, turned around and looked up at the roof and spoke to Ilsa. "Ilsa? can you tell me where Isaac is?"

A speaker next to one of the screens in the bridge flickered to life and Ilsas voice came ringing out of it."He is in his room relaxing, do you want me to tell him you're on your way?"

Spike shook his head."No thank you, I'll just try to be as quiet I can going in there, I think it might be a bit harsh to have your voice suddenly appear in his room, disturbing whatever he is doing. I think knocking will be more subtle."

"I understand. I hope that you have a good time socializing with him." And with that, the speaker turned off.

Spike walked out of the bridge and headed towards the crew quarters, where all the rooms were. he walked up to the Captains room, which were the farthest down the corridor. He knocked on the large metal door and waited a few seconds.

"Wait a minute!" Came Isaacs voice from the inside, and after about a while the door opened and Isaac stood there in just his underwear.

"Hey, Spike. What's up?" Isaac smiled at him and leaned against the door frame.

"Nothing really" Spike replied. "I was just taking a good look around here, and I just wondered where you were, what you're up to, Ilsa said you were relaxing."

Isaac chuckled and invited Spike inside, pointing to something that looked like a big metal futon, with a face-mask and a black overall laying on top of it.

"I was in my virtual reality simulator, the V.R.S for short, if you feel like it."

"Virtual reality?" Spike asked as he inspected it closely.

"Yeah, I'm just relaxing in it, and it feels very realistic too, just relaxing at an exotic or far away landscape is nothing but wonderful." Isaac patted the machine and smirked. " I have a second one, it’s just one press of a button away. Would you like to jump into it with me? It's really refreshing!"

Spike looked at the machine, he was interested in how it would work and feel. He agreed, and soon both of them sat in a futon of their own, wearing the black overalls. The one Spike was sitting in came out through a large panel in the wall after Isaac made it appear with a button on his table. This room apparently hid more than he thought.

"I'll just program them to take us to the same place i was just in." Isaac told Spike and pressed some buttons on the arm of his machine. "Just put on the face mask and you'll be ready to relax."

Spike nodded and put the mask on his face. Even though he was used to wearing his goggles the thought of this mask and the overalls making him able to see and feel things in the virtual world created by the machine, made him a bit nervous.

"Allright, here we go. just close your eyes and be calm, you'll feel a slight electric shock but it isn’t anything dangerous." Isaac reassured him.

Spike nodded and closed his eyes. There was a clicking sound and his body shivered from electric charges for a second, then it stopped and he opened his eyes. He was laying on a towel which was on a beach with white sand and waves of water slowly sliding up and down the beach.

He didn’t quite understand how it worked, but as he laid there in a pair of bathing shorts, which had suddenly appeared on him as the simulation began, he could feel the heat of the sun all over his body, like he were actually laying on a sunny beach. He turned around and looked up at the sky, it was a clear blue sky with small clouds here and there.

He looked to his left and saw Isaac laying in similar bathing shorts with his arms behind his head, smiling. "So, what do you think?" He smiled as he said this, clearly enjoying the heat and the clear sky.

But Spike noticed that he only had one eye, where Isaacs cyborg eye were supposed to be, there was nothing. " what happened to your eye?"

Isaac shrugged, his expression unchanged. "The machine cant read the eye properly since it's mechanical, I can still see with it, but the simulator can't show it. The same thing happened with your arm."

Spike frowned in confusion and held up his right arm. Where the bionic arm where supposed to be, where nothing. He could feel that it was there, and he could grab the towel and visibly lift it, but as Isaac had explained it just wasn't showing.

"Uh... I see." The dragon laid back down on his towel and closed his eyes, determined to relax now that he had an opportunity to do so.

He laid there for a while, basking in the sunlight, the warmth caressing the scales on his back, legs and tail. Suddenly he felt something small and wet on his left shoulder blade. He turned his head and looked up, Isaac was on top of him, his arms keeping his body hovering just above Spikes. Isaac were planting soft kisses on Spikes back, making Spike blush. He didn't expect it, but he didn't want him to stop either, it felt good. Isaacs lips climbed up his shoulder up towards his neck. As he gave Spikes neck its first kiss, Spike put his hand under his chin and pulled his lips towards his own. As they kissed, Spike closed his eyes and felt the heat growing on his cheeks.

Their tongues danced their passionate dance, one trying to overtake the other and so on. Spike felt Isaacs hand entwine with his, and after what felt like no time at all for Spike, their kiss ended.

Isaac chuckled.

"What is it?" Spike opened his eyes and looked at his lover, who had a soft smile on his face.

"To think that we are really sitting in my room, making faces. We’re not really kissing after all, haha!"

Spike realised that that was true and chuckled as well. "Yeah, my goodness. It would look really weird if someone walked in and saw us wiggling our tongues in the air. Haha!"

Suddenly they felt like something were shaking them. The beach around them faded to black and they both pulled their helmets off of themselves.

"Ilsa! Status?" Isaac was out of the seat in a second, he were out of the overalls and were already putting on something that looked like a mix between an engineer suit and an army outfit.

Ilsas voice once again came crackling in the speakers. "Captain, our radar shows multiple fighter ships approaching, we've already been hit by them firing at us. I suspect they are smugglers or pirates doing a raid on the space station."

"Damn it! allright, shields at maximum and engage the auto turrets, fire at will once they are in range" Isaac ordered and he zipped up his suit.

Now Spike had put on his clothes as well and was waiting for Isaac to tell him what to do.

"Shields are up, firing at will" Ilsa answered and the muffled sound of lazer blasts being fired was heard.

Isaac took Spikes arm and lead him out of the room. "Head to the defence turret on the ships right side, I'll take the left one, go!"

Spike started running through the corridor, and Isaac spoke into a microphone placed on the wall in his room.

"This is the Captain speaking, we are under attack by pirates, get to your battle stations and fighters, I repeat get to your battle stations and fighters ASAP!"

Spike climbed up a ladder leading to the defence turret, it was already up and running when he reached it, so he sat down in the seat and manned the gun. The pirate ships flew past like flies, fast and vigilant. though, this didn’t stop Spike from opening fire and successfully blowing a few of them to pieces.

But he wasn't lucky all the time, a few times an enemy shit got in a good hit which hit the turret, sending electrical shocks through his body.

"Don'cha worry Spike, I got ya!" Came Applejacks voice though the turrets radio as her fighter jet swooped by, shooting a torpedo towards the pirate fighter that had just hit Spike.

Shortly after Applejack came Rainbow dash and Rarity, their fighters swooping past in high speed aswell.

"Okay girls, triangle formation, let’s get these fuckers!" Rainbow dash voice boomed in the radio.

Twilight were sitting next to Esten at the ships bridge, about to move the ship out of the fighting zone.

"Pull the thrusters up to 50% " Esten ordered her as he turned some gauges and flicked some switches, turning off the electricity in some sections of the ship, channeling it to give more powers to the defence turrets, engines and the shields. Twilight pressed the buttons that Esten had told her on the controls in front of her and the ship shook a bit before starting to move forward.

Esten grabbed something that looked like an old walkie-talkie and contacted Isaac with it. "Captain, we're moving out of range from the pirates, you guys try to hold out as long as you can!"

The walkie-talkie crackled and Isaac answered. "Allright! Make sure to call back the girls to the ship before you fire her up, if you go full speed you'll leave them behind!"

"Yes Captain!"

Esten ordered Applejack, Rainbow dash and Rarity back to the ship. Their fighter jets swooping back in a wide arch, finishing off some of the pirates as the came back to land in the hangar. As they did this, Isaac noticed that the pirates had stopped attacking them and simply flew past The Nordin, as if they were not worth of any attention.

"Why are they not attacking us?" Spike asked as he continued to shoot at the fighter jets flying past, hitting one in the rear end, causing it to spin uncontrollably until it exploded into pieces.

"They're all heading for the space station!" Isaac exclaimed, he got silent and looked at the station, feeling that something was wrong. He noticed that small explosions started to appear in the hull all over the station below them. When he realized what this meant, he threw himself towards the radio.

"Esten, punch it! she's going to blow!" He barely finished his sentence before the whole space station lit up. The power wave from the explosion shook The Nordin wildy, throwing everyone inside it to the floor, like they were discarded items.

"Whoa!" Spike screamed as he fell down the ladder and landed on his back on the hard metal floor. He let out a groan of pain and slowly rolled around on the floor, his spine feeling like it was on fire from the pain of falling from such a height.

Esten crawled up to the bridge controls and pushed the thrusters to full. The ship shook again and flew away in speed you'd think impossible for a ship of The Nordins size.

Twilight held on to a table next to her, her eyes tightly shut. Rarity, Rainbow dash and Applejack clinged to their fighter jets, trying to keep their balance.

When the ship had gotten far out of range, Esten once again reached for the controls and slowly dropped the speed until the ship stopped.

"Is everyone okay?" Isaac shouted out and climbed down the ladder to his defence turret. He rushed over to Spike who layed on the floor, still rolling around and groaning. "Fuck! damn it!"

"Are you okay? Here" He helped the dragon up on his feet, helping him into the meeting hall.

…

"That, was not a walk in the park!" Rainbow dash said as she sat down in her chair in the meeting hall.

"That is the LEAST you could call it!" Rarity answered her, rolling her eyes.

Spike groaned, rubbing his back. "I’d rather lick a thousand engine batteries than go through being shot at in the turret again!"

Isaac walked in, a stern look on his face. “You WILL go through that one hundred more times if it happens one hundred more times, Spike"

He walked past them and stood in front of the large table, Spike nodded as he got reprimanded by his Captain. Of course, he would always put his life on the line to defend their ship and themselves, but this time he wasn't ready for all that happened at once.

"Yes Captain" he answered, now looking back up up Isaac.

Isaac looked around the table at his crew, who looked shaken and scared after the incident.

Isaac pressed a button on the control panel next to his chair, two metal plates that covered the windows on the far left wall in front of the table opened up, revealing the space outside. The smoldering remains of the space station was floating slowly in space, ripped into two large pieces and a mass of smaller pieces, debris and the bodies of the dead inhabitants floating around it.

" I am proud of how quickly you all got to your stations, and I'm proud of how well you defended our ship. Sadly the space station was lost, and from what I know everyone aboard was killed in the explosion."

He sighed and Twilight put her hand on her mouth. “Goodness... Was there something we could've done to prevent it?"

Isaac shook his head, a slightly pained look showing on his face. "Only if we had known they were coming. If we were prepared for them we could have fought them back, but no, not under these circumstances."

He looked at his friends again, they were too shook up right now, they needed rest. He stood up straight and sighed again. "You all deserve to rest and to calm down, you're allowed to go on break for the rest of the day.”

The girls, Esten and Spike stood up and walked to their rooms, looking gloomy and tired.

Isaac sighed and turned around, looking at one of the monitors on the wall. "Ilsa, do we have any more contracts pending?"

The monitor screen flickered to life and a list of contracts came rolling down it. "Yes Captain. We have quite a few of them, want me to show you the one with highest pay?"

He nodded. "Yes."

The screen flickered again and another wall of text rolled on it. And Ilsa told him about the contract. "The authorities of the Nebula 9 space colony has reported kidnappings by a rivalling space colony, apparently they have kidnapped their citizens, forcing them to work in weapons factories. they want us to infiltrate the one of the factories, free as many captured workers as we can and neutralize the facility. They are willing to pay a sum of one million credits if they can get their people back".

Isaac turned around and started to walk back to his room.

"We'll travel to Nebula 9 the first thing tomorrow."

"Yes Captain"

Once again they were gearing up, putting on their suits and armour. They had Travelled to the Nebula 9 space station the first thing after they woke up. The nebuloans had greeted them like they had been old friends returning from a long voyage. They had told them about the citizens that had been kidnapped by the soldiers of another space station a few light years away, called Purnima. They had given the crew the co-ordinates to the station and suggested that they left right away, a suggestion which they agreed to.

Pinkie pie still had her Equestian guard armour, but she had it upgraded. now it had a small personal enegry shield that can absorb an average amount of blaster fire until it has to recharge, and she had also gotten her armour painted in dark camoflage colours.

As they got ready, their weapons loaded and themselves geared up Esten called to them through the communicators.

" I can’t land on Purnima due to their hostility. You'll have to go down with the drop pods!"

Isaac groaned. "Then get us as close to the weapons factory as you can, we'll regroup after touchdown!"

"Yes Captain!"

Isaac commanded the group to go into their drop-pods and to fasten themselves, as usual he started his Intel via radio.

"Listen closely, because I’ll only go through this once! The drop pods won’t land next to each-other due to the altitude and speed of The Nordin, when you get down on the station, clear out your LZ and then we'll regroup at a rendezvous point that I’ll mark with a smoke grenade, got it?"

"Yes Captain!" His crew responded, they were all strapped in and were waiting for the drop.

The Nordin shook as it continued its voyage towards Purnima.

"This is gonna get rough, hold on. Drop in T minus 5!" Esten said trough the radio as he tried to keep the ship steady as the defence grid turrets at the space station were shooting at them, hammering the ships energy shields and hull.

" T minus 2!"

Spike grabbed the two control joysticks that sat in front of him. They were used to navigate the drop pod, so that you won’t crash into something you don’t want to crash into, like a building, or a very hideous in-law.

"T minus 1, good luck down there!"

With a loud clunk, one after the other, the pods were released and started their descent towards the space station.

Withing seconds, the pods were under fire, the lazer blasts punding the pods, sending sparks everywhere, and creating cracks in the pods glass windows. They all managed to dodge the fire quite well, all except Spike. A blast from one of the turrets hit straight in the glass window, causing the pod to spin, Spike could not be able to stabilize the pod and soon it spun out of control.

As Spike tried to regain control of the pod, another blast hit the pod, making it shake violatly. This caused him to hit his head and lose consciousness. His body collapsed onto the control joysticks and caused them to steer him even more out of course, his drop-pod falling down and crash landing far, far away from where it was supposed to.

Twilight gasped as she saw Spikes pod disappear in the distance.

"Spikes pod is out of course! And he is not responding!"

" Damn it!" Isaac almost shouted out. "We'll try to contact him and find him once on the ground! I'll find a suitable place to regroup, once you see my smoke grenade advance on my position! Brace for impact!"

One by one and at different locations, the pods crashed down into the metal floors of the large space station, the smoke soon rising from them.

…

Rarity and Applejacks pods had landed close to each-other, and they had been able to regroup quickly, which was fortunate because after a little while, Purnima soldiers started to come down on their position.

They took cover behind a big metal bench, the enemy soldiers fire flying over their heads and creating showers of sparks as they hit the bench.

"We have to move somewhere were we can shoot back!" Applejack groaned and sat up, firing a shot which hit its mark and then kneeled back down behind cover again. She peeked out over the bench but got back down almost immediately as a lazer blast hit right next to her head, sparks flying.

Rarity reloaded her rifle and frowned, looking around for a way to escape.

As she looked around she could see a bright red smoke slowly rise next to a large building that looked like a dome.

" That's Captains signal!" She said with an exited tone.

"Good, now how in tarnation do we get there?" Applejack groaned and returned fire at the enemy soldiers, hitting one of them. His body fell onto the ground, twitching violently before stopping as he died.

Rarity took out a grenade and held it up. "This beauty will be our ticket out of here, atleast i think it will, i hope this isn’t one of those that Pinkie filled with confetti, get ready!"

She threw the grenade over the bench, it flew in a wide arch and landed in the middle of the group of soldiers.

They screamed and started to scatter, not all of them managed to get away and those who failed to do so were blasted to pieces and their remains were scattered all over.

The screams of the civilians, if you could call them that since the entire station was a military installation, were heard around them as the grenade detonated.

"Go go go!"

…

Isaac crashed his pod into a big fountain, the water and marble that the fountain was made out of flew everywhere as it got smashed to pieces. As the "professional" he was, he kicked the door to his pod open and went to work. He grabbed his shotgun and started running through the streets, the intruder alert blaring at full volume through the whole station.

soldiers lunged out at him from different directions , but he effectively finished them off one by one as they came towards him. He successfully knocked the men in front of him to the floor as he went on. The soldiers on the floor groaned and looked at him as he kept running, almost like he wasn't paying any attention to them. A fox, who had been groaning in pain, started to scream and started to crawl away in a blind panic as he noticed an armed grenade on the ground next to him. Before he managed to escape, it exploded, sending him and his comrades to their graves.

( The soldiers on this station were of different alien species, humans, reptiles, wolves and many different others, this wasn't unheard of but it was rare, since the different species of the universe are happier to stay with their own kind. )

Isaac ran towards two other soldiers that were coming full speed towards him. He threw his shotgun at the soldier on the left, knocking him to the ground, after that he pulled out a knife, and in one smooth motion he spun around and kicked the other soldiers legs out under him. As he fell towards the ground Isaac drove his knife into the mans chest, the blade easily cutting through his uniform and his ribcage, puncturing his lung. The lizard under him wheesed and blood dripped from his mouth, his arms waving limply, trying to push Isaac off of him, but Isaac held himself in place.

He looked up as another soldier rounded a corner, his boots rumbling as he came running full force at him. He reacted by pulling the knife out of the dead soldiers chest and throwing it through the air. The knife buried itself into the mans throat, his knees collapsing under him in the middle of his step as he fell onto the ground, landing on his stomach. This drove the knife deeper into his throat, the blade now poking out the other side of his neck. Isaac grabbed his shotgun from the ground.

Isaac went on, shooting every soldier coming in his way, the shotgun blasts throwing them backwards, blood and intestines flying along with them.

He sprinted through a narrow alley and came out in something that looked like a town square which was, for the moment, empty of soldier presence. In front of him was a large metallic dome, probably filled with machinery to keep the station stable, and from what he could see there were only two places you could get there from, the alley he had just came through himself and a broader walkway on the other side.

He looked around, searching for any movement. to be sure he switched his eyes visual mode to heat vision. He couldn’t detect any presence, and he started thinking to himself.

"No sign of any sentient life anywhere, this will do as a rendezvous zone for now."

He opened a pouch on his chest and picked up a smoke grenade from it. He armed it and threw it onto the ground. It started to emit a bright red smoke, slowly moving up through the air.

Almost immediately after he had done this, he heard footsteps behind him. He spun around, ready to shoot, but he lowered his weapon as he saw Twilight and Fluttershy coming toward him.

"Looks like you had luck finding me so fast" he smiled at them and turned around to keep a look out for enemies.

They ran up to him, looking relieved to have found him. "We're lucky that you leave a trail of death and destruction after yourself."

Twilight smirked and held up the knife that Isaac had left in the throat of the soldier a while back. He took it back and nodded, as to say "Thank you" and slid it back into its sheath on his chest.

"We're also lucky that I managed to get Fluttershy to come with me when I found her, she was killing enemies left and right "

Fluttershy gave them a shy smile. " I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make the situation more dangerous"

Isaac smiled at her and patted her shoulder. "It's okay, every dead enemy is bought time, as long as you use that time well."

Fluttershy opened her mouth again, but instead of saying what she had planned, she held up her blast cannon and opened fire at something behind them.

Pinkie pie was running toward them, atleast ten soldiers following behind. "HELP!"

" GET DOWN!" Isaac shouted at her, already pulling the trigger.

Pinkie pie threw herself on the ground, the lazer blasts and bullets from the enemy soldiers and her crew members flying over her head.

A few seconds and some loud thumps later, she looked up. The enemies were dead, their blood slowly dripping out in one big pool on the ground, but Isaac were clutching his arm, blood dripping from under his hand. Twilights and Fluttershys armour had black marks from where the lazer blasts had hit them, and they were panting as if they had lost their breath.

Fluttershy tried to tend to Isaacs injury, which he reluctantly let her do, since he thought it was more important to keep their position secure.

Twilight held out her hand for Pinkie pie to grab on to. Once on her feet she re-positioned her nightvision goggles on her forehead.

"They ganged up on me." Pinkie pie sighed, and took a better grip on her weapon." I couldn't fight them off, so I just ran away. And they didn’t look like they wanted to invite me to a party either!"

"Lucky you found us.” Twi said to her, turning around as she guarded their immediate vicinity. "If you hadn't found us when you did, that lazer shield of your might have gotten more work than it is made for."

Pinkie pie nodded, her nerves now on edge.

In the distance they could hear shouting and gunfire, the sounds gradually growing louder.

Isaac, now with a bandage around his arm, started to give out orders "They’re coming from over there!" He pointed towards the walkway Pinkie pie had came from.

" Pinkie, Twilight, you stay in front behind those pillars, me and Fluttershy will hide behind the metal benches! Go!"

They all ran into position, the rumbling of boots and gunfire getting louder and louder, until finally Rarity and Applejack came running down the street, followed by what looked like the entire Purnima stations army following them.

“Shit..!”Isaac sighed, he knew that this was going to be a hard, lengthy fight. "Spike better come with fire and thunder once he finds us, or this is going to be a difficult rescue mission."

…

Spikes landing pod, 2 hours after drop.

Spike slowly regained consciousness, his head pounding, feeling like it would get split apart. He moved a hand to his forehead, and winced in pain as he felt a large bleeding bulge, the blood slowly dripping down onto his face.

"Argh...Damn it..."

He looked around the pod, he noticed some lights flashing above his head, he looked up and saw a small screen under the bright red light, it was flashing the words:

" LOCKDOWN INITIATED! LOCKDOWN INITIATED!"

Spike groaned again and pressed a button next to the small screen, a loud bleep came from the screen and another text started flashing on it:

" UNLOCK ERROR! UNLOCK ERROR! MANUAL UNLOCK REQUIRED!"

"Fuck!" Spike groaned again and pressed the button, this time the screen turned off and four more buttons lit up around the rim of the pods door. The soft green light that emanated from the buttons shone on Spikes face and illuminated the pods interior in a dim green light. One by one he pressed them and their green colour turned to red.

When he pressed the last button, a beeping sound filled the pod, and after four beeps the door was blown away from the pod by small explosives placed built into the frame of the metal door. The door rattled loudly as it knocked into the ground as it flew away.

Spike grabbed his Hellrazer rifle and the put it in a holster on his hip, he took his blaster rifle in his right hand, checked his ammo in the pouches on his chest and around his waist.

He stepped out of the pod and started to jog towards the first main road he could see.

It had been snowing for a while, the snowflakes falling slowly and softly down onto the metal ground, covering it in a thin white layer. The space station apparently had an environment-imitation machine, which tried to imitate the weather on a habitable planet with heat, cold, wind, rain and snow.

Spike went on his way, the station feeling empty and eerie in this, to him, strange weather, since the planet Equestria was a warm planet which temperature could be compared to the temperature around our own planets equator, where there is no snow either, but the positive thing is that you can make snowmen out of sand when you spend your Christmas day on the beach.

He shivered a bit, the cold was unfamiliar to him, but he was not going to let that keep him back. He slowly started to become paranoid, he had expected to have faced some enemy soldiers by now and it got to his head. Maybe they would all jump out at him once he got around a corner? He gripped his rifle tighter and started to pick up speed. After a while of jogging along the street he heard voices coming from around a corner and the sound of boots on the ground along with it.

He pressed his back against the wall and carefully peeked around the corner. Three enemy soldiers, a human and two wolf looking creatures were walking towards his position, holding rifles in their hands, talking to each-other.

"How can seven persons withstand all of our guys?" The human said, frustration and wonder in his voice.

"Yeah, what are they? Super soldiers?" one of the wolves answered, followed by the other one. “ Maybe they are Spartans?” This earned the wolf a smack on his head from the human.

“Don’t be stupid! Spartans are the strongest human soldiers in history, and they get their orders from planet Earth! They would not come here in a million years!”

The other wolf looked at them as if he didn’t notice ther exchanghe of harsh words. " I heard from the lieutenant that their ship flew over their position before, and it took out a whole chunk of our guys with it."

The human soldier groaned. "Well we better hurry to assist, or else we're gonna get our asses handed to us!"

They walked around the corner and did not notice Spike hiding in the shadows, Spike took this to his advantage, he saw a chance to find his crew the easiest way possible.

He lunged forward, grabbing one of the wolves by the throat and kneed him in the back, causing him to let out a howl of pain and drop his rifle. Spike pressed his lazer rifle against the wolfs head and looked over to his companions , giving them a scowl.

"If you move, he's dead!" Spike barked at them, taking them by complete surprise.

"What the- Who are you!?" The human asked, not daring to lift his rifle.

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" Spike said again, trying to sound as cold as he could. "Drop your weapons, or your friend will be all over the place."

They did as he said, dropping their rifles on the ground and kicking them over to him.

Spike took a step forward, still keeping the wolfs throat in a tight grip and he kicked the rifles far away. “Good, now were is the location of my crew?"

"Your crew?"

Spike frowned and aimed towards the human, shooting him in the foot, which made him fall down on his knees, screaming in pain.

" I ask the fucking questions! My crew, the group of soldiers you guys can't take care of! Where are they!?"

He pressed the gun back against the wolfs head, causing him to wince in pain and fear.
"Please! Please don't!" He whined weakly, now shaking in pure fear.

" Shut up! The location, NOW!" Spike shouted.

The human soldier looked up, the blood from his foot slowly pooling out beneath him.
"That dome over there!" He pointed towards a huge metal dome, which seemed to be about a kilometer away.
“They've fortified themselves in front of the weather dome. Please, let us go now!"

Spike gave him a menacing smile. "That was nice of you, thank you very much Sir."

He pulled the trigger, the wolf he had held by the throat died instantly as his brains were splattered on the ground in front of Spike, his body limply falling down as Spike let go of it.

The human threw himself at Spike despite the pain from blaster wound in his foot, but Spike managed to beat him down quickly, headbutting him and finishing off with his rifle.

The other wolf were running away, but Spike would not let him get far. He aimed and fired at the wolf, two of the lazer blasts hitting the backside of his knees. His legs gave out under him and he fell face first into the ground.

The wolf had tears flowing from his eyes due to the pain, and he let out a scream of pain. He turned around and grabbed at his legs, his eyes filled with shock. "ARGH! OH GOD! I’M GONNA BE CRIPPLED FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!"

Spike walked up to him, aiming at the wolfs forehead. He smiled, the wolf were writhing pathetically before him and he spoke in a soft, but menacing voice. "No you're not..."

He pulled the trigger, a blue flash from the lazer blast painted Spikes face and the wolfs body fell back on the ground, his head now blown to pieces.

Spike sighed, and started to jog again, now heading towards the weather dome, if he hurried he might be right on time.

He ran faster and faster, the weather dome growing larger as he came closer to it. He had grown tired, his steps getting heavier as he went on.

As he came closer he noticed a large group of enemy soldiers and vehicles cluttering the entrance to a side street.

He stopped in his tracks and started to think. Since they don't know who he is he could pretend to be anyone he wanted to. But maybe the best idea would be to pretend that the leaders of the space station had hired him to take care of the attackers. Even if they didn’t buy it, it might buy him some time.

He sighed and started to walk towards the group of soldiers. “I better hope this shit works...”

As he came closer one of the soldiers noticed him and ordered him to stop."Halt! who are you, this is a restricted area!"

He continued to walk towards the soldier and the vehicles, his breath now turning to thin clouds in front of his face from the cold.

"The general has paid me to take care of these interfering attackers you've got!" Spike told the man in front of him, with the toughest voice he could muster.

"Not that I’m surprised that a security force that can’t defeat seven mercenaries doesn't have good internal communications either!"

This made the soldier confused, but he lowered his rifle and nodded. "Allright, you better hurry though, we need to get these bastards now, before we look REALLY stupid."

Spike held up his hand and shook his head. "Let me walk around here a bit, I have to plan a strategy to take them down, but to do that I need to see what I have to work with. I need to see the placement of your vehicles and any ammo crates, in case they'll be to my use. I guess that all you’ve done is attacking them in an unplanned manner, which is why they’ve kicked your asses."

The soldier was baffled at this barrage of down-talk, but he guessed that the dragon knew what he was doing. "Uh sure, go right ahead. But tell me when you'll go on with the attack, we're loosing men out there!"

Spike nodded at him and started to walk around in the small forward base. Two APC's were standing next to each-other, providing cover for the soldiers that had arrived in them. About 20 or 30 of them, from what Spike could see, were having a quick lunch behind the vehicles, sitting around a small fire.

Spike thought for a moment and looked around to make sure no-one saw him. The soldier that had let him get into the small camp had his back turned to him, once again guarding the little entrance so that no civilians would go there.

Our dragon grinned and opened a pouch in his belt and took out two small bombs that looked like tiny ice-hockey pucks. Esten called them "Sticky detonators", he could place them under the APC's and then convince the soldiers that their only chance to take his team out were to storm them with the vehicles. But they will not reach the crew, he'll blow them up halfway.

He looked around again, and he could see his crew in the distance. They had fortified themselves with big chucks of rocks and metal, and from what he could see, it looked like Esten had taken The Nordin for a fly by, dropping small ammo crates to them. There were lazer blasts and small explosions coming from the area, he had to work fast now, in case they're injured.

He kneeled down and put one of the sticky bombs under the first APC. He moved over to the other one and just as he put the other sticky bomb on the bottom of the APC, he heard footsteps coming towards him from around the vehicle. He started to panic as the steps came closer, how was he supposed to explain this?

A soldier came around the corner of the APC and noticed Spike with his arm under it.
"Hey! what are you doing!?" He aimed his rifle at the strange dragon in front of him.

"Dont worry." Spike answered him, trying to keep his voice calm. " I am here by the order of the general, I dropped my gun under the APC, I'll show you, just don’t shoot me, okay?"

The human frowned, not quite trusting that Spike didn't have anything hidden in his sleeve. "Allright, but if you make any sudden moves, you're dead!"

Spike nodded and slowly pulled his hand out from under the vehicle, his fingers sloppily wrapped around a lazer rifle. "See, I just dropped my gun, are we cool now? " Spike tried to reassure him.

The human still aimed at Spike, but luckily the soldier that had let Spike in was walking over to them.

"Its okay, he's payed by the general to help us take these guys out."

Spike stood up and turned to him. "And I know how we'll do that, but I need your help."

"So what's your plan?" The human asked, leaning his rifle on his shoulder.

Spike turned and pointed towards the fortified position of his crew. "Since I got better eyesight than you, I can see from here that they have no explosives or grenades. That means it's safe to load your guys up in the APC's and drive in there and rush them."

Both of the soldiers looked at eachother, not entirely convinced. "That seems a bit risky, and we have already lost too many men, and it only takes a few lucky hits and they’ll take our APC’s out aswell." The human said, not sharing the same determination to get things done as Spike.

Spike groaned and crossed his arms."This will be a good distraction while I pick them off one by one while you keep them busy, but if you want to stand here and argue while your friends die out there, then sure, why not?"

After a while of arguing back and forth, they agreed that this plan was a good one, and the soldiers jumped into the APC's. Spike ordered them to go full force while he would sneak around to their backside and pick them off.

Spike smiled to himself as the APC's with all the soldiers on this side of the big town square in them. He held up a small remote control, and pressed the " detonate" button. The APC's exploded into large flames and smoke, spreading the debree of bodies and vehicle parts on the ground around them.

…

Isaac were crouching down next to Twilight, both of them covered in bruises and multiple bandages. The ground in front of their fortifications were filled with dead bodies, the Purnima army had an almost unlimited number of soldiers it seemed. Atleast they did not seem to stop coming.

Still, after enough of their soldiers had fallen they decided that storming their position was a bad idea. But even after this change of tactics they didn't manage to get anywhere, but Isaac and the others had not been too lucky either, despite holding the enemies back.

They had gotten multiple injuries and their ammo were running out, the ammunition problem was solved by Esten though, he flew in The Nordin and dropped a few ammo boxes for them. But due to the strong anti-air turrets and defences he could not stay, and with the AA guns battering the ships shields and hull, he sped off back into space, orbiting Purnima.

Twilight turned and looked at Isaac, the fear showing in her eyes. "Captain? We're not going to make it are we?"

Isaac sighed, he looked over the small wall of debris they had used to fortify themselves, he shot at the soldiers he could see running around in the distance. He kneeled back down and looked at Twilight. " I'm sorry. But it seems we're done for now. They must have gotten Spike aswell. But we're not going to surrender, remember that, never surrender!"

Twilight nodded, giving him a slight smile. "It has been a pleasure to work with you Captain, for the time it lasted."

Isaac smiled back at her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "It has been a pleasure to work with you girls, and Spike."

A loud explosion and a cascade of fire, sparks and metallic debris suddenly caught their attention, also causing Rarity and Applejack on the other side of the fortifications to turn around in shock.

There had been two vehicles driving towards them, but it seemed like something had caused them to explode, but what? Isaac hadn't heard anything like a missile or torpedo flying through the air, and his eyes heat vision should have detected the heat from the any missile in any case.

He and Twilight looked over at the remains of the APC's now engulfed in flames. Behind the flames they could see someone approach them.

Isaac crouched again, reloading his plasma rifle. He pulled a small switch and something that looked like a big empty light bulb popped out and fell onto the ground with a clattering sound. He picked a new one from a pouch on his waist, this one was filled with a gleaming, light blue mist, and reloaded his rifle. "Get ready for another assault, whatever blew up those APC's made it look like we took them out, and their owners seem pissed!"

Twilight looked at him, now with a truly shocked expression in her face. "We didn’t take them out!?"

The shadowy person came closer and closer. As Isaac stood up, his rifle reloaded and ready to fire, he could see Spike climbing over the debris, the fire painting his purple and green scales with a orange glow.

" Spike!" Twilight and Isaac shouted at the same time.

"Get your ass over here now!" Isaac ordered, and started to jog over to Rarity and Applejack, Twilight following close behind him.

Spike started to go faster aswell, his boots hammering the ground as he went through the snow. He swung himself over the low wall and jogged over to the others.

Applejack smiled at him and bumped his fist as he kneeled down next to the others, taking cover from the lazer blasts that the enemy had started shooting at them once again.

"Well I'll be damned, you finally got out of bed." Applejack smirked at him.

Spike chuckled and grinned back at her. "That was one hell of a nap I tell you, how do I look?"

The blood that had gushed from the bulge in his forehead had now frozen, a trickle of blood temporarily stuck across his face.

"You look like you finally lost your virginity" Isaac smirked at him, which made all the girls laugh, all except Rarity who let out a "ladylike" chuckle.

Rainbow dash patted Spike on the shoulder, her face in a wide grin. "You know, I would've been able to take care of that for you."

Spike laughed again, giving her a sly look. "Since you're all about speed, we all know how long you'd last, ‘fastest flyer of Equestria’!"

A lazer blast that shattered a piece of the wall they were huddling behind snapped them all back to reality.

"Whoa!" Rainbow dash let out and threw herself on the ground, as some of the smashed stone struck her face.

"We need to take them head on and then head for the weapon factory!" Isaac held out his holopad, which was now showing a lit up way to their destination. Esten had managed to hack Purnimas data net from The Nordin and had located the factory for them.

Spike looked at the gang, all of them with different injuries, bloody bandages and burn marks on their clothes and skin. "Can you guys do it?"

"oh please!" Rarity answered him and waved her hand in a high class manner. "These small scratches won’t stop us."

Spike nodded and looked at Isaac. " You guys ready then?"

They all nodded, and responded in a affirmative manner, they were as ready as ever.

Like one unit they stood up and turned to their enemies, opening fire at them. They swung over the low wall and rushed towards the soldiers waiting for them on the other side, their guns blazing as they went.