Chapter 3 - The Frontier's Fight

Daniel flinched slightly as the locals gathered around their unconscious friend, murmuring in faint English under their breath.

"Is Twilight okay?" the yellow one with wings asked timidly.

"She'll be fine, but it's cold out here." the other one with a horn and wings said. "Alright, I'll speak with our new arrivals. Can you help Twilight somewhere more restful?"

As the five others moved the unconscious "Twilight" into the station proper, the equine approached Daniel with a raised eyebrow.

"So, can you understand me?" he asked. "I heard you all speaking English."

"Yes. To us, it is Equestrian, but I am relieved that we can speak and understand each other." she said. "I am Princess Luna, an alicorn, a Ruler of Equestria and Mistress of the Night."

"Well met." Daniel said. "I'm Captain Daniel McKennna, a Pilot in the Marauder Corps, SRS, Frontier Militia Fleet. My species is Human, or Homo Sapiens if you would prefer our scientific name."

Luna's eyes widened significantly at the mention of "human".

"Truly?" she asked. "Are you playing a trick on me?"

"Not one that I'd do intentionally." Daniel replied. "Is something wrong?"

"Something is not wrong, just quite surprising." Luna said. "For quite some time, even our most learned historians would cast your kind as mere myth. At least, until now."

"Really?" Daniel asked, quite surprised at this revelation. "We've existed for many thousands of years as a whole species, but we can get to that later. You must have questions, right?"

"I certainly do." Luna said. "If you and those giants would follow me, I will show you to somewhere far more proper for negotiations."

"Copy." Daniel said. "And for the record, those Titans are operated by my teammates."

"Titan?" Luna asked. "Is that your name for them?"

"It's our name for what they are, and there are multiple types." Sean Walker said as he opened the cockpit hatch of GT-5590. "This here is my Scorch-class Titan, GT-5590. Why don't you say hello?"

"Greetings." GT spoke in a rich, broad voice. "As my Pilot previously stated, I am a Militia Scorch-Class Titan, desingation is Golf-Tango Five-Five-Nine-Zero. I am linked to Pilot Sean Walker, and I prefer to be known as GT."

Luna was simply floored as she attempted to compose herself from the Titan speaking to her. After a few minutes, she cleared her throat.

"Well, it is nice to meet you, GT." she replied. "Do follow me to the Crystal Palace, I'll lead the way."

====

As the Titans and their Pilots followed the seven ponies to a massive palace near the center of the city, Daniel noticed a gleaming blue and silver, heart-shaped gem at the center of a spire.

"What is that?" he asked the air.

"Unknown." IN replied. "My scanning has found that this gemstone has a similar energy signature to the IMC Fold Weapon's Ark power source found on Planet Typhon during Operation Broadsword. I will continue analysis."

"How similar are we talking here?" Daniel asked his Titan.

"The signatures have a similar particle field and molecular structure, but their similarities end there. Their energy fields are approximately 32 Percent alike in all other factors."

"Copy that." Daniel said as Princess Luna spoke to another alicorn with a pink, purple, and goldd color scheme, alongside a unicorn with a white coat and blue mane wearing greek-style crystallline armor, along with a sword and shield. They went back and forth for a few moments, before Luna approached the Miltia Pilots again.

"Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor welcome you to the Crystal Empire, though they do ask that you leave your Titans here as to not scare the populace. Is that agreeable to you?" Luna said.

"We understand." Daniel replied. "Kilo Team, we're going to boots on the ground. All Titans, initate guard mode for now."

"Understood." IN spoke as the eight Pilots disembarked and stowed their weapons of choice on their back or shoulders. As Daniel motioned to his team, they followed the ponies into the palace while their Titans remained at the side gardens near the entrance.

====

"So, you seem to be soldiers, at least to me." Shining Armor said as they all sat down in a conference room overlooking a large balcony."Am I correct?"

"Sort of." Sasha Voryunov said. "We're an elite breed of soldier known as a Pilot."

"And how do you differ from a standard infantry unit?" Shining asked.

"Daniel?" Sasha said simply. Daniel nodded and smirked under his helmet.

"Of all the things you can find on the battlefields of the Frontier...the Pilot is the true dominant force." Daniel said with pride. "We are fast and agile, Graceful, yet devastating. Perceptive, resourceful, and relentless."

"We see the world differently in the heat of battle." Cooper continued. "Sheer walls become flanking routes. We are masters of deception and manuever, even impossible odds shift in our favor. But what truly separates us from the Grunts and machines of the battlefield is the bond between a Pilot...and a Titan. When linked to a Titan, a Pilot can only be stopped by overwhelming force….or an equal."

"When we enter the chaos of battle, a Pilot takes risks that no one else would dare to. A Pilot never backs down, never surrenders, and fights until the battle is won." Daniel finished. "That's what makes a Pilot...a Pilot."

Shining, suffice to say, was impressed not only by the speech, but by the conviction in the words spoken.

"Alright then." he said. "Why did you come to Equestria? And why are you Pilots in the first place"

"That's a long story." Daniel said. "But I suppose you should hear it. There's a lot to understand."

Daniel exhaled in preparation, then he spoke.

"Humanity comes from the Sol System of the Milky Way Galaxy, now at the pinnacle of the habitable cluster planets known as the Core Systems. After the development of the Space-Time Fold, allowing us to travel faster than light, we began sending these massive colony ships to a newly discovered area of space called the Frontier."

"These ships and everything needed to launch and sustain them were sponsored and paid for by the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, or IMC. They were once a massive conglomerate of different industries and enterprises under one flag. Once the Colony ships found a habitable world, they would settle their human passengers there."

"Soon, the Frontier and the people living there had devloped a culture and identity of their own, with little feeling any sort of connection to the Core Systems. We lived on our own with no interference from Earth or the Core for generations and prospered because of it."

"Then, it all came to an end." Daniel sighed. "When the natural resources of the Core Systems were nearly depleted, the IMC saw an easy way to regain those resources needed to keep the Core worlds going through the Frontier. Using the fact that they had sponsored the colonization efforts, and a legal statute of eminent domain, the IMC formed a small military force and began taking over sovereign Frontier planets, one by one. They would force the populace into standing by while the IMC would plunder the helpless planet of any resource they could find. And once they had what they needed, they would move on to the next one."

"That's barbaric!" Luna interjected. "Shouldn't the humans on these planets have fought back or spoken out against these injustices?"

"Some did, and they were either silenced by the IMC or imprisoned without a fair trial." Daniel said. "Soon, several underground cells of Frontier citizens who believed in independence from the Core, formed the Frontier Militia to fight back with military action. It was a ragtag effort, but soon we had a large fleet amassed, mostly civilian and cargo ships modifed for battle. We saw this as a sign of solidarity against the rampant IMC."

"What did the IMC think?" Cadance asked.

"They saw it as the movement of terrorists and an act of war against the Core and the IMC." Daniel continued. "Soon, they railroaded the Core Planet governments into giving the IMC complete access to the Core's military. And seeing as they possessed nearly every other advantage over us, they soon had multiple fleets coming into the Frontier, loaded with soldiers and weapons, almost daily."

"The Militia knew we couldn't fight them head on. A Militia leader named Sarah Briggs send a broadcast pleading for the people of the Frontier to join them, and we got about five brigade's worth of seasoned soldiers and recruits to be trained. Among them were seven former IMC Pilots, who began the first Militia Pilot Training Initiative."

"The Militia fleet by this time was low on fuel, so we landed at a refinery to steal what we could." Daniel added. "The Refueling Raid would be the first battle of the Frontier War. Even though the IMC had advantages, such as a massive fleet of warships, countless troops, and nearly all the veteran Pilots, we had our strengths."

"First, many of these IMC Grunts and mechanical soldiers were part-time, and nearly all them hadn't seen battle before. The IMC fleet was also in a tangle trying to keep organized against us, despite the actions oft their leaders, Kuben Blisk and Marcus Graves. And on top of that, we had the element of surprise when we attacked. Our initial forces managed to secure a solid defensive position and we fought the IMC to a draw."

"Problem was, we were a mess too." Kelly Wright said. "We had multiple field commanders, with experience, but we needed someone who could keep us together and win us battles."

"We found that leader in an ex-IMC officer on the colony planet Troy. His name was James MacAllan." Sean said. "MacAllan was once a rising star in the IMC alongside Graves, but a series of events led MacAllan and his ship, the Odyssey, to desert the IMC and settle on Troy. Soon after, IMC forces searching for the Militia stumbled on his colony and attacked it."

"We then showed up to investigate MacAllan's distress signal." Helena Sieman continued. "Though we failed to stop the IMC attack, we did manage to save a good amount of MacAllan's colonists in a later battle. After that, MacAllan assumed command of the Militia Fleet and outlined our plan of attack, to take the fight to the IMC."

"How?" Pinkie asked. "That sounds impossible!"

"To MacAllan, it wasn't." Cooper said. "He knew that Demeter was the key."

"Demeter?" Fluttershy asked.

"Planet Demeter was home to the largest IMC refueling facility in the Frontier, not to mention the only way that IMC human forces could reach the Frontier. If we shut Demeter down, we could trap the IMC in now-hostile territory, and they would have to take years in order to send reinforcements there."

"MacAllan got to work prettty quickly, turning the Militia Grunts from guerrila fighters to actual soldiers. Plus, the seven IMC defector Pilots sent out their first batch of fully trained Militia Pilots, and they were ready and roaring for battle."

"Soon after, MacAllan brought the Fleet to Angel City in order to recruit his former Wingman, Barker." Sasha said. "Barker was a master aircraft pilot, not a Pilot like us, but he was quite drunk at the time. During our engagement to keep the IMC distracted, an IMC Battle Carrier called the Sentinel dropped into the fight."

"MacAllan knew we couldn't stop the Sentinel head-on, so he used our Hornet fighter craft to dama it and force it away for repairs at a nearby base, which also housed a particle cannon that we could use." Daniel said. "MacAllan recruited Barker, and we sent a decoy ship to distract the IMC while we deployed to seize the cannon."

"Did it work?" Rainbow asked. "Tell me it worked!'

"Oh, It worked." Romero said. "We took control of the Cannon and blew the Sentinel to bits. Then, we evacuated while we could. The IMC technically won that battle, but it was a pyhrric victory."

"After that, we headed to the Boneyard, an abandoned IMC base where Barker and MacAllan were once staffed. We stole technical data for the IMC repulsor towers used at the airbase that protected Demeter. The IMC couldn't stop us in time, and we soon attacked the airbase using our new "Icepick" system virus." Daniel said. "We destroyed the towers by remote controlling their fighters, and we would be at Demeter within the hour."

"The day of reckoning." Cooper said. "We amassed a fleet nearly twice as big as what we started with, and attacked Demeter while the IMC fleet moved to defend. Our plan was to overload the facility's reactor, but it didn't work out that way."

"How so?" Twilight asked.

"The IMC managed to stop a remote detonation." Cooper continued. "MacAllan also knew that a manual overload would do the trick even if the IMC shut down the entire reactor, but there wasn't a Titan in existence that could protect him from the radiation and the resulting blast."

"MacAllan made a heartfelt plea to his old friend Marcus Graves to desert the IMC and take command of the Militia, that they would need someone after he was gone." Daniel said. "MacAllan then ordered the Militia fleet to leave our ground troops behind. There wasn't time to evacuate them."

"MacAllan's last words were how it was an honor serving with us before the reactor detonated." Cooper said. "The blast levelled the facility and both the IMC and Militia ground forces there. Both fleets retreated, but we had won."

"Soon after, a mass defection of IMC ships and personnel to the Militia, led by Marcus Graves, more than made up for the soldiers and Pilots we lost." Romero said. "Graves did what MacAllan had pleaded for him to do, and he became our new Fleet Admiral while Sarah Briggs took the title of Field Commander."

"Now, the IMC were on the defensive as more and more of their garrisons fell to the Militia, their cries for reinforcements unheard by the Core. We began to win more and more battles." Daniel said. "At least, that was the case until Operation Broadsword."

"We sent the Seventh Militia Fleet alongside support to attack a planet housing an IMC research base." Cooper said. "I was a rifleman aboard one of those ships, the MCS James MacAllan. I was also training to be a Pilot under Captain Tai Lastimosa."

"The IMC ambushed us with anti-orbital defenses and fighter attacks." Cooper said. "Soon, all our ships had crashed and we were on our own. Lastimosa was later mortally wounded, and he promoted me to Acting Pilot before he died. I took his, now my Titan, BT-7274, and we began our journey together. Turns out the IMC on Typhon were building something."

"What was it?" Rarity asked.

"A Fold Weapon capable of destroying planets." Cooper said. "Though we killed several of the Apex Predator mercs the IMC hired to protect it along the journey, BT sacrificed himself to destroy the Weapon's core. I thought he was dead, but he managed to survive the blast. We recovered and transferred his Data to a new Titan. BT didn't come out unscathed, though. His memories of Typhon are a bit fuzzy, but he's still the same Titan I was given."

"That was a month ago." Daniel said. "Now, we're hunting the IMC Remnant Fleet, and that was what led us here. A Militia Spy Satellite recorded activity on this planet, so we came to investigate."

"That was quite an epic tale." Luna said. "One that I would love to read about in a book sometime. Anyway, are you in need of some refreshment? You must be hungry."

"Matter of fact,I am." Daniel said. "Let's get some lunch."

As the group headed to the dining room, Daniel breathed a sigh before moving to catch up with the others.

Author's Note

Update!