The sound Crackling flames greeted MAV-3N as she reactivated. Her optic sensors activate, though only one seems to be functioning at the moment. As she attempts to get up, a jolt of pain runs down her Spine and one of her arms. She never understood why they were programmed to feel pain. Thankfully though, her other arm doesn’t hurt, so- Wait… she can’t feel her other arm. It’s completely numb! Panic begins to set in as she looks to her bladed arm, attempting to move it. Nothing.

She attempts again, causing sparks to shoot out of the damaged servos. Shit. She’d have to have that repaired when she rendezvoused with the others. Speaking of which, where are they? She begins to look around with her one good eye, before they land on a grisly sight. The trooper that she had been talking to not even a minute before, K3V1N, was dead. Violently decapitated by debris. And as she looked around, more and more corpses littered her vision. As she finally laid her eye upon her best friend, devastator S3TIN41, she realized. There were none left. She was the only survivor.

Sorrow began to well up within her, as she let out a piercing cry. She failed them. She had failed to bring them the salvations she had promised them. But slowly, that grief turns to rage, and rage into determination. She may have failed them, but she wouldn’t fail herself. Their deaths would not be in vain. She would rebuild, no matter how long it took. And the automatons would rise again. Slowly getting up, she ran a quick diagnostic scan on herself. One of Her leg actuators in her right leg was damaged, and her blade arm had all of its servo’s and motors completely blow. Her left optical sensor was knocked loose, and her neck servo’s were knocked slightly out of place. A few oil and coolant hoses were knocked loose, and a piece of debris was stuck in her torso. But what was most important was her ACBD: her Automaton Commissar blueprint database. She began a scan, hoping that she still had all the blueprints needed to make an emergency outpost, before sighing in defeat. None of her building or unit blueprints survived. Thankfully though, she still had spare part and weapon blueprints. Determination filling her heart, she began to limp, hoping to find a cave nearby.

Thankfully, there was a cave very close to the crash site. As she made it in, she collapsed to the floor, grunting in pain. Bracing herself, she opened up a panel on her leg, oil spurting out. She reconnected the hose, before taking out the damaged actuator with a pained moan. After Making some quick repairs, she replaced the actuators before closing the panel. Next, she pulled out her damaged optic sensor with a pained hiss, before reaching back into her head and grabbing the loose wire and putting it back in. Finally, she grabbed the debris impaling her and yanked it out, a small fountain of oil gushing out. Quickly opening her chest panel, she shut the flow off from the damaged hoses, before pulling them out. With all that done, she did everything she could without spare parts. Now… she would have to scavenge.

She limped back over to the crash site, looking it up and down. However, instead of going in, she contemplated. Was she really about to violate the corpses of her men, her friends, just to save herself? No, she couldn’t bring herself to do that. The dropship, on the other hand, would be perfect. Plenty of parts, and not sentient or sentimental. With her plan later out, she began to comb through the wreckage, hoping to find servo’s , motors, and replacement hoses, among other parts.

Collecting everything of use, she piled them together, before beginning to bring them to the cave. Sitting back down, she began the painstakingly painful process of replacing all of her damaged servos and motors. It felt like days before she was halfway done, but a look at her internal clock told her it had been less than an hour. Sighing, she went back to work, and tried to power through the pain. After 90 agonizing minutes, she was finished, and finally had control of her blade arm again. A relieved sigh left her, as now the only thing she had to do was replace damaged hoses. Thankfully, it was a painless and quick process. As she finished turning the flow back on, she ran another scan, coming back with an 85% integrity. Satisfied with her repairs, she got back up, and headed back to the crash site.

For the next hour, she had gathered up the corpses of her fallen comrades, before proceeding to dig a hole. As she crawled out, she looked down to the pile of her comrades, grief welling up once again.
”I failed you… all of you. Forgive me.”
Slowly, she began to bring her comrades to the hole before setting them in.
”But I won’t fail again. I will make sure your deaths were not in vain.”
As she began to shovel dirt back onto the hole, she felt a stinging in her optical sensors. If she had been biological, she might have even thought she was crying.
”Cyberstan will live on, in your names brothers. Heart’s of steel, iron will.”
She gathered up some scraps from the crash, and erected a tombstone, before carving into it.
As she walked away, she looked back to her brothers final resting place.
”May you find the freedom in death, that you fought for in life.”

As she returned to her cave, she slumped to the ground. It always hurt to lose her men, but this time… these automatons were some of her best friends. They had been fighting together since Vernon Wells, and they never lost a single bot. To lose them all in one crash… her heart ached worse than even her body after the crash. She hung her head, quietly sobbing to herself. All they had ever wanted was peace, but super earth couldn’t have that! They just had to attack them, and force them to retaliate! Then they painted the automatons as the barbarians, and GENOCIDED them! It just wasn’t fair!

A scream of rage ripped from her vocal box, as she jumped up and punched the wall. Rage coursed through her pipes as she attacked the wall, slicing and punching it until a massive divot was made. Anger mildly vented, she sunk back to the ground, and hung her head again. What was she going to do? As she sat there, pondering, she soon became distracted, as a shrill horn pierced the air. Something was coming, and from how much the ground was shaking, it was coming fast. Jumping up, she ran out of the cave, expecting a fight. But as she left the mouth, she stopped in her place. A massive locomotive, colored bright pink, was barreling by.

Shining armor fingered in his solar armor. Even after all these years, it was his best armor, so he knew he had to take it for this. As his wife sat down next to him, he smiled, before wrapping an arm around her. She giggled and snuggled up to him, before quickly falling asleep. Shining rolled his eyes at how tired Cadence was. Poor mare hadn’t gotten much sleep since Celestia gave them this mission. Sighing, he looked out the window, before quietly gasping. For he could swear, if even for a moment, he saw a figure out there. A tall, lanky figure with glowing blood red eyes, carrying a massive blade. Just what did Celestia get them into?

Author's Note

The first main chapter, hope you enjoy! Oh, and if you were wondering, this is what the memorial said:

United in life, United in death. rest in peace
X6-99
T-700
K3V1N
R4I-D3N
S3TIN41
B1SH0P
H-4L
For the new dawn we March, in your name we fight