Of a Dying Breed

"HOLD FIRE!" The black soldier carrying the gatling laser commanded.

They were gone. Vanished.

"The fuck?" Was the general consensus on the disappearing mutes.

I got up, dusted myself off, and asked the computer, "Any evidence of where they went?"

"No. Their heat and brain signatures seemed to have gone suddenly. No trace to follow, either." It responded.

"So they teleported out, without being teleported out?"

"Perhaps an untraceable teleportation device has since been created while you were out?" The VI responded.

"Is there an encampment locally?"

"Hold up, are thinking what I think you're thinking?" The black soldier asked.

"We can't let them escape. If we're lucky, we can stop them from sending the coordinates and status of this base."

"There's a large number of sentient brain waves about 5 miles east. They're too far to count accurately, but I can tell there are many. I'll upload coordinates to your combat armor upon donning it."

"Are we actually fucking doing this?" I heard a soldier ask.

"Damn right we are. Get your armor and plasma weaponry, as well as stun rods. We're assaulting a mute camp, boys!"

"Can you believe that there's an entire race that's been hidden in the mountains?" Twilight said excitedly to no one in particular in the library.

"A better question is: Why did they try to kill us?" Rainbow Dash responded angrily with a glance at Pinkie's unconscious and gnarled body.

"They might have thought we were trespassing on their territory. Many, um... less intelligent animals react like that." Fluttershy said, trying to ignore her unconscious friends in the corner near the basement door..

"They can't be unintelligent! I've never seen magic shaped and controlled in such an-" Twilight was practically bouncing.

"Twilight Sparkle, it doesn't matter whether or not they're intelligent. They viciously attacked your friends, and would have killed you if I hadn't teleported you out." Princess Celestia said firmly, causing Twilight to lower her head.

"But you do raise a good point," Celestia continued, "they have harnessed magic to an extreme point. They pose quite a threat in such close proximity to Ponyville, we have to take action."

"Um, Princess, if you wouldn't mind..." Fluttershy stuttered.

"Yes, Fluttershy?

"Well, if they are intelligent, and they acted out of fear, maybe they can be reasoned with?"

"Of course, if you can find a way to safely try to contact them, feel free. I would like to avoid any conflict, but I don't feel that we'll be able to avoid it." Celestia said in a resigned voice.

Pinkie gurgled up blood and coughed.

Zitra waited in The Centre, hoping that someone who knew something would drop by. Everybody was half-heartedly killing time,  trying to keep occupied until something happened. Zitra was moving from the firing range to the weights, when she heard the hurried march of a group of soldiers coming from the tunnel to the entrance.

"Hey, what's going on!?" She shouted to the soldiers as they entered The Centre.

"Mute intrusion, we're gearing up to try and intercept." One near the lead responded.

"Get the mechs ready, we'll need a few." Another shouted as they exited The Centre.

There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by shouts and reorganization. Engineers ran down to the mech garage to activate them, comm operators ran to the Comm Room, and Zitra began organizing the miscellaneous civies into a defense force.

Our armor was basically a second layer of skin. Very thick and powerful skin. It had a VI that relayed relevant information and responded automatically to your needs, barring one. It matched the color of your surroundings, rerouted power, and improved your "natural" abilities 50 fold, as well as a dozen other things. Powered off, it looked black pudding skin.

"I can't believe we're going to assault a bunch of mutes." I heard somebody mumble as they slipped on their suit in the cramped quarters.

"Look, mutes are dumb. Sometimes they can be convinced to switch sides, if you strong arm them enough. If we can beat them down, but offer gracious mercy, we may be able to convert them. Do I need to tell you why that would be good?" I responded.

"If we're just going to knock them out and beat them up, why the plasma weapons?" He asked.

"Who said that that's all we're going to do? We aren't proving that we're the ones to side with if it looks like we're unable to kill."

"All right, so we are going to have some fun!" I heard a youthful voice.

"Are the mechs ready?" I spoke through the comm unit in my suit's breast.

"We have 15 ready, sir. Do you need any more?" I heard an engineer respond through my hood.

"Warm up two more, and load one-third of them with only non-lethal weapons; load the rest with non-lethal capabilities. Switching to secure assault channel, link up and get to the garage." I left the small square room.

The complex was designed to compliment our training and abilities, specifically while suited. The halls were large, wide, and mostly empty; and you could jump quickly with the suits on. We made full use by leaping off the walls to get around corners, to keep momentum. We were in the garage in no time.

"We're opening the door and clearing out." An engineer wearing a red enclosed Maintenance Suit stated as he fiddled with a remote.

Mechs are extremely varied. Everything from massive, slow assault; to barely bigger than you.

I hopped into the nearest mech and plugged in. It was a Roadrunner Strafe-Class, though the real name is far more complicated and numeric. It had multi-directional treads and a small swivel cockpit, with two programmable plasma cannons. It was unpainted, or the paint had come off.

"How many of you will be riding? Didn't get enough mechs for everybody." I heard the black soldier ask.

"About 20, I think." I heard a response.

"Grab a mounted gun or hold tight," I heard a mechanic, "we're opening the doors now."

The groan of ancient metal scraping and coming to life was undoubtedly awful to anyone without a noise filter. The door opened, revealing a lush and untouched forest.

"I'll lead, follow in five minutes, think of it as an emergency scout. No mounts." I ordered.

I sped away on the mech. I activated the main cannons; I set them to "contained", "concussive", and "lethal".

How should I approach this? I thought, leaping out with guns blazing will be dramatic and fun, and may even scare them. Yeah, I'll go with that.

I saw the clearing ahead. I switched to my mech's speaker, so that the residents could hear me. I smashed through the last trees, and found myself at the edge of a full-blown town. I didn't take it in for too long, though.

I fired my cannons at two of the largest houses I could quickly see.

"What was that!?" Rainbow Dash shouted in response to the two large explosions outside.

"I don't know; we should-" Twilight was cut off by her house being torn to bits. She heard a strange barking as she pushed herself up. Her ears were ringing, and her eyes bleary, but she clearly saw a giant device rolling past her house.

I hope the Princess gets back soon. Twilight thought.

"Surrender, and the next wave won't kill you all. Hey, you, stay inside!" I fired one of my cannons at a fleeing mute.

I took my hands off the controls and let the VI take over, "These things must not have been designed for battle. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a blood painted sleigh! Jingle-" Something hit my mech significantly, interrupting my jolly song. I swiveled to see what hit me. I saw three large, differently colored mutes standing from where the shot should have come from.

"Skibjork!" The pink one on the left said.

"Nispoc! Feark!" The dark one to the right provided.

"Dojorn!" The middle white one finished. I recognized the white one, which made her a high priority target; I relayed so to the men who were now on their way.

"Surrender or-!" They were clearly designed for battle, because my mech was blown off its treads. I climbed out of the cockpit and prepared my stun rod in my right hand. I leaped onto the overturned mech, and jumped down to confront the mutes directly.

"I don't suppose you speak a proper language?" I asked them.

"Gjord?" The white one responded.

"Good, then I won't feel bad about 'accidentally' using to high of a voltage and hitting you too much." I dialed up my stun rod's voltage to its highest voltage.

The pink one 'fired' its beam; I jumped up.

Round One. FIGHT!