As the alarms across the Hydra blared the MARES commandos gathered in their fighters. Pansy and Scope jumped in their bomber and quickly took off into space with the rest of the squadron. Each fighter and bomber took flight and after the Hydra’s cargo bay depressurized and the doors opened they were off into space.
The squadron flew into a maelstrom of destruction and chaos.
As they breached the safety of the hangar the squadron broke hard left to avoid colliding with the ships as they skimmed the surface of the Sol Dios. The squadron formed up into a tight arrow formation and took a nose dive into the smallest opening of the Sol Dios weapon port. The hole was just big enough for them to squeeze through.
As they made it through the squadron scattered into smaller groups. Three squadrons formed, two fighter supports and one bomber squadron. They circled back in the interiour of the weapon port to face the blast doors that closed. The fighters circled around nearby as the bombers began blowing away at the doors.
Private Scope and his pilot Pansy were leading the formation, dropping their bomb load onto the blast doors. They would fly close to the surface just skimming it as they ran across the contoured surface. Once the doors were in sight they pulled up dropping their photon bombs on the doors.
Outside the Sol Dios the Hydra, Enterprise, Columbia, Ares, and the Ranger fired their weapons at the doors trying to break through by doing a series of Beta Maneuvers.
The ships would fly about 1000 meters out from the surface firing their primary weapons at the doors. Once they passed by they would fly out make a U-turn and do it again while the larger ships provided back up and fire support on the doors.
On the Sol Dios the Empress grew angry with each passing moment of the five ships attacking her station, and succeeding. Then she saw on her personal comm. There was a message coming in from her younger sister’s ship. Sighing, the Empress opened the channel to see her dark blue sister gasping for breath and head bloodied. The background showed a scene of death and chaos as consoles were ablaze, crew ponies were down or helping the injured, and the readings showed the ship was on the verge of destruction.
Empress Celestia scoffed narrowing her eyes at her sister, she was not pleased.
“SISTER! It’s I Luna! We need your help, cough!” The younger alicorn begged, through bloody coughs. “Hugh! My ship has been badly damaged we need more help! Please sister!’
“Oh, dear little sister of mine,” Celestia cooed with a sinister grin. “You have failed to keep your prisoners. You lost several of our ships. I have to say this doesn’t look good for you. You have one last chance to redeem yourself in my eyes. Use the entity and destroy those ships attacking my station!”
The younger alicorn nodded as the screen went blank leaving the Empress to herself as she walked towards an old fashion wooden wardrobe. Opening the wooden doors, they creaked loudly under aged stress revealing a set of ancient looking battle armor in gold coloring.
The Empress slipped off her uniform and crown and donned her armor. First was her body armor, then her helmet, gauntlets, braces and her life support pack. Once she was done she grinned and stomped loudly out of her chambers and into the Sol Dios.
On the Hydra things were going poorly. The extensive amount of damage the ship suffered had caused had the crew working constantly to keep it functioning and not break apart from the seams. Simply flying around was breaking the ship apart, the main reactor was on the verge of a complete breach, and the weapons were only functional if the shields were down. All in all not a very good situation and on the bridge. Octavia was hyperventilating in Trixie’s arms as the azure unicorn barked orders to her crew.
“-Sunset, help Lt. Scratch with the new weapon she’s working on!”
Sunset saluted and got to work with the white unicorn at their station preparing the new weapon.
Trixie then turned to Lt. Claw.
“Claw keep firing, but don’t burn out the power cells!” The griffin saluted keeping his beak in his monitor firing as the Hydra continued it’s passe. “3rd of 5, keep us going as long as you can. Octavia,” She suddenly whispered the hyperventilating mare in her arms. “Sweetie you need to calm down.”
“I AM CALM!” Octavia screamed in a very stressed voice.
Trixie reared back rubbing her ears.
“I’m sorry, I’m just stressed. We’re literally breaking apart at the seams, and we are so far from home I just…. I can’t-”
Octavia was cut short from her breathless rant when Trixie hugged her. The unicorn pressed the grey mare against her chest and storked her mane trying to calm her down.
“It’s fine Octavia. We’ll get through this,” Trixie said to her friend. “We have the best crew in the galaxy, and the best ship of three major nations of our world. Nothing's gonna stop us.”
Octavia sniffed hard wiping her eyes feeling rather foolish at her open display on the bridge. “Really?” She asked Trixie.
The captain of the Hydra nodded with a kind smile. “We’ve been through some tough times since we left dry dock, but the Hydra is still here, we’re still here and we will defeat this enemy. We have a plan. We have ample allise for it to succeed, we just need to stay the course use our heads and we will emerge victorious!”
Trixie didn’t realized that her old show boating habits kicked in and she had managed to stand on her chair while she gave her speech and was now in a heroic pose on her chair.
The ponies on the bridge stared in awe at her until the awkward silence made Trixie realize what she just did. Slipping back into her seat with a blush, the mare coughed in her hoof and adjusted her collar.
“Well, don’t just stand there gawking at me! Get to your stations!” Trixie yelled.
“Aye ma’am!”
The crew saluted feeling invigorated by her short speech and got back to work working extra hard to make it through this battle. Deep in the engineering things were starting to get really hectic. Pinkie Pie was rushing around trying to get things under control but was overwhelmed by the sudden mechanical demands of the ship due to long term damage.
The pink pony was nothing more than a blur as she rushed from one station to another telling ponies and changelings what to do next before she rush off to do something herself or prep another station to be taken charge of. All around engineering sparks flew, consoles started to malfunction, the reactor was now in the critical zone, needless to say things were getting out of hand.
On the Enterprise T’pol was monitoring some strange readings when something strange caught her attention. On her display there were several new warp signatures entering the system. She did a series of long ranged scans and found it was a fleet of warships from the Klingon Empire.
After warning Archer, which upset him greatly, the human captain got up from his chair and paced back and forth trying to keep his mind preoccupied. It didn’t work long. When he paced the tenth time the ship shook at its very core as a powerful beam weapon shot though the battle fleets and struck them dead on the dorsal section of the saucer.
Limping towards them was the Avenger with several Empire ships and Romulan ships shielding it. It charged it’s canon again and fired. The shot missed the Enterprise and impacted the surface of the Sol Dios leaving a decent amount of damage to the weapon port covers.
Seeing this as an opportunity the Hydra and Enterprise joined up to focus fire on the weapon port while the Ares, Columbia, and Ranger took on the enemy vessels.
A message was sent immediately to the fleet and the entirety of Starfleet and her allies focused fired on the damaged weapons port. The fighters quickly diverted away from their attack run and watched as the Earth vessels formed a small cluster and fired their phasers and torpedoes at the hatch. Their phases were like long lances piercing the outer hull as scraps of debris broke from the main body of the Sol Dios. Then the torpedoes hit destroying larger chunks of the hatches, combined with the concentrated fire coming from the other ships the hatch was easily destroyed.
Octavia watched from the bridge with Trixie by her side. The Ranger was side by side with the Hydra and Enterprise when the main weapons port hatch was destroyed. The firing ceased and Trixie saw the opportunity to strike.
“3rd of 5, make haste and take us in the weapon port!” Trixie ordered.
3rd of 5 nodded pouring all power to the engines hurling the Hydra towards the weapon port. Archer and Cole barely noticed the ship making its mad charge towards the hatch when a fleet of Romulan vessels stopped them from advancing with their equine friends. Moments later the Romulans dispersed into two groups and gave chase to the Enterprise. Columbia and the Stargazer diverted from their attack to help defend Enterprise from the Romulans as they fired their green bolt disruptors at their prey.
Distracting the enemy ships the fighters followed their mother ship into the depths of the Sol Dios. Scope took the controls of his bomber while Pansy worked on the weapons.
“Hey Private,” She said getting Scopes attention. “Try not to fly into anything, ‘kay?” She said playfully winking at him.
The young stallion blushed looking outside the cockpit.
“Shut up!” He cried out spinning the ship.
Pansy chuckled watching the radar. The squadron was close up on the rear of the Hydra. Their ship was leading them through a barrage of turbolaser fire which was of no threat to the ship, but to the fighters and bombers it would have been a death sentence for them had the Hydra not been there to shield them.
Scope looked outside the cockpit at the Hydra, its massive engines reverberating the bomber he flew in. From behind him he missed the subtle playful grin Pansy gave as she watched him look outside the cockpit.
“It’s really amazing isn’t it?” She asked him, leaning over his chair.
“Yeah, I know it’s a war out there but, there’s something about flying that I wish I could experience for myself.”
Pansy reached over the chair and touched his shoulder rubbing it gently. Scope smiled touching her hoof with his.
“”Maybe I can show you after this is all over,” Pansy suggested to him.
“I think I’d like that-”
*Deet Deet Deet!*
The console suddenly went red and started beeping loudly as Scope and Pansy looked over it.
“What’s going on Pasny?” Scope asked alarmed.
“The lasers. They’ve stopped.” She said looking outside.
Pansy looked over her console when a series of low beeps caught her attention as the radar seeing a large blip coming from behind them.
“We have an unidentified bogey coming in! All fighters prepare for close quarters encounter!” Pansy screamed over the comm.
A series of rogers and confirmations later the squadron adjusted their formation as a large craft came speeding towards them. The craft was a large once easily two of their bombers in size. It matched their speed as it came between the fighters and bombers and remained stationary for a moment. Nobody moved their ships, a moment later it spun around flexing its massive arms out bashing into two fighters and sending them into spiraling doom.
A panicked voice called over the comms., “Break formation! Break! BREAK!!”
Scope turned the controls spinning the bomber into a spin and nose dived below the Hydra as the lasers resumed firing picking off any ships that veered too far from the protection of the ship. The bomber stopped just shy of the opening for the turbo lasers as Pansy relayed instructions to Scope. The craft came into view of them, it was a sight to see. It had a base shaped like the body of a crab with three sharp wing like structures around a single huge engine that attached to the rear. It’s massive slaw like arms were bulky and menacingly clamping as it reached for the bomber.
Inside the craft the empress smirked as she looked out the cockpit of her fighter with nothing but hostility in her mind.
Scope panicked at the closing claw and drove the bomber under the Hydra skimming the surface of the shields as he not only dodged the pursuing craft, but the turbo laser fire as well. The dance of dodging ensued and for a while it looked as though the two ships were dancing in space, with the laser fire flashing around them like a well choreographed show when the shields of the Hydra absorbed them.
As they danced around the surface of the Hydra another fighter came up behind the Empress’s craft and fired its twin disruptors forcing her to retreat. Nimbley the craft dodged around the disruptor fire and disappeared around one of the Hydra’s neccels.
Scope and Pansy sighed in relief when a voice cut through the comm. Making them look at their consoles.
“Hey, beef stick! You and I are even now!”
Pansy stifled a chuckle as Scope groaned hitting his head against the glass polymer of the fighter's canopy.
“Ugh, I hate you so much Scilica….” Scope whinned.
“Aww, you did miss me,” Scilica said with a playful tone in her voice.
Pansy scoffed Crossing her arms and glaring at the console.
Scope smiled and responded kindly with a chuckle to Scilica, “Thanks for the save.”
“Whatever, just stop playing with your beef stick and help us. The Hydra’s about to penetrate the inner sanctum to the reactor chamber!” Scilica said with a hint of irritation slipping into her tone.
“Confirmed. Where’s the hostile?” Scope asked.
He got his answer as Scilica's fighter suddenly burst into flames and spiraled downwards vanishing from sight. The Empreses craft dove down from above and began it’s attack on the MAREs Squadron scattering them again. The attack was so sudden that it made a few ships break formation into the open where they were easy prey for the turbolasers.
*Hydra Bridge*
Commander Octavia was busy watching the main view screen. The Hydra had just passed through the weapon port hatch and was making it’s way down towards the main reactor core of the Sol Dios. Trixie had retreated to main engineering, Sunset and Vinyl were working hard to finish their new weapon, Lyra was working on the comms, and Lt. Claw was preparing for the fight ahead.
Octavia felt herself take a moment to relax and rest her aching shoulders. She hadn’t realized just how tense she was until just now. She took a deep calming breath allowing her lungs to fill with the ships filtered air. It was relaxing as she felt her body melt away the anxiety from the past few day; but it was short lived.
A loud beeping sounded and Octavia looked over to Claw who was busy trying to do something. He had his eyes narrowed as he scanned over his console, like he was fixated on something.
“Lt. Claw, what’s going on?” Octavia asked him.
“An unknown craft has appeared on sensors and is attacking the MAREs Squadron!” Claw said. “I can’t lock onto the enemy craft, not without risking hitting our own ships.”
“Order the squadron to fly into the hangar, have a strike team ready to fend off the intruder.” Octavia ordered. “Major Spitfire, get your team ready for an intruder in the hangar.”
*Deet* Roger that, Commander Tubby!* Deet*
Octavia growled, grinding her teeth and rubbing her clentched hoof over the armof her cahir. She hated the nickname Spitfire gave her ever since the Academy. Shrugging it off she got up and went to the turbolift.
“3rd of 5, you have the bridge.” She said as the lift opened and she stepped inside. “Try not to burn the ship down while i’m gone.”
As the lift doors closed 3rd of 5 looked over his shoulder to Lt. Claw. He waved his holey hoof at the griffin to get his attention.
“Why did she say not to burn the ship down?” The changeling asked. “Why would I want to do that?”
*MAREs Squadron*
Scope looked out the cockpit to see if he could find any trace of the enemy craft. Seeing no sign of it he pulled the bomber down beneath the Hydra once more for cover and rejoined the rest of the group only to see Silica's ship barely keeping itself together.
Just then the Empresses ship came about from the side and began to fire at the bombers. They took evasive action as the craft sped through them without hesitation. As the craft circled around there was a mass communique from Major Spitfire over the comms.
“All mares return to the hangar. We’re going to draw the enemy to us and strike when they arrive,” Spitfire said, as the squadron flew up into the hangar bay.
There in the middle of the hangar was Spitfire and several more commandos and security personnel with power armor and rocket launchers. She used a single baton to order the eships into the hangar not to land but remain on standby.
Scope tried to fly the ship in the tight quarters, but lost control and began to panic as the ship moved itself into position. Once he realized the ship wasn’t going to crash he looked behind him to see Pansy had taken control. She positioned the bomber in front of the fighters as the first line of defense for them. Once in position she left the ship to hover above Spitfire and her commandos and the security staff, she then looked down at Scope and gave a playful wink to him. He smiled and looked outside the cockpit ready to take control of the ship if need be.
Outside Major Spitfire walked behind her troops giving them an inspiring speech, which consisted mostly of her yelling about the glories of past MAREs commandos and such. He power armor made her rather bulky looking and gave her an awkward waddle in her step. In spite of all this and the encumbrance of the armor she had a wide grin on her face as she walked behind a changeling commando and swat her flank with a armor clad hoof.
“-and remember commands, if you run or cry like little fillies I’ll throw you in the brig and line you up afterwards for public humiliation! Now, what are we going to do?!” She asked with her drill sergeant voice.
“Defend this ship with our lives!” The commandos droned.
Spitfire looked at them with a smile filled with pride. She puffed her chest out and nodded to them saying, “That’s right! You’ll defend this ship as you were trained to do in the academy! Our enemies are all around us, and we need to be prepared! I want rocketeers on the rafts-” (Several ponies saluted and used rocket packs on their backs to leap onto the rafts above the fighters and bombers. “-I want rocketeers at every door and behind every barricade!”
As Spitfire offered them the ponies and changelings each dispersed into designated groups and leapt to their defense posts. Spitfire herself leapt into the air and landed on Scopes bomber. She landed on the cockpit and looked down inside seeing the young stallion inside looking up at her in awe. She winked at him and prepared to hold her rocket launcher up. Then she waited.
Outside the ship Empress Celestia growled seeing the fighters and bombers retreat to the Hydra hangar above her. She hated losing in fights, but she decided that a retreat still counted as a victory.
She looked around and saw the Hydra was about to get to the core. The Empress growled. She powered up her ships shields and pulled back on her throttles. This started a chain reaction that made the ship transform. It slowly opened up its shell and readjusted itself into an almost octopus like structure before shooting upwards towards the hangar.
Instantly she was barraged with rockets and disruptor fire from the fighters, bombers, and the commandos. The Empress landed her craft on the hangar floors, the rockets and disruptor fire did little damage to its shields, which were being reinforced by her magic tenfold.
The craft twitched with every rocket that hit it, but shrugged it off like they were nothing. Spitfire leaped into action from the bomber landing on one of the claw arms. She shot her last rocket as the main body nearly point blank. Thanks to her power armor she remained uninjured from the blast. She then slipped her disruptor rifle from her back into her hands and started shooting the claw she stood on at the elbow gears trying to destroy it.
The Empress hissed adjusting her ships claw to strike at Spitfire. This forced the armored pegasus to leave her perch or risk being crushed. With a mighty leap she was off the machine as its other arm crashed down where she was moments ago. Spitfire sighed in relief when suddenly the Empress pressed forward and started thrashing about in her craft. Its several tentacle arms and two massive claw arms tore through the already heavily damaged hagar and started tearing through the first bomber.
Scope panicked and was yelling and flailing around as Pansy turned their bomber to face the Empresses craft.
“Pansy! What are you doing?” Spitfire yelled over the comm. Seeing them turn to face the Empress.
A moment later Pansy replied calmly, “I’m gonna use a photon bomb on the enemy-”
“ARE YOU CRAZY!?!” Scope’s voice screeched over the comm, causing a feedback loop to occur in Spitfire’s ear. “You destroy us with the enemy!!!”
“Got a better idea?” Pansy asked.
Spitfire shook her head ducking as a metal arm skimmed over her head. “NO GO PANSY! NO GO! I am ordering you to lock down your bombs! I mean it solider!”
*BOOM!* *CRASH!* *THOOM!*
“Damn it!” Spitfire curse activating her comm to the bridge. “Major Spitfire to bridge! *THOOM!* We got an enemy in the hangar and we can’t get it! How long until we reach our target!?”
*STATIC* “This is commander Octavia, Major, what’s going on down there!?”
“Enemy has boarded us and we’re getting our flanks handed to us down here! We need ETA for the drop on the core!”
At this point several commandos surrounded the invading craft and were firing small arms at it with little effect. The craft turned to face them and with a powerful straight beam it fired an intense blast that incinerated several of them at once and tore through the hull like it was wet tissue paper.
Spitfire felt her heart race seeing the amount of damage that was being done.
“Bridge! I say again, what’s our ETA!?”
*STATIC* “Major, this is the bridge. We’re on target now. Launch all fighters and bombers!” Octavia’s voice said over the comm.
“Roger!” Spitfire affirmed changing the channel on her comm. “A craft we’re on target in the core! LAUNCH! LAUNCH!”
Spitfire ducked again and rolled just intime as a damaged fighter was thrown across the hangar and landed near her. She was standing up when the fighter exploded. The force from the explosion sent her flying across the area and into the nearby wall under one of the bombers. A piece of debris had pinned her shoulder to the wall and another through her gut.
She cried out in pain as she tried to move but felt the debris pinch at her insides. Groaning she reached over to activate her comm. Another explosion later and Spitfire felt a searing pain run through her arm and part of her lower arm went flying off.
“MAJOR!”
Scope saw this and without thinking he ejected the cockpit and leapt over it. He landed on the ground rolling and rushed to the side of his CO. From behind he could hear Pansy calling out to him, but he ignored her.
Several of the fighters and bombers flew out of the hagar. The Empress swung her crafts arms outward and managed to destroy two of the fighters as they passed, but the majority of them got out. Transforming to its fighter from the Empress left the hangar and gave chase to the fighters and bombers.
Scope was hiding behind cover when the enemy ship left. Seeing the opening he rushed to Spitfire’s side he knelt down and inspected her where the debris had pierced her body. After a quick examination he made the following assessment.
“Well, good news Major,” He said, Spitfire looked up at him worriedly. “You’re not going to die. Yet.” He said with a smug grin.
Spitfire chuckled in pain swatting his arm with her one hoof she had left.
“You are soo going to the brig for this,” She said to Scope.
Scope reached for his communicator and activated it with a tap of his hoof. “Medical emergency in the hangar, Major Spitfire has been injured. Send a team down now!”
Spitfire grabbed hold of his armor and pulled him closer. “I need you out there soldier.” She said weakly.
“B-but Major-”
“BUT NOTHING PRIVATE!” Spitfire groaned clutching her severed limb. “Listen. I want you to take your bomber with Corporal Pansy and do what you can to destroy the station. We don’t have much time before they drain the star and destroy this-gah!”
“Alright Major. Stay here the medical team is on its way.”
Without another word Spitfire nodded to him, panting heavily as she watched him enter his bomber. Pansy sealed the hatch and seconds later their bomber hovered closer to the center of the hangar, where it remained for three seconds. The sound of it’s engine reverberating sent a chill down Spitfire’s spine, but she cracked a smile watching as it launched from the hangar into the battle to come.
“Good luck.” She said before blacking out.
*Hydra Moments earlier*
The Hydra sped through the weapons port with neck breaking speed. All around the turbo lasers fired on it doing little to no damage to the nearly crippled ship. When the Hydra made it into the inner sanctum of the Sol Dios it’s fighters and bombers left the safety of their mother ship and began an attack run towards the core followed closely by the Empresses craft.
On the bridge Octavia was still in command having a hard time with it. She was thankful Trixie left her with easy decisions to make like destroy the enemy instillation, but she was still hesitant to do so. The bridge crew could tell something weighed heavily on their Commander, but were too engrossed in their tasks to ask anything.
Still they motioned on and when the Hydra arrived at its destination Commander Octavia gave the order to attack as ordered. The core itself was in a large circular chamber and was massive. Thousands of kilometers in diameter where all the weapon ports joined to the main firing unit on the core. The core was a gravity suspended sphere with several large spike protruding it. Each spike was a node that lined up with a weapon port, around it was a light blue energy field that kept it suspended in place.
After conducting an intensive scan of the reactor Sunset discovered that the core was an entire star condensed into a small containment unit. To destroy it she determined the only way to bring down the reactor was to destroy the gravity wells that were atop and below the reactor. The problem was they were protected by energy shields.
The empress was less than pleased.
This left the Empress with little choice. With her enemies on the verge of a potential victory, she opened a comm. To her sister and ordered several of their ships to enter the Sol Dios to protect the core. In the meantime the internal defenses came online. Turbolasers and massive missile pods ejected from the walls into small independent drones that flew after the Hydra and its fighters and bombers. Several plasma cannon nodes opened up around the core and fired blue beams of highly concentrated plasma at the Hydra as a second shield went up around the core.
The Hydra did its best to evade the plasma cannons but with so many around it was nearly impossible to dodge them all. Several of the plasma beams hit the Hydra clipping it and shaking the internals of the ship. Several of the missile pods fired simultaneously unloading hundreds of missiles.
Close coordination with the Squadron was kept. While the squadron flew in a tight formation flying towards the upper portion of the Sol Dios shield generators, the missiles followed leaving themselves exposed. The Hydra made a passing run, and thanks to come well placed disruptor fire from Lt. Claw the missiles were all but destroyed. A few survived the past but were evaded with ease by the fighters and bombers as they made their first pass firing and dropping their photon bombs into the generators. The first one was destroyed by the initial pass and the MAREs squadron cheered in their victory, but were cut short when the Empress cut through them forcing them to scatter once again.
Main engineering was a mess. Trixie and Pinkie were both working hard trying to keep shields and weapons online. Trixie was in one of the many power coupling ducts trying to reroute power for disruptors through the tertiary systems. All the while Trixie cursed their rotten luck. To her the ship was performing phenomenally considering they went through five major battles and had next to zero repair time. She was also impressed with her crew's performance under these stressful times.
Pinkie was as joyful as ever. While most of the crew were thrown or tossed around like ragdolls due to a slight malfunction with the inertia dampeners, Pinkie was bouncing around in her usual manner like nothing was wrong. She assisted Trixie in completing their repairs and not a moment too soon. Soon as they finished a plasma discharge form a weapon node on the Sol DIos penetrated through the shields and armor of the ship damaging primary power.
The secondary and tertiary systems kicked in and brought the weapons online as quickly as they fell.
This gave Claw the power he needed to destroy one of the shield generators at the base of the Sol Dios power core, but that is where things got difficult.
From one weapons port came the Avenger and several romulan vessels. The plasma nodes reduced their fire to not fit their allies as Heiress Luna positioned her ship within striking distance of the Hydra, but far enough away to not confront it directly. The Romulans whoever went full force to engage the Hydra in close quarters.
The mass amount of ships not only made life hard for the Hydra but the MAREs Squadron as well. To avoid the Romulans they MAREs were forced to retreat back to the Hydra after signaling for an emergency pickup.
When Octavia received word of the retreat she found herself in a difficult position.
“Ugh, what do they want from me!?” She cried.
She looked at the tactical view screen seeing they barely destroyed any of the generators. In their current condition they wouldn’t be able to succeed anytime soon either. A series of strikes from the weapon nodes shook the ship expelling Octavia from her chair.
Stumbling forward Octavia grabbed hold of 3rd of 5’s chair and used it to prop herself upright.
“Fire torpedoes!” She ordered to Claw. “3rd of 5, bring us to coarse 313 mark 003. We need to pickup our fighters!”
BZZZT!!
“Yes, Commander!” 3rd of 5 chirped as he turned the ship around heading to the squadron. “We’re coming on them no-” *THOOM!*
“We just took a direct hit to deck eight and seven!” Sunset yelled over the blaring alarms.
“Seal off those decks! Helm get us behind the core so we’re out of line from the enemy cruiser!” Octavia turned to Lyra and waddled over to her while the ship shook. “Lyra, signal the squadron about our course change, tell them to follow us and dock as soon as they’re able.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Having taken care of that Octavia returned to her seat and sat down. Deciding what to do next. The Hydra took cover on the opposite side of the core but the Romulans were flanking them forcing them to expose themselves after each attack. A few minutes later Lyra signaled that the MAREs squadron were back in the hold and secure.
A moment later Sunset came up beside Octavia and leaned to her ear and said, “Commander, we completed the weapon. Lt. Scratch and i are ready to try it out.”
Octavia sighed in relief feeling that this would be a good turn of events for them, but Sunset added one last thing that shattered that moment of fleeting relief.
‘There is one problem. We don't have enough power for sustained use. We use it once and the ship will lose all power.” Sunset finished with a sigh.
Octavia lowered her head into her hooves feeling a headache coming on.
“Why can’t we seem to catch a break?” She asked.
Looking up she casually glanced up at Sunset Shimmer. For a moment her heart skipped as she looked deeply into her light blue eyes. Something about the unicorn emanate confidence and sent chills down Octavia’s spine. She stared at her until Sunset cleared her throat knocking her out of her stupor.
“Oh, sorry, I’m just stressed. What does the weapon do?” She asked Sunset.
“It’s a short ranged Ultrasonic Scrambler, Commander.” Sunset said without any hesitation, and a hint of pride in her voice.
Octavia cocked her brow nodding mindlessly, when the ship took another hit and the alarms blared again. Two Romulan vessels flew past the Hydra and made wide turned to double back for another pass. 3rd of 5 worked fast to evade the two ships. He managed to squeeze between them as Claw launched a volley of torpedoes destroying both ships as two more Romulan craft came up behind them and gave chase while the Avenger circled around the core to cut off the Hydra.
Octavia took the time to direct her attention back to Sunset.
“Alright, Lt. Shimmer, what does that mean exactly?”
“Essentially we can knockout the enemy shield grid and leave the gravity wells exposed. With a volley of torpedoes in these areas,” She gave Octavia a PDA to show her her plan. “We can destroy the gravity suspension of the core and destroy it. Problem is it’s a oneway ticket for us, but it WILL bring down the station. I guarantee it.”
“Great so we save the universe to die for it?” Octavia asked sarcastically. “Great. Just how I wanted to be remembered in the history books.”
The grey earth pony thought for a moment when the sight of the Avenger made her hold her breath. The Romulan ships split apart from their chase as the Avenger powered her forward cannon. 3rd of 5 saw it coming and brought the ship into a dive skimming the surface of the core. The Avenger fired missing the Hydra and caused significant damage to the shield around the core.
The Avenger took after the Hydra following it around the core trying to get and angle on it, but the smaller ship proved too maneuverable for them to track and eventually broke off the chase to regroup with the Romulans.
*Empress Celestia*
The Empress grew tired of watching her sisters folly.
Seeking to destroy the nuisance herself she prepared her ship for a risky maneuver. Transforming it into an almost drill like form she flew towards the Hydra with great speed. In moments to come she was within the Hydra’s range as her ship began spinning like a drill.
Her ship penetrated the hull and shields of the Hydra stopping two decks below. When her ship stopped moving she ejected her cockpit and leapt out to see ten crew ponies in various states of shock. She smirked evilly at them as the scrambled to get away from her.
Using her magic she levitated all of them towards her as she drew a small object from her armor. She gave the object a quick flick and out came a long reed energy blade that hissed. It reached a meter in length humming loudly as she used her magic to bring the ten crew ponies towards herself and stuck them down without mercy.
The red blade cut through the ponies one by one and she discarded the bodies to the side after each one was struck down. One pony while waiting for his inevitable doom reached for his comm activating it. He was a young earth pony stallion, light brown with a dark brown mane. He was pudgy with bright yellow eyes and a goatee.
“Ensign Porkins to the bridge! Enemy has boarded the ship! I repeat and enemy has boarded-AHH!!”
The stallion was stuck down and thrown to the side as the Empress smirked at her defeated foes.
“This is where this little rebellion ends.” She sneered.
*Hydra Engineering*
Trixie wiped her brow after running through the entire section like a madmare she was given a list of things from Pinkie to look into when her PDA beeped in her chest pocket. She was sitting near a maintenance shaft when she heard her PDA. She pulled it out and looked at it to see she received a message from Octavia.
Message received from: Octachello
Sent to: GP Trixie November 19, 2154
Trixie, we’ve lost internal sensors and communication. A missile has penetrated our hull in the messhall. We can’t seal it so we’re venting atmosphere. Please assess and repair.
Commander Octavia, Commanding officer of the Hydra
PS Your seat is very comfy. XD
Trixie groaned smacking her head with the PDA. She knew Octavia had a sense of humor, but she knew from past experiences this was different. She knew Octavia was relaying trouble to her because the internal communication was down, but the jokes were her way of showing her nervousness.
Trixie shook her head slipping the PDA back into her jumpsuit pouch. She grabbed several tools and a box. She walked towards the turbolift with a quick pace. She spotted a pink blur rush past her and she called out.
“Lt. Pinkie front center!”
Suddenly the pink pony was beside her with a big tooth smile.
“Hiya Captain! What can I do for you? Yes.” Pinkie asked her CO.
“First off Lieutenant, that was the worst way to address and officer,” Trixie grumbled at the pony. “Second I want you to come with me so we can fix a breach in the messhall. Come with me.”
“Okie dokie Captain!” Pinkie said skipping after Trixie.
They both entered the turbolift but before it closed Pinkie stuck her head out inhaled deeply and loudly. Then without warning she pulled out a megaphone and yelled into it, “STAR STRIPE YOU’RE IN CHARGE UNTIL I GET BACK, KAaaaaaaaayyyy!!!!????!!!!”
Several ponies fell to the ground gripping bleeding ears and/or crying out in pain. A zebra stuck her head over one of the railings smiled and waved to them. “Okay! See you then Pinks!”
Pinkie smiled closing the lift door and hummed to herself. The megaphone disappeared without a trace, and Trixie Glared at her pink companion with complete spite. It wasn’t long before they reached their destination and the doors opened to reveal a large armored pony glaring down at hem.
VZZZT!
A large red beam sword of some kind reverberated sending chills down their spines. Trixie and Pinkie both smiled nervously at the figure as it grinned down at them with narrowed eyes. Quickly Pinkie Closed the turbolift doors as the beam cut through missing both her and Trixie by inches.
The ship shook and the lift doors were slowly being cut open as the red blade cut in a large circle like motion making huge portions of the doors drop. Trixie and Pinkie acted quickly to exit the lift into the turbolift shaft and started to climb the ladders to the next deck. Beneath them the Empress of the Equis Empire burst through the doors and looked up to see the escape hatch they used and began to cut through it. Trixie Glared down at Pinkie who had a look of panic on her face.
“Still got that megaphone?” She asked.
“Yes?” Pinkie replied. “Why?”
Trixie rolled her eyes not liking the edea she just came up with.
“Remember what you did in engineering? How you told Esgin Star Stripe she was in charge?”
“Yes! Why?” Pinkie asked again.
“I want you to do it to that pony chasing us! Trust me she’s nuts!” Trixie Said seeing the empress cut through the lift and was now clumsily flying towards them. “Do It now Pinkie!”
“Okay!”
Pinkie stopped climbing and flicked her head upwards. Out from her mane the megaphone flew out in front of Trixie’s face and down into one of Pinkie’s hooves. She looked behind herself to see the Empress glaring at her with her weapon ready to strike.
Pinkie gave her a big warm smile.
“HI! I’m Lieutenant Pinkie Pie! What's your name?” Pinkie greeted her.
Both the Empress and Trixie stared at her perplexed. Trixie hit her head on the ladder and continued climbing when the Alicorn looked up to see her.
“YOU!!! You will not escape my wrath!” Empress Celestia scream beating her wings to chase after Trixie.
She was ready to strike as she beat her wings bringing herself up to Trixie;s level with her weapon ready to cut through the unicorn. Trixie looked back to see the red blade closing in on her head. Time seems to slow down as Trixie watched the blade come closer and closer when suddenly it skimmed past her head and the Empress began to float upwards flailing herself uselessly as she ascended promising to return.
That was when Trixie noticed several giant rubber balls attached to some sort of cable wire attached to the back of the Empress as she floated up. Trixie looked back down at Pinkie who was smiling as she climbed back down towards the lfit. Trixie shook her head and followed the pink mare back down the shaft and they both entered the lift and used the opening to the deck the were trying to reach.
Dusting herself off Trixie turned to Pinkie who was working at a panel and Trixie opened another one beside hers and got to work.
“So, Lt. Pinkie,” She started.
“Yes, Captain?”
“What… what did you do to the intruder?”
“Oh, you mean the Empress OP Queen of the Multiverse? I attached balloons to her back!” Pinkie said with a smile continuing to work.
Trixie stared disbelieving at the mare. She could not believe the answer was so simple. Balloons. An all powerful being such as an Alicorn out matched by a childs entertainment toy? Balloons. Was the answer so simple?
Working quickly at her panel Trixie used a plasma torch to work on the relays as she thought back to her days in the Academy with Spitfire, Octavia, and Lyra. She wondered if they could all get together after this crazy war was over. She then thought what would happen when they returned to home? The crew, the ship, their allies? So much of the future was uncertain, and it filled Trixie with both excitement and anxiety.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a bulkhead slammed shut and the area beyond was depressurized. The sound of hissing could be heard from a small crack in the seal where the bulkhead didn’t completely close at.
“Nice work Lt. Pie.” Trixie Said patting the pink pony, wearing a smiled from her. “Let’s get back to the bridge so we can-”
*THOOM!* *BOOM!*
The walls from the turbolift blew apart revealing the angered form of Empress Celestia. Her wings flexed at her side covered in the stink from the balloons as she panted like a wild bull ready to charge.
Trixie and Pinkie stared at her in shock before bolting down the nearby hall.
“ARG! YOU WON’T GET AWAY FROM ME LULAMOON!!” The mare screamed chasing them down the hall. “I will slay you Lulamoon for the death of my pupil!”
Trixie panted running around a corner pulling her disruptor out from its holster with her magic. She rounded the corner to double back to the mess hall only to find she was blocked off. She looked back to see the alicorn turning the corner, skidding into the turn and continued running.
Trixie panicked and fired her disruptor at the Alicorn. The Empress deflected some of the bolts with her weapon, but some of them still hit her but were absorbed by her armor. The alicorn leaped striking horizontally with her weapon aiming for Trixie’s head. Trixie closed her eyes thinking this was the end of her life, when a strange sound made her open her eyes.
She saw a pink body in front of her was Pinkie. The pony had jumped into the Alicorn as was hit by the weapon through her gut. Pinkie gasped falling to the ground. She wasn’t dead but she was in bad condition. This enraged Trixie.
She stood up and glared down the alicron before her. Empress Celestia smirked at her blue rival. Deactivating her weapon and putting it in a compartment in her armor.
“So, you’re the pony who’s caused me so much trouble?” Celestia said with a snooty chuckle. “Honestly, I expected more from my sisters pupil, then again you’re not THAT Trixie aren’t you?”
Trixie didn’t reply.
“Hmm? Well then I guess if you want to die in silence that’s your prerogative. I for one am angry that you interfered with my plans to take this reality within my Empire. For that you will die here with your crew.”
Trixie sighed putting her disruptor away and pulled out a length of cable from her utility belt.
“You talk a lot.” She said wrapping part of the cable around her waist.
She used her magic to drag Pinnie over to her and wrapped the other end of the cable to the bulkhead and then to pinkie Pie.
The Alicorn laughed at the little unicorn with a most obnoxious laugh.
“Bwahahah! What are you doing? Planning to hang yourself and your friend?” The Empress asked.
Trixie grinned under her mane.
“Nope, but you’re about to.” Trixie said, pulling out another piece of cable.
The Empress had no time to react when Trixie suddenly opened the bulkhead by slamming her hoof into the panel beside it. Suddenly the three ponies were pulled by the suction power of a pressurized ship venting into open space.
The cable snapped tightly as Trixie held onto Pinkie who was still secure to her and the ship. The Empress found herself at the mercy of the powerful forces. She was flung forward and pulled past Trixie.
As she flew by Trixie lassoed the new portion of cable around the alicorns neck. Celestia's eyes dilated when she realized she was in trouble. Either her neck would snap under the pressure of this damned noose Trixie put over her, or she would be sucked into the vacuum of space. She closed her eyes and concentrated her magic in her horn. The horn glowed bright yellow as she disappeared and reappeared at the far end of the hall. Trixie tried to blast her but the alicron erected a barrier that absorbed the bolts. The alicron then closed the bulkhead with her magic sealing it and then blasting the panel.
Trixie and Pinkie both fell to the floor with a loud thunk. Empress Celestia slowly walked towards them both, panting, but with a smile on her face. Not the good kind either.
“Oh, ho ho ho. You almost had me Lulamoon. You almost had me, but unfortunately your weak mindedness is going to be your undoing. Now prepare to die!”
Without another word to her declaration Celestia drew her blade once more and struck downwards missing Trixie When she rolled to the side with Pinkie in her grasp. When the Empress readied another strike a series of transporter beams of deep red appeared around them as Klingon warriors materialized around them. The Empress stopped her attack and impaled the nearest Klingon in the chest with her blade as the rest of them let out battle cries and charge her and Trixie.
“Oh shit.” Trixie said with a sigh.