Fearless
Main Shuttlebay
The turbolift doors slid open as the group of seven ponies and two Tzenkethi commanders walked toward one of the nearby shuttles, the bay was wide, and had a hexagonal shape to it. Orange lights circled the open space where the shuttlebay doors once stood. Two small, sleek shuttlecraft sat on the right of the turbolift doors, their design was intriguing, a long section that split the front section into two, in a manner that the two officers in control of the ship would operate separately. four wings, two on each side, spread out around the craft, behind those were triangular engines built between the entrance door to the shuttle. For size, she was big enough to hold twice the amount of Twilight's away team.
Dash seemed to have a bit of annoyance as she spoke this choice of travel. "Man, if they didn't knock our transporters out during our run towards the fleet, we might've gotten down there quicker."
Twilight responded. "Maybe that's a good thing, in one way." Dash looked to her as she gave a look back.
Terrak ended the talk with, "Vengeful desires aside, we need to take out that bomb as soon as we can, that's our main priority, not smacking heads for our dead."
Rarity chuckled as she replied. "Oh, I think that will be happening, one way or another." The group stopped as the doors opened and they all stepped inside. Twilight and Rainbow were the first to reach their seats as the others settled themselves.
"Engines powering up, shields charging." The pegasus said as the ship roared to life and started to lift into the air, aiming at the open hole in the shuttlebay as she said, "Everyone ready?" When the group nodded, she turned back to face the view of Equis before finishing with, "Then hang on, it's gonna be bumpy!" Without a second to spare, the ship shot out like a missile towards the planet, the ship rocking as Twilight looked to her pilot and spoke.
"You sure you've got this? I want us all to get down there alive."
"Hoho, yeah, I've got this." Dash replied as the ship dived down towards the mountains of Canterlot, the shields flickering around the ship as it hit the atmosphere....
~Canterlot~
The city was bustling with commerce and conversation, not hint of terror nor danger, nothing was going around about what was going to happen within less than an hour as a pony with a yellow-white mane and a yellow and black mane and tail walked around the town with two guards escorting her. After what had happened in Canterlot recently, Songbird Serenade had gotten word about the newly refurbished K-13 in another realm that Princess Twilight had visited, she had decided to bring some cheerful spirits out of those officers working there. She was just making her way to her new transport when she heard a roar in the sky. Stopping, she looked up to see a small, but visible orange ball of fire, which cooled off to reveal a small, black object flying straight towards the city. Or so she thought, as the shuttle sped right over them, heading towards the mountains and catching the eyes of many other ponies that saw it. Songbird could only watch as the ship went up and over the tops of the mountains, disappearing from sight afterwards.
The shuttle was speeding past the snowy peaks, hitting a flat area and letting out a screech as the metal clashed against the rock. The ship slid across the short hill on the peak as it groaned to a halt, dust flying into the air as a loud clank sounded and a large piece of metal shot out from the cloud. Shortly after the door broke open, Twilight stepped out of the opening and tapped a device on her hoof as she scanned the area. Finding nothing around her, she motioned her hoof as she stepped forward, her team following suite.
The alicorn looked to her left, activating and looking at her tricorder as she spoke. "Alright, I'm reading about three soldiers beyond that path, we should have no trouble handling them." The group then raced down the path, taking cover behind the rocks as they took a look at their targets, the three warriors stood in front of the bridge, keeping watch as Dash focused her eye on the middle one. Aiming her pistol at the guard's head, she took a shot, forcing a worried gasp from Twilight as the guard was hit, his body falling into the abyss of clouds as the other two turned and aimed their weapons.
Dash sprung out and raced around the two, trying to make them dizzy with her maneuvers. After a moment, she then spun around one of them rapidly, creating a small tornado around him before the other guard fired, narrowly missing Dash's tail. The tornado then went towards the last guard and shot them both out and towards a mountain in the distance after a moment of spinning, the tornado dissipating before Twilight spoke up. "You're lucky that didn't get us killed."
Dash responded as she touched her hooves on the ground. "Whoo, yeah, next shot's for ya." Twilight smiled a little as they then went forward to the bridge. All but Rarity had made it past before a green bolt shot out, Terrak turning to see another soldier aiming at Rarity. Just as he took a shot, Terrak shot him down not a second later, but he heard a boom as he looked to see another explosion on the bridge, causing it to break apart. Rarity screamed as she started to fall, but was caught by Fluttershy and brought back to the cliff before Twilight looked over to see the Tzenkethi strike force.
There were about six soldiers in the area, one of them standing near a device that blinked red, seemingly faster as Twilight watched it. The princess gasped as she looked to her friends and ordered, "Let's take cover behind the rocks, they'll have a harder time trying to hit us!" Upon her words, the group jumped and slid down the short, but steep hill, none of the guards noticing as they quickly took cover behind the rocks and prepped themselves. Flash readied his crossbow as he waited for Twilight's word.
After a short moment, the time came. "Now!" The group then broke cover and took their shots, hitting two of the guards at first and hitting a third courtesy of Rainbow's distracting flying skills. Once she took cover, the others followed suite, several shots hitting their shields of rock as Twilight took her phaser pistol, tapped it a few times, and carved a small hole through the rock, just big enough to see the protomatter bomb. The bomb was flickering at this point, meaning it could blow in about a few minutes.
Twilight then snapped her head to Flash and spoke. "Flash, I'm gonna make a run towards Trinnak, I need you to take out the other two guards so I can get to him." Flash seemed hesitant at first, but nodded as he readied himself. After a short moment of observation, the princess yelled, "Fire!" The group broke cover and quickly took their shots at the two guards, Twilight galloping towards the Tzenkethi commander and shooting at him with a blast of magic. The blast hit him on his arm, but did not stop him as he then tried taking shots at the alicorn, who shot at his weapons, breaking it before Trinnak, getting close to Twilight, grabbed her and threw her on the ground before activating an energy blade from one of his combat gauntlets. Twilight kept rolling about, however, dodging every one of his strikes as he stepped on her legs and spoke.
"You've stood in my way for far too long, and it pleases me to watch you squirm in your last moments!" He said as he raised his blade.
"NO!" Terrak said before he ran up to Trinnak, smashing into him before the two fell into the nearby abyss, the two letting out screams as the two fell.
"Terrak!" Twilight yelled as she looked over the cliff, only managing to see the two warriors for a second before they faded into the mist. Remembering her short amount of time, she turned back towards the bomb and tapped it's computer screen before it showed a message in Tzenkethi text. "Taluk, help me out here!" Twilight called out as the officer ran over to her, looking at the screen as he quickly became terrified.
"No, NO!" He said before looking to Twilight and speaking to her. "He's rigged it with an encryption code, we can't shut it off!"
"What?!" The group gasped as Twilight thought for a moment, looking up to the sky, she then looked to her friends as she spoke.
"I have an idea!" Twilight said as she tapped her combadge before speaking once more. "Sparkle to Amarillo!"
"Stone here, what's wrong?" The Admiral said through the small device.
"Wyatt, we can't shut the bomb down, but I think we may be able to beam it up into space! Can you do it?!" Twilight asked in a slightly panicked voice.
After a moment, the device was encircled by a yellow field of energy, disappearing moments later before Wyatt responded. "It's done!" The Admiral said before the group looked to the sky to see a faint view of an opening anomaly above the planet.
On the viewscreen of the Amarillo, Wyatt and the crew watched as the screen showed a small patch of yellow energy appearing in front of the portal, revealing the protomatter bomb as it flickered rapidly for a moment longer. Once it stopped, it glowed turquoise for am moment before it exploded, the blast growing very large in front of the now arriving fleet of Tzenkethi reinforcements, which blew apart along with the fiery ball of energy. Shortly after the brilliant light grew to the size of the portal, the portal closed within a few seconds as the shockwave hit the ship, causing a slight shaking, but doing no real damage. The ball of fire then ceased it's bright lightshow and became nothing but a large, orange ball of energy, slowly fading into the space that it once encompassed.
On the comms, Tempest could be heard letting out a cry of excitement as she spoke. "The bomb's been destroyed! We did it!"
The rest of the crew joined the cheers of other voices over the comms, letting out several moments of excitement before Wyatt looked to his armrest and spoke to it. "Stone to Twilight, the battle is won, the bomb is disposed of. Any trouble on your part?" There was mere silence for a moment, prompting the Admiral to speak again. "Twilight?"
"Twilight? Are you all right down there?" Skystar said through the comms.
On the surface, Twilight was stunned as she looked at the ground, almost not hearing the voices through her combadge before she snapped out of her trance and spoke. "Yes, yes I'm fine..." She paused for a moment before continuing. ".... just, I think there's a small loss." She said before she tapped her combadge without waiting for a response and looked to her friends. "Fluttershy?" The pegasus nodded before the two flew down to the mist, Twilight using her magic to clear it away before seeing a sight that almost made the two lose focus on flying, two Tzenkethi bodies lying on the ground, neither seemed to move a muscle.
Twilight looked to her friends and used her magic to teleport her friends to the ground as she and Fluttershy stood their hooves on it. The group raced over to Trinnak, who seemed lifeless as Taluk scanned him and spoke up. "He's dead, the fall must've been hard for him along with that strike from Terrak."
Rarity scoffed at the Tzenkethi commander's corpse as she spoke. "Good riddance."
Dash smacked his corpse as she spoke angrily. "That's for my dad, have a fun trip to Tartarus, punk."
The group heard a grunt from nearby, turning to see Terrak slightly moving and falling back on his back as they all moved toward him, Taluk getting a scan of his captain before he responded in a solemn tone.
"His legs and a single arm are broken, he has internal bleeding, and one of his lungs are crushed." Taluk said.
"Will he survive?" Twilight said with a down face.
Taluk hesitated before answering. "..No."
Twilight looked to Terrak, his voice sounding choked as he asked the princess, "I.... I assume we-we succeeded in our mission?"
Twilight forced a smile as she started to speak. "Yes. We did, Equis is safe."
"....Good, the-then we can finally put a stop t-HCH- ...their missions of extermination..." Terrak said as he lay on the ground, breathing his last breaths as he spoke once more to his friends. "Tell Crinnu that..... I... I couldn't make it back with you.... and, to give hi- ...this." Terrak handed Twilight a small data chip, the princess taking it with her magic as she looked to the Tzenkethi captain.
"See you... in another....... realm." As he let out his last words, Terrak groaned as he lay back on the ground, his body not moving shortly after. Taluk's tricorder beeped as he spoke.
"He's gone." He said as Fluttershy started to whimper near Rarity, who teared up herself. Twilight also started to as well, but held hers back as she took a breath and looked to her friends before they all heard a low boom above them. Looking up, the group could see a partial glimpse of the bright explosion of the protomatter bomb, more low booms sounding in the sky as they watched the light show.
After a long moment, Twilight tapped her combadge and spoke. "Sparkle to Amarillo... we need a shuttle down here.... and, bring a body bag if you have one." Twilight said as she fought the urge to cry.
Miolii held back for a moment as well before she spoke. "...Understood, we're on it. Amarillo out."
The group stood in silence for a moment, standing near their dead comrade as they waited for a shuttle to arrive. The battle had been won, but all that was lost to this new foe, all that they did, there would be more to come in the later battles they would be facing very soon.