“Well, That went better than I expected.”
“Oh what did you expected from this meeting, Captain Aura?” asked Gregory while everyone was still waiting for the dragon lord to show up.
“I tend to get on the nerves of nobility and royalty more often than not, so I thought we were going to butt heads at some point,” I nonchalantly replied with a shrug.
“Ah, I have heard rumors about both the conflicts you have with the nobility of Canterlot along with rumors about them as well. I assure you that I do what I believe is best for my people, and for our world,” Gregory stated as I nodded at his words. Either he is a griffin of his word, or he just knows how to sugarcoat his words just the right way, I thought to myself before hearing the doors sliding open.
Stepping into the room was a seven foot tall, cyan scaled female dragon with a lithe figure but still showing some muscle, dressed in golden armor that looked quite ornamental like Gregory's guards, but I could see the purple runes glowing softly on the armor's pauldrons. The dragoness briefly scanned the room before saying, "So, this is your war room? Doesn't look too impressive... or war-like." Right behind her, was two masked dragons, bulkier and taller than their leader, but remaining silent as they stood directly behind her.
"It's more of a monitoring room, good for simple viewing of the battlefield, but not for leading armies. Our warships have far better war rooms than this one, Dragon Lord Ember," I explained with a shrug as I spot Gregory walking up to Ember.
"Ah, a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Dragon Lord Ember. The words of your diplomat on how your appearance doesn't do you any justice," Gregory stated, holding out a claw for a shake that Ember stared at for a brief moment before gingerly taking it.
Shaking Gregory's claw, Ember said, "Can we just cut back on the formalities? We're at war, and I rather keep this business short. I got some dragons that are rearing up for a fight, and I don't want a brawl breaking between them because of boredom."
"There is no current rush, for the first battle is coming to a close," Celestia stated, only to look at me when I let out a snort.
"Just cause Luna is mopping up the rest of the Xartik doesn't mean we have some breathing room. We don't know if they have a second wave ready and just waiting for our troops to wear themselves out with clean-up duty. It's best to assume that we can be attacked at any time, or even multiple attacks at once. We might have magic and Discord doing his best to break up their operations, but they have sheer numbers on their side," I explained, causing Ember and Gregory to glance at one another.
"Wouldn't they care about causalities? That is bound to demoralize their men and possibly deserters?" Gregory asked, causing me to shake my head.
"The enemy we are facing are machines, cold, emotionless machines. So enemy troop morale isn't a fact as we face the Xartik. They’re just going to treat this war as an investment, so it’s our job to make the costs greater than what they think the reward of winning the war would give them,” I answered.
“Augh, does this really have to be something about business? Why can’t it just be a simple war like in the history books?” Ember complained as she sat down, propping an elbow on the table so she could rest her head on her claw.
“That’s the price of dealing with inter-dimensional forces, it is never simple no matter which way you cut it. Regardless, I am glad that the both of you are willing to have your nations participate in this war directly, is there any questions you two may have?” I asked as I cast my gaze over the two.
“There is one question I’m wondering about since you said this wouldn’t be some war with simple expectations. What would happen to our world if we win this war?” Ember asked, drawing Gregory’s and even Celestia’s attention upon me.
“Hard to say, since our world is the only one that has magic, at least according to my knowledge. We could be grouped with some of the more mysterious nations that tend to have odd abilities to them that make other nations wary of them. we could become acknowledge as another inter-dimensional nation and be forced to compete with the others just to survive or have all the other factions decide that we’re too dangerous to exist and band together to wipe us out. There are multiple scenarios in how this will all go down and if we win, and most of them aren’t good,” I explained with a shrug, causing the three rulers to look at each other with concern clear on their faces. “But that is something we can worry about later since we have a war to win first.”
“You are correct about our need to focus on one problem at a time, Captain Aura. While we may need to consider the future at some point, our enemy will not let us be idle,” Celestia stated before Ember stepped forward with a somber expression.
“You said that these... Xartik, view this as some kind of business venture?” Ember asked, to which I gave her a quick nod in reply. “Then would there be any possibility for us to target their leadership? If there is no one to invest in a war, then there is no war based on what you said.”
Shaking my head, I replied, “The odds of us actually meeting a live Xartik instead of one of their drones is highly unlikely, and there is no way we could mass an offensive on their homeworld, much less find their homeworld in respect to our method of inter-dimensional travel. Maybe Discord could locate them and reach them, but that would put him in danger and we can’t risk his capture. We might have some options in the future, but for now, there isn’t much we can do but play defense.”
“That just sounds like we’ll just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses till the enemy comes a’ knockin’! We can’t just stay on the defensive throughout the war!” Ember shouted in frustration as she slammed a flawed fist onto the monitor table, causing the holograms to flicker for a second.
“For now, we don’t have a choice. And an attack on their territory would just be a slaughter, as well as give them bodies to study which would just allow them to find our weakness. The only way any offensive off planet would be worthwhile is if Discord finds the home of the Xartik in charge of the attack, which is unlikely to occur since it could be anywhere since having the home being mobile makes it easier to position whenever needed,” I countered with an annoyed glare.
Glaring back at me for a moment, Ember threw her claws into the air as she said, “Fine! But if you ever got a chance to take one of them out, I want to hear the whole story. Until then, you have twenty thousand dragons ready to join the front lines for the time being.”
“And fifteen thousand griffons will be joining, with more on there way if recruitment goes well. It might not be much, but I would need to see more of the results of this war before I could consider a draft without risking angering my people,” Gregory stated.
Grunting, I replied, “Better something than nothing, but we better hope that they don’t figure a workaround for Discord’s defense.”
Nodding, Gregory scratched his chin as he asked, “I’m curious about something in regards to you, Captain Aura. It’s no secret that you were an alien that was just turned into a pony thanks to wild magic, but how do you know this much about enemy tactics?”
Shrugging, I answered, “Back when I was just some poor sod, I heard all about how the Xartik’s methods of conquest over ‘primitive’ worlds, along with other factions who do the same thing. As long as they don’t wipe out the entire population on a planet, there will be survivors with stories about what happened.”
Shivering at what I assumed to be the thoughts of worlds being devastated by aliens, Gregory stated, “I think my curiosity on this matter has been satisfied. Now if you excuse me, I’ll be taking my leave. A pleasure to meet you, Dragon Lord Ember. And I wish you good luck with the war effort Princess Celestia, Captain Aura." Giving us a short bow, Gregory stepped out of the room with his guards following behind him.
"Well, since the griffon king had left the room, I guess I'll just go as well. I have some older dragons to stir up in order to get them on the field as well. Do you think that the enemy would be interested in gold and gems?" Ember asked as her guards shared a glance with one another.
"Pretty much, if we lose the war to the Xartik, you can be certain that they'll loot the world of all its resources, and your treasure hoards would be considered a resource. So bye-bye hoarding treasure or eating gems, and say hello to a life of horrible tasting paste tubes and possible being dissected on some operation table," I answered bluntly, causing Ember to scratch at the side of her face. "But bear in mind one thing, since they're so big, they're basically giant targets for enemy cannons or fighters. I don't know if they would be effective unless we turn them into literal walking and flying fortresses, which is something that they might not be keen on doing."
"Well, if the older dragons would believe that statement, then I might have an easier time stirring them up for your cause in some fashion. Even if they can't fight, maybe I can get them to help you in weapon forging or anything else they can lend a claw in. I'm pretty certain some pony will figure out something for us," Ember stated before walking out, her guards following behind her as Celestia and I just stared at their departure for a moment.
"...Do you think she has forgotten that it is polite to give someone a farewell?" I asked Celestia as I turned my head towards her.
"Well, dragons do have their own way of doing things," Celestia mused aloud, before diverting her attention towards me. "Since the matter of reinforcements has been taken care of for the time being, do you have any predictions on how the Xartik would react to their first loss?"
Folding my hooves over my chest, I replied, "Well, it's hard to say since I don't know just how much those transport ships cost them. If they were planned for the scrapheap from the start, and if they have more in stock to throw at us, they're probably just going to send them in mass to overwhelm our forces. But if they don't, they may look for another means to directly transport troops onto the planet's surface and for the time being give up the possibility of controlling the space around Selene. Regardless of what route they take, Discord's destruction of their first gathering point would be what makes them more cautious as a result. They will have to change things so that they can launch attacks without fear of retaliation."
"And that would certainly delay them for us to prepare our defenses, how much time do you think that bought us?" Celestia asked as she turned her attention to the hologram, which drew mine as well as we saw Luna standing triumphantly over the remains of one of Xartik warships as she planted the Equestrian flag on it.
"A day, if we're lucky. The most we can best hope for is a week, but that entails the possibility of a large-scale assault. So, in the end, whatever time we have to recover would just be spent with us getting more paranoid in the end," I explained with a sigh. Leaning closer towards the hologram, I added, "But... this does give us time to get those ships disassembled and transported over to Equus after we make certain that there are no trackers on them. If our scientists could reverse engineer them, we might be able to claim space dominance before the Xartik figure out a way to circumvent Discord's traps."
Nodding in agreement, Celestia stated, "I'll have the Solar Glory oversee salvaging operations, though, if we do have to develop our own spacecraft, I'm assuming that you would like one under your direct command?"
"Fuck yeah I would, I always wanted a chance to call down an orbital bombardment upon my foes!" I stated as I pointed a hoof at the ceiling, causing Celestia to roll her eyes at me.