The hangar of the Glorium had fallen quiet after the frenetic activity of earlier. Swan’s fighters were gathered around their respective launch tubes, while the others sat waiting to be moved into position.
The Dream sat ostracized from the rest, close to the outer hangar doors. A few of the deck crew trotted by, but most gave the ship a wide berth.
From her perch atop the Dream’s starboard wing, Flurry gazed out at the expanse of the hangar bay with disinterest. She had been sitting up there for the past hour, trying to distract herself from the shock of what she saw in the briefing room.
Twilight.
Just the thought of that mare was like hot coals being dropped onto her heart. Flurry’s wings bristled uncontrollably at her sides, and she could feel the familiar searing rage lingering beneath the surface.
Flurry had wasted all this time playing Twilight’s games, no doubt being watched and reported on by her stooge Oakheart. How could “the director” just hide away in the shadows while Nyx, her own daughter, was in trouble? Why all the secrecy? Why did Oakheart play along with this charade?
The questions kept repeating in her mind over and over again, feeding her frustration. She should be resting for the battle ahead, but her restless mind gave her no respite. There was, of course, an obvious answer, but she didn’t want to admit it to herself.
Whammy lay in front of her, his body tilting to one side with the curve of the wing.
“Nopony asked your opinion,” Flurry grumbled, resting her head on her forelegs.
The plushie simply sat there.
“Don’t defend her, this is exactly how she likes to do things,” she snapped. “All smoke and mirrors while she pulls at the strings from the shadows. She must be laughing her ass off at me right now.”
At Whammy’s impassive stare, she relented. “I know she’s got to be worried about Nyx, but she had no right messing with me like that. If she had just let me do my thing, we’d be with Nyx by now.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right—if I was Oakheart, I’d have been wary as well.” She let out a snort as she looked into his expressionless bobble eyes. “Okay! Fine! I admit it. If I’d known Twi was involved, I would have caused more trouble for everypony and slowed everything up.”
Whammy seemed satisfied, at least. One of his antennae shifted in the breeze flowing through the hangar, suggesting he was.
Damn that plushie. He always takes their side, she grumbled to herself.
Still, he was right. She couldn’t let her feud with Twilight get in the way of saving Nyx. For now, they were enemies with a common goal.
The thought brought a sad smile to her face. Just like me and Swan Song.
She looked down to see a few of Swan’s aerie mingling with Flint’s marines on the flight deck below.
The mission to help Nyx had brought together quite the disparate bunch of former enemies and even volunteers from Equus. Perhaps there was something to this Harmony business after all.
With the mission planning over, and all their individual roles studied, there was little else for either side to do. The deck crews had all their ships ready while the marines’ equipment was checked and prepared.
In the end, curiosity had gotten the better of the younger pegasi, and in ones and twos, they had gathered around the open ramp of the Dream. Even Swan Song had eventually joined them, watching while her partner engaged the kirin in a friendly hoof wrestle.
Flurry could have gone down there to join them, but she wasn’t in the mood for more fearful stares. She hadn’t exactly made a great impression with her little display in the briefing room, and she really needed some alone time. It was better to just watch from up here.
Things were getting a bit lively down there, with both groups rallying around their prospective contender.
“Come on, Firey, you’ve got him!” A magenta-coloured earth pony shouted excitedly, her strong Manehattan accent easily recognisable over the crowd. “Show that pillow-stuffer who’s best!”
“Come on, Blitz! I’ve got twenty bits on this!” One pegasus shouted.
Blitz was straining, sweat running from his brow, while the kirin had a predatory grin on her face. Her tail was coiled around his hind leg like a snake, evidently trying to throw him off his game.
Flurry couldn’t help but smirk at the mare’s ploy. She would have to remember that one next time she visited Broken Bow.
“Looking a bit red-faced there, champ,” Fire goaded.
“You think your little tricks are going to distract me, but you’ve got another thing coming!” Blitz growled, making another attempt to force the mare’s foreleg down.
“Aww, I do so love it when stallions try their best,” Fire taunted, her tail creeping up higher.
Blitz tensed and then let out a tiny squeak before a dreamy expression formed on his face. His grip slackened, and with a victorious whinny, Fire slammed his hoof down to cheers from the crowd.
“Hey, that’s cheating!” Blitz cried.
“You enjoyed it didn’t you?” Fire asked, sticking her tongue out.
“I-I want a rematch, no tricks,” Blitz demanded, his cheeks a bright shade of red.
“I can do this all day, stud.”
Flurry’s eyes turned to Swan Song, who had been watching the spectacle from a distance. The pegasus had been talking quietly with her pilots during most of it, huddled together, away from the main group. Given the fearful looks that drifted up in Flurry’s direction, she had no doubt what their talk was about.
She sighed softly, looking down at Whammy. “One step forward, two steps back, eh Whammy?”
Her little display had no doubt spooked everypony present, the pegasi worst of all. Getting them to see beyond Last Shadow and trust her was always going to be an uphill battle, and now she’d gone and made the climb that much harder.
Swan Song looked up to her and their eyes met, the pegasus wearing a deep frown on her face. There was uncertainty, maybe even a little fear in those eyes—the worries of an officer going into combat. Flurry had seen it a hundred times on the eve of a hundred battles. She flashed the pegasus a smile, but the mare simply looked away.
“She’s a stubborn one,” Flurry commented, only to scowl at Whammy. “Shut up, we are not alike at all. I still don’t know if she’ll try and put a bullet in my skull once this is over. I’d like to think not, but ponies always find a way to disappoint you.”
She rested her chin on her forelegs. “She’s been through a lot—they all have—they deserve a little helping hoof.”
Whammy simply sat there.
She grinned mischievously. “Oh, bringing Merry Weather down a peg or two is the icing on the cake. But first, we have to deal with the immediate problem.”
Her gaze drifted back to her black-stained wings. Even now, she could feel that invisible mass pressing against her magical core.
“Nyx’ll be able to crack this spell, I know it,” she continued. “And once she has, we can help everypony else.”
She shifted, knocking the plushie onto his side and rattling his googly eyes.
“If she can’t, I’ll just have to improvise,” she muttered, letting out a snort. “And no, I’m not asking Twilight for help.”
Her eyes narrowed. “It’ll be a cold day in Tartarus before I ask her for anything. I’ll sort this out myself, one way or another.”
Whammy’s eyes eventually settled and fixed on her.
“If nothing works…?”
A cold shiver went through her body at the mere thought of being at that bloated fool’s mercy, paraded around like some mystical beast to entertain his lackeys before being offered up on a plate to the Emperor of the Republic. Face to face with Stratos, after all this time? She shuddered at the thought. Then there’d be the nice public show trial for the holo-vids, followed by execution. Maybe they would get Swan in to pull the trigger.
Flurry shook her head and dismissed those dark thoughts. “It won’t come to that. Nyx will fix this, I know she will.”
That was, of course, if the mare would even speak to her. Nyx wouldn’t hesitate to help any other pony in need, but helping her? A part of her doubted the alicorn would be so generous.
A thick knot of anxiety formed in the pit of her stomach at the thought of meeting her cousin again. Her emotions rose up and crashed against her like storm-driven waves beating against a cliff.
She reached out and pulled Whammy close. “What should I say to her, Whammy?” She squeezed him tightly. “It’s not like I can turn back the clock to how things used to be.”
She felt a soft tear trickle run down her cheeks before chuckling to herself. “You’re right, we’ve still got to help rescue her first. There’s plenty of time for worrying about all of this once everypony is safe and sound.”
Wiping her eyes, she arched her back and stretched her wings.
“You know, maybe you’re right. Moping up here isn’t helping me right now,” she stated, fluffing her wings. “Maybe I should get in on the hoof wrestling action? Stir the pot a bit between Swan and Blitz, am I right?”
Whammy’s antennae were still partly pressed against his head by the force of her hug.
“Pfft, you’re no fun.”
She was about to hop off the wing of the Dream when she felt a change within the carrier. The gentle rumble of the engines shifted pitch, becoming deeper. That meant the ship was speeding up.
Her ears perked as the ship’s PA system crackled to life and a stallion’s voice boomed over the hangar. “Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. I repeat…”
The quiet calm of the flight deck was shattered in an instant by the alert. The effect on the crew was instantaneous, the pegasi leaping into the air and heading to their ships and stations. Swan and her pilots rushed to the fighters and began donning their flight gear.
What had happened? Was Nyx under attack? A hundred questions fought to be heard inside her head, and a hundred terrible scenarios spawned from them. Her heart began to pound in her chest as fear of the unknown threatened to overtake her.
She had to go. She had to go now.
Flurry rushed towards the forward airlock of the Dream and went inside. Lights flickered on as the ship stirred from her slumber, the automated systems reacting to Flurry’s presence.
“Prepare for departure,” she ordered, tapping a few commands into her holo-brace.
“Affirmative. Beginning Nexus core ignition sequence,” the Dream’s golem responded, a faint hum beginning to reverberate through the ship. “Pilot link established.”
She felt the slight pull on her thaumatic reserves as the ship’s Nexus core began drawing power from her horn. Her body moved on autopilot, going through the same motions she’d done a thousand times before. At least by focusing on preparing her ship, her emotions were kept in check, though they were still screaming from the back of her mind.
As she trotted down the corridor of the upper deck, her holo-brace buzzed.
Tapping on it, a small window appeared before her eyes with Oakheart at its centre. In the background, she could see the bridge crew already at their battle stations.
“What’s going on, captain?” she asked.
“We finally picked up the Orion’s distress beacon a few minutes ago,” he said, his voice calm and professional. “But it was cut off almost immediately.”
“And?” Her voice trembled with emotion.
“The signal was very weak, but we received a data packet indicating they’re under attack,” he replied grimly. “The communications officer is currently trying to clean up the sensor data for us, but it’s heavily corrupted.”
“Then I’m preparing the Dream for launch,” Flurry announced, heading quickly towards the flight deck.
“Ms. Flurry, wait.”
“No. No more delays. I have to get there now,” she said, desperation creeping into her voice.
“I understand, but we’re still an hour from our launch point,” he explained. “Sabre squadron won’t—”
The display vanished as she cut off her connection with Glorium comms, a frustrated hiss escaping her muzzle. She couldn’t just sit here while Nyx was under attack! She had given up so much already, and now, she was about to lose everything just when her cousin was within reach.
Flurry cycled through the squadron comms channels she’d been given, prior to the briefing, until she found the one for Swan Song.
“Lieutenant, do you read me?” she called.
There was a brief delay before Swan Song responded. “Yes, I copy.” She sounded surprised, a mixture of fear and anticipation in her voice as she spoke.
“How long before you’re ready to launch?” Flurry asked, keeping her own voice level so as not to alarm the pegasus.
“Wait, I thought we had over an hour before we were supposed to launch.”
“It’s just…” Flurry began, trying to sound innocent. “Something’s come up. Oakheart said we need to leave early. Can you make it happen?”
“What? No. We’ve got just enough flight reserves for the trip plus a half-hour engagement at best. If we leave early, we’ll be running on sparks when we get there and be useless if there’s a fight.”
Damn it, Flurry cursed to herself. “Alright. Thanks anyway, Swan. I’ll be in touch. Flurry out.”
She slammed a hoof into the nearest bulkhead, her wings bristling as her frustration boiled over. It was just one thing after another with these ponies! Now physics was conspiring to get in the way of her machinations!
She cast a glance at Whammy, whose eye wobbled in disappointment.
“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled.
Flurry pointedly ignored the frantic flashing on her holo-brace as she silently fumed.
“Ms. Flurry, please answer your holo-brace,” the muffled voice of Oakheart reverberated from the Glorium’s PA system outside.
She looked down at the accursed device for a second, letting the stubborn earth pony stew for a moment before answering. “What.”
“Ah, have you got it all out of your system? Or should I wait a few minutes and we can try again,” Oakheart asked with the weary tone of a parent taking their filly out of time-out.
“I’m listening.”
“I may have a solution to our launch window problem,” he said. “If you’re willing to wait and let me explain.”
“Fiiiine.”
“I’ll be down in a few minutes,” he said before adding, “Once I find the elevator.”
Flurry let out a sigh, feeling some of her anger subside. She still wanted to blow a hole in the Glorium and speed off towards the Orion, but the urge was less pressing. She cast a glance at Whammy, whose pupils had finally stopped spinning in their plastic sockets.
“Are you happy? I’m waiting for him, okay?” she huffed.
Whammy sat there smugly on her shoulder.
“Okay, okay, I’ll call Swan again,” she grumbled.
“Lieutenant Swan, do you read me?”
Another delay and then the comms clicked on with an angry sigh. “I copy. What is it?”
“I just spoke with Oakheart. He has an idea that could buy us some more time. Can you get the deck chief on the line? Also, can you have him bring Rapier squadron up to ready status as well? I’ve got a bad feeling we’re going to need them with us.”
“Did you actually speak with him this time?” came Swan’s sardonic response.
“I overreacted, okay?” Flurry said. “Listen, they’ve picked up the Orion’s distress beacon. They’re definitely under attack. I don’t think we can wait.”
“Yeah, but Flurry, we need to know what we’re up against. You know that.”
“Oak says the comms team is working on it. But he seemed pretty sure we can launch early. Can you be ready?”
“Yeah. I mean, no. I mean… Flurry, I’m sorry but it’s just not going to work. You saw the launch window. You know we just don’t have the CAPS for that kind of operation.”
Flurry wanted to blurt out some kind of irrational reason why it would work, but she knew Swan was right.
“Let’s… okay, let’s just assume that Oak has found some miracle that can make it work. Can you be ready?”
More hesitation. She could hear Swan speaking softly with somepony nearby for a moment.
“Okay, Flurry. I’ll do it, but this had better not be another one of your games,” Swan warned.
“This is legit, I promise.”
“It had better be. Swan out.”
As she trotted down to the cargo bay, she realised that her anxiety had faded—not gone completely, but it was more manageable. Her heart was still racing, but it was no longer trying to escape from her chest.
As she opened the door to the Dream’s cargo bay, she heard Flint’s voice barking orders to his squad.
“Alright fillies and colts, get the lead out! We’re on the clock here!”
Flurry spotted him standing on a crate, clad in a slim suit of armour she wasn’t familiar with. She had been expecting a full exosuit, similar to the ones they had used during the war. Instead of thick armoured plates completely enclosing his body, the dark-blue armour was made up of a large carapace, covering his body with smaller segmented plates over a black augmented bodysuit. It looked advanced and sleek, but it felt like he’d accepted a joust with a Yak, wearing a tutu.
“Hey, Flurry, I just got the word from the captain,” he said as she trotted up to him. “Don’t you worry, we’ll be ready when the time comes.”
“Wearing that stuff?” she commented dismissively as she looked over his attire. “What, Harmony going cheap on your equipment or something?”
He chuckled. “We’re cops first, not soldiers. Besides, I don’t think those Orion folk would appreciate an armoured division tearing up their ship, now, would they?”
She gave him a skeptical look.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not the hardware but the pony using it that makes the difference,” he said with confidence. “Besides, the corridors on the Orion will be tight, and I’d like some room to maneuver.”
It made sense. Exosuits were not what you would call restrained by design. They tended to make their own entrances onto starships, regardless of collateral damage. With civilians in the way, she understood the need for something a little more subtle.
“Besides, you know what a cautious fellow I am,” he grinned, motioning to the small pulse cannons folded away on each of his shoulders. The rifle holstered at his side looked equally formidable—definitely military issue. “Don’t you worry, Flurry, we MAWS ponies are ready for anything.”
“We’re the problem-solvers, right Chief?” Fire Hawk grinned, adjusting her armour.
The kirin’s armour was different from the others, probably due to her unique physiology. A long series of vents ran down her spine, and the armour plates looked to have an extra layer of ceramics to handle a lot of heat. She had no weapons to speak of, but if there was any truth to her bragging, she didn’t need one.
“If you’ve got time to make jokes, Fire Hawk, you’ve got time to help the others,” Flintlock said. “Whoever is last has to do a lap of the station in full kit, so move it!”
The threat had the desired effect, as the few that had been slacking found a new burst of energy while their squadmates rushed to help.
“Just like old times,” Flurry commented. “I just hope it goes better than most of the battles we had back then.”
She pawed at a rusty old red stain on the decking that no amount of scrubbing had been able to get out. A deep pit formed in her stomach at the thought that a few of these ponies might not be coming back from this mission.
Flint’s brow furrowed slightly, but he gave a gentle smile. “I wouldn’t worry about that. We all volunteered for this. When we signed up with Harmony, we knew what we were getting into.”
She felt her heart swell at those words. It had been a long time since she had been amongst ponies willing to risk themselves for something more than a reward.
“Thank you, my friend,” she said humbly, bowing her head to him.
“Just doin’ my job. Now you just need to get us there in one piece,” he replied with a modest shrug. “And preferably with my breakfast still in my stomach. I know how you fly.”
“I’ll leave some sick bags out if you’d like.”
He let out a sigh, his eyes drifting back to his marines. “Now, neither of us has time for a chat. We’ve got a ship to save. I’m going to go and motivate these ponies some more.”
“Have fun.”
He grinned before trotting over into the mass of ponies. “Come on, you fillies! You’re embarrassing me in front of Flurry Heart! Officer Gum Drop, are you wanting to stay behind?”
A lime green stallion barely out of his teens straightened. “Sir, no sir!”
“Good, Flurry is getting twitchy and she might just feed your sorry flank to her pet monster if you take any longer!” Flint growled before giving her a wink.
Some things never change, she thought to herself as she headed to the flight deck.
<=======ooO Ooo=======>
“Where did you get that thing?” Flurry remarked as the deck crew was heaving a long metal box with blue arcanite crystals arranged in rows along its top into the Dream’s cargo hold. It was trailing a long line of cables behind it like a grisly streak of entrails.
“It’s the Glorium’s reserve battery,” Oakheart replied.
Flurry gave a whistle. “Damn, how’d you convince them to part with this?”
“The usual way,” he snorted. “I bought it.”
“Should have told me, I’d have ripped it out for you,” she commented as the technicians hurriedly connected the CAPS bank to a tangled mess of wires. “Now, not to sound ungrateful or anything, but why are you giving this to me?”
“We’re connecting a recharge emitter onto the Dream’s dorsal section. It will allow Sabre squadron to refuel in-flight,” he explained, ignoring her angry frown from seeing ponies messing with her ship without her permission. Again.
Flurry walked slowly around the new addition to her cargo bay. This close, she could feel the hairs of her coat stand on end with the energy in the air.
“Also, we managed to clear up what we could from the beacon’s data.” He tapped on his holo brace, and a hazy image appeared. “It seems to be some kind of drone.”
The image was a blur, with most of the frame broken by static, but Flurry recognised the silhouette of a drone streaking by the camera. It was roughly conical in shape, with a bulging drive section towards its rear. Although most of the details were lost, it sent a chill down her spine.
“We’re going to need more ships,” Flurry uttered.
“Ms. Flurry, from the size of the ship, it looks to be barely a threat,” Oakheart assured.
“You’re wrong, that’s a Syndicate Shuriken,” she warned. “Those things are fast, and worse, there’ll be a lot of them. We’ll be outnumbered and outgunned. We need Rapier squadron to even the odds for us.”
“And how do you expect them to do that? This CAPS bank here will be barely enough to recharge one squadron, let alone two,” he said.
Flurry paused to think for a moment. With at least an hour between the fighters arriving on-site and the Glorium showing up with reinforcements, they were going to need every last spark of power. More power had to come from somewhere… Flurry glanced around her cargo hold, her mind racing. Suddenly, it came to her.
“I can help with that,” she declared with confidence. “Have the technicians hook the CAPS bank up to the Dream’s Nexus core. I can top everyone up when we arrive as well as during the fight.”
“Hold on, isn’t that going to be too much of a drain on you?” he asked with a concerned frown. “This is only a corvette sized ship.”
“Oh, I’m a big girl, captain. I should have plenty in my tank to keep them going,” she said, flashing him a confident smile despite her apprehension.
Of course, she hoped to have as much power in reserve as she could for the mission. Experience had taught her to always be prepared when going into a fight. She just hoped it would be enough.
“Very well,” he said. “Now, I need to get back to the bridge. I need to brief Lieutenant Swan on this new development.”
“Need a lift?”
“No, thank you,” he replied, wincing. “I managed to find the elevator.”
“Aww,” she grinned, as he trotted away.
Flurry looked over to Flintlock and his squads, currently trying to stay out of the way of the technicians and the large piece of equipment sitting in the cargo hold.
“Are you going to be okay sitting in with this thing?” she asked.
Flintlock shrugged. “Shouldn’t be a problem. Our equipment is shielded, so it won’t hamper the mission.” His tone hardened as his gaze fell on Fire Hawk, who was currently reaching a tentative hoof to prod the new arrival. “Provided somepony doesn’t start poking at it.”
“Tingly,” the kirin murmured before being dragged away by her squadmates.
“I’d best get up to the flight deck and get us ready,” Flurry said. “Might as well see what these techies are doing to my ship.”
<=======ooO Ooo=======>
They were ready.
In the Dream’s hold, Flintlock’s marines were lined up, now fully armed and armoured, their faces and manes hidden beneath pressure-sealed helmets. Only the cutie marks or personal insignia painted on their flanks distinguished one pony from the other.
Flintlock was going through a final briefing with them before they set off. The airlocks and other entry points to the Orion were covered again and again, to ensure everypony knew exactly what to do.
Flurry watched through the Dream’s cameras from the flight deck as they went over their plans. Now linked to her ship from the flight couch, she could see everything, inside and out. She hoped to go aboard the Orion herself with Flintlock’s marines when they docked, but it all depended on how much resistance they faced. As much as she hated it, she was just a glorified bus driver for this job.
Flurry flicked to the exterior sensors to watch what was going on outside. Swan Song and her flight were waiting in their ships, their engines idling on their launch catapults. Behind them, the rest of her squadron as well as Rapier waited for their turns. The air rippled with heat coming from their propulsion systems, and the whine of engines was deafening.
All preparations were made, and now, all she could do was wait for Oakheart to set them loose.
She checked the clock. It had been twenty minutes since Oak had signalled the alert. Her heart was screaming at her to just launch now, but she held it in check. This was a group effort now, and everypony had a part to play.
Suddenly, the comms system lit up and Oakheart appeared before her.
“Have you heard anything?” she asked, the hope and fear in her voice surprising her.
He shook his head. “We’ve not been able to raise the Orion.” There was an edge to his voice, and his jaw clenched. “We’re now cruising fast through highly compressed space between stars. From here, you can take your pick of several routes if you know the way. You’ll take off along with Sabre and Rapier squadrons and get to the Orion as fast as you can.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Relax, captain, I know Dragon’s Head like the back of my hoof.”
“The Glorium will continue at best possible speed, but you’ll be on your own out there until we can catch up,” he continued.
She smiled. “I’ll try and leave you something to do when you arrive.”
“I don’t doubt it,” he said, smiling slightly. “Good luck and good hunting. Launch when ready.”
He gave her a sharp salute, before the window closed and she was left alone once again. She felt elation to be finally setting off, but it was tempered by the uncertainty of what she would face when they arrived.
Outside, the ground crews were clearing out of the Dream’s path as the carrier’s bay doors began to slide open.
She spoke into the intercom, and her voice crackled over the cargo hold’s PA system. “Okay, everypony… we’re launching now, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Our inflight entertainment involves staring at the sparkling box.”
Flintlock looked up to one of the nearby cameras and gave a nod before hunkering down with his ponies.
With a gentle beat of her wings, the Dream lifted off its landing gear and angled itself towards the Glorium’s open maw and mirrorspace beyond.
“Here we go, Whammy,” she said, tilting her wings and bringing them down slowly, earning a deep rumble from the Dream as its engines roared to life.
The docking bay streaked by and was soon replaced by the swirling, inky mass of mirrorspace. She pulled away from the carrier, getting a fair distance before turning to face it.
Flurry watched as Swan’s fighters roared out like missiles from ports in the leading edges of the Glorium’s wings. It was like watching a flock of birds preparing for migration as each ship formed up in a broad V formation behind her. They were soon joined by a second wave launched from the Glorium, making for an impressive sight.
Twenty-four Swallow fighters gathered in two parallel V formations. For a bunch of semi-green pilots, it was quite a feat of precision flying. Swan had taught them well.
“Sabre lead, this is the Fleeting Dream, do you copy?” she called over the radio. She might as well keep things professional.
“I copy,” Swan Song replied, her helmeted face appearing in a small vid window. “Sabre flight, form up around the Dream. Rapier flight, take up position behind us.”
Flurry spun the Dream around, turning to face their distant destination. Even at this distance, she could feel the faint ripples in mirrorspace from the nearby star systems. She quickly cycled through the gravitational data held in the Dream’s navigation golem, selecting the steady pulse linked to the Huerth system’s star.
Now, all she had to do was plot a course. It was very much like navigating an ocean covered in whirlpools, each one generated by a star. She would have to be careful to keep her distance, lest they get caught in the gravity wells and lose speed. They couldn’t afford any delays.
With her trained senses, she felt every ripple and current, seeking out the winding path of highest compression between stars, which would shorten their travel distance.
She swallowed. “I’ve found us a path. I’ll take the lead and start correlating nav data for the Glorium.”
“I copy,” Swan replied.
With a quick beat of her wings, she pulled to the head of the formation and set a course for the Huerth system, following the star’s steady heartbeat. The Dream surged forward, the deep rumble of the engines rising to a higher pitch. Her ship felt lighter and more responsive than before, a sign of the work they’d carried out on her. One engine was no longer slightly lagging behind the others, and a vibration that had been bugging her for weeks was gone.
“Not bad,” she commented, keeping herself off the radio. “Looks like Amby has some competition. Just glad I’m not footing the bill for it.”
She could almost feel an ‘I told you so’ emanating from Whammy.
Through her sensors, she could see Swan and her group lagging behind. “Best hurry up, slowpokes.”
“Damn, I didn’t think that rust bucket was that fast,” Blitz said through the comms.
“Don’t let her looks deceive you,” Flurry replied. “She might be old, but the Dream still has some legs on her.”
The Glorium was soon lost in the gloom as their formation ploughed on into the murk. There was only a flitter of nervous chatter amongst the formation, with everypony focused on traversing the immaterium as quickly as possible. Mirrorspace was a dangerous place, especially for a ship with no means of getting out again, so they stayed as close as they could to the Dream.
As they neared the Huerth system, her sensors began to pick up faint gravity shadows in the currents of mirrorspace. To the untrained eye, these shadows were a blurred mess of flickering peaks and troughs, but to a navigator, these were planets and moons.
Lighting up her horn, Flurry sifted through the data, creating an image of what lay beyond in realspace.
There were several massive shadows, each creating whirlpools of energy which she knew to be the planets that made up the Huerth system. Nyx’s distress signal had originated from within a dense patch surrounding the fifth planet of the system. Stretching her senses, she could feel the crowded asteroid field up ahead, like grains of sand in her hooves, shifting in the current.
And sitting right in the middle of it all, was the Orion.
The Orion was certainly massive, creating a far deeper shadow than most of the surrounding asteroids. Flurry tried to sense the other ship which Nyx had mentioned, but the readings weren’t clear enough to find it. The smaller ship would be easily lost amongst the turbulence created in the asteroid field.
Now that she knew where the Orion was, she just had to find a safe place where they could jump in.
This was what separated your average guilder from a master. With her trained senses, she could feel the faint current passing between each rock. It was like looking for stones hidden beneath the surface of a river before jumping in, with only the water’s flow as a guide. Most navigators spent all their time stuck to gates or open space because of the risks of collision, but Flurry wasn’t your average navigator.
“So… Flurry Heart, you’ve done this a lot, right?” Blitz asked.
“Sabre Two, stay off the line,” Swan warned.
“Come on, it’s our necks on the line here,” he retorted, a little trepidation in his voice.
“Oh, I’ve done this plenty of times and into places a lot more crowded than this,” Flurry assured. “Why do you think I’m so hard to catch?”
“And it’s never gone wrong?” he continued.
“Nope,” she lied.
“That’s a relief,” he said with a sigh. “The sooner we’re out of here the better.”
“Maybe if you stopped distracting her, we’ll get out faster,” Swan grumbled. “And preferably not with a face full of asteroid.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Flurry replied, with a smirk as she found what she was looking for.
There it was. A decent sized gap sat between several asteroid shadows, maybe fifty kilocanters wide in realspace, a fair distance from the Orion. More than enough for the squadrons to slip in.
She carefully catalogued her readings before transmitting the tactical situation back to the Glorium.
“Okay, everypony, come get yourselves topped up before we jump in,” Flurry announced. “Momma cow is waitin’ for ya.”
“Form up into groups of four,” Swan said. “We’ll refuel one group at a time. Remember, we’ve got a limited amount, so take sips, not gulps.”
There was a chorus of acknowledgements from her wingmates, and soon they were maneuvering into position around the Dream.
It was awkward at first. They had to get close to be in range of the recharge emitter, but they quickly got the hang of it, and soon, things were moving smoothly. Flurry winced as she felt the CAPS bank begin to draw energy from the Dream’s Nexus core.
Soon, every ship had completed its refueling, and they once again moved back into formation.
“Okay, opening a jump point now,” Flurry said, focusing her thaumatic energy into the Dream’s jump drive. “Keep clear of the jump point—I don’t want any of you getting sucked out when the vortex opens.”
“Jump drive charging,” the Dream intoned, the hum growing until it reached a fever pitch. “Ready to engage.”
There was an extra draw for a moment through her link as the drive drew more energy from the ship’s core. This time, keeping the jump portal open long enough for other ships to pass through would require a fair bit more energy than she was comfortable spending.
As the energy buildup reached critical mass, she channeled it to a point a few hundred canters in front of her ship. The spell finished, and a tear opened up in the fabric of mirrorspace, showing the black expanse of realspace beyond.
Thrusting forward, the Dream streaked through the rift, and Flurry found herself deep within the asteroid field.
Immediately, proximity warning alarms filled her displays as a veritable mountain of rock loomed ahead of her. It was almost completely black, cloaked in shadow as it barreled towards her.
Throwing the Dream into a skid, she felt the slight tug of G forces as she fired off her reversing engines to slow her forward momentum. Her eyes widened as she saw the clouds of dust and ice being kicked up by her jets.
She let out a sigh of relief. “That was close, eh Whammy?”
“Sabre flight, brake as soon as you exit,” she warned. “So long as you come out slow, you should be fine.”
“We’re coming through now,” Swan responded.
From the portal, the first six fighters emerged, clouds of evaporating etherium billowing off their wings like steam from a vent. They quickly spun and used the thrust from their engines to slow themselves down.
“You weren’t kidding when you said it was close fit,” Swan commented, pulling up beside the Dream. “Remaining Sabre ships, you’re up.”
It was a tentative thing. like a herd of animals crossing a river. Their fighters came through carefully in groups of six. Meanwhile, Flurry maintained the energy output necessary to keep the jump point open.
As Rapier squadron was making its way through, Flurry kept her eyes open for any company in the surrounding area. They were at their most vulnerable as they were filtering in, which was why she had jumped in behind cover. Even so, somepony could have easily picked up the energy spike by now, and yet nothing came to confront them.
Flurry was thankful for that, as it gave them the time needed for the last of their ships to jump in. Soon, every ship was through, and they gathered in the shadow of a large asteroid.
“Rapier flight, you hang back while we go and check out the area,” Swan ordered, her voice clear and level. “Fleeting Dream, you’re with us.”
Nerves haven’t got to her, that’s good, Flurry mused.
“Right with you,” Flurry said, giving a gentle beat of her wings to join the rest of the squadron as it crested the top of the asteroid.
“Should we try and raise the Orion?” came a mare’s voice that Flurry recognised from the briefing—Cinnamon something.
“I doubt they’d have enough power to respond by now even if they wanted to,” Blitz replied.
“Keep your eyes and ears peeled,” Swan warned. “Whatever attacked the Orion has got to be close by.”
In the distance, off her port wing, the green marble of a massive gas giant loomed in the starry sky, partially illuminated by the sun’s harsh light. It looked almost inviting with its puffy white clouds scattered across its surface.
Several large asteroids obscured their view of the path ahead. A particularly large one had a massive hole bored right through it. The hole was easily big enough to fit an Alliance frigate inside with room to spare. The bore hole was too circular to be a meteor impact, and strange patterns rippled from its edges where the rock had been melted and then quickly cooled. The inside of the hole glistened with shards of black glass, the stone crystallized by whatever force had done this.
Flurry had seen the aftermath of enough battles by now to recognise the effects of an energy weapon, but something of this scale was unheard of, even in the Federation. It had to have come from the Orion. What kind of monstrosity was she commanding, and why?
Surrounding the asteroid was a glittering cloud of metal fragments, mostly hoof-sized or smaller, with only a few substantial chunks no bigger than one of the Swallow fighters. She began to recognise structures within the debris as they approached the field. A portion of outer hull, buckled outward by the explosion. An array of shattered gas cylinders, clinging to a twisted internal bulkhead. Some pieces still sparked faintly with electrical power from dying batteries.
“Sabre Lead, picking up residual radiation sources from the debris—definitely a ship,” a stallion commented, his voice quiet, almost a whisper. “It’s too big to go around. We’ll have to pass through it.”
“I read you, Sabre Four,” Swan acknowledged, her voice a bit shaken at the scene. “Looks like this is what’s left of the Houndrathi ship. Keep it slow and be careful you don’t let that crap clog your thrusters.”
As they passed through, it was like going into a hail storm, only with bits of metal rattling against their canopies and fuselages. Some of the larger pieces were corroded and didn’t even seem to have come from the same ship. This was typical of a houndrathi’s ramshackle starship construction—just a collection of whatever they could find, welded together. Flurry almost felt pity for them being pitted against her cousin like they had. The only solace she had was that the destruction was total and the creatures’ deaths had been swift.
“By the Winds, what do you think did this?” one of the younger pilots gasped.
“If you’re lucky, I’ll introduce you to her,” Flurry joked.
“A pony did this?”
“She’s related to Last Shadow so anything’s possible,” another commented.
Flurry winced. She really hoped they wouldn’t tar Nyx with the same brush as her, especially given Nyx’s… unique appearance.
“Sabre squadron, we’re getting close. Make sure you’re ready for anything,” Swan called out as the field began to thin.
“Copy, Sabre Lead,” came a chorus of replies one by one.
They circled around the asteroid, and Flurry wasn’t alone in gasping audibly when the Orion came into view. Flurry had glossed over some of the schematics prepared for the briefing, but she still wasn’t ready for the sheer size of the ship before her.
The Orion was massive, making even the Centipede bulk carrier she had ‘borrowed’ from earlier seem small in comparison. It was of a radical design, far different from anything she had seen before throughout the colonies.
The bow of the ship was a flattened wedge, connected to the main hull of the ship by a long, slender neck. Three huge forward swept wings flared out from the main fuselage at equal angles, a dorsal wing sitting atop a superstructure with the other two angled down at her sides.
A pair of sleek engine pods were nestled on either side of the rear of the dorsal wing, with another two on the lower hull. Like Harmony, Flurry could recognise the touch of each of the three tribal styles on her, only far more refined. The practical earth pony construction of the hull blended seamlessly into the more dramatic and aesthetic nuances of the pegasus and unicorn tribes.
One feature that drew Flurry’s eye was the aperture built into the Orion’s bow. It was easily wide enough to fit a train car through, and from the empty mountings around it, there was more than enough room for additional weapons to be installed.
Flurry pushed her questions aside as she focused on the Orion’s condition. There were no running lights on the massive ship, and the Orion simply hung haphazardly in space, rotating slightly around its centre of mass. Flurry could see impact dents on sections of the hull from asteroid collisions, but there was no serious damage on the hull. Her drab grey hull was missing sections in places, likely meant to be installed after she arrived at Harmony.
Flurry felt a surge of relief at what appeared to be minimal damage. This quickly faded when she saw something move out from behind the Orion. It was only a fraction of the size of the massive ship, and at first glance, it looked to be the Alliance cruiser they were expecting.
Then, she saw the strange blue-green growths encrusting the cruiser’s boxy hull, giving the vessel a bloated, ungainly appearance, like it was infected with cancerous growths. The cruiser was latched onto the Orion by a multitude of umbilical tubes, shooting into the disabled ship’s hull like the proboscis of some spacefaring parasite.
A swarm of Shuriken drones buzzed around, circling the Orion like a pack of wolves around a wounded animal.
They’ve already started boarding her! Flurry gasped.
For the moment, there were no hostile scans in their direction. Now, if they could only—
“Attention, unidentified vessel: This is Harmony Security patrol,” Swan announced on open comms. “We are responding to a distress call. State your intentions or you shall be considered hostile. Acknowledge.”
Flurry winced as she watched the cruiser’s sensors stir to life and scan in their direction.
It was times like this she hated siding with the good guys.