The ship was ordered to take off immediately after reports of a possible Black Wine’s Army air strike could reach Griffonstone (which they later learned that there’s no air strike and the kingdom was still intact ever since the war started). Rainbow Dash was also pumped to take off to Kludgetown. She doesn’t want to miss the precious opportunity to retake the Alicorn Gundam.
It is needless to say that Haystack still doesn't like the ‘arrogance’ of the new pilots. Yamina, Blue Thunder and Water Vapor both stunted and chuckled as Flash told them the reasons.
“Jeez, never heard of Haystack being jealous of others. Oh well… Let's just say we know another aspect about him!” Water Vapor the hippogriff said with his signature feminine tone.
“Haha! You are that clueless about him WV? Dude was always an impatient guy! Hey Brad, have he and those dudes had any fights yet? Like… with raw power?” Blue Thunder said with his hooves pointed to the new pilots. They were sitting with a bunch of mechanics from their ships, but creatures that serve alongside the squad are also present at their table as well. Flash even recognized Seashell Blue laughing at the jokes come up by none other than the leader himself: Moran.
“So there’s two Abyssinians stuck together at a traffic light, somewhere in Panthera…” he started “A bat pony flying there and staying in front of their car. He looks suspiciously like Black Wine…” he stopped for a while, glancing all around the table before continue “… Anyway, one of the Abyssians named Margot said ‘Sister, a manifestation of racism is right there! What should we do?’ ,to which the older sister, Marina, replied ‘Just show him the unity sign, he’ll go away!’. Margot then opens up the window and yells…”
“Yell what?”
“GET OUT OF OUR VIEW AND CROSS THE LIGHT!” Moran literally shouted and made the whole canteen startled. Not just that, he also stood up with his back legs and stomped on to the table “DON’T YOU SEE IT’S GREEN, YOU BASTARD!”
The whole table where he sat laughed hysterically in response.
“What the… it didn’t even sound half funny!” Yamina said to the squad.
“Hey weirdo! This is a canteen, not a circus!” Haystack shouted at him angrily.
“Hey, it’s our good friend Haystack… Hi there buddy, wanna join downtown Coolsville?”
“No creature want to join your stupid gang!”
“Okay then,… have a good night with your gang…”
“What a douchebag… That guy better prepare for…”
But Haystack doesn't get to finish his sentence. Lyra and Bonbon suddenly appeared right behind his squad and Lyra politely tapped on Haystack's angry shoulder. He nearly shouted into her face when he rapidly turned his head around.
“Ah… Oh… Sorry Mrs Director…”
“Eh… seems like you haven’t gone too well with that Moran guy, huh?” Lyra asked with one of her eyebrows raised.
“Yeah… you remember he straight up said our ship was dirty last time…”
“He only said our hangar was a bit dusty! It should not be that severe. Anyway, they will actually become your… what should I say… back helper? Anyway they only got to protect our flotilla when you guys were facing Black Wine’s Army at the base, got that?”
“Wait… so do they only get to fight in the rear?” Haystack asked in a somewhat happy mood. In the background, the Moran, Haruna and Esteban continue to make their table laughing hysterically with their jokes. Haruna even gets to make the squad giggle with a joke related to a make up The Ponykind debate that included no one but egghead politicians.
“Keep yourself collected, guys…” Haystack calmly said to the team, then returned to Lyra “…did they want that or you guys ordered them to do so?”
“They volunteered. Moran said that his team skills will absolutely shield the ship, and that our combined skill will overwhelm Black Wine’s Army.”
“So that jerk is just a coward after all…” the brown stallion mumbled.
“But that’s not all. During our trip to Kludgetown, most of the dog fights will be handled by them. With that, you guys have to let them use the base jabbers…” Bonbon continued.
“Celestia blesses them if one of the base jabber blows up. Also, can you tell them to clean the ship tomorrow with us…”
“Didn’t I just say that they will cover the ship in the next 2 days? Moran and his team have to be on battle station, so you’ll still have to do it without their help!”
“Privilege bastard!” Haystack mumbled again.
…
To Flash’s surprise, Haruna and Esteban are somewhat pretty friendly. Yamina and Water Vapor quickly become friends with Haruna, to which Flash found their friendship “kinda adorable”. The lime green changeling decided to join them in cleaning the ship, starting with the hangar’s floor.
“Hey, Flash… Continue the job, dude!” Haystack reminded the blue haired guy with a little punch into his back. On the other hoof, he was holding a sweeper. Around them are the creatures happily making some chit chat, jokes or even pranking each other with the wet sweepers. Some pegasus, hippogriff and changeling where to fly, cleaning the mobile suits as well as the walls.
The wet floor was to shine the light above, making the hangar brighter than usual.
With Haystack reminding him, Flash continues the job and sweeps the floor even harder. His mind was somewhat free of thought, something that was pretty rare to a guy with such a complex background like him.
“Moran and Esteban decided to get a ride outside this morning…” the Lieutenant casually said “… it's just a patrol, they said…”, he said sarcastically with his head wiggle “…more like running from responsibility! Hey, how about your dreams with Luster and her friends? Is she still visiting you regularly?”
“She and her friends visit me every night. Every. Single. Night…” Flash replied, emphasizing on the last three words “…although they are pretty fun, though. Strangely, I feel like they help me relax…”
His mind automatically recalled the moment he and the team talked about Haystack and his ‘hate’ for Moran the night before. It was needless to say for Flash that they laugh a lot.
“Haha, I honestly like Moran jokes. Perhaps he’s a clever dude!” Grisela commented “I like the joke that said ‘My wife and I had this long argument about appropriate stuff to wear while gardening… But she keeps digging in her heels! Haha!”
“Definitely gonna talk to this guy one day! Hey Flash, do you have his number?” asked Butter Burger, but Spring Garden soon corrected him “That’s a very rude thing to do!”
“Hey, Haystack call Flash Sentry!” The blue haired pilot sinks deep into his dreams and forcing Haystack to snap his subordinate to reality again “Do you hear me?”
“Oh… Yes! Yes sir! What are we talking about again?”
“I’m trying to trash talk to you about that brown jerk. Anyway, y’all should make sure they don’t steal our show when we are trying to fight against Black Wine’s MS, got it! They are supposed to fight in the rear, not leave us vulnerable!”
“I agree, Sir. But isn’t that the job of our commanders?” Flash asked calmly.
“I just wanted to remind you that so you could do the same to them when I am busy dealing with the GMIIIs and the Nemos.”
The duo then returned to work, minding their own business. The Lieutenant seems determined to beat Moran and his team in terms of kills streak, to the point that Flash could see it physicalized in his aggressive sweeping. But he quickly decelerated the process and looked down the floor.
“Do you think… I’m a bit over dramatic over this? I mean… above all, they are our new comrades!”
“Moran probably knows you hate him, but I think he doesn't care. Perhaps he will be happy if you are included in his friendship circle.”
“I can’t understand why that jerk can have so much admiration, but yeah, his friends seem nice…”
Right after that, the sirens go up with the announcer ordering the crew to get to the chairs. The radar picked up some enemy MS that was bound right towards the flotilla. However, Haystack suggested that they should come to the bridge. Lyra and Bonbon said that his squad will not be launched in any fights until Kludgetown, so he and his squad have to stay on the ship. But he still wanted to see whether the new pilots live up to their names or not.
“I want to see how many suits they can shoot down. They better not miss any!”
Flash agreed and they ran as fast as they could to the bridge.
…
“Hello there Lieutenant! Uh… why do you guys wear that hat?” Discord greeted with a question.
“We’re cleaning stuff. What’s wrong?” Haystack asked the draconequus.
“Seems like there are about 6 MSs and some Mosquito drones fly right up here…” he replied “…the radar just went dead cause’ Minovsky particles. Their last position was right behind us!”
“Ensign Haruna, you are free to launch!” Rapid Specter said through the radio. The bridge was surprisingly focused on their task. Even Marlin Whisper gets to stare at her monitor and looks after the ship’s weapons, contrary to her somewhat careless manner that Flash has as his first impression of her. At the helm, Mind-of-Steel is focusing all of his power on to the steering wheel, forcing the ship to turn around in order to get the whole ship to have a better view at the battle.
From there, 6 large humanoid figures riding on base jabbers alongside with at least a dozen of other small black dots that Flash assumes are Mosquito UAV, steaming towards them.
Not so long after that, they noticed some white smoke coming out of the Mosquitos. They were scared to learn that they were missiles initially, but the crew quickly gained calmness and retaliated. Rapid Specter decided to fire the CIWS onto the enemy. A few initial shots have brought down at least a dozen of missiles. But it is not just that: Marlin Whisper also ordered the mega particle turret to aim at the UAV in an attempt to vaporize them all in just a sweep.
“Okay! 3, 2, 1… open fire!” she said. Normally it was Discord who has the authority over the 230 mm mega particle cannon, but he allows her to use it since she has more monitoring ability to the overall guns.
The bright beam forces the bridge to cover their eyes. Discord manages to have himself sunglasses so he could see the actions conveniently. The first beam sweep brought down 6 UAVs and heavily damaged a base jabber, according to Scelrite. An explosion was viewed not so long after and forced 2 MSs to bail out and move towards their target by foot.
“Okay, how is Moran and his squad?” Discord asked “Can you contact them now?”
“No, Sir! The Minovsky Particles are still too dense! I think we still have to witness the fight with our eyes!”
That is when Discord realized the beam shot. He hasn't got to contact Moran and his squad to get out of the way. But then, there are some voices over the radio.
“Lieutenant Moran here: we need permission to engage!”
“Phew… are you guys still fine?” Discord asked after he ran towards where Scelrite sat.
“Still is! Haruna, me and Esteban are still flying around their formation. Good job crew!”
“Good, you are allowed to engage!”
…
6 MSs, each have their own base jabber. That was actually a rare sight to see in the entirety of Equus since it is still very hard to transport military hardware from Earth to the surface of a planet from the other side of a wormhole. Moran quickly took notice of that, so to ‘complement’ his enemy’s wealth, he whispered in impressed. The reindeer adjust his targeting scope as he say:
“Nice toy you got there. Hopefully they’ll not gonna be taken down… like a rock wrapped in burning paper falling from the sky…” Moran said sarcastically.
Beeping sounds created from the speaker was a thing he once found annoying at first. The fact that he gets direct training with the MS upon delivery has gained him some better knowledge at understanding the suit. But that’s still not enough for him when he still can’t turn off the targeting sounds. But after knowing its function, he agreed to keep it on board.
Haystack was actually right when he said Moran probably come from a noble family. He was the son of a Everfree politician, who was the friend of king Aspen, the ruler of the magical kingdom in the woods. He has worked way harder than almost every other reindeer in his age to shove off the stereotype that kids with noble backgrounds tend to have no talents. He have excellently graduate the Everfree Grand University of aerodynamics, before applied himself for the multinational company Las Pegasus Aerospace. But the war broke out and he have to halt the process. That was the moment he got introduce to mobile suit piloting.
The reasons why the Alliance can buy most of the MS are simple: AE did have some executives that are supportive towards them, so they have helped the Alliance to set up front companies that work exclusively within Equestrian territory. Black Wine’s way of buying AE’s MS is through competition: if a company can negotiate a lower price with better quality, they were chosen in a limited period. That front company was called Mudrock Defense. They will frequently make secret transport of weapons and goods to Alliance’s territory. And that’s how the 3 Jegan Type Ds were brought to the trio.
Sadly, because of the lack of training facilities, they have to train directly with the suits. But it only took him, Haruna and Esteban 5 months to master their giant humanoid weapons. The kill record that Haystack saw when he met the trio was also real, when they were fighting in defense of Everfree forest. MS tend to be a huge factor in battlefield odds, so it’s no surprise that they helped the kingdom hold off long enough before they were replaced with a squad of 5 MSs.
When the battle happened, they traveled above Halflinger Groove. Mind-of-Steel has decided to travel due south in order to cross the narrowest part of the Celestial Sea. That makes the ship go right into the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) of an MS unit based in Foaledo, a coastal city by the Equestrian’s side of the Celestial Sea. The MS base there decided to send their only squad, which are 6 of the total 70 MSs in Equestrian arsenal, according to some Alliance intelligence info, to sink the Canterlot. Moran carefully aimed his beam rifle towards a GM that had just lost its base jabber and shot.
But the first one was a miss. That’s totally okay for him: the suit’s standard beam rifles are designed to shoot like a machine gun in at least an hour, making its battery one of AE’s proudest products. With that, he decided to shoot at his vulnerable target at least a dozen more, as it was high above the trees with barely any hiding spot. The shots stir up the soil, sending them flying high up and falling down the running GMIII. He didn’t have to wait to see it retaliate, shooting the same kind of rifle towards him. But it’s luck is just as much as the brown reindeer as he rapidly dodges all of them.
“Jeez, this guy is an ace! Hey Haruna, where’s your sniper rifle?”
“I’m shooting down some Mosquitos! What do you want me to do?” the lime green changeling asked.
“I want you to shoot that one GMIII down there. Can you do it?”
“Yes sir!”
From her base jabber, the black MS carefully aimed its long rifle towards its enemy. It was an old school 5 battery magazine weapon that can shoot right through almost any armor that was not treated with anti-beam coating.
The bright pink beam shot that was unleashed right after the trigger was pressed went right through the cockpit and sent the whole thing exploding. Haruna have to make sure she didn’t accidentally hit the Minovsky reactor, so the explosion was just a normal fireball with thick black smoke after wards,
“Gotcha! Now we’re gonna fight the other 5!”
At that moment, all of the 24 Mosquitos UAVs were shot down. But the remaining suits don't give up just yet. Right beneath each base jabber are at least 4 anti-ship missiles. The lead one decided to fire 2 of them, and while one was taken down, the other one managed to hit the main mega particle gun battery. A huge explosion rocked the ship. Moran heard that there were even some of the bridge crew being tossed around like bed sheets in a washing machine. But he sighed in relief when he learned none of them was heavily injured and went back to work. From his view, the smoke following the blast from his mother ship is covering the main bridge.
“Moran calls Canterlot. Moran calls Canterlot. Are you okay?”
“We’re… we are fine… just keep fighting!” Scelrite replied. “Dang it… the mega particle…”
The Blackhawk was then ordered to cover the whole flotilla with her anti-air upgrade, which consisted of 5 Phalanx CIWS, 2 anti-MS missile launchers with 12 missiles each mounted on her side, and 2 100 mm guns on its main deck. The sight when she fired her port side missiles launcher was such a sight to behold, when all of them left the ship with a long curvy smoke tail behind, bounding right to their enemy just for one reason: taking all of them down. The ship had that upgrade because when learned she only got to carry Water Vapor’s MS, the Alliance ordered to remove one hangar, giving the space for her enormous weapon arsenal. This process happened when Flash and Haystack were still fighting with Celaeno’s crew.
Moran ordered his squad to back down for the missiles to perform its purpose. He was upset to see most of them were shot down with the GMIIIs Vulcan guns, leaving the space for only 3 hits: 2 of them destroyed a single base jabber and one managed to bring down another GMIII. The base jabber’s explosion was pretty bright as it sent all 4 warheads exploding, making them noticeably large. In retaliation, another one fired all of its anti-missiles to the flotilla. But this time, the squad learned from their mistakes: Moran and Esteban managed to track them all down and they all blasted up like popcorn while still on the way to the target. That’s when Moran learned the beeping noise upon targeting is extremely useful, in addition to the targeting icon on his panoramic screen cockpit.
But that’s when the enemy’s MS really starts to engage. One black GMIII, the one that Moran assumed to be the commander due to the horn-like antenna on its head, brought out its beam saber and flew straight into him. The two opposing suits stood up in the base jabber and the sword fight began.
The two blades clashes into each other. In his cockpit, Moran could hear the loud electric current sound emitting from two powerful Minovsky currents fighting against each other. The bright flash in the middle also caused some small pink lightning bolt striking on to each of the suits armor, but they were overall harmless. His opponent was trying to push Moran to the edge of his base as a wrestler with a sword in order to make him lose balance. But it’s not that easy for the horned MS: the Jegan was reported to have more power being brought to it’s joint motors. That means it’s was more than enough for Moran to hold position, so he push his motors as hard as he could to do the same. The black MS has its feet being pushed across the flatbed of the base jabber, creating some friction spark when the two metal surfaces rubbed against each other.
Knowing it’s in a disadvantageous position, the horned suit decides to abort pushing and making continuous blade strikes on Moran, but it only met with his beam saber. However, the strikes are still powerful and unpredictable enough for the brown reindeer to pull out another one and fend off whenever a potential hit was detected. The two continue that cycle for about 4 minutes, before Moran thinks of a simple idea.
He checked the ammo left in his Vulcan gun. “Still not much, but that’s enough”, he thought. He carefully adjusted his MS’s head toward the opponent's main head sensor and opened fire. The initial spark blocked his view for just a fraction of a second, but when the smoke was gone, he could see the sensor had blasted away a revealed broken machine’s part on his opponent’s face. The suit seems to be caught off guard after that when it has to back up a bit. “Perhaps the pilot is waiting for the backup camera’s signal”, Moran mumbled. But he’s not gonna let his chance slip away. The dark brown Jegan pulled out its beam rifle and rained down some beam shot’s into its torso. But it was too late: the horned black suit had its consciousness back and started some sort of dog fight. The two exchange fire with their rifles for roughly 5 minutes.
On the other hand, Esteban for most of the time has to deal with the rest of the squad on his own when Haruna is busy shooting down the anti-ship missiles. He did everything to dodge the rapid shooting from the GMIIIs, both missiles and beam shots: they don’t use their shoulder mounted missiles launchers for larger targets. Luckily for him, he hasn't used the Vulcan’s ammo for previous shooting of the anti-ship missiles, so it allows him to shut down multiple anti MS missiles from the GMIIIs. Only after the enemy ran out of missiles that Esteban started his offensive move.
“Haha, look who is struggling now!” the light red changeling exclaimed. With his magic on his horn, Esteban pushes his trigger button on the control stick, shooting down 2 of the base jabbers. One of them immediately jumps right after its magic carpet blasted and attempts to shoot at him. But the dark brown MS didn't let its opponent grab any chances: a shot right through the cockpit sent the giant machine falling down the thick jungle below, buried below the trees.
“Another pilot was killed. I repeat: one more Black Wine’s pilot was killed!”
“Yes!” Moran heard his subordinate exclaim in happiness. Not so bad for a changeling pilot who used to be one of the most bullied changelings in his class, back when he was still studying in a primary school back in his hometown.
Then, Moran quickly changed his focus back to the battle. He has started to see some exhaustion sign from his opponent. It should be noticed that throughout the whole dog fight, he did not fire any shot at all: the horned MS fired at him furiously with barely any stops. He waited for about 3 more minutes to wait for its beam rifle to get hot enough it jammed the shooting process: the barrel was getting so hot it glowed.
Then, that moment came: the suit stopped firing all of the sudden and started checking on it’s beam rifle. That’s when Moran grabbed his chance.
Rapidly slammed the acceleration paddle, both the suits and base jabber launched themselves to the enemy “like a rocket”, as Moran described. The momentum slammed Moran against the seat like glue, and he just kept himself like that for maximum focus. Then, just as the horned black GMIIIs just put up its beam rifle, perhaps in desperation according to Moran, the brown reindeer pulled out his beam saber as fast as he could to strike a stab into the side of its torso. The stab made multiple bright red sparks emitting from the suit itself, which he assumed that it’s the burning fuel. It made the giant 18 meters tall machine being completely disabled and slipped on the base jabber. Moran finished his job by shooting the “magic carpet”, causing both units to crash down the jungle. And as usual, the explosion came after with some dense black smoke and a fireball flying into the sky.
“One more downed! I think it’s the commander unit this time!” Moran reported “3 more to go!”
“Woah! Good one there, Lieutenant!” Haruna congratulates him through the com link as three circling around. But in contrast to his belief, the other 3 went for a fight to the death. He was stunned to see all three of them accelerate towards the flotilla and try to take down all three ships one more time.
“Guys! No time for a party!” Haruna warned, but it seemed too late. She pulled her beam sniper rifle towards the suit that was approaching the Parrot’s Strength and shot it exploded, but even that it’s not enough: it blasted a large hole on the airship’s hull with a beam shot. Esteban also went all out to chase down one GMIIIs.
However, it was also too late: that GMIII, designated by the code number 04 on its shoulder armor, shot some beam shots right into the Blackhawk’s bow and the balloons. One of the shots causing the black airship decorated with a giant hawk statue on the bow, caught fire. Not long after that, the ship fell down the trees and exploded.
It quickly changed its target towards the Canterlot, along with the remaining GMIII that have designation 03. The two simultaneously put up their beam rifle right into the Canterlot’s bridge.
The whole bridge went silent, their eyes widened. Right in front of them, just at the other side of the bridge’s glass, the 04 is pointed and barrels right into the bridge with both of its hands on it. Discord was so shocked he didn’t get to use his magic, which was not strong enough to beat any major enemy on his own. Haystack was also grinding hard in shock and fear. On his seat, Scelrite was holding his scream, while Marlin Whisper, Mind-of-Steel and Yellow Pickle had to cover their eyes and straight up screamed.
Their fate and struggle against Black Wine will now end. Rainbow Dash will also die along with the ship. It would be a tremendous blast for the Alliance, as one of their most important leaders died during combat. And with that, “The War for Harmony”, as the Alliance would prefer to call, will probably end. At the time, Mind-of-Steel had raised the ship at around 550 meters off the ground. If the main bridge is lost, the ship will go down as the steering and engine control disappear. 340 crew members will also go down with it in perhaps one of the biggest losses in combat during the war.
But all of them are blessed to live for another day.
Just as the barrel of the 04 glowed, it was met with a mysterious strike into the torso. Before both pilots of the 04 and 03 get their consciousness back, their rifles have been cutted in half: the melted metal is dropping down their feet, emitting smokes along the way, even after they met the base jabbers.
All of them, including the bridge, the Parrot’s Strength, and the pilots, were shocked to see what happened…
In front of them is a glowing pair of beam sabers, and 2 deadly blue eyes…