//------------------------------//
// Admiral Drake 
// Story: We have our Reasons... 
// by dragon191917 
//------------------------------//

Vanguish the evil...

Twilight and Gilda ran to the bridge. 

In front of them was a lonely solar system, inhabited only by a small sun and a belt of asteroids. Among the asteroids were a few abandoned mining facilities, but not much else. Scanners showed it as the Carrot System.

Of more pressing concern was the large Solar Empire fleet heading their direction, including six frigates, a pair of cruisers, a battleship, and an Interdictor cruiser, all surrounded by dozens of fighter escorts.

Twilight simply stared at the fleet. It was either her salvation or her doom, depending if they knew she was on board.

Meanwhile, Gilda sprinted into the command chair and started messing with the holographic projector. 

Suddenly, her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Those ships bear fleet markings I've never seen before. They're Solar Empire, but not of any battle group I know."

Suddenly, with a crackle, the comm chattered on, to hear a young, masculine, polite voice come through. "Hailing Lord Captain Gilda of the L.S.S. Eclipse, of the NLR. This is Rear Admiral Dagin Drake, from the E.S.S. Sol, of the Solar Empire.  Me and my stallions kindly request that you do not fire on us for the time being. I believe you have someone aboard my fleet and I are looking for. I believe, however, that we can settle this over a table with words, not in the void of space with weapons."

Gilda almost fainted from relief from that speech, and kindly replied over the comm, "Of course Admiral. I see you are more intelligent than the last Empire ships we met. If you have a face-to-face projector, please put it on, so we can see each other."

After a few seconds of silence, the center panel of the glass on the Eclipse lit up, showing the face of a young pegasus stallion. His coat was a deep blue, with his hair black. He was smiling through the camera. 

"Hello!" said Drake "An honor to meet you, Ms. Gilda. Ah, and you must be Twilight Sparkle. A pleasure to meet the Princess's primary advisor and personal apprentice. I do, however, believe this is not the place or way for possible negotiations. Bring an armed guard and Ms. Sparkle down to the mining asteroid at the coordinates I will send you momentarily. Drake out."

Then, the screen winked out. By the time Twilight had half turned, Gilda was almost out the door.

Running to catch up, Twilight reached Gilda just as she told four soldiers to follow her to the armory. Twilight followed.

"Do you really think they'll be peaceful?" asked Twilight. 

"No." Replied Gilda, "It would be nice not to be a trap, but I'm bringing these troopers and Fury on this. Fury is priming our ride."

When they reached the armory, Twilight was awed by the sheer weaponry that was displayed. Every type and sort of handheld Magic Missile weapon, for starters. Shotguns, rifles, pistols, tripod mounted machine guns, everything. And then they had support weapons. Missile launchers, explosive detonators, grenades, etc. Even a dozen "Lunar Grenades", which create a globe of darkness impossible to see through.

The soldiers grabbed assault rifles, except one, who grabbed a heavy rifle, suited for sniping. All the soldiers grabbed blue-white camouflage vests and helmets. Gilda, meanwhile, grabbed a shotgun, along with an monocle sensor, which, like it's name suggests, fits like a monocle over one eye, and also provides tactical information. Twilight, meanwhile, grabbed a simple pistol, just in case. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Gilda sneakily tuck some sort of a grenade in a pouch.

After arming, they all ran for the hanger. There, they were met with Fury, who looked very different from normal. He wore a vest and helmet similar to that of the soldiers, along with the assault rifle. However, he had a grenade launcher on his back, a belt of grenades, and a bandolier of spare energy crystals. 

Behind him was an extremely impressive ship. With an upgraded fighter on top, and a large carrying crate on bottom, it had nearly a half dozen different guns, including an Anti-Capital Ship Space Born Torpedo(ACSSBT), with enough explosive punch to blow a moderate sized hole in a frigate. 

The group walked into the carrying crate, whose doors slid shut, and they jarred as they left the ship, along with the always weird feeling of lacking of gravity. 

As Gilda floated up, she opened a comm panel. "Yarrick, see anything suspicious from their ship?"

Another voice, that of another officer of the Eclipse, came on. "Negative, captain, just their own shuttle."

Gilda nodded, then they landed in the facilities hanger bay.

"We got air out their, pilot?" said Fury up into a hatch above them. 

"Negative. No gravity either. Warm though. Only breathing masks are needed."

Gilda nodded, and opened up a case of various sized masks that cover the entire face, made of a bendable plastic, along with oxygen tanks. Everyone put on a mask, and the doors opened up.