//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: EXECUTIONER ONE // by Hurgusburgus //------------------------------// Three days had passed. And Executioner One still stood there, utterly motionless, save for when ponies would approach it to ask it something. Most of the questions revolved around its origins and the sort. The machine patiently answered those in its booming voice. Every time it did so, the ponies of Ponyville would pause in their tasks and turn to look at the imposing machine. They would listen for a moment or two before returning to whatever they were doing… Celestia stared in shock at the holographic image floating mid-air. She saw what Executioner called super-dreadnoughts, huge, ponderous vessels that moved through the void as they blasted enemy vessels into nothing. She saw the massive turrets turn this way and that, spitting projectiles or energy bolts of innummerable sorts towards the organic Leviathans of Brood. Veritable swarms of Imperial strike craft – fighters, interceptors, bombers, gunboats and corvettes – hurtled along the ships, engaging their insectile counterparts. Executioner told her there were more than a million Brood ships present in that very battle, against an Imperial fleet of less than two hundred thousand. They had to hold the Brood off until Crimson Fleet arrived. The Brood had the numerical superiority, but the Imperials had the edge when it came to technology – she saw what Executioner named Riptide Torpedoes, glowing orbs of amber energy. When those collided with the flank of a Leviathan, they changed; glaring particle whips lashing out as they rapidly spun around and carved the hulk of flesh apart. The Leviathan flailed sluggishly, leaking torrents of ichor that froze in moments. With the death of their mothership, scores of Brood strike craft also perished in the void. And so the battle went on, with both sides ferociously duking it out until the Crimson fleet arrived – numerous Tallaxian and Raellen warship squadrons helmed by Karierrda, an Asahi whose flagship was a Mirutii-built Overlord-class titan, Soemara, or Arclight – a vessel the size of a small asteroid. 258 kilometres long, in fact, and crewed by untold hundreds of thousands. Celestia’s unease only kept growing once she found out that the Asahi Empire commanded at least ten million warships. This simple fact spoke volumes of the prosperity and might of the Empire. Uncounted trillions of myriad alien races inhabited millions of worlds, all of them brought together under a single banner. She was hesitant to think what would happen if a civil war tore it apart as well… “So, you haven’t found out where our world is in relation to the Empire or Coalition?” AFFIRMATIVE. STAR CHARTS=USELESS. NEED RIFT-CAPABLE VESSEL/PHASE SPACE-CAPABLE VESSEL. AVAILABLE VESSELS IN IMMEDIATE VICINITY=ZERO. “Ah. Well, how would you go about returning to the Empire, then?” EXECUTIONER ONE WILL DEPLOY SEARCH AND RETRIEVE BEACON ONCE MAINFRAME REPAIRS ARE COMPLETED. “And that is going to take a while.” ACKNOWLEDGED. Next day it told her more of the Coalition. Twilight was always present, too, taking notes on whatever Executioner didn’t deem as classified. She had been intrigued to find out that the humans of Coalition had been in an exodus, having left their original homeworld behind for reasons unknown and lost to the ages. The refugees had found several worlds to colonise and did so, rebuilding humanity. When phase space travel was implemented, humans spread quickly across numerous worlds and prospered. The peace was not to last, however. Unification Wars followed, bringing ruin to millions of people as ramshackle warships clashed in furious battles for supremacy. From the ashes rose the Trade Order and they enforced strict laws upon their worlds. Over the years, the laws were made less drastic as humanity recovered from the ravages of war. Soon, their worlds were flourishing again. War became something to be read in history books. Warships were replaced by merchant freighters. Disputes were settled in courts and merchant fleets filled phase lanes, laden with goods. This golden age for humanity came to an abrupt halt a couple of years ago – year 3002 by Coalition calendar. The Vasari fell upon the Coalition, their undefended planets ripe and bountiful targets for the alien aggressors. Numerous worlds fell within hours of invasion's beginning – Linv, Arietis II, Koriva, and many more. And so it went on, with distant and separated worlds trying to organize and repulse the invasion, only to be crushed and enslaved. Several months passed and by then, Core Worlds were in danger of a Vasari attack. The last of the Alexi dinasty passed away of old age, leaving the Order leaderless. The situation was saved by Lord-General Denaros Wersian, who forged the order into Traders' Emergency Coalition, effectively bringing the human worlds under his control. They were merchants. And they had to become soldiers. He worked restlessly to form out fleets of ramshackle merchant ships so that their shipyards could construct actual warship. Billions of civilians volunteered as the industrial juggernaut awoke from its rudely-interrupted slumber. Factories restlessly pumped out munitions and supplies. A new ship was completed every day or even quicker. Cadets filled the military academies while retired generals were brought back into active service. Centuries-old holoarchives were reactivated and the horrors of Unification Wars were brought into light. Years of peace had made the now-defunct Order soft. And now, they had formed an efficient bulwark to stem the invaders. Humanity had been unified. And they found allies in the peaceful Asli, also besieged by the Vasari, and the Asahi Empire, both of whom aided their war effort to the best of their abilities. Heroes emerged among the Coalition's soldiers – High Admiral Sunnar Gilva Brusilof, a renowned naval officer and tactician, able to turn the tide of many battles only with a handful of ships. Captain Lieia Aladara Grisova, a fearless and dedicated EXO whose brutality, hate and callous disregard for her own life when it came to dealing with Vasari was both feared and praised even among the Asahi Empire's commanders. Lieutenant Sal Corrin, who worked with Imperial intelligence units and established herself as an able recon fleet commander. Colonel Jacobi North, the shrewd commander of 29th Force Recon, an elite unit of Coalition Marine Corps. As war dragged on, some grew weary of the conflict and sought diplomacy, Lord-General Wersian among them. Unknowingly, he had sown seeds for the Rebellion, as many worlds cried out in protest, unwilling to parlay with the Vasari. They wanted revenge. It was in those times that then-Colonel Grisova gained a widespread following, having attained the highest individual kill-count in the history of Coalition – roughly seven thousand Vasari soldiers, earning her a moniker amongst the people of the Dark Fleet – The Harrower. Her seemingly endless loathing and disgust for Vasari drew soldiers to her and the battlegroup she commanded and they followed wherever she went. Her campaign of terror came to an abrupt end on June 7th. Betrayed by Ayra Alexi, the bastard daughter of Santor Alexi, her battlegroup and troops perished in a matter of minutes and she was taken captive. She spoke not of what the Vasari did to her, but she had become even more dark and violent since then. When she escaped on September 16th, she had attempted to murder Ayra Alexi in plain sight of Lord-General Wersian. Her claims of Ayra's treachery fell on deaf ears and she deserted. This event caused much unrest among the Coalition troops. Two weeks later, she tore the Coalition apart – she stole the Ragnarov-class titan and took the title of Rebel Queen. She had forsaken her own chance of redemption to bring about the destruction of the Vasari. Numerous worlds, both Coalition and Vasari-held, pledged their allegiance to her, as did many fleets. When the Advent arrived, bent on exterminating humanity, she staunchly held her ground, unwilling to bow to the deviants. She prevailed once more when she forged an alliance with Advent rebels and brought them under her banner as well. And that was how Coalition was now, torn by civil war and hemmed in by two alien aggressors from both sides… Twilight set aside the tall stack of papers and gathered up her empty inkwells in her saddlebags, yawning widely. “At this rate, I’m going to run out of paper and ink very soon… And I have to catalogue all of this, too!” She grumbled sullenly. HIGH VALUE INDIVIDUAL ONE’S METHOD IS INEFFICIENT. MORE EFFICIENT DATA STORING MEDIA IS AVAILABLE. “Oh? What do you have in mind?” The answer she got was a hiss and clunk as a nearby panel on the wall opened, presenting her with a curious device. It had a screen and several buttons. HIGH VALUE INDIVIDUAL ONE. ACQUIRE DATASLATE. “O-okay?” Hesitantly, she trotted over to it and picked it up in her magic as Celestia looked on, intrigued. ACTIVATE DATASLATE. She eyed the device confusedly for a couple of moments before poking the screen once. With a soft beep, it came to life. “So, what does it do?” DATASLATE=EFFICIENT DATA STORAGE DEVICE. STORAGE CAPACITY=100 TERABYTES. “Uh… Right… I have no idea what that means…” Her mind breaking slightly at that, she sat down, the dataslate hovering in her magic as she experimentally poked the various icons on its screen, helped along both by Celestia and Executioner One… She trotted back to her library, mind swimming slightly at the recent revelations. The small, book-sized device safely nestling in her saddlebag could easily accommodate her library’s worth of knowledge, the Canterlot Royal Archives, and still barely take up any space in its memory! This sole device made books obsolete! She could record videos – whatever those were - take pictures and do many more things with it! She had only been more amazed to find out such equipment was commonplace in Imperial military. For now, though, she had work to do – the dataslate needed to be thoroughly examined and tested. And what better way to do that than transferring her entire library’s worth of books and knowledge inside it? Two days later “Calm down, Rarity! Tell me what happened and slowly this time!” “The Diamond Dogs took my Sweetie Belle and her friends!” “What? When?” “I don’t know! They told me they were going to have a picnic after school. I decided to drop by earlier and they were gone! The entire place was trampled by their filthy paws! I followed the trail for a while before coming here. We have to do something!” “I know, I know- Wait.” A wide smile took place on her face and she giggled nigh-maliciously. “I have an idea that is guaranteed to work… That I do promise you. I just need to clear this with Princess Celestia…” Grinning, she grabbed her dataslate and started typing away. She quickly finished the letter and pressed ‘Send’. A couple of moments passed. Rarity could almost hear the gears in Twilight’s head crunch and creak noisily. A moment later, Twilight facehoofed. “Why did I even think that’d work…?” Rarity snickered at that and levitated a sheet of parchment over to her, followed by a quill and an inkwell. Grumbling embarrassedly, Twilight began anew… Celestia blinked in surprise when a scroll of parchment materialized in front of her. Curious, she grasped it and unrolled it, scanning the document. She blinked. She read it again. Dear Princess Celestia, I would like to request your permission to take Executioner One on a mission to rescue Rarity’s sister, Sweetie Belle and her friends Applebloom and Scootaloo. Apparently, they were out on a picnic and have been abducted by Diamond Dogs. And no, I do not intend to attack the Dogs, merely have Executioner One intimidate them into releasing the girls. I eagerly await your answer. With regards, Twilight Sparkle Celestia stared at the piece of parchment dumbfoundedly. Well, this was… new. But Executioner One had yet to do something wrong – aside from pummelling her and Luna into ground with little to no effort. Sighing, she somewhat hesitantly picked up a quill and some parchment and started writing a response… Twilight trotted through the streets, her friends in tow as they headed towards Executioner One, who still was pining for the Best Statue Ever award, apparently. As they approached, however, it turned to face Twilight. HIGH VALUE INDIVIDUAL ONE. EXECUTIONER ONE ACKNOWLEDGES. “Uh. Hi. Could I talk to you?” AFFIRMATIVE. ENTER QUERY. “We need your help with something.” ELABORATE MISSION OBJECTIVES. “Okay. Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle, and her friends, Applebloom and Scootaloo, were foalnapped by Diamond Dogs. We need your help to find and rescue them.” EXECUTIONER ONE, ACTIVATING SECONDARY MISSION. HIGH VALUE INDIVIDUAL ONE, LEAD EXECUTIONER ONE TO AMBUSH SITE. “Okay, then. Rarity?” The unicorn in question nodded and started off towards somewhere, with her friends and Executioner One following her towards where the Crusaders had been taken… Of course, Twilight’s plan failed spectacularly. But you’ll have to wait until the next chapter is out to find out. Because I’m a sadistic bastard. The Game.