The bright-edged leaves rustled with a gentle breeze, the pale light running along the forest floor until they blended into the light created by the campfire.
Phineas heard a pronounced female voice from off to his side say, “As much as I agree with you, Federation pony, I’ve got to ask just how you intend to go about this counterattack without getting everyone brutally murdered.”
He turned his head to look to the person, expecting her to be looking down at him. To his mild surprise, her face was roughly level with his. She was wearing red and white armor like the ranger, except it was clearly modified to fit her small build. Her helmet was smooth at the back, as opposed to sporting the spikes the tall ranger had on his helmet. Her’s was slightly elongated, however, the visor curving upwards near the middle and sweeping back along the sides of the helmet. Slung on her back was a utility pack and strapped to her thigh was a long barreled pistol.
“Two space rangers in one refugee camp,” Phineas commented with a cock of his head to disguise his reaction to the stranger. “There’s a joke to be made here… I just can’t think of one.”
“Because that’s the most pressing issue here,” the ranger replied, putting her hands on her waist and making an S shape with her neck when she pulled her head back. “Let’s get it out of the way that I’m small, not that you’ve been gifted in size yourself, pony.”
“Whoa, with an attitude like that, no wonder you sound a lot bigger,” Phineas thought. Deciding it’d be best to shift the focus of the conversation, he replied, “I don’t know anything specific. To be honest, I don’t think it’d be in our best interest to start picking fights any time soon. But at the same time, we can’t just stay here doing nothing.”
The female ranger hummed thoughtfully, tapping a finger against the end of her helmet’s snout. “Well first thing’s first. We need supplies. Food, water, ammunitions…” she said.
“I’d think repairs are pretty pressing at this point, too,” Alikir added. “No sense preparing for a war with damaged ships and equipment.”
Phineas nodded. Just because he was able to keep his ship in good condition over the week by working on it to pass the time and gather his thoughts did not mean others were able to do the same. Ships still bore the battle scars from the Fall of Thymal and they would not have reacted well to the elements on the planet, be it the sun or rain or even the air itself.
“Well, then we start with what we do have and work from there,” he said. “And what we have right now is… a convoy of ships and their crews.”
“What remains of their crews and a load of civilians,” the female ranger corrected him.
“Doesn’t seem to be stopping ‘em” said Alikir. He looked over to the campfire and watched as those without the Harmony’s uniforms or pendant conversed with other soldiers and held guns and other kinds of weapons experimentally.
Phineas followed the tall ranger’s sight and looked at them himself, grunting affirmatively. ”I wasn’t so different myself, he thought. “You’d be surprised how far one would go if they have a cause to fight for…”
“You sound like you’ve seen things like this happen a lot,” the female ranger said.
”Lived it, you mean. Phineas shook his head. “It’s just what happens when some tragedy like this strikes. They’ve lost loved ones and friends… the life they used to have…”
“So that’s why you made a whole drama out of me? Had to make an example and put them back on the right path?” Alikir said, folding his arms.
“Sorry about that. I am, honestly.” Phineas replied, though inwardly he did not feel as bad as he thought he would for deliberately manipulating the situation to suit his goals. He wanted what was best so it didn’t matter… right?
Alikir waved it off and didn’t say anything else to that end.
“Just know that you’ve gotten what you’ve wanted,” the female ranger said. She walked up to Phineas, putting as little space between them as he had done with Alikir. She pressed a finger against his chest piece and continued warningly: “We’re all going to be depending on you to help us through this, and it’s going to take a lot more than strong words to-“
Phineas swatted her hand away with a hoof. “I don’t need to be told. I’ve been agonizing over this decision for days now. Normally I would have been more than happy to fly off and deal with problems by myself but I just can’t now.”
He lowered his head, the image of Tsubar’s mech flashing before his eyes. His mech among hundreds of others flying with the black ships, those horrific tributes to death itself; it almost made him ill to think about it. He shook his head.
“I can’t now because there isn’t anyone else I could feasibly turn to out there in space. There might be others with the same idea but who can say how far out they are spread out? Who’s to say anywhere is safe?”
Both Alikir and the female ranger were struck silent at the stallion’s confiding in them. After a while, Alikir turned his head to look to his diminutive fellow soldier. “Most of the Harmony fell that day,” he said, “chances are-“
“They went after the outposts and bases after,” the female ranger interjected. She sighed heavily. “And chances are the Harmony’s presence in the galaxy has been cut down a fair amount.”
“That’s being generous. My ship, the Triterion, was shot down by the enemy before we were betrayed by damn near everyone. Now add all those ships and mechs into the mix and-“
“It doesn’t look good for the Harmony,” the small ranger concluded, her voice having a downtrodden edge to it.
“Good to know I don’t need to finish a sentence when I’m with you,” Alikir said somewhat jokingly, placing a hand on her shoulder.
After a moment of quiet from Phineas, the stallion stated, “Regardless of how bad things look, I promise to do my best.” He looked back up, looking at the female ranger then at Alikir. “I’m not going to be your great leader –I just can’t. That’s not who I am; but I can make damn sure I give this my all. With the help of the rest of you all this might just work out for the better…”
“This is crazy… a band of displaced civilians and a handful of military personnel are going to stand against the current galactic enemy number one?” the small ranger asked, fully comprehending just how daunting a task the pony was asking them to accomplish.
“Better than waiting for the end, huh?” Alikir responded.
“Eventually,” Phineas said. “Supplies and repairs come first and foremost. Getting more support is also a welcomed plus,” he added.
“So that’s our mission. Sounds good,” the small ranger said, calming down when she focused on the immediate goal. Though she had no idea just how it was going to work out, it was more favorable for her to think about that than the ultimate end to the venture. Finding supplies and fixing damaged spaceships was far more achievable than putting a stop to war waging monsters from beyond the stars.
“Glad you’re on board… uh…” Phineas started to say, realizing midway through that he hadn’t asked for the ranger’s name.
“My name’s Elysia,” she said. “And you have quite the job ahead, explaining your plan to everyone else.”
“Don’t you worry about that. You have the backing of two Space Rangers. You’ll only have to worry about us thinking you’ve gone on some insane, suicidal tangent,” said Alikir.
Phineas nodded. “I appreciate it. In fact, the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can get on with it.”
***
It was not too long later when a call had gone out to all the refugees to meet up at the campfire. Even those that were on the gunships and dropships went out into the cool night to see what the commotion was about. What they saw was the strange pony in gray armor and Space Rangers standing on either side of him.
The crowd handled the briefing surprisingly well, all things considered. By the end of the pony’s speech, most of them were still, either sitting or standing around the fire. None of them flew into a fit of rage or panic. The result, however, could have been attributed to the fact Phineas downplayed the part of his plan which called for eventually mobilizing against the menace plaguing the galaxy and instead, he emphasized the goal of restocking supplies, repairing the convoy’s ships and joining with allied forces whenever they were found.
The refugees were all too eager to leave the planet. The fire was extinguished that night and they all slept in the ships. By time dawn’s light crept over the shining treetops, parties were dispatched into the forest to gather provisions for the quest into space. Edible plants and berries identified by scanning equipment were taken in bulk to be converted into nutrient-gel. Just hours later, the refugees turned freedom fighters started their ascent: loaded up on the designated transports, engines powered up. The grass was blown about beneath the ships and soon after the leaves of the trees followed suit, branches swaying from the exhaust bearing down on them.
The transports turned their noses upwards to the minty green sky and started to climb rapidly; flanked by scores of fighter escorts flying as they did the day they arrived on the planet. The convoy of ships left the domain of the clouds and flew away from the light of the white sun so far away, shadows heading out into the blackness peppered by distant twinkling light.
Though his plan was put in action, Phineas could not be bothered thinking about it. Once again, he had his shuttle’s automation take control of flight, following the rest of the convoy while he himself laid on his cot, deep in thought.
“What do you know about the Harmony’s new tech?” he asked Alikir shortly before the convoy departed. He didn’t expect the ranger to know very much technical information, but he just wanted some idea as to what he missed while he was in his near month long stasis, so he could start thinking about potential upgrades he could make to the shuttle.
The answer he got was a worrying one, indeed. He knew Polymerization technology was used to develop the trackers which allowed the fleets of the galaxy to hunt down and exterminate the hybrids, but he didn’t expect that very same technology to be adopted by what would become the Harmony. They didn’t simply reverse engineer the Hoof-Talon ships… they repurposed them.
This new knowledge coupled with what he knew about the Polymerization and the Star Terrors did not bode well. Though he had no idea how it happened, he was certain that the Harmony fell to the influence of darkness that fateful day due to their dabbling with tainted magi-tech.