//------------------------------//
// Planetfall 
// Story: Strange Bedfellows 
// by BRBrony9 
//------------------------------//

Captain Eliss Muran watched the flames of atmospheric entry play over the armoured windshield of his Lightning fighter. Equipped to operate in space, but only to fight in atmosphere, the Lightning was one of two that were dropping as escort to each first contact party. Muran’s wingman, Rall, flew the other. The target of this party was a small town near a forest, the second largest settlement that could be observed from orbit. The largest was a city far to the north, and was the destination of the other landing party. Meanwhile the scout units were tasked with exploring the land in between these two towns.
Dropping with the two Lightnings were two Navy shuttles. Each could hold around 50 men, and each were filled with Guardsmen, Techpriests and Ecclesiarchy preachers who would be all too happy to force the word of the Emperor on whatever inhabitants dwelled below. 
Passing through the worst of it, Muran’s Lightning regained communications capability as it escaped from the envelope of ionised air that had surrounded it during the entry. After re-establishing contact with the fleet in orbit, Muran switched to local vox.
‘Hammer 1 to Hammer 2, comm check.’
‘Hammer 2, Hammer 1, five-by five,’ Rall replied, his voice crackling over the vox. Muran repeated the process with the two shuttles. Satisfied that all was well, he tested his control surfaces. The Lightning responded beautifully, banking crisply and pulling into formation behind the shuttles. Muran could see Rall’s craft in front of them. At their current altitude they were well above the cloud base, which covered most of the land below like a blanket. The shuttles were descending swiftly, however, thanks to their anti-grav systems, and within a matter of minutes they would be in the weather. The only way to navigate until they were below the clouds would be via the topographical data that had been uploaded into their flight cogitators before the mission began. 
‘Switching to instruments,’ Muran voxed. ‘Let’s take them down.’




The cloud base was low and a light drizzle had just begun. Not ideal flying conditions, but, Captain Starburst thought, not so bad as all that. There was little wind, and that meant a stable flight for them.
‘They’ were the crew of one of the Royal Equestrian Air Corps’ newest weapons of war, the City-Class military airship EAS Manehattan. With a gasbag length of nearly four hundred feet, and a deck length of just over half that, the Manehattan  was outfitted as a floating artillery platform. It carried cannon for both air and ground attack, had powerful combustion engines, and a top speed of nearly 100mph. The crew of one hundred and fifty-six ponies included unicorns who could both defend the vessel and attack their enemies with their magic. The gasbag from which the fighting compartment was suspended was protected by external armour and an experimental new self-sealing technology. There was room in the hold, as in all other City-Class airships, for two companies of infantry, allowing the craft to be used as a rapid troop transport. State of the art, Starburst thought to himself, just like Princess Celestia said at the launching ceremony.
The Captain himself was the epitome of the professional Air Corps officer. Resplendent in his field uniform of gold armour, trimmed with sky blue, the colour of the Air Corps, with a red, twelve-pointed star cutie mark, his white coat and black mane stood out like a dichotomic beacon as he stood on the command deck of the Manehattan, his wings flat at his sides.

The public of Equestria had only limited exposure to its military forces. Equestria had not gone to war in Starburst’s lifetime, the operations against the Changelings and Discord having been dubbed ‘internal security actions.’  The service with which the average pony was likely to be most familiar was the Royal Guard, who acted both as royal bodyguards and as the police force across Equestria. The Army was very small, with a core of professional members who, in times of crisis, would be supplemented by thousands of draftees. The Navy was even smaller, possessing just a few coastal patrol craft, transports and their pride and joy, the frigate ENS Celestia and its recently commissioned sister ship, the ENS Luna.  The Air Corps, by comparison, was lavishly equipped and funded. There were whole squadrons of combat airships, of which the City-Class was the newest but not the largest. There were two divisions of Pegasi assault troops, who would strike swiftly from the air to capture key objectives. There were transport airships, observation balloons, and, of course, there were the Wonderbolts, the Air Corps’ flight demonstration squadron. 
Starburst himself had never been a fan of the Wonderbolts. He firmly believed that the strength of the Air Corps rested not with fancy Pegasi hoofwork, but with the might of the airship squadrons. This might also have had something to do with the fact that he had never been particularly good at aerobatics, but at least he knew that Princess Celestia must feel the same way. The airship command was the only section of the armed forces to escape budget cuts in the last year. Even his good friend Shining Armour had told him that he had been forced to put an entire company of his Royal Guard out to stud to save money.

The Manehattan was currently cruising on its regular patrol route, and was now thirty miles southeast of Ponyville, near the southern end of the Foal Mountains range. Their patrols were usually routine, keeping an eye open for changelings, griffons or dragons, and they never bore much fruit. Starburst had no reason to suspect today would be any different. He cast his watchful eye over his crew.
Earth ponies were maintaining the guns, performing basic maintenance, even scrubbing the main deck. Unicorns were monitoring the gasbag and the ships’ systems- their magic would allow them to operate several systems at once. Pegasi were flitting about, tightening ropes and acting as lookouts. The helmspony, Arrow Straight, was a dark blue Pegasus stallion. He stood nearby with his hooves firmly on the wheel, looking straight ahead and keeping the airship well clear of the rocky outcrops that marked the edge of the mountain range. At cruising speed a moderate breeze blew across the deck of the airship, and light rain spattered the crew as they worked. 

‘I hear something!’ somepony cried. Starburst looked around for the source of the sudden outburst. He recognised the voice as that of Sharpeye, a Pegasus employed as part of the observation detail. To hear something over the sounds of the engines and the wind was quite an achievement, but Sharpeye had not been picked just for his excellent vision, the Captain recalled.
‘What is it?’ he shouted up to Sharpeye, who he had located hovering just above the airship’s gasbag. 
‘I don’t know, sir! It sounds like a whining noise. I’ve never heard anything like it before.’ Starburst trusted his crew, and Sharpeye had never let him down before.
‘Kill the engines!’ he ordered. Everypony back aboard!’ The crew scrambled to carry out his orders, but before they could the distant sound Sharpeye had heard became audible to everypony.
Without any more warning than that, Starburst saw three…things round the mountain ahead of them and come tearing towards them. The thing in the lead was smaller than the two that followed it. Starburst saw another smaller thing bringing up the rear. As they closed rapidly on the airship, Starburst got a better look at them. He knew every class and type of aircraft operated by Equestria, her allies, and her enemies, and he had never seen anything like them before. They had wings, and that was about the only thing he recognised. The thing in front, and the thing at the back, were sleek, had forward-swept wings, and were making one hay of a screeching noise. The two things in the middle were larger, squat, bulky and apparently silent. They did not look like the constructs of ponies, or of griffons, nor of any other race he had ever encountered. They also moved faster than anything he had ever seen save a pony performing a sonic rainboom. 
‘They’re coming straight for us!’ somepony screeched in terror.

‘Battle stations! All hooves to your your battle stations! Evasive maneuvers!’ Starburst yelled over the din. Once more ponies scrambled to obey. Within seconds the things were on them. The lead craft screeched past, followed by the more-or-less silent larger things. 
‘Run out the guns!’ Starburst called, as the fourth aircraft closed rapidly on the Manehattan. 
‘Run out the guns!’ Razor Blade, the airship’s Gunnery Officer and second-in-command, echoed. The earth pony gun crews obliged, hauling on the ropes and chains that moved the guns on their runners. They clanked and send shudders through the deck as they rolled into position. Around him his crew were in a state of orderly chaos. None of them had ever been in real combat with the Manehattan before, since it was a relatively new craft. Very few of them had ever been in combat of any kind. Starburst had been transferred from the Hero-Class airship EAS Hurricane, where he had seen combat during the changeling emergency, to command the Manehattan. Most of his crew were novices when it came to actually fighting the ship, and yet they reacted with practised hooves, efficiently readying the airship for battle- sealing hatches, donning their armour and, of course, running out the guns.
The Manehattan had eight heavy bombardment cannons on each side of its main gun deck, and five lighter guns per side on the top deck that were for anti-air operations, as well as a half dozen one-pony repeating swivel guns that could engage and fire much more rapidly. All these guns had been prepared for combat, as per standard procedure, but only the anti-air weapons would be of any use. 
‘Track that target!’ Starburst screamed, pointing his hoof at the incoming aircraft. The gunners took careful aim, though it was difficult to lead a target moving at such speed.
‘Fire!’ The Captain roared out the order as loud as his lungs would allow. As one, the guns on the starboard side of the Manehattan’s top deck thundered into life to answer his shout.

Captain Muran kept a steady and safe distance behind the shuttles as they dropped through the cloud layer. As they emerged through the overcast he could see a line of high, foreboding mountains to his right, and another range some miles distant and dead ahead. From their briefing he knew the target settlement was somewhere in this valley to the north. Sure enough the shuttles were banking to the right, sweeping round the mountains. Suddenly the vox crackled into life.
‘Airborne contact!’ Rall’s voice cut through the static loud and clear. ‘Off my starboard wing, it’s a big one!’ Instinctively Muran flicked his master arm switch, bringing his weapons systems online. His Lightning was outfitted with a ventral autocannon, a lascannon in each wingtip and four Skystrike missiles slung under the wings. It was well suited to taking down whatever it was that lay in wait.
Within seconds he had rounded the mountainous cliffs and could see the target. It was a large dirigible, reminding him of the similar craft that were in use on many Imperial Hive worlds to transport goods and passengers between Hives. At first it appeared to be posing no threat, but as he flew closer he saw fire erupt from its flank. 
‘We’re being engaged!’ he called into the vox. ‘Stay with the shuttles, I’ll deal with this one.’

Starburst was momentarily deafened by the firing of the Manehattan’s guns. He saw dark puffs of smoke erupt where the flyer had been several seconds earlier. But now it was past them, its speed throwing off the gunners’ aim, and it was pulling into a hard left turn.
‘It’s coming around, sir!’ Arrow Straight said from beside him. 
‘Shields!’ the Captain called. Several unicorns leapt up to the side rails and began projecting a magical shield of corsuscating blue energy around the airship.
‘Steady, boys!’ Starburst said. ‘Reload!’ The gunners rammed fresh shells into the breeches. ‘Unicorns, prepare to fire!’
The unicorns on deck who were not powering the shield moved swiftly to the rails alongside their compatriots, lowering their heads and preparing to unleash their magical fury on this invader. The ship’s guns had been constructed to allow them to fire through their own magical defences. The aircraft swung round in a tight turn and lined up on its target, heading straight for the centre of the airship.
‘Fire!’

Muran brought the Lightning round, glancing down at his Auspex screen to see the blips representing the shuttles and his wingman moving steadily away. Locking his eyes back on his target, he saw that it had been suddenly covered in a blue ball of energy.
‘Void shields!’ he snarled, keying his vox.
‘Orbital 1, Hammer 1. We have engaged a hostile aircraft of unknown origin.’ Switching back to the flight channel he said, ‘Hammer 1 to Hammer 2, get back here. I may need some help with this one after all.’ He heard Rall’s curt acknowledgement, and then he saw the airship fire again. Gouts of flame leaped from its side, accompanied this time by slower moving purple and white balls of crackling energy.
‘Hammer 1 to Hammer 2, looks like they have plasma weaponry. Maybe they’re not as backward as we thought,’ he said, jinking the fighter to avoid the flak. With his sights back on target, his targeting computer began to give off a loud drone. Instinctively he flipped up a small plastic lid on his control column and pressed the button beneath twice.
Two Skystrike missiles leapt from their rails, one from each wing, and flung themselves at the airship. 

‘Incoming!’ The cry resonated across the deck of the Manehattan as the craft opened fire on them. 
‘Brace yourselves boys!’ Starburst shouted, grabbing onto the railing nearby. The two projectiles, looking for all the world like oversized fireworks to him, screamed towards them. They struck the shield with a pair of resounding cracks. The blasts shook the airship and sent shockwaves into Starburst’s hoof. The shields flickered, but did not die. Its first pass ineffective, the enemy aircraft roared overhead and into a steep climbing turn. It dove at them from above this time, leaving them helpless to fire back. Red beams flickered from its wingtips and a steady stream of shells pattered off the shield like rain. They seemed to have little effect, but the beams cut straight through the shield like it was paper. They struck the gasbag and Starburst cringed in fearful anticipation of the fireball that must surely come.
But the armour held, and the craft roared off again, passing beneath them this time. 
‘Full speed!’ Starburst turned to his helmspony. ‘Get us out of here! Back to Ponyville!’ Arrow Straight nodded in tense acknowledgement of his Captain’s orders, and spun the wheel to the right as far as it would go. The Manehattan responded, ponderously turning to starboard as it answered the helm. Faster than Starburst thought possible, the aircraft was back on them, spitting death as it charged in from the bow. This time it was aiming at the gondola, not the gasbag, and this time its shots rang true.

The red beams punctured the shield with ease once again and struck home. The wooden railing around the bow was blown to fragments, as was the swivel-gun mounted there. Its Pegasus gunner was scythed down, his stomach a sizzling, bloody mess.  More shots struck the deck and winged one of the shield unicorns, who tumbled to the deck, her magic sputtering out. Without her the shield began to collapse completely. The explosive shots from the flyer’s ventral cannon began to tear up the deck, sending deadly shrapnel and wooden splinters whickering through the air. Starburst ducked reflexively. He saw several of his crew go down, torn to ribbons by the lethal debris. He had seen death before, but seldom had it been so violent. 
Now they were losing crewponies, their shield was down and, to make matters worse, the beam weapons had started small fires in the deck planking.
‘Damage control!’ he shouted, rising to his full height again. Ponies, momentarily stunned to inaction by the deaths of their comrades, galloped to man the hoses that were fed from a water tank below deck. 
‘Gunners, fire at will!’ he ordered as the craft came round for another run. They complied, leading their target as they had been taught to try and account for its speed. Several shots came close, and the magical fireballs from the unicorns forced the thing to dodge again, but they scored no hits.
It opened up on them again, this time tearing into the lower gun deck with its shells and beams. Starburst heard an explosion from below deck and the whole airship shuddered. He was thrown bodily against the railing as the Manehattan lurched. Several ponies rolled across the deck and one unfortunate unicorn, who was at the railing firing back at the enemy, was tossed overboard. Over the noise Starburst could clearly hear his screams as he fell.

‘Pony overboard!’ he roared. Two Pegasi took to the skies immediately, leaping over the side of the ship and plunging down after their helplessly falling comrade. Black smoke was starting to pour up through several of the hatches and over the starboard quarter from the blast that had shook the craft and, presumably, started a fire on the gun deck. Three ponies were being helped up from the rear hatch, coughing and spluttering. Starburst could see the firefighting teams gearing up to make entry to the chaos below. Up front the two Pegasi with fast reflexes were returning their shaken unicorn comrade to the deck, having managed to safely arrest his fall.
‘Get that shield back up!’ he ordered. Several of the offensive unicorns switched to assisting their defensive comrades, and the shield rose again, though Starburst knew the red beams could cut through it anyway. 
The airship was damaged, but not out of the fight yet. The guns tracked their target as it roared round in a tight circle. Starburst could see that it seemed to be on fire, with two orange trails glowing from its rear. Looking closer he could see that they came from what for all the world seemed to be two fireboxes, like those on Equestrian steam locomotives. Its engines, he wondered? It came in on their port bow this time, giving the portside gunners their first taste of action. Staring intensely at the incoming enemy, the muzzle flashes of his own guns nearly blinded Starburst. Shells detonated around it but it burst through the smoke, apparently unharmed, its guns chattering. 

The red beams sliced through the shield and blew chunks from the deck and railings. One of the port guns took a direct hit from the red beams. It bucked up like a terrified pony and ripped itself from its runners, toppling over and crushing two of its crew under its considerable bulk. Several of the shield unicorns were struck down, and the shield fizzled out and collapsed with a pop.
The deck of the Manehattan once again became a blizzard of splinters as the shells chewed their way across it. Starburst heard a deafening, shattering crash behind him, and found himself sailing through the air. Too stunned to take to his wings, he landed with a thump on the main deck. Pain shot through his flank and he knew he was wounded. Seeing their Captain fall, several crewponies rushed to his aid. Getting back on his hooves, Starburst found that the pain was not as bad as he had thought, and he brushed them aside and trotted up the stairs to the command deck. 
The cause of his injuries became clear to him. There was a twisted section of deck planking where a shell had struck. The blast had thrown him into the air and the splinters had pierced his body, but his wounds were superficial. Those of Arrow Straight, however, were not.
Standing between Starburst and the blast, the helmspony had born the brunt of it. Most of the lethal splinters had struck him, and his coat was now stained as much red as its natural midnight blue. 

‘Medics! Medics!’ Starburst called, though he knew instinctively that Arrow Straight was beyond any help that could be given. In any case, without a steady hand on the wheel the whole airship would be lost. It had turned almost a full circle and was now driving hard for the icy walls of the Foal Mountains. Starburst grabbed the wheel and spun it hard, as hard as he could, to the left. At first nothing happened.
‘Answer the helm, you bitch!’ he cursed under his breath. Slowly, it did, coming about and steering away from the mountains, until it was pointing back north towards Ponyville. 
‘Here it comes again!’ Starburst heard the shout just in time. Coming at them from astern now that they had turned, the enemy flyer pounced on them once more. Starburst flung himself to the deck as it opened fire. 
He could see nothing, but he could hear. He could hear the terrifying bangs of the explosive shells, the hissing of the red beams, the roar of the thing’s infernal engines, the screams of the frightened, the screams of the dying. It blazed overhead and raced away. Starburst jumped to his hooves and took the wheel again.
‘Oh Celestia, there’s another one!’ The cry went up from one of the few surviving unicorns manning the port railing. Sure enough, Starburst could see a second flyer, dead ahead, closing fast. it must be the other one that was with those larger things, he thought. Come back to help finish us off.
The fight had been going on for less than five minutes, but Starburst felt as though he had lived his entire life over again in that time. An unknown number of his crew were dead or wounded, there was a fire below deck, several guns were out of action and their shield was down for the count, and now there were two enemies instead of one.
He could see his crew starting to panic, and he could feel the same emotion rising deep within him. The Manehattan was one of the newest, most sophisticated and well protected airships in the fleet, and it was being completely and utterly outclassed by this…thing that was less than a tenth of its size.
And now there were two of them.