//------------------------------// // Movements // Story: Into The Void // by General Soarin //------------------------------// “Movements” Admiral Lance Royal Griffon Navy 1st Griffon Expeditionary Fleet Tuesday, March 14th, 2126 CR Somewhere Outside the Bardock System Lance smiled to himself as he read the estimated damage reports the fleet had gathered on the E.B.C Manehatten. The attack had been swift, and the Manehatten had been quickly disabled before it could put up a fight. Every Griffon in the fleet had celebrated, for it was the first major Griffon victory over Equestria in nearly 26 years. As he reveled in the reports, Lance failed to notice that a guard had entered his office, and was nearly scared out of his wits when the guard coughed rather loudly. Dropping the reports, he cursed loudly before realizing that it was only a guard. Regaining his composure, Lance ordered the guard to speak. The guard smiled nervously, quickly pulling a piece of paper from his shoulder bag and cleared his throat. “Sorry if I disturbed you, sir. A report just came in from “Amicus Autem Nox,” he wishes to inform you that all preparations for the next stage of Operation Void are complete, and that he advises that we initiate the invasion of Bardock as soon as possible,” he announced. Lance grinned, pleased that things were finally ready to move along. He immediately dismissed the guard, before pressing a few buttons, opening a voice channel to the rest of the fleet. “All ships, this is Admiral Lance. I need readiness reports now,” he said flatly, as his eyes drifted to the status board built into his desk. The display quickly changed from a map of the Bardock system to a fleet status screen which showed red outlines of each ship in the fleet. Lance waited a few moments, and grinned as the red outlines turned green, one by one. He waited until every ship showed up green, then cleared his throat. “Thank you all. I am very pleased to announce that we are ready to launch phase two of Operation Void, and that a new age is dawning upon the Griffon Kingdom. For twenty six years, we have lived in exile among the stars, driven out by those rotten Equestrians. But now...now we can achieve our revenge! With our invasion of Bardock, we will send a clear message to the Equestrians that they are not safe. We will  destroy their pride, take their  colonies, and reclaim what is rightfully ours! Failure is not an option, for the eyes of our people are upon us. The fall of the Equestrian Empire will be swift, for our leader Drake II demands it. Go forth and secure the future of the Griffon race.  Full speed ahead,we got a colony to claim,” he announced. Cheers broke out all over channel, as the fleet moved out. “Alright Major, I’ve got the transport working. Are we almost ready to get moving?” Corporal Nocturnal shouted as he closed the left engine cover on the All Altitude Troop Transport that he had been working on. After Nocturnal had met Nightwhisper, the two stallions decided to head to the Sector 13 Vehicle Hangar to see if they could find a way off the Manehatten. Luckily, they managed to get to the Hangar without encountering any Berserkers, where they immediately went to work on getting a transport in working condition. Nightwhisper was silent for a few moments as he typed a few more things into the one functioning computer in the hangar before smiling to himself, and walking to the ship. “We’re good to go. I just finished gaining access to the safeties on the core. The core’s designated to meltdown in approximately 10 minutes, so we need to get moving ASAP.” Nightwhisper explained as he quickly opened the canopy to the cockpit of the transport and got into the pilot’s seat. Nocturnal looked shocked for a few moments before shaking his head as he climbed into the co-pilot’s seat and closed the canopy. “You’re going to destroy the ship? What about the potential survivors? You’re killing hundreds of ponies!” Nocturnal retorted. Nightwhisper chuckled lightly, as he flipped a few switches to turn on the engines. “Listen, Nocturnal, the Manehatten is lost. The entire ship is overrun with Berserkers, and the Griffons could be coming back any hour now. If they capture the Manehatten, then they gain another ship with a High Intensity Energy cannon, and that would be devastating,” he replied with a neutral tone in his voice. Nocturnal simply listened to the engines boot up for a few moments, then sighed deeply. “This is wrong, Nightwhisper. These ponies don’t deserve to die,” Nocturnal said quietly, as he strapped himself into his seat. Nightwhisper growled, getting slightly annoyed at Nocturnal’s continued opposition to his sacrifice. “You don’t get it, do you Corporal? If we leave this ship intact, the Griffons will capture the weapon and they will use it without hesitation. If the Griffons take control of the Manehatten, the ship’s HIE cannon will cut through our fleets like butter. Countless ponies will be slaughtered if that happens, and I will not allow that to happen! My judgment is final, do you understand Corporal?” Nightwhisper shouted angrily. The Corporal was silent for a few moments, before nodding slowly. “Yes, sir,” he replied solemnly as the engines finished warming up. Nightwhisper smiled to himself, then increased the throttle, and lifted the transport off the ground. Nocturnal’s thoughts slowly turned to the hundreds of ponies trapped and about to die on the Manehatten as the transport slowly moved out of the hangar. It felt so wrong leaving behind so many ponies to die, but the Corporal knew that he couldn’t change the Major’s mind. The crew and Marines on board the Manehatten would be sacrificed to prevent the Griffons from gaining a weapon to use against Equestria. He thought quietly to himself for a few minutes, until a brilliant flash of white broke the stillness. That’s it. They’re gone. He thought to himself, as he shut his eyes. With that, he started crying Echo simply stared in shock as his eyes recovered from the brilliant flash of white that had come from the Manehatten moments earlier. Nothing remained of the huge battlecruiser except for large, irregular chunks of metal, shrewn in a large field around the general area of where the ship used to be. It took a few moments for Echo to recover from his shock before he finally got out of his chair. Trembling, the sandy brown unicorn slowly walked to the glass in the front of the bridge, where he just stared at the remains of the E.B.C Manehatten for a few more minutes until finally opening his mouth to speak. “Everypony…. please stand, and show everypony that just died the respect they deserve,” he said quietly as he removed his hat. Every other pony on the bridge slowly got to their hooves, all removing their hats and dipping their heads. The bridge remained like this for a few moments, until Echo placed his hat back on his head and turned to face the crew. “Thank you, everypony, please take your seats,” he said. It took a few moments for everypony to return to their seats, but Echo waited patiently until everypony was seated again before speaking again. “Now that we have witness the complete and utter destruction of the Manehatten, I believe it is now time to exit the Bardock system, and notify Princess Twilight of our findings. While I didn’t get the information I hoped to acquire,  the danger of staying here is far too great. Drag-” he began before he was interrupted by Riverside suddenly getting out of her seat. “I’m terribly sorry for interrupting sir, but I just received an urgent message from the Sensory Deck. They’re telling me that a AATT just appeared on the radar, and that its course suggests that it came from the Manehatten!” she exclaimed. Echo looked at her in shock for a few moments before quickly running over to radiomare. “Are they sure?” Echo asked quickly, somewhat disbelieving of the situation. Riverside nodded, handing a paper that listed everything that the Sensory Deck reported. Echo took a few moments to read the contents of the paper, very shocked at what the paper said, before giving it back to Riverside, and rushing back to his chair. “Riverside, open communications to the AATT and notify them of our current position. As for the rest of the crew, begin preparations for our immediate departure from the Bardock system. As soon as we get that AATT on board, we need to leave the system before the enemy can lock onto our signal. Get moving!” he ordered as he sat back down in his chair. The rest of the crew on the bridge immediately shouted a loud “YES SIR” before immediately getting to work. For the first time since he had arrived in the Bardock system, Echo felt happy.