Published March 6th, 2014
"Alright, ladies, time for gunner training."
"What's that involve?"
"Being in this small, cramped cube for the next hour while I teach you how to work together."
"Nuh-uh. No way, man. I can barely take being in these hallways. No way am I getting in there." I narrowed my eyes at Rainbow.
"Yes, you are, because that is what is required. We're stationed on this side of the ship, which means we're the ones that'll be doing the shooting when the Emrini show up. Now get in there, or I'll stuff you in there myself." I jerked a finger at the opening to the Combat Cube, and Rainbow looked between me and the small portal indecisively. I took a threatening step towards her, and she finally caved.
"Alright, alright, fine! I'll get in the stupid box. Jeez, this is gonna suck." She floated over, and looked in, trying to figure out how, precisely, she would enter.
"Legs first, private. You're on the left." She realigned herself, and quickly disappeared through the entrance to the cube. "Twilight, you're next. Right side." She clambered in after her friend, and Dimitri followed her to take his place on the bottom seat. "Applejack, you're on the top gun."
"Alrighty."
Once they were all in and settled, I climbed in and sealed the main hatch. Once I was satisfied that the handle was as tight as I could get it, I moved to the second hatch, and twisted that shut as well. With the air seals sufficiently closed, I moved to the forward gunner seat, and put on the headset.
"CC Control Center, this is Shadow Soldier Kuro Maldone, requesting clearance for training sequence initiation on Combat Cube thirty-six. Can I get some elbow room down here for the newbies?" The speakers in the headset crackled to life.
"Combat Cube thirty-six, request for training clearance acknowledged. Please stand by." The line went silent for a few seconds, then the monitor came back on. "Combat Cube thirty-six, you and Combat Cube thirty-seven are cleared for training exercises. All flight units have been informed and have vacated your firing space. Target drones fifteen through twenty-eight have been deployed, and are now under command seat control for your cube."
"Thanks, Control. We'll try to be gentle." The line went silent again, and a heavy ka-thunk came from the back of the cube as the locks released, the hydraulic extension rails pushed us about fifty feet away from the ship, and the gun turrets on the cube deployed outward. Just far enough to see the formation the Star Spectre was now a part of.
Sixty-three ships from the Navy and Marines, plus the Nova Hammer, Power Battalion's carrier ship, and the Star Spectre itself. All of them in synchronized orbit around Tarsus, and all of them making preparations for the upcoming fight against the Emrini. Looking out at the I angle I had, the fleet almost looked like the surface of some artificial planet, with escort fighters and supply carriers flitting back and forth like big, metal bugs beneath the stars. I looked up into space for a moment, letting my mind feel like it was extending beyond my body, into the void, to find whatever lay out of reach.
"Alright," I was snapped out of my musings by Rainbow Dash's nervous voice, "so what are we doing, exactly?"
"We're teaching you how to work the turrets effectively." I tuned my headset to communicate with Combat Cube thirty-seven, which currently held the rest of my team, plus Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and minus Carlton. He couldn't actually fit into the Cubes, so I let him go and assist Fluttershy, instead. She still had a long way to go with her own rehabilitation, and she had plenty to do for others as a medic. She needed all the help she could get. "Toyoko, you all ready over there?"
"Almost, sir. Just making sure everyone's secure." I looked up and to my right as the other Cube extended, and I saw Toyoko wave her readiness to me.
"Alright, everyone, I'm assigning color designations now. Check your consoles." I gave each of the ponies the same color as their fur, to make things easy, and assigned black to my team and I. "Everyone ready? I'm sending out the target drones." I hit the release button on my console, and several small, ion-propelled drones detached from the main ship to float in front of us. "Here's the rules, ladies; each of you has a different color, while my team shares a color. Practice is over when one of you gets a higher score in a round than we do. Each round is ten minutes. Since we're just using the practice system, there aren't any rounds being fired. When you move the crosshairs over a drone, it'll show you a damage bar. Hold down the triggers, and the guns will send out an infrared beam, which will make the bar shrink. Make a bar disappear entirely, and you get a point. Sound easy enough?"
"Wait a second!" Rainbow interjected, "How are any of us supposed to beat all of you?!" I grinned to myself.
"Isn't that a mystery?" I heard grumbling from behind me, and keyed in the code to start the drones moving. "Alright, sequence has started! Get ready!" There was a three second countdown on the targeting display, and the drones began flying around, resetting their 'health' every time it reached zero. After the ten minutes were up, the drones stopped, and the scores appeared over the display. A cry of frustration came from Rainbow's chair.
"How the hay are we supposed to do this?! Look at that! I got the next-highest score, and you guys still got almost three times as many points!"
"It's not impossible, Rainbow. There are just as many of you as there are us." Rarity's voice cut in over my headset.
"Sergeant, while it might seem like that should make this fair, it really doesn't. None of us are even close to any of your skill levels."
"I'm aware of that, Rarity, but it does make quite a big difference. I'll give you a hint; pay attention to which drones my team and I fire at this time. Ready?" A momentary silence gave me my answer, and I restarted the training sequence. Once again, the timer ran out, and the scores were displayed. This time, though, Rainbow's score was slightly higher, and Rarity's was slightly lower.
They learn quick, it seems.
THWACK!
Most of them, anyway.
"I still can't get anywhere near you guys! What am I doing wrong!?"
"Rainbow, all you're doing wrong is target selection. Try a different strategy. Preferably one that doesn't involve assaulting your controls." I heard some more grumbling from her, and then Rarity came back on.
"Can you start it again, please? I think I've got it."
"Alright, if you think you've got the answer." I keyed in the code yet again, and the drones began their dance once more. As I saw each drone pass through my crosshairs and display its 'health', I noticed that more of them were missing some of their bar than before.
Looks like she figured it out. The time ran out, the drones stopped, and the target displays showed the scores. Rainbow's score had skyrocketed to almost three-quarters that of my team, and the rest had also significantly increased, except for Rarity, who had a whopping one point. Unsurprisingly to me, Rainbow's reaction was instantaneous.
"Whoa! I did way better that time! But what about you, Rarity? You only got one point?"
"That's because I gave them all to the rest of you, darling. I noticed that any time one of us shot a drone without bringing it to zero, Kuro's team completely ignored it. Instead, they focused their attentions on each other's targets, bringing them down much faster. So, instead of trying to increase my own score, I just shot as many as I could, so the rest of you would be able to finish them off." I started clapping.
"Very good, Rarity! The point of this exercise was not to see how good you are at aiming. We already have enough data on that from your time in boot camp. This exercise was for teamwork purposes. The Combat Cubes don't have very large guns, so in order to take down a target quickly, you have to have multiple guns focusing fire on it. Now, care to try it one more time, ladies?"
"Yeah!" they chorused.
"Alright, let's see how you do." I put in the code a fourth time, and the drones flew around again. Even without a live score counter, I could tell they were doing better than before. At the end of five minutes, the scores came up, and Rainbow let out a whoop of triumph. Her score was three points over my team's. "And that's the end of the game, people. Not bad." I deactivated the drones, and they flew back to their homes in the hull. Then I input the retraction code for the Cube, and the guns recessed into the sides as the hydraulics pulled us back to the ship. Once we were out, we waited for Toyoko and the others to join us before I addressed them all collectively.
"That was pretty good, but don't let it get to your head. This was practice, and you had a big handicap. In an actual combat scenario, it'll be a lot harder. We'll keep going later, though. Let's all get something to eat, first."
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I stared out at the stars, waiting. The girls had finished their gunner training two days ago, and now all that was left to do was wait for the Emrini ships to show up. In the meantime, though, I could let my mind wander and drift, creating and considering the possibilities of what might lie on the planets orbiting those far-off suns. Eventually, my thoughts shifted to the ponies' planet, and what was going to happen to it, instantly souring my mood. It was perfect timing, however, as the ship-wide alarm sounded and Leeroy's voice came through my headset.
"All units! Emrini lightspeed engine signatures detected! Prepare for combat! I repeat..."
I tuned out the rest as I set the controls for active firing and gripped the handles.
"Okay, everyone, time for all that training to pay off! Remember: cross your fields of fire, put as many bullets into oncoming ships as you can before they leave your targeting range." I could feel the movements of the other guns in the Cube as they moved in anticipation, and out in the starfield, I could see several pinpricks of light getting larger and brighter every second.
The Emrini ships, twenty in all, and covered in sharp edges and short-range, high-damage, shotgun-like armaments.
"Here we go! Get ready, this is for real, now!"
The ships snapped into view some distance away, giving themselves room to not smash into the planet itself, but something was off. The usual bluish glow of their force shields wasn't present. Obviously, no one wasted time exploiting that as Leeroy's orders were shouted over the comms.
"Their shields are down, they weren't expecting us! All guns open fire!" I eagerly obeyed, squeezing the triggers and sending shell after shell towards the enemy ships, adding the rattle of my turret to all the others, the heavy thumps of the main cannons underscoring the destructive symphony. As the ordinance flew towards them, though, the Emrini didn't react as they should have. Instead of scattering, and making it harder for us to hit them, they huddled together more tightly, like they were shielding something. A second later, that something became painfully obvious. A massive ship came out of lightspeed behind them, easily twice the size of any other, with two enormous, long-barreled cannons sitting on top of it. I adjusted my aim before the order came through my headset.
"All guns, focus fire on the new target! Take out those cannons!" The shining path of the bullets and explosives changed position as everyone shifted their aim, straight at the two huge tubes that were obviously meant for orbital bombardment. Any plans the Emrini had to use them, however, were turned to scrap as the combined might of our ships tore through them. With the biggest threat neutralized, each ship in our blockade turned to a new target, most of them opting to continue shredding what was obviously the command cruiser. A few seconds later, numerous smaller dots of light broke off from the main ships, most of which were now beginning to drift impotently as their crews and systems expired. Boarding vessels and fighter ships, attempting to close the combat range and perhaps save one or two of the remaining ships, began appearing on long-range radar. Our own fighters, most of them F-23 Phantoms and F-62 Drakes, began pouring out from the hangars of our fleet, meeting and destroying the vast majority of the incoming forces long before they made it to us, adding artificial, momentary stars to the view. Clouds of debris and shrapnel impacted the ship, one worryingly large piece bouncing off our Cube right above my left shoulder. What really caught my attention, however, were some of the bodies. Specifically, the non-Emrini ones from the boarding vessels. They all had wings, and bird-like heads, and most of them had long, feline tails.
"What are those things?" I wondered aloud. I wasn't expecting a response.
"They're griffons," Twilight said. Her voice sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "The griffons finally lost." I decided to leave it alone for the moment, and turned back to the carnage outside. The Emrini command cruiser was now floating helplessly, its bridge completely eradicated but everything else salvageable, as the Nova Hammer moved to inspect its remains.
"All units," Leeroy's voice came over the comms system, "objective completed. No other lightspeed energy signatures detected, planetary defenses on all other quadrants report clear stars. This fight's ours." I finally relaxed in my seat, and punched in the retraction code on my console. The Cube moved back towards the ship, and we all climbed out. Once we had rendezvoused with the others, I asked about the griffons.
"Well," Twilight began, "the griffons were, obviously, carnivores from our planet. The Griffon Kingdoms were to the east, across the Sea of Meditation. The sea itself is almost always calm, so trade was easy once Equestria managed to open successful negotiations with them, but they were well-known for their violent ways. Not all of them were like that, but enough of them were that when the Emrini attacked, the Griffons managed to keep them at bay for a while, and from what little I remember when we were captive, there was quite a resistance force doing everything they could to disrupt their plans. Obviously, that's not the case, anymore." I could tell that there weren't any deep feelings for the griffons in any of them, except maybe Rainbow Dash, but this still hurt them. It hurt me, too. Once again, the Emrini had caused our forces to kill innocents. To end lives that didn't deserve it. I snorted in frustration as Ron put a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey. Boss. It's not our fault, remember. And it's not yours. It's theirs, and theirs alone. Besides, it's not like Valhalla denies those taken by lucky cowards, right?" I sighed and nodded. Ron was of a small minority who still actively worshipped Norse religion, and I didn't subscribe to it myself, but the idea of Valhalla still helped quite a bit.
"Thanks, Ron. Twilight, we need to let Leeroy know about this. Everyone else, you're free to relax for a while. C'mon, Twilight." We headed up to the bridge, and upon entering, saw both Leeroy and Admiral Fallshen listening to another pony speak.
"...they were trying to throw off their efforts with occasional assaults, but apparently they were caught." Leeroy glanced to me as we entered.
"Kuro, Twilight. Noticed the griffons, I take it?"
"Found out about that, already, huh?"
"Indeed. Noteworthy, here, was just telling us about them. Rescue and salvage crews have already been notified and sent out to look for survivors. We aren't expecting much, but hopefully there are at least a few still alive. Anything else to report?" I shook my head, and looked to Twilight. She stepped forward.
"I don't have anything else to add, but I do have a question, if I may." Leeroy gave Admiral Fallshen a questioning look, and Cordon nodded.
"Alright, then," he gestured to Twilight that she had the floor, "go ahead." She took a breath, and sighed before she began.
"I know there's work being done on this, but I was wondering if you had any idea when ships would be deployed to find our planet. It's been a while since we were freed, and we've all been curious about it." I saw Leeroy's ears twitch ever-so-slightly, indicating his anxiety at being asked this as he answered.
"Actually, we've already found it. The data Sergeant Maldone retrieved from Rokan contained a set of coordinates, which the alpha from the dig site was kind enough to translate for us. The probe came back about a week before you completed boot camp, and preparations for a liberation attempt are already underway. We just wanted to be sure you could focus during the shootout we just had, without thinking about your home too much." Twilight was practically quivering in excitement as a silly grin spread on her face.
"You mean... we'll get to go home soon?"
"Within another three or four months, would be my first guess." She made a 'squee' sound, and ran out excitedly, Noteworthy doing the same a second later. Most likely to spread the news. Once the door shut behind them, I spoke.
"Sirs, you are both aware of the situation, right?" It was mostly rhetorical, but they both nodded. "What's the plan for that?" Admiral Fallshen stepped forward.
"High command is already looking into possible solutions. Should they all prove ineffective, though, scout probes have already been dispatched to find a suitable, uninhabited world for relocation. It's already been decided that the military will be launching a full-scale evacuation once the Emrini have been removed from the area."
"Understood, sir. Permission to be dismissed?"
"Granted." I snapped a salute, and strode out to find the rest of my squad.