Kermat-Cha #7239022945 – the equivalent of a Coalition captain - crawled through the mud on his stomach, gunfire zipping and buzzing above his head. Around him, more of his fellow clones did the same, slowly advancing below the firing arc of the Vasari, into relative safety. Several mortar shells shrieked as they dropped from above, swiftly terminating numerous clones. Yet, no retreat order was given. No calls for a rally point were made. #7239022945 smiled grimly behind his helmet as the Vasari trench drew closer.
Those Vasari just don't get it. We are the clone legionaries. We never retreat. We never surrender. Shoot us all, if you want to. There's much more of us than there is of you.
Loud thumps drew his attention, and a machine of grey, battle-scarred metal popped up in his peripheral vision, and the blinking IFF tag made his grin widen – it was the Rebel Queen herself.
Oh, you are in for it now, Vasari. With a grunt, the clone hauled himself upwards, bellowing into his throat-mic.
“FORWARD, LEGIONNARIES! FOLLOW THE QUEEN! CHARGE, FOR ORTALIA!” This order was met with a loud approval as the rest of the white-clad soldiers jumped to their feet, trudging eagerly after the sole Seven-Ten amidst the battlefield, ignoring the gunfire coming their way. The Queen herself was hammering ahead, spraying the entrenchment with shells from the autocannon her mech was wielding. The hostile gunners took cover, allowing the charge gain momentum, with white-clad figures trudging through the sodden ground, and a grey one leading them. Even so, the opposition remained fierce, and #7239022945 saw numerous bio-sign icons wink out in the side of his HUD, as the mortar fire intensified, their enemy desperate to stop them.
Yes, that's right. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. There is nowhere for you to escape now.
#7239022945 awoke a moment later, noticing a couple of things at once. He was on his back. One of his arms was missing. Shrapnel was digging into his left side, making every movement uncomfortable, to say the least. The armor's medical systems kicked in, severing the ragged stump of his lower right arm, to ensure infection wouldn't set in. He'd get a flash-cloned replacement after the battle. A moment later, he was roughly pulled upwards by a big, metal arm.
“Today's a bad day for dying, wouldn't you say so?”
A feral grin was what the Rebel Queen received in lieu of an answer and she handed a weapon to him – his gravity field rifle. Wielding the dangerous piece of Tallaxian weaponry, he was about to rally what legionaries he could find, when he saw the Queen walk towards a burning Vasari hovercraft, where a number of shell-shocked Vasari cowered, trying to regain their senses. She drew a brutal-looking knife from a slot on her exoskeleton armour, a low, malicious chuckle reaching his ears...
Celestia stopped the footage, feeling queasy. She paused, uncertainty taking hold of her once more. The human leader was obviously capable of horrific acts of cruelty, if the rest of archives were anything to go by. The diarch shuddered to think what would happen if the human's wrath were to directed against Equestria, but she doubted it would come to that. Well, at least she hoped so.
Those concerns aside, she could not help but admire the Rebels' leader – she pursued her objectives with unparalleled ferocity, fighting with a single-minded determination that was undeniably intimidating. It was by her efforts that the dissidents of the galaxy gathered beneath her flag, ready to fight and die for her, and the notion of so many disparate races working side by side was rather humbling. Still, she was anxious when it came to meeting them in person – their leader seemed to waver unpredictably between being either a cold, ruthless warlord or a benevolent leader to the disenfranchised, turning their efforts towards the betterment of all.
She hummed to herself as she tried to remember how long ago it had been when Executioner had arrived to Equestria. It certainly had been at least three weeks, and she hoped it would be done with its mainframe repairs soon. Letting out a thoughtful sigh, she opened another file, and let her eyes wander across it as she took in the information.
Luna shook her head, trying to stay awake. She was less than successful at it. Somepony had swapped the coffee in her quarters with decaf. Though the Night Court was ending in slightly over an hour, she was fighting to remain attentive, and she cursed whoever had carried out this dastardly deed. So she sat there, paying very little attention to whatever Blueblood was prattling on about. Or, tried to, at least – his voice kept grating on her ears, slowly chipping away at her patience. Gauge had slinked off to somewhere, and hadn't shown herself ever since the Night Court began. Though the alicorn worried over her surrogate daughter, she doubted the miniature automata was in any trouble, considering that she was cut from the same cloth as Executioner One. Well, at least it seemed like that.
“...Luna, are you even paying attention?” Blueblood's voice cut through her day-er, nightdreaming (Yes, it's a word, the Moon Horse says so.) and she grumbled in annoyance.
“I wish I was unable to.”
Cue overdramatic gasp of insultedness (Word trademarked by Princess Luna's sleep-deprived mind.) from Prince Blueblood. “Excuse me?”
The tone of his voice finally broke the alicorn's patience and she glared at the white unicorn. “You heard me, Blueblood. You are so boring, arrogant and obnoxious that I have even forgotten what you came here to bother me about.” That earned her another offended noise from him.
“I was talking about clearing out a portion of the Whitetail Woods to build my newest mansion. But I suppose it would take an actual princess to understand the importance of this subject.” Blueblood responded haughtily, having just finished digging his own grave, yet remaining blissfully unaware, his nose stuck in the air. The various Lunar Guards present stiffened up, their golden eyes throwing murderous glares at the self-absorbed noblepony. But, as we have established, his nose was already approaching stratosphere, and thus, he did not notice their displeasure.
He also did not notice the giant metal centipede that burst through the floor and swallowed him whole before he could so much as protest to this change of situation. Gauge flittered from the newly-created hole in the floor, whistling cheerfully to herself.
“Hi, mommy!”
“Er... Hello, Gauge.” The blue alicorn looked at the hole in the floor. “Um... I take it this is your doing?”
“Roger that, soldier, making a 360!” Gauge spun about for a moment, coaxing out a smile from Luna.
“So, where's he being taken to?”
“Don't worry, he'll be handled by top men.” Gauge chittered, landing on Luna's shoulder.
“Who?”
“Top... men.” Gauge whispered conspirationally, before chirping. “We're the Able-Fit squad. No injured guys in this squad.” A moment later, she took off. “Oh, god, I'm Bernie Crane! I think we made it to 1967.” Spouting inanities, Gauge cartwheeled off. “Wait a minute. I think we can get to the point we can fly. Only if you believe in Christmas cheer! I belieeeve~” With that, she rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. Luna chuckled to herself before returning her attention to the line of petitioners.
“Next!”
'Gauge' was a fluke, in all regards. Xalathii creations occasionally tended to gain their own sapience, but the nano-fabric matrices in their sentience cores prevented them from gaining the same level of intelligence as a naturally-created Xalathii, considering that they had been created for something else entirely. Nevertheless, the newborn was intriguing in its own worth, providing the Executioner's intelligence a small amount of entertainment as it ambled through the Royal Castle's interview, confusing those who worked there – it was definitely better than simply waiting for the mainframe to be repaired.
If it was lucky, the subroutines would re-establish contact with the mainframe in approximately six days. Until then, all it could do was wait and observe, which it did not mind all that much by now – the time spent doing so would help expand its knowledge of this world, although it would keep this planet's existence a secret, and would ask the Rebel leadership to do the same – little good would come from the ponies being dragged into a war they didn't even know of.
A ping on the sensors drew its attention to the purple pony standing nearby, and it recognised this one immediately – Twilight Sparkle. The pony struck a familiar chord with it whenever she paid visit – she always was eager to pursuit knowledge, to unravel whatever mysteries that presented themselves to her. An erudite scholar like her would no doubt find a way to aid the Empire for the betterment of all. Perhaps once the war was over, it would return as an emissary of his people.
“Hello, Executioner! May I come aboard?”
ACKNOWLEDGED, HIGH VALUE INDIVIDUAL ONE, the mech responded, opening one of the access hatches and extending a ladder to let the purple unicorn inside.
Twilight sat down, eyeing her surroundings. Even though she frequently visited their otherworldly guest, she still hadn't gotten over the feeling of awe every time she saw it. As with every other visit, she would peruse through the data made available to her, soaking in the knowledge from other worlds. She'd learned about the Xalathii, Ortalians, Tallaxians, and many more of the races that made up the Asahi Empire. Today, however, she turned her attention to Coalition's most stalwart allies – the Asli.
The Asli homeworld, Hilaera, had been discovered solely because of an intercepted Vasari transmission, during the first months of the war, shortly after the humans' Trade Order had been reformed into the Traders' Emergency Coalition. Fierce battles were fought over this world before the Vasari relented, and Coalition forces liberated the besieged aliens. Grateful for their saviors' efforts, the Asli joined the Coalition, vowing to aid humanity against the aggressors.
The Asli were very peaceful and diplomatic by nature and would have aided the Vasari if they had asked for assistance – but Vasari sought slaves and resources, not allies, and invaded their homeworld without a second thought. Though the Asli are patient and tolerant, their attackers crossed many lines by their blatant acts of hostility. Infuriated, the Asli did what had only happened a scant few times in their long history – they took up arms and went to wage a guerilla war against the Vasari. Their superior knowledge of terrain and uncanny ability to remain unseen served the Asli well against Vasari infantry, but they had no armoured vehicles of their own, and what few fliers they had were large, slow and unarmed – easy targets for the Vasari, whom had a hefty supply of both. Even so, the Asli refused to give in – once irked, they were a force to be reckoned with. Their defiance wouldn't have ended well, hadn't the Coalition arrived. The Asli were victorious with their newfound allies' help, but the damage was already done – many of their kin were gone, either slain or taken as slaves by their foes. Even so, they formed an alliance with the humans and fought to fight off the invaders.
The Asli were an ancient people, their history spanning many thousands of years. In many ways, they had reached the distinct milestones of civilization earlier than humans, but were content with remaining on their homeworld. In fact, they had been on the cusp of space flight when the Vasari had invaded. Despite their technological advances, many Asli lived as farmers or hunters, unwilling to leave their settlements for the big cities. It was an odd mix of the future and past, with the bustling metropolises and rural communities working together.
Their homeworld was a verdant paradise, much like Equis was. Nell-Tiray, the Asahi leader, had taken it up a notch or two with the help of some sort of an artifact. Frustratingly enough, Twilight was unable to find out what either the Asahi or the artifact had been doing there, seeing as Nell-Tiray had been missing for quite a while if the databanks were anything to go by. Although she suspected the information was locked away for a reason, so she let that particular topic rest.
The Asli were a long-lived folk, with some of their people being around well since before the humanity's arrival, making them more than three thousand years old. Such persons were revered, having accumulated vast amounts of knowledge during their lives. Physically, they were not very different from humans - most of their body structure was the same, but that was where the similarities ended. Asli had no hair, which was replaced by tendrils that served a similar purpose, growing longer as one grew older. Long, well-kept tendrils were a point of pride among their people. Their world's atmosphere was much richer in oxygen, meaning most Asli were taller than the average human. This tended to make an Asli somewhat lethargic when off-world. In accordance to their world's nutrient-rich flora and fauna, their metabolism was noticeably higher than a human's, meaning an Asli would recover from an injury faster than a human. Their skin tones were also varied – a desert-dwelling Asli would generally have a light skin pigment to deal with the heat, while those in the arctic regions tended to have a darker skin.
There were three different kinds of Asli – the plains-dwellers, mountainkin, and waterkin. The first were the most common of all, and had no interesting features, apart from being, you know, aliens.
The mountainkin, as their name said, lived in the mountains. They were more inclined towards aggression than other Asli, and were excellent hunters and scouts. Their harsh way of life had turned them into fearsome opponents, and were highly valued among the Coalition.
The waterkin were noticeably different, with the lower halves of their bodies replaced by long, flexible tails that made them incredibly agile in their element – water. The waterkin were, as their name hinted, amphibious, and flourished in the oxygen-rich waters of their homeworld. Their experience at stealth made them excellent infiltrators in places others would struggle. But their most valued ability was their saliva, which proved to be highly debilitating. The waterkin were able to control the toxicity, which ranged from mildly inebrating to full-on cardiac arrest – the waterkin were able to kiss others to death, if they so desired. The fact that their mercurial, wily nature drove them to cause trouble with this ability probably didn't help things in the least, with some soldiers waking up either naked, locked up, financially worse off, or some combination of three. As Twilight read on, she found out – and was disgusted by the fact – that some waterkin had been abducted solely because of that ability, and used to create very potent drugs by black market dealers. The Coalition had been cracking down on that, with limited success. Grumbling to herself, disgusted that there were individuals who'd stoop to such actions, she picked another topic.
Oddly, the Asli were quite secretive when it came to reproduction, although some facts were known – they had no male equivalent of their species, but could mate with a number of other species, as long as the partners shared a number of genetical similarities. However, no matter what precautions were taken, mating always resulted in the Asli partner's pregnancy, and as such, relationships were taken seriously, and tended to last long. The pregnancy would always result in a single child – twins were incredibly rare happenstance, and, to date, there were no record of triplets being born.
Twilight closed the data entry, humming to herself thoughtfully – Executioner had provided her with so much information, yet hadn't inquired about Equestria even once. This had to be rectified.
“Executioner, you've freely provided all this knowledge to me. I think it's time I returned the favor.”
AN EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION IS ACCEPTABLE, HIGH VALUE INDIVIDUAL ONE, the mech responded and Twilight grinned, standing up.
“Then it's a good thing I brought this along.” Her horn lit up as she pulled out her dataslate from her saddlebags.
Celestia sipped on her drink quietly, levitating her own dataslate up as she watched the video footage of the Rebel Queen aiding her engineers in rescuing people from a collapsed building. As she watched the video, she understood why the Rebels followed her with such fervor and loyalty – she fought at their side, whether it be in space, air, or ground, never shirking from her duties, both as a monarch and a soldier. She had that flame few others had, the soul and mind of a true leader, one that the alicorn herself was a little jealous of – Lieia Grisova had risen through the ranks of Coalition's military in large part due to her single-minded determination, and even though her military record was studded with medals and ribbons, Celestia was worried by the sheer recklessness of the woman – it was almost as if she had a death wish. However, she did recall one fact about the human – she was one of the most loathed beings among the Vasari, considering how many of their kind she'd killed. When she had been taken captive by the Vasari, who knows what had been done to the ex-Colonel.
Celestia's heart ached at the revelation – Lieia Grisova was a tormented soul, with few precious people she could talk to without worrying about them judging her. Thus, she sought to end her pain by inflicting as much terror on the Vasari as she could, and Celestia wanted to hold the woman close to her, hug her and tell that everything would be okay, that she could help-
Discord blanched, really wishing that he could do something to drown out the alicorn's thoughts. Then again, he had worked a spell into one of the staff and have her deliver some spiked tea to the diarch, and thus, was stuck with hearing Celestia's thoughts as they turned more suggestive with every second, each and every one of them. But, such was the price he had to pay for freedom. The shenanigans with the griffon emperor had done well to bolster his strength, but he still needed more.
Soon. Soon I shall be free and spread delightful chaos, an-
Please, let me rest my head upon your human bosom.
'kay.
Oh, good heavens~