March 16th, 3345
NLR and CE Joint Support Base, Docking Bay13
Harmony Sector
46 Days after Outland Federation war declaration
Rainbow Dash sat in Bay 13 waiting for her name to be called. The ponies up at the admission counter were sorting through papers and calling out names as they came across them. While she waited, she had looked around for any other aerospace aviators like herself. After scanning around several times, she finally gave up with a sigh.
“Ease up, you'll meet plenty pilots after you get aboard and get settled in.”
The truth was, Rainbow was nervous. She had just recently been promoted to Squadron Leader after the battle of Harmony Station, day zero of the war. She was mostly worried about having to prove herself to the veteran leaders that she knew she was going to be working with. But, she didn't have much time to worry about that as she felt somepony sit down next to her on the bench.
RD opened her eyes to see that a NLR Aerospace pilot had sat next to her. Her dark black and purple uniform was adorned with patches and ribbons of past battles. The sheer amount of battle awards was astounding enough, but what was even more surprising was her. She was grey, with feral gold eyes. Her pupils were slits, and had the look of a fighter who knew her stuff, and had earned her place among the living. Her wings weren't like that of a pegasus, they were bat wings, a dark purple color. All of that put together made her look intimidating as hell. Then RD noticed the pilot's designation patch on her shoulder. The NLR symbol with a black fighter silhouette flying through a lightning bolt. .
This pony was a New Lunar Republic Shadowbolt. The elite of the NLR Marine Air Corps.
She turned to RD and nodded. Rainbow just nodded back in return. Turning away, RD's mind exploded.
'Oh my gosh, as if I wasn't nervous enough before, now I'm sitting by an aviator that's on par with the Wonderbolts. She could shoot me out of the sky like I was nothing but an annoying insect.'
Rainbow just sat there in awkward silence, her mind swimming in a mix of awe, and worry.
'I wonder what her name is?'
Trying to be as smooth as possible, she leaned forward and tried to seem as if she was looking across the hangar. While she was forward, she snuck a peak at the pilot's nametag.
STARSONG
Rainbow hadn't ever heard of her, but she froze at what she saw below the name tag.
NIGHT REAVER
That, she had seen once. During one of her last dogfights of the Equestrian Civil War. Night Reaver had nearly shot her down, her only saving grace was that she had managed to destroy Night Reaver's port side engine and cut her maneuverability down. With that, they both had retreated, sustaining too much damage to continue the duel.
Looking back up at the pilot, she cleared her throat.
“Say, you wouldn't have happened to be at the Battle of Nexus III, would you have?”
The pilot was a bit startled at her sudden question, but recovered quickly.
“Yeah, why?”
Rainbow pulled open her pilot's jacket and showed the patches on her flightsuit. One of the patches was the name of her fighter, Tank, named after her childhood pet turtle. She thought it was ironic, so that's why she chose it.
Starsong smiled as she saw the name.
“You sure didn't maneuver like a tank in that fight. It took the technicians nearly three days to get my fighter back into fighting shape you know.”
The two laughed.
“I can't believe I survived a fight with one of the Shadowbolts!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“You did more than that,” Starsong started, “ Had you pulled up on the stick a bit more when you made that turn, you would've had me. You only missed because you didn't have the right angle on me. You're a pretty good pilot, too bad you were on the other side, the Shadowbolts could use a pilot like you.”
“It was nothing.” Rainbow tried to say nonchalantly.
Starsong laughed.
“You certainly have the confidence for it.”
Starsong's name was called from the desk, and she got up.
“See you around Rainbow Dash, I look forward to flying with you.”
With that, Starsong made her way to the orders desk.
Rainbow sat happily, laughing at the irony of everything, and wondering how it was that she had come to fly alongside former foes.
'Because of Day Zero.' She thought to herself darkly.
The sound of the bay drowned out, and she was consumed by her memories.
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February 5th, 3345
Harmony Sector
C.E.N.S. Sunray
1845 Hours.
Rainbow Dash sat in the chow hall with the rest of her squadron mates. The peace treaty was being signed by the sisters, so her squadron leader had decided to celebrate with an early dinner. She was listening to her squadron mate Thunderlane tell a joke when her world was turned upside down.
A deafening explosion ran through the ship. The table that they were sitting at was lifted up off the deck before slamming back down again. Her head hit the table, and she passed out.
When she came to, fires were all around, and Thunderlane was pulling her out from underneath some of the ships wreckage. She got to her feet quickly, the only light they had to see with was that of the emergency lighting and the fires around the mess hall.
“What the hell happened?” Rainbow asked.
“I don't know.” Thunderlane coughed, “Did we get hit by NLR ships?”
The two looked outside of the mess halls viewport and saw a volley of shells pass by Harmony Station. One of the shells detonated, but the rest missed.
“No, because they wouldn't fire upon Luna.” Rainbow said.
The ship's intercom crackled to life, and the ships AI, came over the com.
“Attention all hands, order 57 is in effect. All hands abandon ship, I repeat, abandon ship. Make way to your nearest emergency pod station....”
The intercom shut off, and Rainbow saw ponies making their way to the mess hall's escape pods. Rainbow and Thunderlane were making their way to the nearest one. Thunderlane got in when Rainbow heard a cry for help. She turned to see a group of three CE troopers trying to lift a steel support beam off of a comrade. She turned back to the pod.
“Stay here.”
“What are you do...”
Rainbow pushed the activation button on the wall. The hatch closed and she heard the pod's boosters fire as it flew away from the ship. She ran back to the group of soldiers. Taking up a position across from one of the troopers, she began to count.
“On three,” She told them, “One, two, three!”
With a mixture of grunts and curses, the three lifted the beam off of the trooper just enough for him to crawl out from under it. With a surge of relief, the three dropped the beam.
“He can't walk, his leg's broken.” One of the troopers observed.
Another explosion rocked the ship.
“Well, he's going to have to move anyways, the ships' tearing itself apart.” Rainbow said.
She squatted down and got the troopers arm over her neck, one of the other troopers knelt down beside her and did the same with his other arm. With a nod, the two stood up and hoisted the wounded trooper with them.
“There should be a gunship in the hangar bay taking any stragglers left behind. If we go now we can make it in time.” she said.
Another explosion, followed by the ship's superstructure groaning.
“MOVE!” Rainbow ordered.
The five of them started in the direction of the hangar bay. Fires and explosions were happening all across the ship. The four of them finally reached the hangar bay, and sure enough, there was a gunship, waiting until the last possible second to pick up any ponies that hadn't made it to the pods in time. Waiving their free arms, the three got the attention of the gunships pilot.
The gunship fired its thrusters and moved over to their position before settling itself down gently on the hangar bay deck again.
“You got room?” Rainbow asked.
“Barely, we can only take four more.”
Shifting the wounded trooper back over to his comrade, she grabbed him by the waist and hoisted him aboard with some help.
“Okay, you three, hop on.”
“What about you ma'am?”
She cocked an eyebrow and pointed to her pilots wings.
“Oh, yeah...”
Another explosion rocked the ship, and wreckage started to rain down from the ceiling. Again it’s superstructure groaned from the stress. The ship was in its death throes.
“Get aboard, NOW! Get out of here!”
Not waiting for them to reply, Rainbow Dash sprinted to her fighter. She hopped in the cockpit and hit the canopy switch. She was going through her hasty pre-flight checks when she heard an explosion behind her. She looked behind her to see the hangar bay's ammo dump on fire.
Eyes wide with fear, she hit the master switch, activated the engines, and gunned them to full life. The sudden thrust forced her back into her seat, and she made it out of the hangar just as the dump exploded, the claw like tendrils of the fires reaching out to her fighter as she made it to full speed. Looking behind her, she saw the ship break in half, debris and explosions were littering the space around it.
Breathing a sigh of relief for her escape, she put her helmet and O2 mask on. Taking the cord attached to the helmet, she plugged it into her main console to activate her helmet's HUD. The display came to life, and with a series of rapid blink clicks, she activated her fighters targeting systems and waited for the pinpricks of enemy fighters to pop up. The data came in quickly and in a moment of sudden horror, Rainbow’s jaw dropped as her display lit up like a hearths warming tree.
Her communication headset crackled to life.
“All CE fighters, this is Princess Celestia, we have been attacked by an unknown enemy, you are to assist all NLR fighters and ships. Princess Luna is taking direct command of all NLR and CE fleets, follow her orders, and may Faust see us through this day. For Equestria!”
Her headset crackled again as she switched to the tactical channel.
I've got one on my tail, he's a fast sucker,
I'M ON FIRE, MAYDAY...
Enemy fighters in sector Delta 2, bearing point 76, where are they all coming from?
GYAAAAAAHHH!!!!
Finally, her squad leader, Octane, cut in to her channel.
“Rainbow, that you?”
“Roger that green leader, what's your location.”
“My bearing is 218 by 339, off the port bow of the Valiant. Link up with me. Watch your tail girl, they're smart son's a bitches.”
“Roger that sir.”
Turning her fighter in the direction of Octane, she gunned her engines and turned off all safeties to her fighters weapons.
Her HUD flashed as her proximity alert went off. An enemy fighter was directly ahead. Lining up her crosshairs, RD suddenly became enraged.
“Eat this!”
With a flourish, she pulled her weapons trigger and fired at the enemy. The fighter exploded violently.
'One down, the rest of them to go.'
Again, her proximity alarm went off as another fighter fell in behind her. Her missile lock warning started whining in her ears. Going in to full defense mode, Rainbow yawed right and pulled back hard on the stick. As soon as the lock warning shut off, she lowered her throttle to almost nothing, causing her turn to become even more tight while simultaneously letting the enemy fighter pass by her position. The nose of her fighter lined up perfectly, and she slammed the throttle lever back up to full.
She was now directly behind the enemy, and she didn’t hesitate. She fired again, the quad 20 mm. guns in her fighters nose spitting fire and death. The enemy fighter’s engines exploded, and the fire set off the fuel tanks. In a brilliant blue, green, and red flash, the fighter was gone.
Her HUD started flashing red, and her fighters computer came over her headset.
“Warning, incoming missile, recommend you take evasive action…”
Rainbow reacted almost instantly, throwing herself into a series of fast and hard banking maneuvers until the warning went away. She was getting closer to Octane’s position, and she started scanning her HUD for his marker.
“Coming up on your starboard…”
She turned her head to see Octane’s fighter, with its distinct green trim and snarling tiger paintjob.
“What’s the plan boss?”
“You and I were the only two from green squadron to get off of the Sunray, so we’re kind of on our own for this one. Right now, we need to focus on keeping ourselves alive. I’ve contacted the CENS Steadfast, and they’re sending a squadron of drones to us for backup.”
Rainbow smiled at that. The Falcon X-34 combat aerospace drones were a Faustsend when you needed them. Although in no way were they on par with living pony pilots, they were effective at giving an underpowered squadron more firepower and protection. With the drones backing them up, Rainbow and Octane just might survive this one.
“ETA on the drones?”
“Two minutes, they’re having trouble with the launch systems. They think a power surge from the damage they took caused it. In any case, when they get here, I have a plan. Do you see that strike cruiser at two o’clock?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, my sensors are showing that its kinetic dampeners are offline, so we’re gonna’ run along that trench leading up to their bridge, and wreak havoc. Get your payloads ready, were gonna’ give them everything we got, I plan to space that bastard”
Rainbow almost couldn’t believe her ears. They weren’t bombers, they were fighters, and only two fighters at that. The odds were definitely not in their favor. Plus, if the dampeners came back online while they were in the trench, they would be trapped.
“Sir, I don’t think…”
“It’s not your decision, it’s mine. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine, we can do this.”
As if on cue, the drones fell in behind them.
“All right, move in. Bearing 129 by 38, full combat speed, Tataurus and Centaur missile payloads armed and designated, let’s move.”
Without so much as a hiccup, Octane and Rainbow pushed the throttle to full, and with a flash of engines, sped across space, drones following right behind. Rainbow still wasn’t comfortable with this, but they had survived worse she supposed. Octane had a habit of pulling sheer dumb luck out of his ass, and she was sure it wouldn’t change this time.
“3000 meters and closing, get ready. I’ve already designated the drones to close strafing runs, here we go!”
Octane rolled and pushed his engines to the limit, with Rainbow following suit. Almost as soon as they hit the 250 meter mark, enemy anti aerospace fire and guardian flak systems reacted and started shooting at them. Rainbow thanked Faust that the Pegasus Mk.VI aerospace fighters were so fast and maneuverable. They were weaving in and out of enemy fire, dodging shots that by all rights would have scrapped slower fighters.
Rainbow’s console again flashed red.
“Warning, incoming missiles, recommend you take evasive action.”
“Drone 627 and 553, intercept the missiles closing on my position.” Rainbow ordered.
Without any acknowledgment, the drones banked in front of her, exposing their bellys to the incoming missiles. The projectiles slammed into the drones, and all were gone. The warning in her ears stopped again. Now the proximity readout flashed in her HUD, they were within 100 meters of the ship. Within a second, they would be in the trench.
“Start firing your twenties now, Tataurus missiles too. Save the Centaur payloads for the bridge.”
Rainbow followed her orders. She felt the vibrations as the four 20mm. guns fired, their explosive tracer shells flying through space. She watched as the shells drew a perfectly straight line across the hull of the enemy cruiser. Pushing the fire control button for the Tataurus missiles on her stick, she sent a full volley of 14 missiles streaking out towards the hull of the cruiser. She didn’t feel the explosions behind her, but she saw the glare of them on her canopy. Rubbernecking around, she watched as several orange blooms rose behind her, sending debris flying into space. A few of them had managed to penetrate and cause a hull breach, and Rainbow saw the vapor trails of atmosphere leak out into the black abyss of space. Turning forward again, she saw the conning tower and the bridge.
“Allright, lock all remaining ordnance onto that bridge.”
“Roger” rainbow replied as she designated all remaining missiles to the bridge with a series of rapid blink clicks on her HUD. “All weapons designated and primed, firing now”
With another push on her joystick, rainbow felt the clamps holding all remaining ordnance release, and 22 Centaur missiles flew to the bridge.
“Ordnance away, pull back and regroup on the Valiant, I’ll meet yo….”
Octane didn’t finish the sentence. His fighter exploded suddenly as he tried to pull up.
“Octane, OCTANE!!!”
Rainbow’s eyes suddenly grew wide.
‘Oh no…’ she thought, ‘The kinetic dampeners are back online, I’m trapped.’
The wall of the trench was speeding towards her With an enraged cry, Rainbow pulled back on the stick and the throttle, trying to turn as sharply as she could. The trench was only about 70 meters wide, and Rainbow feared that she wasn’t going to make the turn.
“Come on Tank, you sunovabitch!!!” she strained.
Her fighter made the turn, but her belly scraped and skipped across the hull of the cruiser, and she yelled as impact after impact jarred her in her seat. Finally it stopped.
“Warning, starboard engine damaged, thrust output at 17 percent”
‘Great, I’m trapped, and I’m slow, how am I supposed to get out of here?’
Suddenly, the flashes as all 44 Centaur missiles came off of the bridge. Rainbow watched as the structure caught fire, and then exploded, leaving just a smoking pillar of the bridge tower behind. She saw the space beyond her canopy ripple, and then go still again.
‘The dampeners are offline again, now’s my chance!’
Gunning her engine to full, she took off. Her fighter was groaning and rattling.
“Warning, structural integrity at 67 percent, recommend decrease in speed”
“Fat chance,” Rainbow snorted, at this point, speed was her only chance. But she was still only flying at about half of what she was usually capable of.
‘Poor Octane, it was an honor, sir.’
Flashes of the actions she had participated in with her commander flashed in front of her eyes, and her heart ached.
“How am I going to tell his family?” She wondered aloud.
Octane’s voice rang through her head.
‘Focus girl, wondering on thoughts like that will get you killed, keep your head in the game, and you’ll survive’
She stilled her thoughts to the here and now.
“Yes sir.”
Taking a look around her fighter’s diagnostic panels, she took inventory of what she still had. Ammo for her 20mm. guns was down to 15 percent, she was completely out of missiles. Her superstructure was damaged from the skip across the cruisers hull, and she was flying at 55 percent speed.
‘Man, can this day get any worse?’
She shouldn’t have thought that. Her communicator crackled to life again.
“All fighters in the area of the main battle, this is Princess Luna, pull back to the valiant immediately, we are preparing to fire the Valiant’s main weapon. All fighters caught within sectors delta 3 through foxtrot 7 will be destroyed by the blast. Pull back now, you have thirty seconds. Faust guide you.”
‘Figures,’ Rainbow thought.
Looking on her display, she found that the Valiant had moved a considerable distance from where it had been. The range was about thirteen kilometers, and at her fighters current speed…
‘If I’m gonna’ survive this one, I got to fly fast, now!’
Hitting the override button on her console, Rainbow allowed as much power to flow to the engines as they could take. Her ships computer responded without a pause.
“Warning, superstructure integrity at 60 percent and falling, recommend decrease in speed”
Rainbow’s hand gripped tighter on the stick. She started to sweat.
Eight seconds had passed since that warning. Her distance counter was at 11000 meters and falling quickly, but not quick enough.
“Warning, superstructure integrity at 55 percent and falling, recommend decrease in speed”
She ignored the computer. Distance was 10500 meters, time left…
Seventeen seconds.
“Override all damage control protocols to starboard engine, feed to full power.”
“Damage to starboard engine critical, further power feed to engine will lead to catastrophic failure, recommend…”
“Override all. Do it now.”
With a wink on her display, the starboard engine was fed to full life. Her fighter started making a horrible knocking noise as the damage to the engine started to increase. The gambit was working though, she was back at 80 percent speed. Distance, 5000 meters. Time, nine seconds.
Her radio crackled to life again, the voice that came over it though, shocked Rainbow.
Princess Luna.
“Pilot, you have to get out of there, I cannot hesitate to fire, this is our only shot, you must get out of there.”
Distance, 2500 meters, time, five seconds.
‘I’m going to make it…’ She thought.
Then, a horrible bang, followed by a dreadful groan, and a whining siren…
“Warning, starboard engine explosive catastrophic failure, superstructure integrity at 12 percent, eject, eject, eject…’
Rainbow looked at the display. Distance left, 400 meters, time…
One second.
With a scream of absolute terror, Rainbow reached down and pulled the black and yellow hazard marked lever between her legs. Explosive bolts on either side of her cockpit assembly blew out, and emergency thrusters fired, sending the entire cockpit casing flying away from the fighter’s body. Distance, 0 meters.
“I’M CLEAR, FIRE!!!”
As if in response, a brilliant blue light gathered in the bow prongs of the Valiant, and then, a beam of pure white light shot across space, enveloping the enemy fleet. When it was all over, the ships that had been in the way of the beam were gone, and many were floating in space, broken in pieces, or just without power. What ships that could turned and jumped to warp speed to escape the remaining NLR and CE ships.
“Rainbow? Rainbow? This is Thunderlane, you there? Listen, I’m moving up on your port side with my fighter, are you alive in there?”
Exhausted, Rainbow unclipped her O2 mask.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just get me out of here.”
“Actually, with your permission, I’ve got you covered.”
A NLR retrieval ship flew over her canopy, and the recovery clamps locked onto the sides of her cockpit assembly’s hull.
“You know something? I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.” Rainbow thanked the pilot, and then promptly passed out.
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Present.
Rainbow was shaken back to reality when her name was called. Picking up her bags, she moved to the desk.
“A beautiful friendship indeed.”
Taking the papers for her orders from the NLR Lieutenant behind the desk, she walked up the ramp to the NLRS Valiant. A new ship, a new tour, a new war.
‘Some things never change…’