by Ultra1437
***
The words ‘It’s a trap!’ rung in Celestia’s head as she and the Celestia neared their latest objective. As they dropped out of teleport, they happened upon a small space station under attack by a band of marauding pirates.
Helm started closing in, lining up for an attack run. Trusting her gut, Celestia called out, “Helm, hold off and stay back. Something doesn’t seem right.” Twilight shot her a funny look, but nodded to Helm as she tapped at the console between herself and Celestia, magnifying her view of the battle, focusing on the space station.
Celestia stared at the battle, taking it in. At first, everything seemed to be normal. She tapped at the screen, zooming in on the battle and the troubling facts rolled in. The attacking crew wasn’t firing at the station. They were firing past it, barely. The station’s shots seemed to be missing barely as the ships dodged, but like with the ships’ slow movements, it seemed to her to be impossible to miss targets that slow.
Twilight, looking over at the console as well, noticed and spoke up, “This is a trap.”
“Exactly. Something didn’t seem right as we approached.” Celestia nodded, zooming in further and examining the enemy ships’ markings and weapons. “Twilight, look!” She pointed at the ship she’d zoomed in on, a large, blocky cruiser. “The marking on its hull was the same as that stolen dreadnaught awhile back.”
Sure enough, Twilight saw it. “Alright, definitely a trap, likely set for us specifically after that whole fiasco.”
Torus snorted loudly. “Now that we know, what are we going to do?”
Closing the console’s window Celestia replied simply, “We could just leave. They’re doing nothing but wasting their fuel and time, right now.”
Torus shook his head, snorting again. “I think we should turn the tables. They can’t surprise us now that we know.”
Turning in her harness, Helm spoke up, “That reminds me of a term from a vid-game I played once. ‘Ganking’. It’s basically what they’ve set up: a large attacking force,” she flapped her wings in a quoting motion twice, “‘fights’ itself just to appear as a heated battle, but it’s really just a ruse. Another, likely smaller, party joins the fight, triggering the trap and gets slaughtered as their supposed three-way-battle turns into a two-on-one fight.”
“Let’s move. We know it’s a trap, they think they’ve still got us fooled.” Twilight smirked. It was good to be on the surprising side.
The Celestia started moving forward, weapons trained, intent on attacking the closest ship, a small frigate. It immediately stopped firing at the station and pushed to full speed, attempting to get around the Celestia’s guns.
The Celestia opened fire immediately, ripping through it’s meager shields and striking the powerplant violently. A few seconds later, the little frigate was nothing but a floating scrap heap. Immediately, the other ships turned to intercept, forgetting the station.
The station, at the same time, turned its guns on the Celestia. Lances and bolts of light flew from the station, refracting off or harmlessly dissipating into the Celestia’s shields. The tri-wing battleship took off, quickly dancing and diving out of the station’s effective range while the ships pursued.
The next target was the large, blocky cruiser. Its short-range guns weren't in range yet. The Celestia’s guns spat purple bolts of light again, and the cruiser’s shields went down. The incoming fire struck the Celestia’s shields, but they seemingly held without any visible damage. Another two volleys sent it helplessly drifting into the dark abyss with several new airlocks. A destroyer took two volleys as it closed quickly, breaking into pieces as the atmosphere vented.
The Celestia only had three opponents left, a rather large streamlined battlecruiser, and two more large, blocky cruisers like the first. The streamlined battlecruiser’s guns lanced and struck the Celestia’s shields. For a second the shield dimmed before it flickered and returned to full strength.
The Celestia flashed gold as it teleported away, the flash blinding the cruisers’ sensors for a moment. It reappeared on the streamlined battlecruiser’s broadside, unleashing a volley of fire and draining its shields completely. The point-defense guns on the battlecruiser lashed out, striking at the larger battleship as it tried to flee, but it was no use. A second volley tore away a lot of armor plating, launching large chunks of searing-hot metal away from the points of impact. Another volley tore several holes in the battlecruiser’s hull and crippled it. A final volley left the ship drifting, with only minimal power left to use.
The last two cruisers turned, their size belying their agility. They both closed in on the battleship from the rear. Lining up a simultaneous attack run, their short-range plasma cannons fired at the Celestia and drained the battleship’s shields. As another volley fired, the Celestia flashed gold and teleported away.
The Celestia flashed back into existence back where it had originally teleported from. Celestia and Twilight watched the main viewscreen as the two blinded cruisers slammed full-speed into the crippled battlecruiser, destroying all three utterly.
“That was awesome!” Torus shouted, a hand pumping in the air.
“All this death and destruction is awesome, Torus?” Celestia asked seriously. Minutely, her wings twitched in agitation.
“Well ye-” He cut himself off as he noticed the cold stare she levelled at him. “No, no ma’am. I got carried away.”
“It should never be ‘awesome’, Torus. Though they may not lead the best of lives, they are still living, skilled ponies. Would you think this was awesome if it happened to us?”
Twilight piped up, raising a hoof intellectually, “It… kind of did happen a few months back.”
Torus paled. “I… you have a fair point, Captain. I apologize for my actions, Captain, Celestia.”
“You are forgiven, Torus. Just make sure to remember that when you think something is awesome.”
“If this was a vid-game, it would’ve been awesome,” Helm stated helpfully.
“Only because it wasn’t real,” Torus added.
“Anyway, now we take care of the station.” Twilight added sullenly. More death to deal.
“Actually, they just surrendered,” Celestia chimed in. They sent a message a minute ago surrendering unconditionally. Their defenses are offline, as are their shields.
“Well, we’ll hold and get Admiral Lightspeed, then. He’ll be able to secure it properly.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
The Celestia docked again, sliding into its designated port easily. As the docking clamps snapped into place, Twilight sighed. Celestia looked over to her and smiled. “We did well, we took care of a lot of pirates today.” She leaned over and nuzzled Twilight’s cheek. “Hopefully the others out there will think twice about trying to ambush us in the future.”
Twilight nodded after returning her marefriend’s affection. “Indeed.” She hopped off her chair and strode around to Celestia’s other side, trailing her tail across Celestia’s body the entire time. “C’mon. Let’s go and relax.”
Celestia was shocked, but no less pleased, by Twilight’s playful attitude and the pair quickly left the bridge.