25 weeks later…
September 18, U.C. 0079
Mars Orbit, Side 7 space, New Lunar Republic, Musai-class light cruiser, Falmel
“It’s funny,” Ardent Blitz mused, “that we missed a Federation outpost in our own space.”
“Well,” a voice behind him replied, “that’s what happens when you forget to do reconnaissance of your space.”
Blitz sighed. “Hello, Blast.”
Blitz turned around to look at the pony, a unicorn. His brooding seafoam green eyes reflected a dark, troubled past. Surrounding these eyes was ice blue fur. His deep blue hair, styled like crystals, had a pair of strands sticking out in front of his face that resembled insectoid antennae.
Blitz raised a hand to cover his mouth, laughing very softly. Blast frowned and asked, “It’s my ‘antennae’ isn’t it?”
Blitz nodded. Blast shook his head, sighing.
“Anyway,” Blitz began, turning back toward the large window looking out into space, “I’ve sent Squads Denim and Ash to investigate this outpost.”
“Think they’ll find anything?”
“They might,” a second voice said, “if they look carefully.”
Blitz turned, again.
The only crystal pony, to Blitz’s knowledge, serving in the New Lunar Republic Military, Sanguine Quartz, was staring at him. Confused, the crystal pony asked, “What?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“Alright. I’ll be on the bridge. You know, fulfilling my duties.”
With that, the crystal pony left.
***
Sanguine Quartz sat at his console, staring at his automail arm, pondering how the prosthetic’s maker had been able to get it to shine like the coat of his kind. “You know, Blast,” he remarked, “you don’t need to shadow me. You are my superior.”
He turned his to look at the unicorn. Those brooding eyes staring at him held a quizzical look. “How are our guys doing?”
Quartz shrugged. “Doing good, I guess. It’s too early to tell.”
He turned back to his console, put his headset on, and stated, watching one of the monitors, “Gladius, the feed from your mono-eye is getting interference.”
In response, the pilot brought one of his Zaku’s hands up and tapped the mobile suit’s head. The feed cleared up almost immediately. “Good. The feed’s all clear now.”
“Now,” Quartz mused, talking to no one in particular, “we wait.”
************
Federation “Outpost”, Side 7 space
Ninety minutes later…
“Scootaloo!” A young mare’s voice called out, “Scootaloo! I’ve brought you dinner!”
“I’m coming!”
Sweetie Belle sighed. Entering her friend’s dining room, she sat in an empty chair.
Scootaloo entered the room, wearing a jacket that reached down to her knees. One of her dad’s. Probably. Sweetie Belle sighed, shaking her head at the sight of Scootaloo, who was less concerned with her appearance than Sweetie Belle was. “Sweetie Belle! Sweetie Belle!”
A robotic voice chirped Sweetie Belle’s name. “Hi, Haro.”
The little green robot hovered into the unicorn’s lap. In response, Sweetie Belle began rubbing Haro. The robot began purring, pleased. “Whatcha bring?”
“Spaghetti with meatballs,” Sweetie Belle replied, “Mom made it.”
“Sounds good,” Scootaloo said, smiling, and sitting down on a chair.
The pegasus began eating the spaghetti on the plate that Sweetie Belle had prepared for her. The voraciousness of the pegasus mare surprised Sweetie Belle, as Scootaloo was never one for heavy eating. “When was the last time you ate?”
Scootaloo looked up at her friend. “This morning,” she replied, “why?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head, rolling her eyes. “Nevermind,” she said, dismissively, “not that it matters now.”
“Okay,” the pegasus said, “okay.”
Scootaloo shook her head, putting a hand to her left temple.
Sweetie Belle cocked her head to the side and asked, “You alright, Scoots?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the pegasus replied, waving a hand dismissively, “but I’ve got this feeling that something bad’s gonna happen. Something really bad.”
Sweetie Belle frowned. “I guess I’ll be going now. See ya later.”
“See ya!”
************
Six Zakus entered through an access hatch in the Federation station. Denim frowned, wondering how the Federation had got a station of this size here. “Alright. Gladius,” he said, “stay here. If this mission takes a bad turn, get out of here and put a mayday out to Lieutenant Commander Blitz on the ship.”
Gladius’ Zaku nodded. “Gem,” Denim continued, “you’re with me.”
“Ash Squad, scout the left!”
“Yes sir,” Ash reported.
“Master Sergeant!”
“What?!”
“If we happen to encounter the thing, should we destroy it?”
“Negative! This mission is recon only.” Denim responded, “Right now, the Lieutenant Commander wants information, not action.”
Denim racked the charging handle on his Zaku’s hyper rifle and barked, “Move out, Gem!”
Pulling the blast door in front of the squad open, five Zakus hopped down into a large chamber. The environment inside the chamber was a rocky area, with metal structures that looked as if they’d been hit repeated by vulcan fire. A single observation tower rose out of the center of the chamber, overlooking the entire area.
“Ricochet-proof walls,” Denim observed, “observation tower. Just what is this station?”
“Master Sergeant!”
Denim headed to the left, toward Gem’s Zaku. The mobile suit was crouching next to a fallen mobile suit. “It’s an old model mobile suit,” Ash reported.
Denim frowned, the fallen mobile suit was a Federation Guncannon-type unit. “Looks like it was destroyed by some kind of heat-ray weapon. Get some pictures of the impact plane.”
He looked over to the right. “There’s more,” Denim said.
Gem looked in the same direction. “That’s a Federation Guntank. I think.”
Denim scoffed. “It must have been used as a mock target.”
He gestured, sweeping his Zaku’s arms wide, continuing. “Look at all this… It’s like a graveyard for old mobile suits.”
He looked at the downed Guntank, and noticed one of its cannon’s barrel. “It’s been shorn off by an intense heat ray…”
This one, too…
“Gem,” Denim inquired, “do we have any mobile suit portable beam weapons with this level of firepower?”
“Negative, sir.”
“So,” Denim mused, “this is the Federation’s new armament.”
A terrified shriek came over the radio. It was Ash.
“What is it, Ash?!”
“Sir! Enemy sighted!!!”
***
Ash saw multiple flashes appear. Seconds later, tracer rounds slammed into the ground around the trio of Zakus, detonating and throwing up rock debris.
“They’re firing vulcans! We’re going to engage!”
“On the way,” Master Sergeant Denim said, “Sergeant Ash!”
Ash’s squad returned fire with their hyper rifles, the 140mm HEAT rounds exploding on and around the hostile. After ninety seconds, the trio stopped firing.
“Did we get ‘em?!”
“Sergeant Ash!!”
Ash zoomed in with her Zaku’s mono-eye on the hostile’s location. She gasped, “What the?!”
A realization dawned on the mare. Her eyes widened. “Master Sergeant! Master Sergeant!”
Her breathing began to quicken. “My hyper rifle didn’t do a thing!! It’s coming! The bogey’s coming this way!”
The hostile emerged from the smoke cloud, smoke coming off its large shield. “It’s the Federation Forces’ new mobile suit!!”
The Zaku trio opened fire again.
The Federation mobile suit brought up its shield in a half-hearted attempt to block the incoming fire. Not that it mattered. The rounds were doing very little to its armor.
On the right side of its torso, Ash noticed two letters followed by four numbers.
RX-78-01
The designation number stood out on it’s yellow body.
The mobile suit continued advancing.
The Master Sergeant’s voice barked over the radio, “What’s coming?! Sergeant Ash, respond! Say it again! COME IN!!”
A cannon on the yellow mobile suit’s shoulder swung down into an aiming position. The cannon fired.
The shell landed between Ash’s Zaku and one of her subordinates. Ash snarled, “New armament, my ass!”
She began firing at the mobile suit.
Realizing that the shell missed, the yellow mobile suit swung up its right arm. In its hand was an unidentified rifle-type weapon. The mobile suit pulled the weapon’s trigger, and a purple beam lanced out and tore the head off of Ash’s Zaku.
The energy imparted from the impact staggered the Zaku. Ash glanced at her pilot’s console, noticing that the hit had also disabled the I-Field surrounding her mobile suit’s reactor. Sighing, the sergeant closed her eyes.
Five seconds later, the Zaku’s reactor tore it apart as the core detonated.
The pilot of the yellow mobile suit grimaced. “Two more to go,” he said grimly.
“Lieutenant Wisp! Do you copy?”
“I copy, Control!” Wisp replied, “This is not a training exercise! Zakus have infiltrated the station!”
“Zakus?!”
“Yes! I’m about to eliminate them!”
One of the Zakus, having drawn a heat hawk, swung it down at the RX-78-01. Wisp brought the mobile suit’s shield up to block the blow. The Zaku grappled the RX-78-01 and brought its heat hawk down again, slicing the shoulder cannon’s barrel in half.
Wisp growled in anger. He noticed the other Zaku aiming its hyper rifle at his mobile suit. Bringing his beam rifle up to shoot the Zaku, Wisp realized that he and the RX-78-01 weren’t going to survive a double core detonation at point-blank range. He fired anyway.
************
“Well,” Quartz said, quietly to Blast, “we’re down three pilots.”
Blast frowned and sighed, murmuring something beneath his breath. “Well done,” Blitz said, “Corporal Gladius.”
The pegasus frowned. “So the Federal Forces do have a new mobile suit?”
“That will do, Gladius! Now return to ship! You’ll be debriefed later!”
“Color me surprised,” Blitz’s second-in-command mused, “to think that Denim couldn’t keep his squad in line…”
“Daisy,” Blitz commanded, “detach the ship and approach the station.”
“…To arms, sir?”
“The Federation’s violated the treaty,” Blitz replied, grimly, “and we will make them pay dearly for it.”
************
“Ah ha!”
Gem’s Zaku stepped through the opening it’d created in the side of the colonial sector of the station. “Master Sergeant,” Gem reported, smiling, “I’ve spotted the target! This time, it’s a white one!”
“GEM!!”
Denim’s Zaku emerged from the same opening. He snarled at his subordinate over the radio, “Gem, you bitch!!”
************
Scootaloo opened her eyes, still slightly dazed by the impact of the transport her father had been standing on.
Pushing herself up with her arms, she glanced around. All of the other ponies she’d been with were… She stood, wiping the edge of her mouth. Th-they’re dead…?
She looked up and froze. A pea green mobile suit stood seven meters away from her, firing on the Colonial Defense vehicles. She frowned, slightly. “So… So this is a Lunar Republic Zaku?!”
More of the vehicles exploded, and Scootaloo was knocked over by the shockwave. Falling onto her front, she heard a female voice call her name. “Scootaloooo!”
The orange pegasus raised her head and looked to her left. It was Sweetie Belle. She’d hopped over the safety rail where her family were gathered along with other civilians. Scootaloo couldn’t tell what her friend’s family were saying, but she guessed they were warning the unicorn to stay with them.
“Scootalooo! Are you okay?!”
A flash, erupting from behind Sweetie Belle, sent the unicorn tumbling through the air. She landed a couple of meters from Scootaloo.
Scootaloo stood. “Sweetie Belle!”
She ran over to the unicorn, calling her name.
Grabbing Sweetie Belle and pulling her up slightly, Scootaloo whimpered softly. Sweetie Belle’s pale green eyes looked up into the pegasus’ grayish purple. “There ya go,” Scootaloo said, “you okay?”
Sweetie Belle nodded. She looked over her shoulder, toward the refugee line. Where there had been six dozen ponies of various races, there was a smoking crater. Bodies of ponies lay where the shockwave from the blast had thrown them. “M-mom…”