//------------------------------// // 25 - Everything looks like a nail // Story: Final Solution // by Luna-tic Scientist //------------------------------// Orgon watched the telemetry, beamed straight from Luna and the few high-orbit defence satellites that had survived the servitor's retaliation and the resultant ablation cascade. At least they picked a spot far from everywhere to hide. The immediate collateral damage predictions were light; all non-essential aircraft had been grounded since the original heliostat attack, and there were precious few People in that terrain. The longer-term assessment did not make for such pleasant reading; no radioisotope problems, but the dust plume looked to reduce global temperature by over a degree and would no doubt trigger food shortages. It's going to be a cold winter. The resolution from this height -- the closest sensor was up in an elliptic polar orbit and currently falling into the ablation zone -- was too poor to do more than pick out the shapes of individual mountains. It would get better, but it was a trade-off between resolution and survival time. The lower it got, the more chance of being struck by the rapidly multiplying fragments filling the more useful orbits. There was light cloud cover over the target site, little more than a high, wispy cirrus, but enough to degrade the image further. The other displays showed a feed from the weapons themselves, or purely technical data summarised by machine-made schematics, and it was these that were of the most use. Members of the Synod occupied the remaining area of the wallscreen, their drawn faces reduced to thumb-claw sized windows. "Will it work, Orgon?" Councillor Indutu said, one paw playing nervously with the fur on his head. He'd been doing it ever since the conference had started, and had reduced his normally impeccable coat to a tangled mess. About as well as force-quenching the Pit's power reserves, Orgon thought, keeping his face blank. "It's hard to say, Councillor. We should be able to catch many of them, but there's no such thing as a real surprise. Indutu will recall that Orgon was opposed to this move." "The Court has access to all of our systems; they would have found out and ordered the attack eventually," Indutu muttered, "and at a time or place not of the Synod's choosing." Orgon inclined his head. "...so if the Fusion or Gravity rogues do not try to save their kith and kin, or if they run -- and these ones know they can -- what then? The Councillor has seen the same classified research that Orgon has, he knows that the scientists are correct, despite the Church's teachings and popular belief. The servitors are fully sapient. So what would a Person do when faced with this kind of attack?" He smiled, lips drawing back in a grin that was almost a snarl. "A Person who has the offensive capability of an attack carrier battlegroup?" The questions were rhetorical and he waved a paw, cutting off any replies and encompassing the world map and its shaded areas representing the known positions of other Hive militaries. "This one will tell you what will happen next -- they will seek revenge... and it will be nothing so bloodless as the loss of our orbital industry." "Your plan would have taken too long, and if the agent was discovered these ones would have noth--" Indutu froze, eyes fixed on his own set of displays. Red light was creeping over the orbital schematic, highlighting a collection of debris-ring fragments that had abruptly changed course. Another new ability, he thought glumly, and no evidence of direct telekinesis. At these speeds, even the slightest impact... The cluster of icons representing the weapons split apart, part of the vanguard jetting sideways to collide with the intruders. More sensors tracked the resultant cloud of plasma, but the difference in velocity was so large that it was actually heading in the opposite direction. This one thinks it might... The apparent diameter of the world, viewed from the lead projectile, expanded dramatically and, for a brief moment, a brilliant bead of light appeared at the centre of the image. Then the display went dead, all the telemetry windows switching to post-mission analysis. This is where we find out what they will do. === ~~~discontinuity~~~ --Metal Matrix, carrying a quartet of struggling gryphons, appeared in the congested airspace above the valley he'd found no more than a hundred seconds ago. The empty, wind-scoured rock and ice-filled place was filled with fliers that packed the ground and air like scattered autumn leaves. The pastel colour of 'pony' was in the distinct minority; most of the fur and feathers were the duns, greys and red-browns of all the rescued gryphons. This is not going to work, he thought, releasing his reluctant passengers, who flew away screaming insults, trying to find their friends or squad-mates. The gryphons seemed to be coping relatively well; already they were sorting themselves into distinct groupings, directed by shouted orders from individuals who strutted about with flared wings or flew with raised head feathers. The ponies, though... Panic was obvious; small groups, oftentimes only a dam and foal as few of the ponies knew each other, were dashing away, flying where the foal was old enough, or carried screaming in fields of telekinesis. Many of the foals had been separated from their dams; too young for magic or flight -- or even sapient thought, in some cases -- and were left scrabbling over the ice-covered boulders that choked the floor of the glacial valley. There was some attempt at order, but it was from individuals and without coordination, and they were swept aside or simply ignored. Some teams of gryphons, obviously dispatched to try and assist, were flying about, but kept their distance after being struck by the first flash of magic from a panicking pony. "Maker!" he groaned, feeling the fatigue from a constant string of teleports coupling with the fuzzy feeling that came with the sheer mental effort to actually visualise the complex sequence of patterns required to chain the jumps together. "We're falling apart." Backdraft! Where are you, mare? You know how to do this stuff! He inhaled sharply, remembering the look of fixed determination on his old teacher's face when he'd taken his share of the injured from the improvised underground medical bays, and a horrible suspicion grew in his mind. He cast about, hunting for a pony that wasn't panicking and was still on the ground, when his gaze fastened on a stallion the colour of daffodil petals. "Packet Switcher!" he screamed out, folding his wings and diving on the pony, who was trying to help a group of fifty injured survive the sudden shock of exposure to this sub-arctic environment. His magic covered the little group with yellow light, building a little shelter that forced back the cold and blocked the wind. Packet's head came up, ears forward as he found Metal. "What's going on, Metal? Where's Fusion, I don't--" There was an edge of desperation to the stallion's voice, a desire to fly away from the threatening, swirling mass of predator-shapes that covered the sky. "Where's Backdraft?" Metal demanded, his harsh tones making the nearest ponies lift their heads and fold back their ears. Packet stared back, ears drooping and mouth trembling. "She said the others were more important. She's still at the base." Metal snarled a wordless curse, twisting his wings to change from a dive to a sharp climb, building the return teleport pattern in his head. He pulled his wings in, reaching the apex of his arc and, eyes closed, folded his telekinesis around his body like an iron-shod paw, then pushed-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --slamming into air made near-solid by his conserved velocity. Metal's vision greyed out and his power flickered, sending him tumbling through the sky. Gasping, wings flailing and trying to bite the air, he fought the unwanted speed, finally getting control of his wings and braking violently. High overhead there were a pair of brilliant stars, one a solar white and the other a deep, deep violet, flaring so bright that for the moment he thought it was through shadow sight and not normal vision. The landscape below was cast with the colours of noon coupled with eye-aching purple highlights, turning the trees an unsettling shade of black. More light, this time a point of hard blue-white that felt warm even at this distance. Metal squinted against the lurid glare, momentarily transfixed by the way the shadows of rock and tree distorted and suddenly stretched, as if one of the light sources had accelerated violently. There was the laggard crack of a sonic boom and a sudden feeling of magic, brutally strong, washing over him like a tide of burning ants. Fusion and Gravity, they are trying-- He dipped his head, sweeping the underground complex by shadow sight, then-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --stumbling to a halt in a dark passageway, blinking to clear the afterimages from his eyes. It was too slow, so he conjured a floating ball of light, bright enough to light the whole tunnel. "Backdraft! Come on, we have to go!" Stubborn mare! Is... is she hiding from me? A quick flash of shadow sight revealed a glimmer of horn and wing, the only one in the complex, lying on one of the abandoned sleeping pallets. Metal recognized Backdraft's colours; she had her head tilted up as if she was trying to look through the intervening lengths of rock to the battle going on high above. "Go and find some other pony, Metal Matrix," Backdraft said sharply, voice coming out of the dark and echoing off the rock walls. "I know what's coming and I'll only be a burden. You need the able-bodied." "Oh no, there's no rest for you," he said, matching her tone and trotting into the sleeping chamber. She kept her eyes closed, but her ears twisted to follow his approach. "It's chaos at the other end; you've got to help organize us." He reached out to lift her up, the teleport pattern forming in his head, but she deftly neutralised his power, deflecting the forces into random buffets that made the rubbish of the hasty evacuation dance and skitter across the stone floor. "You don't need another cripple. Talk to Cooper Pair or one of the other rescue team ponies." She opened her eyes and stared at him. "I'm not going to let you take me, so you should just go and save more ponies." "Nopony knows them like they know you!” Metal let his magic die, dropping to his belly on the stone floor. "Then I'm not going anywhere, either." There was a surge of magic, then another, strong enough to make them both flinch. Waves of sensation, like static electricity or the feeling of standing next to high-voltage lines, flowed over Metal's fur. He held his breath, willing his face into a calm mask. Can't be long now; I bet Fusion and Grav will have to wait until it's only a few seconds out. He held the teleport spell's pattern steady, only a moment of effort away from the real. "Fine," she said, giving a little whinny of frustration, the glimmer of her magic, held ready to deflect his own, going dark. Metal breathed out with an explosive snort, magic grabbing Backdraft and lifting her clear of the floor. His wings flicked out and down with a sudden downstroke and he pushed-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --appearing in clear air near a flock of mares with foals, telekinesis reaching out to steady Backdraft as she started to tumble. There were dozens of ponies, far too many to take, and he shared a desperate glance with Backdraft. His old teacher's face was the mirror of his own, then went blank, drained of all emotion. Even at this distance, nearly over the horizon from their base, the boom and pulse of brutally strong magic was obvious. The other ponies, all those from Naraka, noticed them a moment later. The closest, a grey mare, thrust out her foal, a squirming, coal-black colt, in a field of pearly magic. "Take him!" she shrieked. "Take my foal first." Metal froze inside, instinctively holding on to the youngster, eyes captured by the fear on the mare's face. But I won't be coming ba-- The thought died, replaced with a feeling of helpless anger. She knows! "His name is Logic," she called out, wings pumping as she accelerated away. There was a flurry of other shouts from the remaining ponies; more foals passed over. "I'll hold them," Backdraft said, her calm expression belied by the choked sound of her voice, "focus on being ready to leave." Metal nodded, keeping the next teleport spell in mind, modifying it to match the number of ponies held by Backdraft. The air temperature dropped as he drained more and more energy from the local area; only holding one thing made the magic simpler, but the effort was just as great. Contact neighs from the collection of foals, high and frantic, cut through the air, battering at his concentration. Backdraft, I can't carry them all-- He kept the thought to himself, ignoring the building pain in his head as she added another foal to her collection. "We'll keep your foals safe," Backdraft shouted. "Metal, move--!" He pushed-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --appearing at the next jump-point. Metal dived, heading for the mountainside below. "I'm going back, you keep a hold of the foals when I drop you off--" Light bloomed on the horizon, far brighter than the rising sun. === Katabatic's wingshoulders ached, a burn that spread from the middle of her back and reached around her barrel and along her ribs. The patch of bare fur on her flank generated a pulse of pain with each beat, the L-shaped surgical scar feeling like it was going to tear apart. Her nostrils were flared, breath coming in deep gasps, but there never seemed to be enough air reaching her lungs. Tucked against her side, Thunder neighed again, a high, fragile sound nearly lost amid the roaring in her ears, and struggled in her telekinetic grasp, his whole body trembling and shaking. "Stay still!" she screamed back, magic flickering for an instant. Ahead were the rest of the herd, a distant scatter of pastel points that were steadily drawing away. There were a few ponies still with her -- mostly the marginal flyers and those in partial moult -- and a number of gryphons in the same situation. I should have stayed with the infirmary, I've not flown like this for a gigasecond. If I was still on the weather teams-- Living at Naraka, with only a few gentle crossings to get to her medical examinations at the Institute, had really taken a toll on her endurance. The closest flyer was a gryphon, a brown-furred creature with dirty-white feathers on his head. The forced-flight was also causing him problems; the strokes of his right wing were short and choppy, like it had been sprained recently, and he gasped with each stroke, beak wide open and sides working like bellows. Unlike any of the others, he wore a partial harness, an arrangement of straps and equipment panniers that ran along the middle of his back and between his forelegs, with a compact tubular thing fitting snugly over one shoulder. She strained her wings, climbing over the next ridge, now high enough that it was bare rock rather than covered with a carpet of trees, and headed straight across the valley towards the next one. There were lights in the sky where the rest of herd was scattered, little pulses of pastel colour, and the flying ponies started to vanish. What about me!? Muscles burning, Katabatic fell into a shallow glide, her speed bleeding away. How far do I have to go? She turned her head, scanning the horizon behind her, seeing nothing but more of the same the valleys and rock she'd been flying over. Am I safe yet? High overhead, back where the refuge was, there were two points of light, one violet and the other white-gold. That must be them, those strange ponies. There was a subtle itching sensation at the base of her horn, the telltale signature of magic. The gryphon had matched her actions, gliding along no more than a dozen wingspans away. "Can you push on?" he shouted between gasps, "we've got to get over the next ridge, at least, or stay behind this one. Too exposed here. Hug the valley floor." Why do I have to do that? Losing height only to gain it will be so hard. The ponies ahead of her had not done this manoeuvre, and were making far better progress. Katabatic opened her mouth but there was no room for speech so just shook her head. He snapped his beak together, scaly talons opening slightly where they were coiled under his belly, and angled downwards to skim the rocks. "What's your name, pony?" he called out. "Katabatic," she gasped out, maintaining her altitude. "I'm Olvir. Katabatic, will you please do this for me?" There was such a note of pleading and fear in his voice that Katabatic nodded jerkily. She flapped her wings once, then twice, trying to return to her previous rhythm, then settled into a slightly steeper glide to build speed and rest. Always harder to start again-- There was a light, like that of the noonday sun, from somewhere high and behind them, casting the dark evergreens on the lower slopes of the valley into sharp relief. With the glare came a pulse of heat, not unpleasant, but shockingly unexpected for its sudden bloom. A moment later there was another flash, adding to the first before it had really faded, and the heat jumped. The angle of the light shifted, like the source was a little lower in the sky, the shadow of the ridge they'd just passed jumping up the opposite side of the valley. At her side, the gryphon gave a shriek, folding his wings and diving for the valley floor, curving his course to head back towards the light. "Get down into the shadows--" There was another soundless pulse, then another, each brighter and hotter than the last, coming faster and faster. Eyes nearly shut against the glare and heat, Katabatic pulled Thunder close and followed the gryphon down, his body little more than a wavering arrowhead against the light. A breathless moment later and she fell into shadow, the relative shelter an immediate relief from the burning heat. In the direction they'd been travelling, the exposed side of the valley was now too bright to look at without becoming dazzled, and the sky overhead was clearing, the very clouds evaporating, in a silent wave that spread across the heavens like the ripple of a stone dropped in a pond. Eyes starting to adjust to the glare, Katabatic tucked Thunder against her belly, holding his head against her chest to protect his eyes, and spiralled down towards the trees to where the gryphon was waiting. He hovered there, just above the canopy, body hunched like he was expecting a blow. "Stay in the air," he gabbled, "I don't know what's going to happen. Even if the strike doesn't hit the grou--" In total silence the light flared, a hundred times brighter and bluer than before and, just for an instant, Katabatic saw the distant specks of flying ponies flash yellow and start to fall, trailing plumes of smoke. The valley wall opposite did the same, immediately bursting into mad orange flames across the whole exposed area. Heat, reflected from the rocks and burning trees a kilolength away, beat at her body, stinging her muzzle tip. Thunder squealed and wriggled, fighting to be free of her magic so he could run and run and run away from this terrible place, but she held him tight, wings folding around them both. Katabatic started to fall and her magic pulsed again, an instinctively cast force-field bubble materialising with the sound of shattering glass. Branches bent and cracked as she dropped through the stumpy forest, slowing her with jerky impacts that were transmitted as draining pulses of fatigue, until they came to a rest amid the relative darkness of the tree roots. She held the field up, curled around Thunder and heart beating so fast that it sounded like a roaring in her ears, waiting for the next blow or searing burst of heat that would reach in and kill them both. There was a sudden rumbling roar and the ground bucked under her flank, a whip-crack of motion that flicked the glassy sphere of magic into the air and shattered the trees all around. There was more falling, and the steady patter of smouldering branches and leaves, but the hungry sound had gone. The heat was also changing; the appalling open-flame burn replaced with a steadier glow, while the light visible through her closed eyelids was no-longer an electric blue-white and had faded back through the spectrum to a deep red. Katabatic opened her eyes, then let out a groan and collapsed her force field; the sudden influx of painfully hot air made the sweat steam from her flanks. Is that it? Did we survive? A sudden laugh bubbled up, dying as she looked back at where they had come from. There was a towering column of ash climbing above the ridge, which itself was lower and more jagged than it had been when she'd flown over it. Collapsed... we could have been buried. The thought flashed through her numb mind, but didn't have any real weight to it. The tower was huge but distant, so large that it didn't seem possible it could be real. The turbulent, dirty-brown mass was still climbing, capped with an incandescent toroid the colour of blood. Veins and streamers of roiling vapour circulated and expanded in the torus, colours fading through the black-body spectrum. Heat radiated from the cloud, like the sky itself was on fire, the mass of burning, vaporised rock steadily spreading outwards. Mesmerised, Katabatic jumped upwards to get a better view of where she'd been no more than a kilosecond ago, pulling Thunder up along with her. The foal was quiet and still now, allowing himself to be tucked against her belly without a struggle. A few fast downstrokes took her above the level of shattered trees and tumbled rocks, where she could see the base of the mushroom cloud. Something, a wall of mist or haze, was expanding outwards from the confused wreckage at the impact point. Already halfway to her location, it stretched as far as she could see, and there were... Katabatic wrinkled her muzzle, the half-forgotten magic of her weather team training making her horn sparkle. What kind of cloud is that? She tasted the atmosphere, pushing her perception out as far as she could. Pressure and temperature, changing sharply in the areas the wall of mist crossed. The thing was closer now, and in its wake were dark shapes, tumbling and churning as if in slow motion. Shockwave! She folded her wings and dropped, head turning this way and that to hunt for somewhere to hide. There was motion amid the wreckage under her hooves, a brown-and-white shape stirring under a pile of broken branches. Without thinking, she shoved the wood aside and dragged out the gryphon, picking him up and holding him close. He struggled, but it was little more than the efforts Thunder was making to get away from the unknown predator she'd thrust so close to him. There's nowhere to go. They won't be coming back for me. A feeling of calm settled over Katabatic and she cleared a space around them, then folded her legs and lay down. Casting another force field, this one only just big enough to hold the three of them, she pressed her muzzle against Thunder, working her teeth into his thin mane. Perhaps it will be enough. Thunder started to calm, leaning into her touch, so Katabatic closed her eyes and tried to lose herself in the simple feeling of contact. Outside, the sky turned blood-red and the world howled in rage. === Fusion poured all her strength into the packet of ionised gas. Compressed and heated to the point where atoms were completely stripped of electrons, it nonetheless had a density close to that of uranium. The thing accelerated away from her, tight-wrapped layers of magnetism and plasma propelled by her magic to the point where it was little more than a streak. Subjective time was slowing as it seemed to do when she exercised her power, but still her target was invisible and felt only through the sharing feedback from Gravity. The feeling of Gravity's power, even at this remove, stirred something at the back of her own mind. The connection she felt to the sun, that distant point of warmth, had developed a kind of depth as time passed. Where before it was just a source of power, now there was a sense of complexity, a feeling that she just had to make the right request for it to... The feeling was elusive and she let it slide away, returning her attention to Gravity and the plasma bolus, now high above the atmosphere and accelerating rapidly. There was a shape to the sensations Gravity was experiencing, steadily increasing in resolution as the projectiles swept closer. Clusters of small points were at the front, leading by hundreds of kilolengths, while behind that came the main shot. It was a narrow, elongated thing, no wider than the stride of a good canter, but longer than a levitation train carriage. She can't get a grip on it... Fusion kept the thought to herself, drinking in the flow of sensations coming in from Gravity while partitioning off any of her own. Waves of faux-fatigue rolled through her body, a shadow of the actual effect the magic was having on Gravity. ...and even if I hit the thing, what will happen next? All that energy has to go somewhere. Will I make things worse? What else do I have? The trajectory of the projectile was shifting southwards, away from the evacuation flights, but by tiny amounts. Grav, you can't do it. We have to go. You go! I'm not leaving until our ponies are safe-- The thought broke off as a giant shudder wracked Gravity's body. Her wings went loose and Fusion transferred some of her attention to holding her up. --I can do it, I must do it. This last was barely detectable, lost amid the boom and rush of power roaring through Gravity. Like I'm going to leave you! Fusion risked a glance below them; by shadow sight the base was empty of winglights, except a pair high up on a ridge overlooking the valley. A whisper of familiar magic pulsed, then they were gone. Too many people still within range. She measured the distances, constructing the teleportation pattern in a protected part of her mind. If only I could cast it on the projectile! Light suddenly bloomed overhead, at perhaps twice their altitude, a fierce blue-white that carried a stinging slap of heat with it. Fusion hardened her defences, surrounding them both in a bubble of darkness that dimmed the actinic pinpoint to merely 'too bright', rather than lethal. What happens if it strikes as a rain of fragments and not at a single point? An instant vision filled her mind: not one monstrous explosion, but a blanket of fire that covered everything from horizon to horizon, a shell of random, megaton-range detonations. Far enough out to hit our evacuation site? Her magic twitched and a moment later the pulse of plasma flashed through the space that should have been occupied by the dogs' projectile, but without striking it. Fusion gritted her teeth and let it go, the power she'd been pumping into it returning like a physical blow and filling her body with fizzing energy. She diverted the magic outwards, shoring up their defences still further. Gravity cried out, a half gasp-half scream, then another light pulsed, far closer, the lazy arc of the shockwave reaching for them even as the heat washed over and around them both. Gravity's magic faltered, a sudden dip in the brutal flood of power, and Fusion pushed-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --appearing above a mixed flock of ponies and gryphons, magic spearing out like the jaws of a dragonfly and pulling as many close as she could reach. Light, too much for her defences, flooded in and overpressurised the complex layered fields designed to bend it safely away, threatening to burst them inward and cook them all. She released the outer shells with a thunderous crack, but this allowed the light in, dazzle-bright even through closed eyelids, along with heat like a physical impact. Gravity started to struggle, her torn-loose magic whiplashing and trying to reconnect with the now distant spell locus-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --the slam of icy air that would have knocked them unconscious and snapped bones if it wasn't for the iron grasp of telekinesis wrapped around every body that she held. The wind died from a brutal hurricane to the more familiar rush of mere falling, and Fusion opened her wings, her grasp becoming more tenuous and vanishing as each person started to fly under their own power. "I could have stopped it!" Gravity screamed, eyes wide and ears flat back. Her horn glowed a deep violet, random waves of telekinesis making the nearest people tumble in the air. Fusion looked past Gravity, at the distant horizon. It looked like the sun was coming up, but far too fast, large and bright. A lurid yellow ball was visibly rising, flattening and spreading as it did so, the colour bleeding down through the spectrum toward a sullen red. "I was in your head, Grav... you couldn't," she said softly, then reached out and spun Gravity around. Her wings flailed and her horn flashed brightly; Fusion let her go as if stung, backstroking her wings to give Gravity a little room. "Don't you dare--" The shout trailed off into a moan as her eyes locked onto the silently climbing mushroom cloud. Tears started to flow down her muzzle and she shook them away. "I'll kill them, I'll kill them all. For every pony dead I'll burn an arcology, I'll--" Power gathered around her, darkness flooding out like a tide. Ponies and gryphons scattered, the airspace around them emptying. Breathing heavily, Fusion pushed out her own strength, folding it around Gravity and pulling her close. This time she didn't resist, and let her magic falter and die. "They want a war, sister," Fusion said mournfully, "so now they’re going to get one." === ~~~discontinuity~~~ --no! You can't! The world of wide, rocky vistas had vanished in a pulse of purple magic, replaced in a blink by a tumbling, confused mess of sky and ground. Random tried to pull her thoughts together, tried to resist the horribly powerful grip of the youngster holding her still, but the sudden jolting deceleration knocked the wind out of her. Celestia was just on the horizon and-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --another scene, a wide flat expanse of water visible through clouds lit amber from the sunrise against a dark sky, then a glare of light from the wrong direction turning everything a hard blue-white and making dazzle-phosphenes dance across her eyes-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --an icy valley, filled with the fluttering of ponies and gryphons, lit by bright white light from somewhere close to the horizon. The shock of deceleration passed and they were falling; Random opened her wings then cursed. I can't die like this, killed by some idiot foal who doesn't understand what he's done. She slowed a little, but without feathers her flight magic refused to bite the air with anything like the necessary force. At her side, the youngster, front legs tucked in and hinds flopping uselessly, spread his clipped wings, although they did little more than turn the plummet into a steep glide. His magic reached for her again and she tried to bat it away, but he still had some of that unnatural strength. She matched his speed then was drawn closer, his horn glowing ever brighter. "You've ruined everything, just let me die--!" There was a sound like breaking glass then she struck a glassy smooth surface, legs splaying as she tumbled down the purple-glowing wall, coming to rest at the nadir of a large force-field sphere. The youngster hung at the centre of the field, an expression of pain and concentration on his face, eyes fixed on the ground below them. Random glanced downwards; they were still falling, but more slowly, as the globe caught the air. Still too fast, she thought, looking longingly at the approaching ice-covered valley wall. The shape of the field fluttered, warping as he tried to change its profile into something less aerodynamic, and the varying forces pushed her this way and that on the bottom of the field. Finally he ran out of height and they struck, skittering and bouncing down the scree slope, coming to rest wedged between two boulders. Dazed and gasping, Random struggled to her hooves as the field died. Still several bodylengths in the air, the youngster dropped to the broken, snowy ground, wings whirring frantically. He skidded to a halt a short distance away, wild-eyed and breathing heavily, horn just starting to glow and coat his hindquarters with purple fire. Random let out a sharp whinny and stalked forwards, her own horn flashing gold as magic closed around the youngster's throat. He clumsily deflected the surge of magic attempting to throttle him, then tried to grab her with his own power. Random cried out, her ears flat back, lashing out with her forehooves; he squealed in turn as one connected with his midsection. "Stop, please!" he gasped, concentration wavering and the telekinetic field holding his legs vanishing. He slid sideways, a hind leg getting caught between two sharp-edged rocks. This spun him about, slamming his muzzle into another rock buried under a thin layer of snow. The rest of his power vanished and Random staggered free. "You took me away! How could you do that? I was about to meet my Master and help to save you all!" Random spat the words at him, her ugly, naked wings flicking with short, sharp motions. He looked back at her uncomprehendingly, eyes unfocused, and she reared, hooves flicking out to strike him in the ribs. He squealed again, legs and wings churning in an effort to get up and escape, but only succeeded in throwing up a spray of stinging rock fragments. Random hauled him upright, then paused. The angle of the light and its colour had changed, slowly fading, dropping through the spectrum from solar yellow through to firelight orange and red. What-- Involuntarily, she looked towards the light, seeing for the first time that it was coming from the cap of a climbing, expanding mushroom-shape on the distant horizon. "W--" She stuttered to a halt, jaw hanging open. "What is that?" she whispered. "You called the Masters and they came," the youngster said, craning his own neck to watch the fireball. He coughed and winced, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "Did you not listen to anything anypony told you?" he said plaintively. "You called them down on us." "No." Random shook her head, a feeling of sickness spreading through her belly. "I won't believe it. My Master promised that they would try and save you all." There was a heat coming off the fireball, easily felt despite the obvious distance. The thing must be vast... and how far did we jump for it to be night again? Her knees wobbled, the big muscles in her hindquarters flexing and tensing. "Oh Maker, what have I done?" Her head whipped around and she stared at the flocks of ponies and gryphons. There were faint cries and screams rising up from the valley floor; alien crow-like things from the gryphons and achingly familiar contact neighs from the ponies. Lost and separated families, she thought, breath catching in her throat. A final group teleported in; trailing smoke they tumbled through the air before being caught by those below. There were far fewer ponies in the valley than had been at the base, and no more were jumping in to join them. Loose stone sprayed from beneath Random's hooves as she leapt into a dangerous, headlong flight, galloping down the slope and away, trying to escape from the screams of pain and betrayal. === ~~~discontinuity~~~ --a choking fall of hot ash and pulverised rock swept across the cleared bubble of the wormhole terminus, making Metal Matrix gasp and his eyes water. Snorting heavily to expel the dust, he conjured a local telekinetic field to push the particles back, something he'd frequently used when engaged in industrial training, but it did nothing to hold back the smell. There were magics he could have used to clean the air fully, isolating oxygen and nitrogen from the contaminants, but he didn't use them. Instead, he inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring, fixing the near-overpowering stench of burning wood and vapourised stone in his mind. This, this is what the dogs will bring to us all, he thought, wings stirring the heated air, then blinked and switched to shadow sight to inspect the blasted landscape below. Nothing... did nopony manage to shelter from the flash? I'm sure this is still on the evacuation route. He scowled into the unrelieved blackness, then returned to normal vision. They wanted us dead this badly... well, two can play at that game. Vague plans for revenge forming at the back of his mind, Metal swept over the mountain peak and into the space beyond. The forested valleys had been scoured clean of anything resembling living trees, with the occasional pitiful remnant sheltered in deep cracks and crevasses. There was no snow on the higher peaks and exposed valley ridges, nothing but naked rock covered by a thickening layer of the soot that was raining down from the inky clouds above. There were familiar shapes here and there amid the rocks, and he resolutely checked each one, even though there was no glimmer of light via shadow sight. Most were little more than cooked remains, blackened and twisted skeletons that could only really be identified by the presence of a crystalline horn or the curve of a beak, but occasionally some body part had been protected and a trace of fur or feather survived. All caught in the air, he thought. They had no chance, no chance at all. I'm not sure there's any point, but... just one more jump, he thought, eyeing the darkness ahead. Filtration spells at the ready this time-- ~~~discontinuity~~~ --the air was clean but stiflingly hot and humid. It was darker than the previous location, perhaps only as bright as a clear night under a quarter-moon. Metal Matrix let his eyes adjust to the light, scanning the ground. There was no soot-fall; here, directly under the cap of the mushroom, the clouds were still rising in updrafts that made themselves felt even at this relatively low altitude. The familiar arrangement of ridges and peaks had changed; great rents had been blown through the lines of glacially-carved valley walls and some of the mountains had collapsed. Fresh rock was exposed everywhere, sharp fault-planes created when the impact shock shattered the land. There's no way, but... Soaring on outstretched wings, Metal closed his eyes and swept the ground with shadow sight. He blinked, dispelling the vague shadow-shapes of the land, then restarted the magic. It can't be! Wings folded, he fell in a tight spiral, sweeping in to land on an unstable scree slope. Right there, lying on a little circle of green branches amid the rock, was a skewbald mare. She was flat on her side, either unconscious or dead. Trying to tuck under one limp wing was a foal; on seeing Metal he let out a high-pitched squeal of a whinny, trembling and uncertain. "Ah, you poor little thing," Metal said in a calm voice, although it came out sounding thick and heavy to his own ears. "Stay there and I'll just take a look at your dam." The foal backed away as he approached, but didn't try to run. "You must still be alive," he muttered, "otherwise I wouldn't be able to see your hornlight." More magic deepened the examination, showing that she was still breathing and had a heartbeat. He sighed, tucking one wing over the youngster, horn glowing as he took a subtle grip around the foal's midsection. "Right, let's see if..." He pulled out a bottle of stimulant from his panniers, the kind that came with a set of impressive warning stickers, and gently sprayed a tiny amount on the inside of the mare's lips. There was a pause, no more than a few seconds, then her eyes flew open and she inhaled sharply, legs thrashing as she fought to rise. "Hey! Steady -- you are safe." "I--what?" Her wild gaze found the foal and Metal released him so she could sweep him up in her wings. "Oh, than the Maker! I thought we were dead," she mumbled, muzzle buried in the foal's fuzzy coat. "You should have been," Metal said quietly. "I think you are the closest ones to the detonation. Everyone else is..." He shook his head, anger making his teeth clench and his ears go back. "There was a gryphon, said his name was Olvir, I think. He saved my life. Where...?" Metal shook his head, then glanced up at a sudden pulse of magic from overhead. Two shapes, one pony and one gryphon, had appeared in the sky. "He must have gone to get help and run into one of the other searchers," he said, smiling. "Come on; let's get you back to the herd." Glad I'm not sorting out that chaos. === Redshift yawned, stretching his wings, then pulled over the tank and took a long drink of slightly murky water. Filters, must have another look at building some filters. He frowned, then glanced at the stream of ponies and gryphons leaving the valley. When we get settled again, if we ever do... perhaps it would be better to live life on the wind, ever moving, never resting. He shook all over, then snorted. So they can kill us one at a time? I think not. The warm weight of Shock Diamond moved slightly against his flank, face intent and eyes closed as he followed the manipulations of the other ponies in his team. Somewhere out amid the ice and rocks, helping to fit armour to the Naraka gryphons, was his mate, Doppler. I have you both back and I'm never going to let you go. Nothing on this world will get between us again. He gently nuzzled the back of the foal's neck. No more Masters. His gaze returned to the mountain of equipment, some still neatly boxed, most in a big, tangled heap. His two 'apprentices', both ponies from Naraka with a history of matter micromanipulation, were still focused on their task -- remove a chunk of equipment from the pile, check it was undamaged, bypass any security systems -- and he suspected they were better at it than he was. What was it Spiral said? The best and the brightest went into that place as breeding stock? Certainly they seemed to be tireless, working with the smooth precision of machines. I think they might be much better than me... still, they are out of practice and behind the times, and we are all doing the Maker's work. They look happy, though. Must be nice to have some real work to do, after being locked up in that place for so long. He also had a gryphon liaison, a reddish-brown individual that went by the odd name of Adigard Alfgeir, who was currently rooting through the pile of stolen equipment looking for, in his words, 'anything interesting'. His presence was a slight distraction to the working ponies -- they kept a constant ear pointed in his direction -- but as the things he came back with always were interesting, Redshift left him alone. There was a line of gryphon shoulder-guns, each with a pannier harness of ammunition, stacked alongside their workspace. Over a hundred sets, not bad for ten kiloseconds' work. Behind the workers were another pair of ponies, expressions intent and eyes closed as they followed the actions of the others. Apprentices for my apprentices. Another few kiloseconds and they will be ready to start on their own, and I'll need to see if anypony else can help, assuming Fusion can spare anypony. He put the engine unit aside and pulled out something else, a near-featureless mass of rubble, with only a hint of metal casing visible. Now why would Adigard give me this...? Something not designed to be removed, by the looks of it. Gravity must have brought it along by accident when she stripped the armoury. Let's see... It had no batteries, but was packed with computronium and little else. He traced the power feed, making a few small repairs where the cables had been fractured by their sudden removal. It came alive, emitting little pings of radio from an unnoticed transmitter. Mouth dropping open and heart thundering, he hurriedly killed the power and checked the device again. Ah Maker, don't tell me I've just... no, it's too small and the frequency is wrong. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Too rutting close. Thinking for a moment, Redshift pulled out one of the armour sets and held the visor up to one eye, then activated the machine again. The visor lit up, not with the normal targeting and sensor information, but with screens of densely-packed information. Ah, now that's interesting... I wonder what it all says. One of these gryphons is going to have to teach me how to read this stuff. He manipulated the computronium directly, sampling the stored data and sending snippets of it to the visor. The occasional word jumped out of the stream of words -- 'danger', 'stop', 'explosive' -- all recognised from warning signs around his old place of work, but the vast majority was in the dogs' unreadable script. Impatient, he flicked to another section, this full of technical diagrams of various bits of military hardware, then another, this time showing detailed maps with a large number of annotations. Some places he recognised from the terrain -- the area around corral twenty-seven, for example -- but emphasis was given to unfamiliar installations, all marked with one or two symbols. This was only a tiny fraction of what was in there, but much was locked away and scrambled. Encrypted... to stop the gryphons having access to things they shouldn't. Expanding the scale showed that the world was covered with these symbols, and not just in Lacunae territory. So what kind of bases would be marked on a map taken from a gryphon's armoury? Redshift started to smile. Oh, now that's really interesting... and I wonder how much more is in there, locked away. He blinked, pulling the visor away; the strain of trying to use the device, intended for a gryphon's far more binocular -- and acute -- vision, was starting to make his head hurt. "Hey, Adigard. Come over here for a second, will you?" === "We must respond, Fusion," Ellisif said. "If you just fly away from this, then..." And do what? Slaughter each other until there are none left? Fusion turned away, walking in a tight circle that enclosed Ellisif and Gravity. The pair stared back at her, Ellisif serious and earnest, Gravity with her ears pinned back and jaw muscles bunched and flexing. "Yes," she said in strangled tones. "If they will not let us go then we will have to break free." But what does that mean? Must I pump fire into the arcologies, enough heat to flash a billion dogs to steam? Or do I do nothing at all and let my sister turn them into twisted wreckage? She lifted her head, ears twitching at the cries and moans from the improvised medical centres -- little more than segregated patches on the valley floor -- floating up to their position amid the rocks. "Break free? Break free?!" Gravity snarled. "I'll do more than break free..." The words descended into a hiss and her eyes narrowed, watching the same scene. "What I did back at the Institute... I could do that again. I'm stronger now. Nothing physical can stop my magic, unlike yours. I can make the gravitational gradients so steep that they will pull a body limb from limb--" She closed her eyes, nostrils flaring as she inhaled deeply. "Yes," Ellisif said carefully, her eyes not leaving Fusion's face. "I'm sure you could." Fusion shivered, glancing sideways at the gryphon, the gentle and ever-changing colours of her mane and tail becoming pale and insubstantial. What does she see? A coward? A pony unwilling to do what is necessary? Would she rather just work with Gravity? The gryphons have a taste of freedom, their best chance at a successful rebellion... they won't want to give it up. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Perhaps you would prefer another target, a military target, as a first step," Ellisif said, blinking and turning to Gravity. "A senseless slaughter does not serve us. The threat is the dogs' military and their ability to strike globally. We need to remove some of that power. The Arclight units and the mass driver launch facilities. Then there are the other gryphon units... if I know anything about my people, it's that the rumours of the dogs' defeats will be racing through the armies like wildfire. There are possibilities for defections... but that will take military successes to convince them. They know the consequences of failure all too well." "And our people, Gravity," Fusion ignored Ellisif and lowered her head, brushing it against Gravity's neck. "If we commit an atrocity, smash and burn the arcologies in vengeance--" Fusion's mouth hung open and she took a deep, shuddering breath. Sweet Maker, we really could do it; we have enough power between us. "--what might the dogs do to all the ponies in the other breeding centres and corrals across Lacunae?" She felt Gravity sag slightly, leaning into her touch. "They will respond in kind, out of fear or desperation, to get us to stop." Her voice dropped to a whisper, lips finding Gravity's dusky blue ear. "It would be easy, perhaps only a labournet command. I've seen it in my dreams; medics forced to euthanize friends and families, then turning the needle on themselves..." The whisper turned to a mumble and Fusion backed away, holding Gravity's gaze. Say something, sister, please. Gravity was silent for a long while, then turned to stare at Ellisif. "A military target. Do you have a specific one in mind?" "Actually, yes." Ellisif waved a claw to encompass the valley filled with groups of ponies and gryphons. "That Redshift of yours cracked the battlenet node taken from the barracks-roosts at the Pit. It turns out that Captain Rthar had quite a high level of authorisation that had not been rescinded; the database opened for us like it was in heat. He tells me that it must have been still connected to their network when you took it from the barracks-roost, despite all the infrastructure damage.” "I made a point not to target the barracks," Gravity said, "with redundant linkages..." Ellisif inclined her head. "For that I am very grateful... but what it means is that the deployment data is less than twelve kiloseconds old. I have correlated it against what you extracted from Captain Rthar during the first round of questioning, before he knew we had it, and it all matches." Her crest feathers fluffed up as she spoke, her wings making little excited flicking motions. "This information is time-limited; if we don't use it it will become useless or even dangerous." "I agree, and I know time is of the essence, but we can't just leap into battle." She felt the urge to pace again and resisted, lying down in a sheltered space between two of the larger boulders. A gentle nudge and a pleading look had Gravity settle next to her, and she hooked a wing over the other mare's back. "I know you've been trying to organize, Ellisif, so you must have done a count. How many did we lose?" There was silence and the sounds of the herd came back: the flutter of wings as ponies and gryphons flew overhead, the whump and thaumic tickle of teleport jumps from scouts hunting for another hiding place, and still the moan and cry of the wounded waiting aid. Gravity was tense, muscles like iron under her patchy fur, and breathing deep, slow breaths through flared nostrils. Steady, sister, steady. Let us see to our own before we deal with the dogs. Fusion sent the thought into a tentative sharing, tasting the backwash of Gravity's emotions. How can you be so calm?! This is not the time for fire, I think; this is the time for cold calculation. I am saving my anger for when it will be needed. Fusion swallowed, forcing down the bile that was building in the back of her throat. Her ears flicked and she gave Gravity a sad smile, a bare twitch of her lips. I want to make all of us safe, and I don't believe that a simple slaughter will do this... but we have to make the dogs listen, which am coming to believe will require special measures. Ellisif glanced between the two of them, then made a soft cawing sound. "Exact numbers are hard to determine, as we never had a real count to start with." She sighed, looking up at the slot of murky sky visible between the rocks. "You ponies pulled out a lot of us as well as your own, and I am grateful for that. I know some of the teleporters were caught in the thermal flash." "How many, Ellisif?" Fusion said, her voice dead and drained of all emotion. At her side, Gravity twitched, her ears folding back, then laid her head against Fusion's neck. "About half of those pulled out of Naraka. Five to six hundred of each species." "Over a thousand people," Gravity whispered. "I failed them." "You saved far more, not personally, perhaps, but the ponies you trained did," Ellisif said sharply. "Look, heavy losses are always a shock, but you have to understand that there will always be situations out of your control. It was the Hammer, for Maker's sake. The thing was designed to defeat anything the Hives could do to stop it." She fluttered her wings, allowing her crest feathers to relax. "We found the pony who betrayed us, this Random Walk; she marched into one of the temporary encampments and announced it to everyone present. We nearly had a riot. They want justice... the military code of order is very clear on these matters." "No, absolutely not," Fusion said, sitting bolt upright. "Random was tortured for almost half a megasecond; I saw--" Ellisif waved a claw. "Things are different for you ponies, I know, but most gryphons don't understand how you live... you always seem so... so complicit in the dogs' affairs. We passed her to a couple of your medics. She was nearly incoherent; I think she wanted to die." "She finally understands what she has done... it's one of the things a pony picks up from those around them. If you fail too badly, if you are of no use, then euthanasia can be an attractive way out." I nearly did it myself. "She had a means to contact the dogs," Gravity said suddenly. "Do you think she would do it again?" "You heard Ellisif, I hardly think--" Fusion snapped, breaking off when Gravity shook her head. "I know what you are thinking, but no." Gravity smiled, a tooth-filled expression that had more in common with a snarl than anything joyful. "Not on her own, but on our terms." "Would they ever believe her? Security is pretty paranoid... but if they are desperate, they might." Ellisif shook her head. "We could feed them misinformation, but…” She cocked her head to one side then glanced away for a moment. “no, it will take too long. We have to respond quickly, before our information expires. We must strike at some high-value target, really rip their throats out." Fusion made to speak, but stopped when Ellisif raised a claw. "I know, you think you need time and you can't spare the ponies until we have a new place to hide... but you really do need to do this." "Look out there, Ellisif." Fusion moved her horn in a wide arc, encompassing the whole valley. "They've lost half their friends. I have a whole creche of foals without dams... they need time to understand all this." "The dogs won't give us time!" Ellisif leaned forwards, her voice becoming strident. "If you won't do it, then let me -- all I need is transportation and perhaps a little artillery right at the start to break the defences. A hundred seconds of your time, and a few ponies to help with the retrieval, that's all. We'll do all the fighting." "I don't want to ask anything of a person that I'm not willing to do my--" "A laudable notion, but do you really think you can do everything? You, the pair of you, are like strategic weapons. Good for flattening an arcology, but not so good for taking it. If I don't find a use for all my people, they will just fly away. What reason would they have to stay?" She have a little soft caw of a laugh. "After they had finished fighting over my corpse, that is." The whole herd -- flock? pride? -- would dissolve into factions as one leader or another fought for supremacy. Fusion nodded slowly. If that happens they are lost; the dogs will annihilate them all. I have to let go; I cannot protect everyone. "Very well. Between us, we can probably move two hundred people in a single jump, and in another few kiloseconds Redshift will have modified enough armour suits for that number. Is that enough?" Say no, then I will have more time. Ellisif's beak opened and closed with a decisive snap. "Perfect. There are a number of potential targets, but the place I have in mind is an armoured vehicle base, Bakot. I even have a couple of troopers who have been there, so Gravity can do her mind reading trick. It's a staging and intelligence base for Lacunae should we... they need to go into Baur. A section of the Hive's Arclight perimeter is deployed out of the place... wouldn't you like to catch some of them on the ground?"