The Koprulu Sector

by TheKopruluSectorUnion

Chapter 68: Old Dog...

“And that’s the end of my report on the terrorist shuttle, sir.” Eye Glass said to the officer sitting down at the desk before him. The officer didn’t speak as he looked down at his monitor and hummed. “Is something wrong, sir?”

“Oh nothing’s wrong, Private Palomo. In fact, you’ve done an excellent job, but…” The officer said as he turned his monitor around, letting Eye Glass see a file with a photo of his face on it, though the name next to it read ‘Charles Palomo’ instead of his real name. “…according to this, you’re actually part of the Inspection Crew’s security detail, not a member of Recovery Squad Seven.”

“Umm…I can explain.” Eye Glass hastily said.

“Well it better be good private, because I really want to know what were you doing planetside, posing as a member of the recovery squads during lockdown. So begin.” The officer demanded as he leaned back into his seat, waiting for ‘Palomo’s’ explanation.

“An old friend of mine was attending the execution with his daughter and I became worried about them when I couldn’t contact them. I thought I could find them if I went down to the surface, but with the lockdown I had to pass myself off as a new transfer to the recovery squads.” Eye Glass explained.

“We really need to review our security protocols…” The officer grumbled as he rubbed his forehead. “Did you at least find your friend?”

“Yes, I did… I found his body near the outskirts.” Eye Glass said.

“Sorry to hear about your loss…what about his daughter?” The officer asked curiously.

“I found her right next to him, cold but alive.” Eye Glass replied. “Poor girl had carried her father all the way from the execution grounds, 'cause she wanted to take him back home for a proper burial. It’s a miracle she even made it that far. I brought her to one of the aid stations where she’s being treated for frostbite and exhaustion. Hopefully, she’ll have recovered enough to go home with my friend’s body once the lockdown is over.”

“A lot of innocent lives were lost that day so I’m glad to hear that one more pony is going back home alive.” The officer commented. “But let’s get back to your story, private.”

“Yes sir, but there isn’t much left to tell. After dropping my friend’s daughter off at the aid station, I thought I could head back to the Iron Will and get a lift back to the orbital platform undetected. At least that was the plan until…”

“Until you found the terrorist shuttle on your way back?” The officer finished for him to which Eye Glass nodded in confirmation. He sighed deeply as he leaned forward. “Normally, I’d court martial you for dereliction of duty and fraud, but in light of the evidence and circumstance…I’ll make an exception.”

“Thank you, sir.” Eye Glass said. “And if it’s not too much trouble, I’d like your permission to go back to Cadia so I can check up on my friend’s daughter.”

“You’re really pushing your luck here, private.” The officer warned before shaking his head. “But fine, you can go. However, I expect you to help out with the relief effort while you’re down there. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Eye Glass saluted the officer before he headed out the door.

---

After the door slid shut behind him, Eye Glass leaned against the wall and pressed a hand against his armor’s chest as he sighed out in relief. “That was a close one. Never thought they’d look into a private like that. Looks like I owe Hawkens an apology when I see him next time.”

Before he departed on the ship bound for Cadia, Hawkens had also given him a fake identity to help him blend in with the personnel better, complete with a set of fake documents detailing ‘Charles Palomo’s career in the marine corp. He had mocked Hawkens for being so paranoid but now, he was more than happy to admit he was wrong.

“Well, that’s enough rest for an old dog like me. Time to get to work” He said as he started walking down the corridor until he reached the elevator at the end and looked around to make sure there was no one else nearby before he entered it. Inside, he hovered his finger over the list of floors until he found the one that read ‘Administration and Data Center’ and pressed the button next to it, sending the elevator down.

The elevator soon came to a stop and he stepped out into a long hallway filled with ponies in uniforms moving about as well as a few guards in power armor who were patrolling the floor. He froze when the guards looked at him but was relieved when they simply nodded to him in greeting before moving on with their patrol.

With the anonymity granted by his armor, Eye Glass was able to move around the floor freely, without rousing any suspicion. After navigating his way through the Administration section of the floor he reached a door with a sign overhead that read ‘Data Center’, which slid aside when he pressed the button next to it. Going through the door, he saw a large room with several rows of computer hardware that served as the station’s mainframe, as well as a direct link to the battlenet.

He walked around the room, until he found an active computer terminal and approached it. He tried to access the terminal, but found that it was password protected. He tried to guess the password, but the terminal buzzed at his wrong guess. He was about to make another guess when he heard someone clearing his throat behind him.

“What are you doing here?” Someone asked. Eye Glass turned around and saw a technician standing behind him with an annoyed look on his face.

“I got a data drive here with some sensitive data the commander wants integrated into the mainframe, but no one was around when I got here so I thought I’d do it myself, but the terminal was locked. But since you’re here…” Eye Glass explained as he opened up a compartment on his armor’s leg and took out the aforementioned data drive.

The technician groaned as he stared at the device in Eye Glass’ hand. “Look, my shift is almost done, so can you wait until the other guy takes over? He should be here in about an hour.”

“The commander says that this data needs to be integrated into the mainframe A.S.A.P. So either you get to work or you can unlock that terminal so I can do it myself.” Eye Glass said to the technician who gave him a skeptical look in return.

“Er…do you even know how to operate a terminal?” The technician asked, only to receive a glare from Eye Glass. “Okay, okay! I’ll unlock the terminal for you.” The technician went and typed in his password as the terminal pinged in response. “There, all you have to do is upload the data and you’re done.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Yeah whatever. Just don’t break anything while you’re here.” The technician said dismissively as he started walking away, but stopped and turned to Eye Glass and added. “But just in case you do break something, I was never here.” After which he continued on his way.

Eye Glass sighed and shook his head at the technician in disappointment and muttered, “The ponies we hire these days…it’s a wonder how the Dominion hasn’t fallen apart yet. Still, this made it easier for what I need to do next.” He then plugged the data drive into the terminal and started the installation process.

The data drive was among the things that Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had moved to Tom’s cargo hold in anticipation of their escape. The data drive itself contained a program that Apple Bloom had created and from what he could recall of her explanation, the program was designed to give her new laptop access to the platform’s battlenet.

The terminal soon gave off another ping, indicating that the program had been successfully uploaded into the platform’s mainframe, where it would wait for the command from Apple Bloom’s laptop to activate. He unplugged the data drive and was about to turn the terminal off when he realized that he currently had unrestricted access to the Dominion’s database, which he could use to his advantage as he started typing away at the terminal.

A list of all the detention and prison facilities on Cadia appeared on the monitor, which was followed by a sub-list of all inmates that had been incarcerated recently after the attack. The majority of the prisoners on the list consisted of looters and rioters, but they weren’t what the old stallion was looking for so he ignored them.

He scrolled down the list until he found one facility that had one interesting thing about it - it was the only facility on the list that was completely under the Dominion’s control, and it had recently received five new inmates. He selected their profiles and was shown mug shots of Rain and the rest of the girls on the monitor, confirming their location.

“Bingo.” Eye Glass said as he downloaded the detention facility’s location into his suit’s computer.

However, looking at the multiple security measures that the Dominion put in place at the detention facility, Eye Glass wasn’t sure if he could break the girls out the way he had intended. His plan originally involved him infiltrating the facility as ‘Private Palomo’ and freeing the girls by tricking the guards with a fake order about a prison transfer and making a run for it on Tom.

Though after the amount of security he went through earlier, he wasn’t as confident of that plan right now. He needed to come up with an alternate plan to break the girls out but the detention facility’s security measures severely limited his options until a new idea formed in his mind.

“Hmm, a little risky but it just might work…” He mumbled to himself before he shut the terminal off and left the Data Center. Retracing his steps, he headed back to the Administrative Department where the elevator was. He was about to press the button to call for it when the door slid open. To the stallion’s dismay it was Twilight Sparkle standing inside, the sight of which stunned him.

Twilight quirked her brows at him before clearing her throat in an annoyed tone, prompting him to stand aside and salute her. “My apologies, Admiral Sparkle.”

Twilight’s lips curved into a sly smile when she heard Eye Glass address her by her title and simply nodded to him before she walked past him out the elevator and headed down the hall as nearby members of the staff stopped to salute her when they recognized her.

When Twilight was out of sight, Eye Glass quickly entered the elevator and pressed the button for the Hangar Bay, before sighing deeply in relief. He raised his helmet’s visor, took off his sunglasses with one hand, and rubbed his forehead with the other. He hadn’t expected to run into Twilight but was thankful that he had his visor down or she might have recognized him.

Eye Glass put his sunglasses back on just as the elevator stopped and stepped out into to the station’s Hangar Bay. He could see dozens of ships on the hangar floor, both military and civilian ships being worked on by the maintenance crews while a few were getting loaded with relief supplies bound for Cadia.

“Just hold out a little longer ladies...” Eye Glass muttered to himself as he lowered his visor and headed for the nearest ship. “…I’m on my way.”

---

Shining Armor groaned inwardly as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. When he married into the Imperial family, he was educated in the ways of diplomacy and politics in preparation for him to take the Imperial throne one day. He thought he would be able to cope with the burden of leading Cadia and deal with any problem that arose during his reign as its leader.

However, none of what he had learned could have prepared him for the situation he was currently faced with, as he watched his father and sister arguing with each other at what was supposed to have been a meeting to discuss some of Cadia’s problems.

“Just because we let you be on Cadia doesn’t mean you have the right to order my men around like they’re one of your DI lackeys!” Shining Night shouted as he pointed his hoof accusingly at Twilight, who sat across from him at the table.

“Well I wouldn’t need to do that if you would just be reasonable and allow me to bring my own subordinates down to assist me.” Twilight said calmly in return.

“I’m already being plenty reasonable by letting you be here so don’t push your luck with me. Besides, your presence alone is causing enough trouble on Cadia as it is, so there’s no way I’m letting anyone else from DI set a hoof on Cadia. ”Shining Night sternly returned.

“Trouble? What do mean by that?” Twilight asked curiously.

Shining Night snorted in contempt before he brought out a folder and tossed it over to Twilight. “Go ahead and see for yourself.”

Twilight did as her father said and opened up the folder, but furrowed her brows when she read its contents. “This thing is filled with nothing but reports of riots on Cadia. Are you saying that they’re my fault?”

“Considering most of those rioters were screaming for you to get off our world, I’d say yes so why don’t you do me and the rest of Cadia a favor and hurry up with whatever you need to do and leave!” Shining Night demanded.

Twilight splayed her ears backwards at her father’s hostility but regained her composure. “I would be done sooner if I had all the resources I require for my investigations.” Twilight shot back.

“Alright, that is enough!” Shining Armor declared as he slammed his hooves down on the table. “We are here to discuss how we can solve Cadia’s problems, not bicker like foals! While I agree that these riots are an issue, we should move on to something else and come back to it later with cooler heads, agreed?”

“Agreed. Let’s start by asking Admiral Sparkle on her progress with the terrorists she captured three days ago, shall we?” Shining Night said as he smirked at the surprised look on Twilight’s face. “What, did you really think I wouldn’t find out about that? It’s kind of hard to ignore a squad of Dominion Special Forces marines breaking into a hotel.”

“Is this true?” Shining Armor asked Twilight, clearly surprised and a little betrayed that his sister had kept this from him.

“Seeing as you already know that much, I suppose there’s no harm in telling you.” Twilight said. “The terrorists are currently being interrogated but they appear to be quite resilient to our methods, but given time, I’m confident that we’ll get what we want out of them.”

“Perhaps you should hand them over to us, Admiral.” Shining Night suggested. “I’m certain that our own interrogation techniques will make them loosen their lips a bit faster.”

“Thank you for the offer, Commander Storm Breeze, but I doubt the terrorists would survive what you have in mind for them, so I’ll have to decline.” Twilight replied. “But rest assured that once I’ve gotten everything I need from them I’ll personally hand them over to you.”

“Very well, I’ll hold you to that promise.” Shining Night said before a knock was heard from the door and a militia soldier entered the room. The soldier approached Shining Night and whispered into his ear. “It appears that I have to go, there’s an urgent matter that I need to attend to.” He said as he got up from his seat.

“Alright dad, just be careful out there.” Shining Armor said to his father.

“Hmph! I should say the same to you with the company you keep.” Shining Night said as he glanced over to Twilight before he left the room with the soldier.

“Dad is the same ray of sunshine as usual.” Twilight noted sarcastically, before she noticed that Shining Armor was glaring at her. “What?”

“When were you going to tell me about these ‘terrorists’ you captured? Or were you just planning on keeping me in the dark like you did with Cadenza’s assassination?” The stallion asked.

“Oh come on Shiny, don’t be mad. I was planning to tell you after the meeting, but then dad had to spoil it. Though he did find out about that sooner than I had expected.” Twilight said.

“Fine, but next time I’d like to know about this kind of stuff a bit sooner, alright?” Shining Armor asked.

“Okay big brother, I promise I’ll keep you in the loop from now on. And I’m sorry about derailing the meeting with that argument with dad earlier.” Twilight said apologetically.

“It’s fine. We weren’t getting anywhere with these meetings anyways. Though dad was right about the riots. A lot of Cadians aren’t happy with DI being here and have shown that they’re more than willing to resort to violence, so I hope you know what you’re doing or else we’re going to have an uprising on our hooves.” Shining Armor said worriedly.

“I anticipated something like this might happen and I’ve got a plan in place to solve it.” Twilight said reassuringly. “Once everything is ready, I’ll make an announcement that we’ve caught some of the terrorists and hand them over to the Cadian militia to face justice. The Cadians get something to vent their anger on and DI gets an image boost from the display, a win-win situation.”

“I’m not sure about that, Twilight. What if the militia interrogates them and finds out your involvement with them?” Shining Armor asked doubtfully.

“Oh I doubt they’ll believe anything they say, especially since one of them look just like one of the clones that attacked Cadia. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get executed on the spot.” Twilight said.

“I hope you’re right about this, ‘cause the last thing I need is for Cadia to fall apart under my watch.”

“Relax big brother, everything is under control.” Twilight said before her communicator sounded off. She took it out and saw it was Spike calling her. “Yes Spike, what is it?”

“An urgent message from Glacier Heights’ warden! He says that an angry mob is gathering outside the prison and they’re demanding that they hand the terrorists over to them.” Spike replied.

“What!? How did they find out about that? You know what, never mind that! Get the warden on the line and tell him to keep that mob away from the facility at all costs!” Twilight ordered.

“Twilight, I don’t want any more Cadians dead, especially at the hooves of their own people.” Shining Armor said after he heard Twilight’s conversation with Spike.

“Change that last part; tell them to use only non-lethal methods to pacify the mob.” Twilight added.

“Umm, about that…The warden just called back and said that they might not have enough guards to keep the mob in check.” Spike said. “Do you want to deploy some troops from the orbital platform to back them up?”

“No, that would take too long…Spike, I need you to take the Mark II down to the detention facility.”

“The Mark II? But the technicians haven’t even installed the remote control unit yet.” Spike returned.

“I don’t care! Transfer your program directly into the Mark II if you have to. I need it down there ASAP!” Twilight shouted into her communicator.

“Ooh! Does this mean I get to test out some of the new weapon systems?” Spike asked eagerly.

“Fine, but only use the non-lethal ones and only if it’s absolutely necessary. The Cadians hate DI enough as it is, no reason to add more fuel to the fire.” Twilight said before turning her communicator off. “Hopefully the warden’s men can keep the mob at bay long enough for Spike to bring the Mark II down to the surface.”

“Good to know. Though I better go down there and calm everyone down just to be safe.” Shining Armor said as he got up to leave, only to have Twilight stop him, by wrapping her magic around her brother and lifting him up into the air. “What the hell Twilight? Let me down!”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m not letting you go anywhere near that angry mob. Angry mobs rarely ever listen to reason, so no amount of talking you do is going to get them to calm down. So you’re going to stay here at the palace where it’s safe and let me handle this, got it?”

“Twilight, you know better than anyone that I can handle myself if the situation turns sour so why don’t you let me down and let me do my duty as Cadia’s Champion, okay?” Shining Armor reasoned.

“No, not okay! Your duty is to lead Cadia in its time of need, not putting your life at risk every time a crisis comes up and…and I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost you.” Twilight’s ears drooped down as she gave Shining a sad look.

Shining Armor’s resolve started crumbling when he saw the wilted expression on his sister’s face and sighed in defeat. “Alright Twily, you win. I’ll stay at the palace and let you handle the mob, but if anything goes wrong, I’m heading down there, with or without your permission.”

Twilight instantly perked up as she lowered Shining Armor back down. “Then I better make sure that nothing goes wrong. Sounds easy enough.” The mare said confidently as she walked over to the door. “See you later, Shiny. I got an angry mob to deal with.”

---

Outside the walls of Glacier Heights Detention Facility, a large mob of well over a hundred ponies had gathered near the gates and due to the strong gale preventing pegasi from flying over the tall walls, it was the only way into the prison. However, when they moved to enter the gates, they found their path blocked by the prison guards positioned in front of the gates.

As Glacier Heights was a small prison, there were only about thirty guards standing between the angry mob and the facility. Due to some recent budget cuts, less than half of the guards were suited in power armor, while the rest wore light riot gear over their uniforms.

They were under Admiral Sparkle’s orders to keep the mob away from the prison, but they had to do it through non-lethal methods only, which limited their equipment to mainly batons and riot shields. A few of the guards were issued rifles that fired taser rounds, which the guards felt were inadequate against the angry mob that severely outnumbered them.

“This area is off limits! You must all disperse and leave immediately!” A guard spoke through a megaphone, however, the mob didn’t take his orders very kindly when one of them threw a rock at him. The projectile hit the megaphone and knocked it out of the guard’s grasp.

“Not until you bring those terrorists out here! We know you’re hiding them in there so don’t lie to us! They have to answer for what they did to us!” A stallion demanded as the rest of the mob shouted in agreement.

A second guard picked up the fallen megaphone and addressed the mob. “Listen to me! I know that you’re all upset at what happened, but what you’re doing now isn’t helping anyone! Is this how Matriarch Cadenza would want us to behave?” The mob lowered their voice and started murmuring among each other. “Your family and loved ones must be worried sick about you so please, go back home where it’s safe.”

Unfortunately, the guard’s words had the opposite effect as the mob became even more enraged than before as they started throwing rocks and other miscellaneous objects they had at the prison guards.

“Home!? Those bastards burned my house down while my parents were still inside! And they made me watch them die!” A stallion shouted before he launched a blackened brick at the prison guards with his magic, though it bounced harmlessly off a guard’s armor.

“They killed my son and daughter! My babies! Why did they have to take my babies?!” A mare wailed as she threw a half empty bottle of wine that shattered against a guard’s shield, coating it in alcohol.

“My sister was a good pony! She didn’t deserve to die like that! Those monsters have to pay!” Another stallion screamed.

The objects thrown at the guards did very little against their armor and shields, but that changed when one of the rioters threw a bottle that had a burning cloth stuffed into the stopper. The bottle shattered against a guard’s helmet, dousing him in oil that promptly caught fire. Unfortunately, the guard had left his visor open when the Molotov cocktail hit him. The guard dropped his shield and screamed in agony as the fire burned his face.

The other guards pulled their screaming comrade to the back, where they held him down and put out the fire with blasts of fire retardant. However, the damage had already been done, as the stallion’s face was severely burned. The only good news was that he was still alive, but it was doubtful he would last long without immediate medical attention so the lead guard ordered everyone to fall back to the gates.

The sight of the guards falling back emboldened the mob, causing them to chase after the retreating guards. A few of them ran ahead of the mob, wielding an assortment of improvised weaponry, ranging from broken metal pipes to baseball bats in their telekinesis or precision gloves.

The guards shot a few of them with their taser rifles as the unruly ponies let out a pained scream before collapsing to the snow-covered ground. The sight of their fellow rioters writhing on the ground in agony made the rest lose their nerve as the few forward scattered ponies retreated back to the safety of the mob’s number, giving the guards time to get to the gates.

The guards soon reached the gates, but before they could open it, the mob caught up to them, ramming into the riot shields. The unprepared guards stumbled from the impact but quickly recovered and used their armors’ augmented strength to push the rioters back. While the guards at the front dealt with the mob, the ones at the rear shot anyone that got past their armored counterparts. However, despite their efforts, the guards were steadily losing ground to the mob.

“We can’t hold them back for much longer!” One guard shouted as he shoved several rioters back with his shield, only to have more ram into him. “There’s just too many of them!”

“Stand your ground!” Another guard shouted. “The Warden said that backup is on the way, so we have to hold the line until they get here!”

The guards obeyed, staying their ground and pushing the mob back, but even then they knew that it was only a matter of time before the mob overwhelmed them. They could only hope their reinforcements would arrive before that could happen. Their prayers were answered when their communicators turned on and an electronic voice came through.

“Did someone call for backup?” This was followed by the sounds of a rocket overhead.

The guards looked up to see a drop pod coming down from orbit. The drop pod was three times the size of the ones used by infantry and the sight of such a large object plummeting towards them caused several of the rioters to panic and flee from the area while the guards took the opportunity to get their injured comrades into the prison.

Just as the drop pod was about to crash into the ground, the engine on the top shut off, while the thrusters on the bottom fired off immediately afterwards. This rapidly decelerated the pod’s velocity, just enough for it to survive slamming into the ground, creating a small crater from the impact. As the dust and snow settled, the pod let out a loud hiss as the hatch popped open and a large robot climbed out from it. The robot towered over the mob as it stood upright on its four mechanical legs.

SMARTIE PANTS Mark II appeared exactly the same as its predecessor. The only difference was that the robot was missing its shoulder-mounted weapons, though it didn’t make the machine appear any less intimidating as it was still armed with a pair of pincer claws attached to its arms. The robot’s speaker turned on as a menacingly deep electronic voice came through it.

“This is a restricted area. Lay down your weapons and leave the area immediately. You have twenty seconds to comply.”

Some of the rioters promptly dropped their weapons and fled the area, but the majority of the mob remained and chose the robot as a new target to vent out their anger on. Objects were thrown at it but the robot didn’t respond in anyway, causing the mob to grow bolder as a few foolhardy rioters ran forward and started hitting SMARTIE’s legs in an attempt to topple it.

“You now have fifteen seconds to comply. Lay down your weapons and leave the area.” The voice warned again, but the rioters ignored it and just kept on attacking the robot’s legs.

“You have five seconds to comply.” Another Molotov cocktail shattered against SMARTIE’s head, lighting it up in flames though the robot simply kept counting down. “Five…four…three…two…one.” The voice then changed over to Spike’s child-like voice and said gleefully. “Now it’s my turn.”

SMARTIE then let out a high-pitched whine before the rioters surrounding it were suddenly struck by a non-lethal surge of electricity, emanating from the robot’s chassis. The rioters spasmed violently from the electricity coursing through their bodies. Spike then shut off the lightning field and the rioters dropped to the ground, unconscious but alive, just as Twilight ordered.

SMARTIE snapped its claws together, creating sparks of lightning from the electrified limbs, giving the robot a menacing appearance, which intimidated the rioters just as Spike intended. The A.I. then spoke through the speaker. “I’ll say this one more time. Lay down your weapons and leave this area. NOW!”

The mob immediately did as Spike demanded and dropped their weapons onto the ground before scrambling to get away from the dangerous contraption. Some of the more stubborn rioters refused to leave and tried to jostle their way towards the gates, but most of them were quickly overwhelmed by the number of fleeing ponies and pushed back while the few that made it to the gates were readily dealt with by the guards.

After the mob had fled the area, Spike saw that some of the rioters were lying on the ground moaning in pain. He guessed that they must have fallen down and gotten trampled on by their fellow rioters, but noticed that some of them weren’t moving. Worried that they might be dead, he scanned them with SMARTIE’s sensors and was relieved when it showed him that they were alive and merely unconscious.

Twilight would have been absolutely furious with him if she found out that someone had died in the riot when she explicitly told him to not let that happen. Spike had seen Twilight mad before and even though he was just a computer program, he was afraid at the thought of Twilight being mad at him. To ensure that the rioters didn’t die from exposure or their injuries and in turn make Twilight angry with him, he sent a request to Dominion Command to include some medics with the marines they were mobilizing to secure the area.

With the issue of the injured rioters taken care of, he turned SMARTIE around to face the prison guards who gave the robot a wide berth as it approached them. Despite the fact that it just saved them from the mob’s wrath, the guards were wary of the strange robot that came out of the drop pod.

“Which one of you is the ranking officer?” Spike asked through the speaker.

The lead guard then stepped forward and stated. “That would be me.”

“Good. The Dominion should be arriving shortly with reinforcements to help secure the prison and they’ll definitely be interested in finding out how these ponies knew that there were terrorists being held prisoner here.” Spike pointed one of the robot’s claws at the rioters he incapacitated earlier. “I need you and your men to detain them for questioning while I go and make sure the perimeter is secure.” Spike turned to leave when one of the guards called him out.

“Wait a minute, you can’t order us around like that! Who the hell do you think you are?”

Spike turned the robot’s torso around 180 degrees so he would face the guard. “Who do I think I am? I’m Admiral Sparkle’s friend and personal assistant. Do you know what that means?” Spike asked in return. The guard hesitantly shook his head. “It means that my orders are the Admiral’s orders, so I suggest that you follow them before you make the Admiral upset. And believe me, you do not want to get her upset, got it?”

The guard hastily saluted SMARTIE, before hurrying off to carry out his orders, followed by the rest of the guards who did the same. If A.I.s were physically capable of smiling, Spike would be grinning from digital ear to digital ear. He chuckled mischievously to himself as he watched the guards cuffing the unconscious rioters.

“Can’t believe they fell for that so easily.” Spike said to himself, making sure the speaker was turned off beforehand. “Still, Admiral Spike does have a nice ring to it. Shame I’m not a real person…Oh well, back to work.” Spike said as he headed out to patrol the area for stragglers.

Author's Note:

In case anyone was wondering SMARTIE was based on the warbots from the WoL campaign, then you are right...I think. The original concept for SMARTIE was created by Unholy and we never really bothered to ask him about it so we worked with what we had and created the behemoth you saw in the story...

Well, Rame was the one who drew it so all credit goes to him. Be sure to check out his stuff on deviantart.com~

Here is some concept art that Rame had so you can get an idea on what SMARTIE looks like:

Comments

[Jirodyne]

Needs more updates more often.

[Not so New Brony]

6540660And we will try to update more often but please understand that me and my fellow collaborators may have other personal matters to attend to other than the story(which is important too) so bear with us, alright?

[Not so New Brony]

6544803 It's true that it's unlikely the Crusaders would have stayed the same as the canon growing up in the Starcraft universe but it's not impossible. The Crusaders grew up on Mar Sara, which the original author portrayed to be a more industrialized version of Ponyville on a planetwide scale...well, at least that's how I see it.

Equestrian culture hasn't entirely died out as the story so far only portray the Imperial Dominion, who adopted Terran culture whereas the New Equestrian Confederacy and the Umojan Vatican as well as parts of the Kel-Morian Consortium still retain some semblance of their Equestrian ancestry and cultural practices, which the story has yet to fully explore this far into the story.

However, you are free to express your opinion as you see fit and I, on behalf of my fellow collaborators thank you for sharing them.

[Aziraphael]

6545046
That... doesn't really address anything I said, but sure, those are definitely neat things to know.

The fact that the Mar Sara colony was as similar to a ponyville-like environment as you could find in Terran space doesn't change the fact that you effectively stuck canon names to OCs, which is what makes them hard to read and relate to. The fact that their lives would have been different from their canon counterparts is a given, and is, in fact, my entire point. They are different characters from their canon selves and the story would have been better off if you had just named them as such.

And I suppose I can let the culture thing slide, since there could be some as-yet-unnamed reason why the Dominion completely gave up every value that their original culture aspired to in order to adopt a system of government even the Terrans they modeled it after thought was bad, but there's more to it than just that. Even their use of the technology they found has a decidedly Terran flavor, to the point that it feels like they haven't advanced in any way whatsoever.

It feels like the Terrans just disappeared one day and the very next ponies with their adapted technology took over. There's no sense that anything was ever adapted or improved in any way based on pony ideology or history or ingenuity in all of the years that they've existed since they left Equestria. I feel like every time something new was discovered, the following conversation took place:
"Wow, that's pretty neat. ...Can we fit a pony into it?"

"Yeah, probably. Just reshape the seat a bit and switch out some of those knobs and handles."

"Good enough. Our work here is done."

They're not just Terrans in pony shape because of their culture (though that is a big part of it), literally every facet of their lives feels like you just took the humans out of Starcraft, shaped them into ponies, and then put them back in again.

However, you are free to express your opinion as you see fit and I, on behalf of my fellow collaborators thank you for sharing them.

Oh, and though I know it most likely wasn't meant this way, that sentence comes off sounding incredibly dismissive. And if that was intentional, then if you think someone is wrong and you don't care about their opinion, you're much better off just saying so.

[Not so New Brony]

6545991 Ah, sorry about that, Allow me to explain some things in case you didn't know.

First off, we're not the original author of this story so there are many elements to it that I personally am still getting used to. We're simply trying to finish the story in the author's memory. I'll agree that using Ocs in the Crusader's place may have been a better choice but I suppose Unholyheaven(the original author) was trying to ground the story with canon characters, I think. We can't confirm this for obvious reasons.

I suppose one has to suspend their disbelief to get around the fact that ponies are using Terran tech that has seemingly went unchanged over the centuries since the ponies took over. Again, this story is not to everybody's liking.

As for that phrase coming off as dismissive, I'm really sorry about that, I didn't realize it would appear that way. We really do appreciate the critique but I didn't mean it to come out that way. My bad.

[Aziraphael]

6547097
Ahh, that clarifies some things. Taking over a story for someone else, especially when the original author can't be contacted, makes for a difficult setup. I still stand by my original issues with the story, but the reason they're there makes sense now at least.