Chapter 15 - Kissing Sky
As the time limit was given, it had been only a couple of days since the acceptance of the new match between the Solus Invictus and the Thalrazyne Battle Fortress, The Solace of Dawn. Stories existed on the Galaxy Wide Net, the Thalrazyne being both honourable and brutal, only being done out in their brutal nature by the Torassi, though actual records of what the Torassi had done were not easily accessible, almost like they did not exist.
Twilight looked at the wall of her quarters, seeing the projected view of the shielded world, watching the minute variations in the surface of the massive device. A thought popped into her mind, wondering how such fluctuations would feel on her exposed skin – would it be instantaneous, like a plasma burst, or would it take a while for it to burn through her flesh? Shaking her head, she watched as several small probes were launched, attempting to discern the resonant frequency of the massive shield and if there was any physical or etheric means to bypass it.
All the data they had been able to discern about the shield was, to be frank, lacking. All they could tell was the temperature on the other side of the shield was a near-permanent negative temperature, though the actual rating was not able to be measured through the shield. All their tests had simply brought it back as... cold.
Very, very cold.
“If we were able to overload the Etheric Cannons for a single powerful shot, we might disrupt a section of it long enough, but that would fry the cannons used, and it would be only possible if we had a transport ready to go at a moment’s notice. So many variables, and yet... they tell us nothing! If Brightstone were around...” She caught her almost-slip, reminding herself that she was the chosen Commander of the Battle Fortress, and while still with a planet-destroying gun to her head, she had to make decisions that were not based on the mentality of a man she barely knew. She remembered one of the buildings in the Cradle was named after him, but it was not that she could recall exactly which one. Almost all of them had a figure in the Cradle’s history that had affected them in some way. Hollow Point Armoury was named after a famous... she wanted to think Colonel, but she could not recall the rank, like the information was not accessible for some reason. She looked at the bed where she was laying down, after having been recommended it by the surgeons after her augmentation. It was still somewhat weird being much taller than most of the crew that launched with her, and it was starting to get around to other decks, rumours of why exactly she had done it, from solidarity with Rainbow Dash to a secret trans-organic ring that would hack into your MIS device and force you to go under the knife.
As she contemplated some of the rumours, a couple of which had been rather humorous, she was startled up by a beeping noise from her door’s intercom.
“Twilight, you awake?”
Beep-beep, beep-beep. Whoever it was, the intercom was not doing their voice justice. With a roll and a sit-up, she came to her... well, feet was the best analogy in her eyes. She felt the weird sensation of her reaction times synchronizing with the cybernetics, linking her mind properly to them. She noted they would have to be adjusted again to hasten the linking time, but it was more of a minor annoyance than a problem that would effectively keep her from walking – she just needed to be slightly more mindful of her steps.
Beep-beep, beep-beep went the intercom, and so did Twilight’s patience as she sighed, walking slowly to the door. Pressing the main-view control, she breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that Rainbow was on the other side of the door. Tapping the main lock control, she listened to the door hiss open, the hydraulics whirring and groaning as they pulled the metal slab into its designated slot.
“Hey, Twi.”
“Hey, Rainbow.”
“Uh... Pinkie’s still in the Cafeteria. We might be able to get some late-night grub if we go now.”
Twilight looked back at her ‘window,’ sighing as the telltale impacts of the probes slamming into the shield yet again caused a rippling motion throughout the field caused her to slam her head into the metal wall, the recoil reminding her that the wall was not her former library, and she still had a lot to deal with in her head to ‘get it right,’ as Isaac would put it.
“Sounds... sounds good. I am actually a little hungry. Might help us to stretch our legs, in a sense,” Twilight acknowledged, motioning to let Rainbow go ahead off her. Glancing around, she chuckled, following her friend. The clanking of their legs on the deck plating was a constant reminder that they were no longer just ponies, or a Pegasus and an Alicorn. They were more than that now, and some of the crew did give them the nickname ‘The First Spacers.’
No one exactly understood what was being referenced, and even a cursory search through the database had elicited no relevant information.
Saluting was a more involved motion now, though she did not have to stop to do so anymore, a fact that Twilight quickly made a mental note of. She watched Bastion crew members walk amongst Fortress personnel, the former docked in between the two massive prongs that formed the front of the Solus Invictus. Something she had always been fascinated by was the history of the vessel, back when it was the Kepler, the old Wyvern-class Colony Conveyor Refit. She could never see all of her crew in an instant, the ship large enough that many shifts never saw hide nor hair of each other.
“Aw, dammit! Not another one!”
“It’s okay, Stardancer! You’ll get the hang of the schedule- Oh, Commander! Good... evening?” The lime-coated Unicorn stared up at her, tossing up a quick salute, Twilight returning it and letting them get back to work.
“Good evening, Corporal. I’ll let your duty officer know that you’re doing a good job.”
As they left the two equines behind, Rainbow raised an eyebrow, looking back and then returning her gaze to Twilight.
“You didn’t have to be that nice to them. They understand what’s at stake if we fail.”
“Not all of them have an inkling of what kind of firepower the Commission wields. A Galactic Enforcer, quite literally the equivalent of an Ancient Earth space vessel known as a Leviathan-class Siege Dreadnought. Massive cannons that could reduce fortifications to rubble. They could issue one command and Equus burns. We play along still, but we’re starting to change from how we used to be. Have you noticed that? I’ve seen a couple of reports from back on Equus. There’s a growing worry that launching the Fortress is changing the peace-loving Equestria into a properly industrialized nation, ruining the ‘natural beauty.’” Twilight sighed as she finished, shrugging as she looked around. The night rotation was always so quiet, and it felt more like the library back in Ponyville. The constant humming of the Magi-Tech Reactors and the vibration of the engines were a more sobering reminder that her analogy of her old library was a memory she would carry instead of her actual home.
Rainbow glanced at her friend as the thoughts ran through Twilight’s head, watching the minute expression changes. Sighing, she glanced up, looking at the glowing cables that ran along the ceiling. She was still impressed by the sheer amount of power that ran through those individual lines, carrying much more energy than she could fathom faster than it took for Rainbow to blink.
Tapping Twilight, she turned them towards the door to the Cafeteria, whistling at the speed they made it to Pinkie’s domain with their augmented appendages. Waiting for the door as it hissed open, Twilight stared down at her pants, shifting them around as Rainbow readjusted the shorts that Twilight just started to notice. It was an unfamiliar feeling for either of them, although Rarity chided them for being worried about it, reminding Rainbow that it was her reality now, and shaking her head at Twilight whilst prompting her to recall that it was her idea, not Rainbow’s or Rarity’s, that ended up with her having cybernetic legs.
“Hope she has some of those bean patties. That would be nice – bean patties and potato fries.”
“The first meal she made us in her kitchen, right before the-”
“Marzipan Mountain Incident. They’re still finding filling in random vents around the ship, you know.”
“No one expected it to come to life, Rainbow. I definitely don’t think Pinkie meant for it to come alive.” Twilight took a seat, leaning forward onto the table as some of the other crew members stared, whatever food they were holding falling from their hooves, claws or hands onto their trays. Putting her head on her forehooves, she sighed, trying to bury her face in them. Rainbow glared at some of the ones who had been staring as the two of them had walked in, taking a seat as she held her weathering gaze until they realized that they were doing something they should not be and returned to their meals, quickly eating and excusing themselves.
“You’d think that they’d stop staring, but they do it even in the corridors, Twi.”
“You know that there are still... divisions between the three separate cultures that make up the bulk of your Equestrian Coalition, right?” Rainbow and Twilight both quickly turned to the new voice entering their conversation, seeing a balding human they did not recognize sitting beside them, slowly eating a bowl of what appeared to be a human favourite: cream of wheat with a small amount of cinnamon, brown sugar and butter. Twilight glanced at Rainbow, who shrugged herself, iterating that neither of them actually knew the human.
“Yes, there are still barriers between the Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies...”
“Caliban. Joshua Caliban. Most people who I work with call me Ghost, seeing as not a lot of people notice me whenever they come into a room. Used to be a sniper in the UEC Militia Forces, but was discharged after losing my arm and leg. Apparently they don’t like cyborgs to serve,” Joshua finished, taking another bite of his cream of wheat. Sighing, he glanced towards the kitchen, his eyes landing on where Pinkie sat, taking a quick nap in a chair adapted for equine use. The normal furniture that would have been mounted in the Cafeteria had seemingly been replaced with more comfortable furnishings, but it still felt like a space-faring vessel, instead of what the furniture was attempting to convey.
“Well... we don’t exactly have anything like such strong anti-cyborg sentiment with our nations... at least, not yet. There is growing resistance, especially among those considered ‘fringe’ groups, that it was a mistake to ever launch beyond our world. The Coalition as a whole has been busy with industrializing our nation and bringing it to the modern age, including orbital satellites and research stations. Within 10 years, Equestria was dragged, kicking and screaming, to what is the future! Advanced medicine, supersonic flight dynamics, even orbital studies. And-” Twilight felt Rainbow’s hoof pop into her mouth, causing her to pause her thoughts as she stared at her friend.
“Twi, it’s good to see you go all egghead on something like the future of Equestria, but we’re not on Equestria – in fact, we’re five months out from the nearest outpost that would be able to forward a message to them. I-”
“Commander Sparkle to the Command Bridge. Repeat, Commander Sparkle to the Command Bridge.”
“Duty calls, Rainbow. Ghost, it was nice to meet you. Hopefully we meet again.” As Twilight and Rainbow left the human at his seat, he sighed, lifting up another spoonful of cream of wheat. Sucking it down, he looked up at the ceiling, grunting as he started to laugh and sob.
“Yeah... yeah, I’d like that.”
--------//|0|\\--------
“Commander, the final scans are up on the main console. This shield is a lot more familiar than you would expect.”
Twilight glanced over at one of the screens that presented itself to her, leaning back in her new Commander’s Chair. The need for such support for the spine was not as apparent before her augmentation, but being able to sit for long hours as she was without muscle spasms or cramps was conducive to more effective research and work.
“It’s reading as an Etheric Barrier- wait, it’s a Shield spell? It’s almost exactly like an Equestrian-”
“That’s what the data says, ma’am. We can actually disrupt it with a concentrated beam from the Etheric Cannons, punching a hole large enough to allow a few transports through. Wouldn’t use up too much of our energy, and we can extend it as needed. Gunnery crews are awaiting targeting vectors, and a landing crew is ready.”
Twilight glanced at her monitors, moving them around to get a better picture and idea of what she was looking at. The matrices that made up the self-sustaining field were beyond anything she could possibly have imagined, but in essence, she could actually use the exact same spell on a smaller scale with the Fortress. However, she needed to be sure about it, and experimentation could wait until later. Nodding to the officer who had given her the requested data, she brought up an external view from one of the gun batteries, witnessing the massive beams of blue etheric energy arcing out of the turrets and towards their designated marks on the shield.
“Command, this is Echo 4-1-9. Ready for dispatch when ready. We’ve got a Warrant Dash down here wanting to join the expedition team.”
“Echo 4-1-9, did you say Dash was down there requesting a spot on the expedition team? I thought she was flying escort.”
“Negative, ma’am. Hawk Squadron’s flying sidecar today. I think Dash feels a little left out, and wants to see what an ‘iceball’ really looks like.”
Twilight closed her eyes, shaking her head as she sighed, breathing in a tight shot of air in annoyance. Rainbow had left her company as they had walked towards the Command Bridge together, but Twilight had not realized that the now-cyborg Pegasus wanted to try and get herself hurt again- mentally, she slapped herself, reminding herself that they could not have predicted the Graawl, even if she was flying outside her own expertise during the exploration of the Torassi transport.
“XO Starlight on the Command Bridge.”
Twilight turned, glancing at her First Officer and pursing her lips. Starlight seemed to be annoyed, but Twilight could not for the life of her figure out what exactly was causing it. Turning her attention back to the issue at hand, she tapped on her monitors, bringing up the impact of the Cannons on the Etheric Barrier. True to the calculations, it was expanding a hole through the shield, the dissipating energy shifting like hexagons on a grid.
“Echo 4-1-9, tell Warrant Dash she has clearance for this, but that she must be properly protected. Now that we can check the actual conditions down there, it seems to be 313.15 Kelvin down there, and that’s just what I am seeing here. I’m seeing heavy winds at the projected landing site, so be careful. Keep the Engineers at the ready to deal with ice buildup – don’t want you exploding on your way off the planet. Command out.”
“Copy that, Command. Echo 4-1-9 loaded up and ready to kiss sky. Will report when boots on the ground. Echo 4-1-9 out.”
--------//|0|\\--------
“313.15 Kelvin? Isn’t that well below normal freezing temperature?”
Rainbow Dash was seated between multiple Engineers, her winter Field Armour thick and uncomfortable as she shifted in it. Modified as a hybrid between Equestrian and human fashion, it struck Rainbow that Rarity had not exactly tested it out, and instead had used Rainbow as the guinea pig for the new winter coats she would distribute for any of the members of the crew who underwent the same procedure as Twilight and Rainbow. Glancing down at her feet, Rainbow lifted a helmet, tapping the side before placing it on her head, the synthetic fur around the edge of the neck of the helmet sealing against the collar of her suit. Lights activated on the inside, detailing out a simplified HUD. Temperature ratings were updated as fast as the Fortress could broadcast them, and a basic topographical map began to fill itself in as scans were transmitted up to the main cartography computer aboard the Solus Invictus.
“Yeah, it’s pretty damn cold out there. Make sure your suits are sealed, everyone. You’re not invincible. We’ll be kissing sky in 5. Lock and load, we’re locking onto an old landing pad signal.”
The almost-synchronized loading and cocking of multiple rifles startled Rainbow, who pulled the slide back on her own rifle. An ammunition counter blinked on in her helmet, letting her know of the exact round count in each of her magazines. An engineer passed by, shoving a thermal fabric shell into her hooves, making certain to motion how to attach it to the modified RK-5f, noted on her HUD as a CRK-5, the first human-equine hybrid weapon. It felt heavy, but she was not exactly proficient with a firearm designed for prolonged contact in harsh environments.
“How’s your thermal cover looking, Gust?” A stallion beside her, a hulking brute of an Earth Pony, tapped his nameplate, chuckling as he finished securing the thermal cover over the front. Rainbow glanced over at his nameplate, chuckling at the name he had been ‘blessed’ with from birth, ‘Garlic Gust.’
“Yeah, ol’ Garlic’s gonna see us through this, just like you saw us through some of those border skirmishes back on Equus, huh?”
“Don’ worry, fillies and gentlecolts, Garlic’s got your bullets ‘ere.” His heavy accent was a boon, a bit of mirth among misery when the fireteam Rainbow was accompanying was together. Fire-team Fastball, they had been nicknamed. Beside Garlic Gust, the fire-team’s heavy gunner, sat Swift Strike, their Pegasus Scout. Juniper Mist, their Unicorn medic, strapped down her bags and sighed, glancing at Fastball’s lead soldier, Onager. He had apparently come from a culture that was somewhat isolationist, hidden in a canyon beyond the edges of Equestria, but he had volunteered to come on and be their... well, he was only a Master Corporal, but he definitely held himself more like an officer would.
“Cut the chatter, everyone. We’ll be wheels down soon. We’re landing in a blizzard, so don’t expect our touch-down to be soft. We’ll synchronize and test our helmet cameras when we’re boots on the ground, so keep steady. And Warrant Dash? I hope to see those new legs of yours in action. Sensors from the Fortress indicate we’re flying into some kind of firefight, so keep your eyes peeled. Vasili and Abigail are on the other transport, running Fire-team Alpha. We’ll be coordinating as best we can, but we’re some of the few that are certified for harsh weather operations.”
As Onager finished, the transport shook, the engine pods spinning down as the lights dimmed in the main transport section. Without a word, everyone was standing, synchronizing their helmets up to eliminate any errors from broadcast. Rainbow looked around, staring at the rear hatch of the craft as it lower itself to the ground, the snow almost horizontal with the heavy wind gusting past. Rainbow’s motion sensor, a short-range radar from what she was aware of, was barely cutting through the blizzard she faced. Flashes of red, blue, and even green lit up a structure not far from the transport.
“Do any of you see that over there?”
“See what? This blizzard’s thicker than June’s flank-” A grunt echoed over the helmet’s radio as Juniper jabbed as hard as she could into Swift Strike’s side, causing Onager to chuckle deeply.
“We’re blind on this, so make sure to stay low, and keep your gunfire to an absolute minimum. Those are energy rounds being fired, and we’re not packing any E-rounds, and ours are definitely not blanks. If you get fired upon, make sure you’re not shooting a friendly – our rounds will go straight through our own armour, even with the upgrades Rarity made.”
A round of nods, and a couple more jokes, and Rainbow slowly walked out with the rest of her new fireteam. Rainbow could feel her legs dig into the snow, clamping into some kind of rock or concrete below the snow layer. With a few tentative steps, she got her surface legs, as it were, and started to move slightly faster. Her HUD displayed Gust, Juniper, Onager and Swift as shifting rectangles, their vitals being transferred to her helmet for verification. Their heart rates were low, and their brain-wave patterns optimal, leaving Rainbow to question what exactly the ‘border skirmishes’ had actually entailed.
Halting the group, Juniper motioned to a disturbed patch of snow, dragging a corpse out of it. It was wearing what could have been cold-weather gear, but it was
“Got a body. Looks like E-round damage. It’s... Dash, can you identify? I’m not seeing a defining feature with a hole like that in its suit.” Stepping closer, Rainbow nudged Juniper out of the way, narrowing her eyes until her helmet registered the input, zooming in closer. Kneeling down, she let her mind ease into the sight of what it could be. It looked every bit like an Iiaynsin anatomical picture that Twilight had taken her through, step by step, but most of the face was burnt off.
“Looks like an Iiaynsin trooper. Their weapon is missing, though. Gloves look burned, like it overheated. Keep moving! Onager, get everyone moving!” Without a word, Onager nodded at Rainbow, motioning with his head to the rest of his squad. Rainbow felt weird from kneeling, her legs’ servos having slight trouble returning her to a standing posture. It felt awkward, but she reminded herself it was still going to take some time before she was fully in control of her new legs, despite the progress she had already made.
“Iiaynsin, here? Aren’t they the inhabitants of the moon that orbits-”
“Thalra, yeah. The Thalrazyne homeworld. They formed the Thalras Confederation a long time ago – used to be a third race in there, but a cataclysm wiped them out.” Rainbow sighed, keeping herself close to the others as they approached closer to the firefight. Whoever had been fighting was slowly running out of steam, as the only flashes of light were now red, angry crimson flashes that lit up the blizzard like spotlights.
“Tango, 12!”
The fireteam dropped hard, aiming up at what appeared to be a stairwell up a defence tower. A human turned their weapon only to be dropped by a red flash from behind. The tall newcomer slung their rifle over their shoulder, sighing as they knelt down and pulled what appeared to be ration packs from what Rainbow deduced was the human’s chest rig, the white being nearly indistinguishable from the white nearly all around them.
Standing up tentatively in the snow, Rainbow slung her rifle, attempting to approach closer. Her helmet’s sensors were detecting a damaged IFF, but it was an old signal, not one that would be normally associated with her fireteam or the Solus Invictus, but the name made her pause. Standing up slowly to their full height, the being in front of them tried to knock some of the ice off the side of their helmet, sighing as they revealed what appeared to be some sort of faded green underneath.
“-Hornet... 4-X-1. You... Kepler?”
The voice snapped Rainbow out of her confusion, causing her to raise an eyebrow as she looked at the being again. The snow appeared to be causing some kind of issue, but it was not something she was familiar with.
“Green Hornet, C-Z-4-X-1. You a rescue team from the Kepler?”
The old name of the Fortress shocked her almost senseless, metaphorically speaking. They were speaking to another member of the old crew of the Kepler, someone who had firsthand experience in that Fortress’ last flight. She was staring at a page almost literally out of history – in her mind, Twilight was already drooling at the prospect of research.
“Hold one, did he say Green Hornet?”
Two human-shaped blobs materialized out of the heavy snow, their gestures creating the assumption that they somehow knew the person in front of them. Vasili and Abigail chuckled over the net, waving at Green Hornet. With a full recognition, Green Hornet leaned back, their arms outstretched as they drew Abigail into a hug, laughing over the comms as they appeared to reunite.
“I’m sorry, but who is this? He just shot a human a few moments ago.” Rainbow looked over, wondering if Green Hornet could see her expression through her helmet. Green simply shook his head, pulling out a small disk and tossing it on the ground. A massive hologram lit up, showing what exactly they were standing on.
“They’re UEC deserters. I was hired by a third party to come here and eliminate them, as this shield unfortunately created a frigid world out of what used to be a temperate one. That was the last one, and they had this hologram. This is an old Janus Accord Planetary Defense facility. Lots of old energy weapons lying around, almost like leaving out a grenade for a-”
“Yeah, they don’t need to know that one, Green. But still, how the hell did you manage to survive? Don’t we live shorter than other races?”
“Yeah... shorter. I’m Iiaynsin, Vasili. My name is Grestor Jik. Green Hornet was easier for humans to say. Anyways, about the Kepler... my signal was caught by some old communications array, and I sort of bounced around installations until someone had the sense to activate the pad on their end. Dropped out of what amounted to a digital version of stasis around 50 years ago. Still, not bad for a jik-nak 1050 years out of date, aye?”
Rainbow let the three of them continue to catch up, staring at the hologram. According to the hologram, there were unopened surface hatches which led to something labelled ‘Frigate Hangars.’ With a closer look, she waved her hoof over it, watching it turn until she got the angle she needed. From their position, it looked like they could easily get down into it, their area close to an emergency shaft. Looking at Onager, she motioned with her other hoof, pointing out what she had just found.
“Look, they said there was energy weapons basically just lying around, right? What if those Frigate Hangars have other hidden things? Maybe some more ships to bolster the defence fleet for the Fortress? We’d be losing out on something awesome to bring back, huh?” She knew her face-plate was mirrored so they could not see her expression, but she swore Onager stared at her, watching her eye motions. However, her words seemed to have an effect, as he looked at the hologram again, tapping his helmet as he swiped around the image, seeing other untouched areas.
“I hate to admit it, but you’re right, Warrant. If there is anything recoverable, the Commander would certainly be remiss if we left anything behind. You, Green Hornet.”
Green Hornet stopped talking, facing Onager as the two locked gazes, kneeling to bring his face closer to Onager’s.
“I see some interesting bays on this hologram. Frigate Hangars. Think there’s anything interesting in those?”
Rainbow watched as the two conversed, keeping her other senses peeled for any sign of any soldiers Grestor may have missed. While she watched, they pointed out various areas, musing about what could be there.
“Frigate Hangars might have some old Wolfpack Frigates. They’re ancient by modern standards, but they’ve got some of the best missile launchers ever designed by any planetary authority.” Green, or Grestor, as Rainbow mentally noted, sighed as he stood, keeping his gaze on the hologram. Vasili and Abigail had moved off, and by their very animated motions, they were trying to discuss something which neither side was budging on. The wind seemed to shift as the blizzard moved, the sun seemingly to poke through until Rainbow’s HUD identified it as yet another transport from the Fortress. From the vehicle slung underneath, it looked like Engineering decided that an experimental vehicle would suffice for traversing the facility, though most of the facility was catwalks and towers, from what she saw. However, as it descended, what looked like one vehicle split into four, smaller suit-like vehicles, descending on cabling to slowly touch down and activate.
“Who called in exo-suits? I don’t think-” Erupting gunfire from the suits pushed everyone into cover, Rainbow sliding beside Grestor as he closed his eyes and focused. As she watched him, his eyes snapped open in his helmet, fiercely staring as he leaped the barrier, firing 8 times. Two pings rang out on each of the so-called ‘exo-suits,’ causing the outer shell to collapse and leave the inner frame intact. Four ponies stood ramrod stiff, staring in horror at the angry being charging at them. Lashing out, he dragged one from their suit, and held them aloft by their throat. The others quickly rolled back, their primary locomotion what appeared to be miniature parallel caterpillar treads.
“You. Ten seconds. Why did you fire on your allies.”
“The Sun-Kissed traitors don’t deserve-” was all the one pony got before Grestor fired off two rounds, one into their barrel and one into their head. Falling limply, the pony was simply tossed aside like a piece of refuse as the one who shot him moved on the next, discarding his rifle to withdraw a small, sharp knife. A smell began to permeate the air as puddles of liquid formed underneath the remaining 3. Rainbow peaked over the wall, letting her HUD lock onto the closest of the exo-suits she could see clearly enough. The design was not something that she was familiar with, as even the suit’s internal database could only classify it as what it looked like – a ‘tin can.’ Levelling her new rifle, she closed an eye, watching through the magnified sights until she came across a symbol that made zero sense.
Clearing the wall quickly and slinging her rifle, Rainbow slide down a slope she had not realized was there, the snow almost like a wall against good sight-lines. Clamping her forehooves to her side, she lifted two pairs of ‘borrowed’ Equine Hands, the devices normally used by the medical technicians in the Infirmary. Feeling them clamp in and connect with her nerves, she grimaced, rolling into a crouch when she hit the bottom of the incline. Grestor was so focused on the exo-suit he was approaching that he was oblivious to the other two coming closer behind him, attempting to go from another angle. Before he could react, however, Rainbow grabbed his rifle and squeezed the trigger, feeling the report of the rifle as two rounds impacted dead-on with the other two suits, the pilots dead where they sat.
“Nice shooting.”
“They’re Lunarites. Crazy fanatics. Equestrian zealots who think that experimental armour is meant to be used like this... dammit!” Tossing the rifle aside, she sank to her haunches, tears flowing as she started to cry. She had received disseminated reports of some of the activities of the Lunarites and the Solarians, but she had not expected it to reach them out that far. Feeling a hand grasp her on her shoulder, tapping lightly, she looked up to see one of the human crew-members from Vasili’s squad kneeling down and offering his hand to help her up.
“Calm down, Warrant. If you lose your head, then morale’s gonna tank. Hangars first, and then, if we have time, a tear can be let out in private. On your feet, there’s a good cyber.” Grasping her fore-hoof, he hauled her up to her full height, chuckling as she stared at him. Rainbow could feel the muscles underneath her eyes begin to heat up, quite certain that the embarrassed blush was visible on her face. She was not entirely sure why, but having to get help from even the humans still gave her a little brush of embarrassment, even after all of the training she went through. Standing up, she gazed at both teams, raising an eyebrow as she cleared her throat, all eyes turning to watch her.
“All right, everyone! We’ve got our two teams. We’ve got several hangars that possibly have ships that could become a part of the Solus Invictus’ fleet. However, we’ve got that,” she explained, pointing one of her regular hooves at the facility she could start to see as the snow slightly cleared, “and we’ve got the other facility on this side. The best thing for us to do, and I get that everyone hates when someone says it, but the teams have to split up to cover more ground. And if I hear about any complaining, well, you’ll get the idea if that happens.”
Onager stood up, his armour dropping mounds of snow as he shook himself off, Swift simply chuckling as his fireteam lead cleared his throat. Eyes fell upon him, leaving Rainbow breathing a sigh of relief as someone else spoke up. As Onager spoke to everyone explaining their duties, she stared off at the facility across the way, her helmet zooming and spotting some odd moving shapes, though she could barely make out anything more than shadows. They did not move like exoskeletons, nor did they move like a pony, human or Iiaynsin. Her thought process was interrupted as Juniper tapped her shoulder, raising an eyebrow through the faceplate of her helmet as she pointed at the far structure.
“Fireteam Fastball’s target is the facility on the other side, Warrant!”
“Then let’s see what this iceball has waiting for us.”
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lunarites.......ah buck lunar republic and solar empire factions are in this now huh well celestia and luna might not support them but....
questions about twilight and dashie new legs.......um do they.....look ya know .....good? are ....do they have literal buns of steel?
just curious no other reasons
10907765
WELL... they kinda do have literal buns of selenium-hardened steel. Kinda wish I wasn't so bad at drawing the ponies. If I had the time, I'd put up an image of the sheer height difference. I believe I explained it somewhat decently, but here's the gist of it:
Ponies are the shortest out of all the crew members. They're still plenty tall, but only come up to around 5'5" in height.
Humans average about between 5'9" and 6'6" in-universe. Some are much more lithe and tall, but that's the baseline.
Spacers, which is how i refer to the pony-cyborgs in my writing notes, are a whopping 8 feet tall! It's partially to compensate for the modified cybernetics they used - had to make them taller and larger to provide a much more cohesive experience.
I'm glad you've kept reading, by the way. Means a lot.
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And also, the Lunarites. I struggled with some of the stuff that I've seen pop up, like the Lunar Republic/Solar Empire and how that could possibly be something that I could worm in with some literary sense pushed onto them. They're not supported by any major players at the moment, but as it always goes, the story might change.