Cosmic Rifts

by Silvak

Chapter XII: Flare

"So... do we have anything that would aid us to take out any enemy armor units like that walker tank from the first battle? Without needing one of our airships to provide bombardment or an alicorn dive bombing them?” I asked as I stared at the remnants of what looked like some kind of Xartik transport ship engine. Or maybe it was some kind of recharge pod for Xartik drones since I have no idea how they spaceships looked on the inside. It was the second day after the battle ended which was shortly after my meeting was with Ember and Gregory, where we had the Solar Glory pick up as much of the remnants of the enemy ship and vehicles that they had on board before transporting to one of the bases that lacked a portal. This was due to avoiding the possibility of any hidden drones that could detect an open portal or the risk of an accidental detonation that could threaten a portal site.

“Well, we do have some tank prototypes, though our transport ships lack the strength to deploy them to the battlefield in time, Captain Aura,” Light Pulse answered as he and a pair of assistants were disassembling the engine or recharge pod as I watched. “Though, since we did recover what we assume to be enemy aerial transport ships, we might be able to reverse engineer them to improve our own transports.

“I see, so how long before you figure out how this engine works?” I asked as I pointed at said object, only to get an odd look from Light. "What... this is something else entirely, right?"

"Yes Captain, but your line of thinking wasn't too far off. We believe that this is an anti-gravity device, based on how another machine just like this one reacted during salvaging operations. It had to be disabled by force, but we were lucky to find a couple more of them that was largely intact from the damaged remnants of the enemy ships' hangers. Though, once we understand how the device works and find out how to duplicate its features with our own tech, we could figure out how to employ that on our own aerial vehicles,” Light explained while examining the device.

“I know I might be asking a bit of a stupid question, but why haven’t we built our own anti-gravity generators?” I asked as I ran a few potential reasons through my head.

“The reason is that while we have the spells for anti-gravity, the spell itself drains too much energy and would require a large scale generator that would take too much room on the copters. Currently, our airships are the only option for that, but the power draw is too great thus we have to rely on our thrust engines for the time being. Hence why we need to study these generators as you call them so we can overcome those two problems,” Light explained as the assistants were carefully moving one of the generators components to the side.

“Well, continue the good work, and let’s hope there’s no hidden explosives in some of their gear,” I commented as I started to turn around, only for me to stop when I noticed the flat stares Light and his assistants were shooting at me. “Hey, That is a legitimate deal, not some kind of sick joke. We’re dealing with robot aliens for crying out loud,” I stated with a roll of my eyes before stepping out of the room as I was turning my head around, only to walk face first into someone. “Who the fuck thinks it’s a good idea to stand in front of a fucken door?” I growled out as I took a step back to see the fool, only to raise an eyebrow at what I saw.

“Someone that finds you rather short,” said an orange dragon with a pair of yellow horns pointing straight out of the back of its head. “I thought the ‘vicious’ Captain of the Aegis Guard would be someone of stature, not some short unicorn,” the dragon stated in a feminine voice, as I began to notice the lithe yet still muscular figure she possessed, as she stood at about six and a half feet tall.

Keeping my eyebrow cocked, I asked, “I take it you’re part of the dragon reinforcements sent by Dragon Lord Ember?” as I took stock of the dragon's clothing. She was dressed in a teal uniform that was just a military dress shirt.

Smirking, the dragoness beat her chest with her fist as she declared, “Sergeant Flare, here to help pull your guard out of this mess that you call war.”

Giving Flare a flat stare in return, I simply replied, “Sergeant Flare... are you saying that you judge others by appearances?” as I resisted the urge to just teleport her into the nearest toilet. Even if she’ll just end up breaking it apart upon arrival.

“Well, I’m not going to put stock in what others say, so I need to see something to believe it. So to me, you're just some smaller than average unicorn that became an officer by looking angry all the time," Flare stated, causing my left eye to twitch in response.

"Alright, so I take it you need me to prove my worth to you?" I simply asked as I glared at the young dragoness while bracing my rear legs.

"Didn't I made that ap—" Flare started to say until I jumped straight at her, headbutting her in the stomach. Due to my sudden attack, Flare was just sent backwards with a cry of surprise untill she hit the hallway wall. where I then planted my rear hooves onto her knees before I push off them to get to her neck, my forelegs wrapping around them into a choke hold as I use my momentum to swing the rest of my body around her neck so that it was behind her as I tried to strangle the dragoness.

“What... the fuck are you... doing‽” Flare squeezed out of her jaws as her hands went up to my hooves in a vain attempt to pry them off.

“Showing you that I’m not one to be taken lightly,” I answered as I tighten my hold, causing whatever words Flare was about to say to be silenced as a result. Flare then swung her body around in a futile effort to shake me off, before opting just to smash her back, and thus me, into the walls. Gritting my teeth, I simply commented, “You’re going to lose consciousness first before you could even hope to wear me out this way,” as I ignored the pain from another back slam.

Growing annoyed Flare’s stubbornness, I lit my horn up as I pulled out my taser from my mane, and proceeded to tase Flare by zapping her side. As she started to convulse a bit from the tasing, I stated, “Tap the wall or the floor five times to indicate that you give up. Otherwise, I’ll keep on tasing you without any respite.” Flare continued to struggle, as expected, as she even tried to swipe the taser from me only for me to teleport it to her belly and then onto one of her sides whenever one of her claws got near it. Eventually, she fell to her knees as the scales on her face were turning into a shade of purple as she rapidly tapped the wall. “I said five times, remember?” I said as I kept up my antics, causing her to let out a strangled growl as she tapped the wall five times.

As I finally let go of her neck, Flare fell onto her left claw as her right one was on her neck while she was gasping for air. After a few breathes, Flare turned her head to glare at me as she shouted, “What the fuck is wrong with you‽”

“You weren’t impressed, or more importantly intimidated, by my appearance. And since you mentioned that you rather see things yourself instead of listening to others, I decided a hooves-on demonstration was needed. Or maybe it is still needed, if you need to see more of myself in action,” I explained as I leaned my head towards Flare, keeping on a neutral look like this was a daily occurrence for me.

Jerking her head back when my had gotten closer, Flare replied, “No, I’ve already seen enough to know you’re a psycho! It’s one thing to attack your own ponies to discipline them, but attacking other soldiers is just crazy‽”

Cocking an eyebrow, I countered, “Well, I think your dragon lord would overlook this transgression since she knows quite a bit about the kind of pony I am. I’m now wondering about something. Did you just came to me to see what kind of pony I am, or was there something else as well?”

Gritting her teeth as she looked at me in anger, Flare replied, "Originally, I heard that the Aegis Guard Captain was forming her own personal strike team, and if it supposed to be the elite of the elite, then I would have joined it. But after se—"

"Very well then, you're now a part of my personal team. Let's hope you'll survive the next five battles," I just replied, causing Flare to blink dumbly at me as I wished that I had a camera on me.

"What the fuck! Do you think you can just sa—what do you mean, 'survive the next five battles'?" Flare asked, where she was at first furious until she fully registered what I said.

Shooting her a mocking smirk, I replied, "Don't you know? This isn't some kind of job for glory hunters. My team is meant to do the most dangerous work, so the chance of dying on the field is higher than with other squads or forces. We could even end up deep behind enemy lines depending on how future battles would go. I may be the Captain of the Aegis Guard, but unlike the other Guard Captains, I'm going to be in the front lines of every battle that I can get myself into. In fact, only two ponies have volunteered for my squad, the rest of the team is another pony that I pressed into my team and a changeling assigned by Chrysalis herself. But I'm so glad that you volunteered for my team, could use someone who has claws to use enemy weaponry."

As Flare blinked in a dumbfounded state, I simply walked up to her before slapping jumping up to slap her in the face, eliciting her to say, "What the fuck did you do that for‽"

Giving her a deadpan stare, I replied, "Cause you were stunned by something that I said. Being stunned by anything during a firefight would just result in your brains being blown out by the enemy. We're fighting a robot army made by an alien race, so odds are we're always going to be encountering new and wild things once the Xartik decide to get serious with us. So if you're thinking you're some kind of hot stuff from the dragon army, then prove it to me instead of acting like some kind of dumbass that has overestimated their own skills."

Folding her arms over her chest as she glared at me with what might just be outright hatred, Flare stated, "You're talking a lot of bul—" until I interrupted her when I used my magic to clamp her jaws shunt as I forced her head into eye level with me.

"Just how bloody stubborn are you? And just how stupid are you? Talk to the survivors of the first major battle, some of them actually saw that I got hit by a walker tank round. And if you don't know what a tank is, just think of a heavily armored cannon that can walk over any obstacles," I declared in an annoyed tone before letting go of Flare's snout. Walking past her, I continued on when I said, "Word of advice, you fool. Swallow your pride and realize what is going on. Almost everyone on this planet is just small fry compared to the Xartik's elite forces. This isn't going to be a war like those you read in history books. This war will be just like staring into the Gates of Tartarus and then jumping into it. More so with my squad than with any other." Pausing at the end of the hallway, I turned to look at Flare, who was just staring at me with an expression that was a mix of anger and thoughtfulness. This prompted me to state, "But, I do hope you live up to your attitude, cause if you're as good as the way you act to me today then maybe you'll do something to get yourself in the history books. If we win this war that is," before I turn around to leave Flare to think about what just transpired. Though I really do hope that her stubbornness shows through in the battlefield, I really don't want to be the one spearheading charges when the time calls for it. Taking a tank shell to the face really sucks after all.

Comments

[Omega-82]

At least she didn't break her leg this time

[CuriousCurse]

Ah, classic Astral!

[Omega-82]

9023072
it's Aether
how do people still get it wrong?

[KMCA]

9020318
No chair either, but the taser was used.

At this rate everyone this is going to become an introduction conversation around the campfire.
"So, how's she 'introduce' herself to you?"
"Chair to the face."
"Taser."
"She had me punch a prototype shield with all my strength and I shattered my hoof."
"Dang, she likes you."

[CuriousCurse]

9023144
Dislexia, poor memory, long update times... Things like that.

[Greatazuredragon]

9023832

Great chapter, keep up the awesome story.

[Omega-82]

9024078
I can understand Dislexia because I have it but still if her name is repeted over and over again people should remember it

[CuriousCurse]

9052123
Mostly the last two and that I think there was a similar character I read about somewhere that I mix up somehow

[TitaniumTao]

It is odd, but I do want to at least once see her attack someone, then either lose or fight to a draw.

[Luckyfanisaac]

ended shortly after my meeting with Ember and Gregory,

so we can overcome those two problems,

Smirking, the dragoness was beat her chest with her fist as she declared,

her left claw as as her right one was on her neck while she was gasping for air.

Jerking her head back when my head gotten closer,

I simply walked up to her before slapping jumping up to slap her in the face,