Meliora

by Starscribe

Chapter 29: Lucifugus

The Spirit of Eternity was a relic out of time. As Jackie walked through its halls, she passed many signs of age. Rusting patches of wall that had been hastily filled in with crystal polymer. A maintenance drone polishing the same spot of ground so much it had reached the metal underneath. Windows that had been patched with glue, whole sections of conduit left exposed. It was, effectively, held together with duct tape and string.

But it had a crew. Her freakish monstrosity of an escort had already given her the manifest, for her to casually examine as she continued with her inspection. There were only fifty ponies aboard to maintain a ship that would’ve taken thousands if it were on old Earth. Then there were ten thousand marines. Not one of those were expected to see combat—their involvement was listed as “reserve, emergencies only.” But they were on their own more of a foe than Jackie was confident they could repel.

This is too soon. It wasn’t supposed to happen yet. All of this is wrong. She should’ve had longer to prepare. Maybe they would survive if she had.

Then again, Jackie knew more about the Worldship class of battlecruisers than almost anypony left alive. They had several key vulnerabilities—most of which were connected to their power. They were primarily designed for orbital use, and so ran into trouble when they spent too much time in atmosphere. They had trouble dealing with all the heat of friction, so they moved at a crawl compared to what they could handle out in orbit. None of the energy weapons would function in air either.

“This is our war-plan,” said her escort, shifting the tablet computer to a new page. It was something terribly simple, simple enough Jackie’s breath nearly caught in her throat. They were to fly the entire route in orbit, then bombard the city from height until there was no life detected below. They would land no troops, and never fly low enough for even a daring suicide mission.

If we do this, every bat in Meliora will die. And almost worse, the population of the dream world side wouldn’t die, but their dream would suddenly become unstable. A million people, not even all bats, would be trapped in the dream world without an incoming supply of magic and with no path back. They wouldn’t just die in there, they’d get warped and twisted into dream spirits driven by rage and fury. All of the Dreamlands might very well become unsafe for travelers for centuries after that—to say nothing of half the world’s thestrals basically executed at a single stroke.

“Do I have leave to conduct this mission as I wish?” Jackie asked. “Or am I really a piece in the machine to carry it out?”

This seemed to catch the freakish pony a little off-guard. It dropped slightly in its levitation, and seemed to be communicating with someone unseen. It kept muttering to itself, its eyes darting rapidly about in empty air. “You have leave,” the creature eventually said. “Of course. Or else you would not be in command.”

“Then I’m going to make a change here.” She pointed to the second half of the plan, when it mentioned bombard position. “No rods of god. I want the images of this attack to prevent future rebellions. A painless, unforeseen death is too kind. Maybe after their first defiance, but not anymore.”

The pony seemed curious, almost amused. Its eyebrows probably would’ve gone up, if it had any. “Too kind?”

“I don’t want to fight another rebellion,” Jackie said, putting as much spite into her tone as she could. “I don’t want my children to fight another one either. We don’t want ponies in Mundi to think that the worst waiting for them is a death so fast they never see it coming. I want them to feel the flames.”

She took the pad again, skimming to a new page and adjusting the flight coordinates until they were low enough for ponies to fly. “We will attack from here.”

“That will render the Damocles system useless,” the monster protested. But it wasn’t angry—there was very little of emotion to anything it did. “That seems like an uncharacteristic tactical error.”

“Not an error,” she said. “A decision. We have conventional rockets, bombs, soldiers… instead of killing them over a few minutes, I want to kill them over days.” She switched to the map page. “Before we drop out of orbit, we’ll shell the area around the city. Form a killing field. Then we’ll deploy our marines, make a perimeter. We’ll capture every pony who tries to flee, bring them up here. Make them watch.”

“Watch,” the monster repeated. “Watch what?”

“Once the perimeter is secure, we’ll start bombing. We won’t target anything in particular—but over a few days, we should systematically exterminate everything in the border. We can get drone cameras in while we do it, broadcasting everything back to Mundi. There are more thestrals there, and others who might see what happened with this rebellion and want to do their own. We make sure that never happens. Don’t just win this war, we win them all.”

The creature stared at her, its eyes skimming rapidly over the changes she made to the deployment outline. Eventually the creature nodded. When it spoke, the voice was no longer the distorted, genderless mess. It spoke with Athena’s voice. Its eyes no longer flicked about without purpose. So you do have some free will. When your master isn’t using you.

“Are you willing to stake your future on that claim, Evelyn? I am far better at generating heuristics than any mortal, even a skilled general. I designed this attack strategy.”

A test—though what was being tested was hard to say. Was she trying to verify Jackie’s imitation of the personality, her loyalty… what? She tensed a little, readying to grab the knife if she needed it. Though whether it would be enough against an abomination of genetic engineering like this, she couldn’t know.

“I don’t believe I am better at anything than you are, goddess.” Was that the right form of address? How much did the generals know about Athena’s true nature now that Jackie herself had ended the Alicorn charade? “Your plan would be less costly, more certain to bring success, and easier to execute. Not one soldier would be put into harm’s way. My way would give us a chance of winning not just this battle, but those yet to come.”

The monster drifted right up to her, its body waving in the air. She could taste the slightly acidic breath it exhaled, the smell of antiseptic. It didn’t look completely alive, though she could feel none of the magic of necromancy. It was something in-between, neither quite alive nor quite dead.

Eventually it looked away. “I see you are convinced. Very well—I grant you permission to try. More troops will certainly perish in this manner—it would not be a needless waste, but an expenditure. Know this, Evelyn. I will make this slaughter your reputation, not mine. In the records that follow, it will be known that you took matters into your own hooves, and rose above your station. I permitted you only because I did not know your true intentions. If the people of Axis Mundi one day call for your head, when rebellions end and more civil minds return to power, they will have it.”

“I joined the military to protect Mundi at the cost of my own life,” she said. “If I die in a quiet execution a hundred years from now, you will know why I really died. That will be enough.”

The creature sunk several inches, and its voice returned to the fractured chaos it had been. “We launch in minutes. Is there anything else you require to conduct this… modified invasion?”

“Yes,” she said. “A few minutes to consider, actually. It is a different plan than the one our goddess designed. I’m not sure if these things will be available.”

Jackie went into the tablet again, opening the inventory management system and searching through it seemingly at random. She selected several of the strangest items that were marked in red—a color signifying ‘fabrication needed.’

The list grew larger, and the creature beside her grew more annoyed. “A live-deployable five kilometer pontoon bridge?” it asked, skimming the list.

“My plan involves isolating the rebels completely. They have sea access, and might have ships.”

“We are not aware of a significant naval force. There are not more than a handful of seaponies in the entire city. We have been in contact with the embassy.”

Shit. But she couldn’t say that. “I’m sure your information is accurate. But my plan fails completely if we don’t destroy that city. If a single ship escapes to share the story, then our victory will be half as significant. It can’t be risked.”

The pony made a guttural, strangled grunting sound, and didn’t argue further. “A thousand canine-style search and rescue drones.”

And so they went, wasting another hour at least. She hadn’t won everything from the list—but by the time it was all said and done, the monster took the screen, turning away from her. “This will require eight additional hours before we deploy. But… your requests are approved. I will… ensure that fabrication is as smooth and rapid as possible. Continue to prepare your war-plan… but do not leave the Spirit of Eternity. You will not be leaving this vessel until the results of this strategy are known.”

Finally, at last, Jackie was alone. In an office of some kind, without even the burden of her inferiors to infringe on her company. But those would be arriving soon, and she would need to remain present for the entirety of the expedition.

Present, yes. And it was true that there was no chance Jackie could try slipping away into the Dreamlands and back again. Even if her trip took her only an instant of real-time, that kind of discrepancy was something Athena could notice. She had already demonstrated that some of her attention was on Jackie now. Probably she’s monitoring my heartbeat right now. Every second I wait I’m only giving her more of a chance to realize who I am.

But Ezri had trained her, and she wouldn’t make a mockery of their lifetime together by forgetting everything she’d learned. Jackie kept herself calm, and continued sketching out the war-plan.

The trick would be to populate it with as many holes as possible, holes that Meliora could use to turn it to their advantage. Already she had taken it from completely unbeatable to almost impossible.

But how could she make the plan flawed enough for Meliora to stop them, without making it so obviously compromised that Athena noticed and killed her?

How can we bring down this damn battlecruiser? A smile formed slowly on her lips, where fangs would’ve been exposed if she wore another shape. Maybe we don’t have to just survive it. She was frankly sick of losing to that damn computer program—it was time to win something for once.

And the first step was the one way she knew she’d never be detected—she just waited until she could get away with a little sleep. She’d already been up for hours and they wouldn’t be leaving for several more. After writing up a decent draft to the war plan, Jackie rose, found the nearest low-officer, and informed them that she would be resting in her cabin for the next three hours.

“Permit nopony to disturb me,” she ordered. She shut the door into the captain’s spacious berth, making her way past gold-filigree marble to the massive four-poster. If Athena figures out who I am before I wake up, I’m dead. She couldn’t cast any real unicorn spells over her body to wake her if somepony got close—that would be too suspicious.

So she fell into sleep, and into the one place where she might be able to stop her city from being exterminated.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

As I said before, magnificent tension. I'm right there with Jackie in terms of not knowing how much Athena knows.

Also, the genetic abomination just gets creepier and creepier. What other horrors has Athena wrought?

[Yami Vizzini]

Man, Jackie is either supremely lucky or being supremely played....

[Helium]

Athena has no use in just wiping out Meliora. She wants competition and a one sided war thats over before it began likely doesnt serve that purpose. Jackie is getting played again for sure... But she has no alternatives it seems...