Hegira: Rising Omega

by Guardian_Gryphon

Chapter 16

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
December 9th, Gregorian Calendar

High above the Earth's surface, brushing up against the altitude record for fixed wing flight, Nightwatch One dipped into a shallow southerly turn. The immense emergency command plane was little more than a gray stealth-compound coated shadow, wider than it was long, with a shallow delta wing shape, albeit one of ominous size, and sharp angular edges.

Designed to stay aloft for nearly a month without additional fuel, it could carry hundreds of crew in relative comfort for weeks. Relative comfort in the context of potential armageddon, at any rate.

The fifty two Councilor's onboard had access to the complete suite of command and control systems they could have expected at any ground-based Earthgov installation, three square meters of personal quarters each, and even a special deliberation and broadcast chamber, linked by heavily encrypted SatVision conduits to any media outlet on Earth, or to the fifty five Councilors on the second Command Plane, and the remaining one hundred and eleven Councilors secreted in safehouses and emergency operations centers globally.

The rooms were colloquially known as 'Purgatories' for their spartan, drab design, combined with the morbid thought of what it would mean for one of them to be full.

The Purgatory of Nightwatch One was full, fifty two Councilors each seated around the U-shaped steel table that dominated the room, filling its hard plastic gray seats not quite to capacity in tandem with the dozen military officers present.

A pall hung over the assembled official as the highest ranked military officer, a Force Captain with the Army, rose and cleared her throat. Data and images coalesced onto the chamber's forward floor-to-ceiling wall screen as she spoke, replacing the video conference feed linked to Nightwatch Two, and the safehouse network, even as the audio link remained.

"As of zero seven thirty Greenwich mean time, the facts are these: At zero six fifty four, GMCC monitoring planes following a situation unfolding at the Genesist Collective's Lucapa Facility picked up transmissions of concern. At zero six fifty eight, SatVision confirmed the presence of an extraterrestrial enemy craft above the facility. Commanding General Norris in the GMCC ordered an immediate containment strike with tactical nuclear warheads deployed from deep-stand-off attack bomber group 'Hatchet' over the Mediterranean."

The Captain inhaled deeply, and gestured to the screen. The images elicited gasps and murmurs from the assembled Councilors and Officers alike.

"At zero seven oh four, on orders from JRSF General Hutchinson, railgun rounds from FBB-55 JSS North Carolina struck all three DSOB aircraft in Hatchet group, killing pilot and copilot, and destroying twelve additional strategic warheads. A Falx from North Carolina intercepted and unlawfully destroyed the already launched warheads. General Norris ordered retaliatory strikes at zero seven oh six."

The officer winced internally as she forced herself to intentionally omit the contents of Norris' second strike orders. No sense in priming the Council to side with their enemy yet. She did her best to continue without allowing any hint of her decision to color her tone.

"At zero seven oh seven, the Genesist Collective sleeper ship Shenzhou fired two Apollyon class antimatter weapons in response. Weapon one was targeted to the GMCC under Serranilla Bank, weapon two was targeted to Air and Space Command under Creek Mountain."

Sharp gasps and inhalations swept the room as SatVision footage of the aftermath filled the screen.

"At zero seven oh eight, General Norris engaged the fail safes in her strike assets, and agreed to a ceasefire. This was followed by a twenty five percent strength high-atmosphere early detonation of antimatter weapon one above Serranilla Bank... And a direct ground strike at fifty percent weapon yield on Creek mountain with weapon two."

"God... DAMN!"

The words were whispered by one of the Councilors at the far end of the table, filled as much with shock, and fear as anger. The Force Captain shook her head slowly, and overlaid a series of statistics numbers onto the display with the sweep of one hand in the air.

"Initial projections and analysis show the facility completely obliterated, along with everything in the surrounding environs. Four thousand one hundred and three dead. All Earthgov military personnel and private military contractors."

The euphemism for corporate mercenaries, often used for blackbook work that would otherwise have far exceeded the definitions of 'legal,' and most of whom were also HLF, did not go unnoticed by the Councilors and officers who were more familiar with it. The Force Captain continued unabated.

"No deaths in the GMCC, but three layers of the defense shielding spalled under the shock, rupturing some of the power air and water umbilicals, and more than half the computer systems were crippled when the EMP hit, including the loss of all facility AI. NorthAmerizone power grid AI had slightly more lead time due to distance, and managed to disconnect many breaker relays when the pulses hit, and that saved ninety percent of the critical grid infrastructure on the ground. Power is still out for most of NorthAmerizone, but should be restored by this time tomorrow... But we lost almost a third of the SatVision constellation, sixty two percent of the KeyHole system, and fourteen other various important communications satellites, both civilian and military in the Seranilla detonation. With GMCC crippled, Creek Mountain gone, and the SatVision network stretched extremely thin to cover the holes, we lack a functioning centralized military command and control platform as of this time, and are mostly operating in the blind from more local command posts, with very little centralization of intelligence either."

The Force Captain finally looked up and actually began to lock eyes with the assembled Councilors as she finished the flash briefing.

"Civilian news media is aware of both blasts, and some outlets are reporting the outbreak of civil war. Severe rioting has started across all major cities and settlements at this time, intensifying with every minute, and JRSF forces, backed by ConSec, as well as civilian vigilante gangs, have begun to push Military Police forces away from all Conversion Bureaus, and any heavily mixed-species neighborhoods."

"Well you couldn't have fucked this shit up any harder if you'd tried, now could you have?"

The Force Captain recognized the voice immediately as one of the more hardline Councilors riding aboard Nightwatch Two. Councilor Xaelus.

"With respect? Councilor? The retaliatory strikes Norris ordered after Hatchet was downed are part of the protocols *your* party passed last year in response to the JRSF's threat to fire on Military Police units involved in the suppression of a riot, and---"

A loud tone sounded from the ceiling, cutting off the remainder of the Captain's retort. A moment later a voice filtered up from somewhere in the bowels of the jet's communications and telemetry room.

"Incoming priority transmission from JRSF Centcom on San Cristobal. It is marked 'time sensitive urgent' and bears authenticator keys for multiple JRSF senior staff, as well as the official public key signature of the Gryphon Kingdoms."

Silence fell for several heartbeats. Everyone knew what the addition of the Gryphon Kingdoms' ambassadorial digital public key signature meant. If the message wasn't a declaration of war, it would be the next worst thing.

An Councilor towards the middle of the table, Andrea Miyagi, rose and gestured with her left hand.

"Display transmission, and link to the encrypted teleconference."

The Force Captain had no time to even form an objection.

"Aye ma'am. Decoding, patching, and displaying now."

After several tense seconds of waiting, the image of the official JRSF seal appeared on the screen, followed immediately by the scowling visage of a muscular russet and white female Gryphon in full JRSF combat gear, against the background of a command center.

"I am Paladin Seyal of clan Arrak'Tra, Lieutenant General representing the Gryphon Kingdoms on the JRSF command board, and I have been appointed to deliver a message to the Earthgov Ruling Council. This is a formal declaration of intent, with demands. If any Earthgov Military or Police units take any punitive action, no matter how small, against any Human or Equestrian, whether military or civilian, regardless of citizenship; Then we will not hesitate to fire our remaining two gigaton antimatter warhead directly into GMCC at Serranilla Bank, with simultaneous first-strikes from JRSF naval assets against all remaining Earthgov military and government assets, including all strategic warhead launch points, and the Nightwatch Command Planes. This will be followed by a declaration of unbounded warfare from the Gryphon Kingdoms and all our allies against the Earthgov, and all its Military and Police forces."

The increase in breathing rates for the room was audible. The Force Captain wondered, genuinely, if several of the older Councilors were about to experience serious medical events.

She didn't blame them. It was just a hair shy of every worst case nightmare scenario that the military and the Council had gamed out with AI, and whispered about behind closed doors since the day non-Pony Equestrians had first made contact.

Seyal's message continued without pause.

"You will place all Earthgov military assets into Defense Condition three. You will submit to the presence of armed JRSF liaisons to be physically present in the GMCC at all times. You will disconnect and permanently disable the 'Dead Hand' system. You will turn over control of the SatVision network to the Genesist Collective to act as neutral arbiters of its further use. You will stand down the Military Police force from all areas within twenty square kilometers of any Conversion Bureau, and allow the JRSF and ConSec to assume full protective duties for Conversion Bureaus unopposed in their exclusion zones. You will arrest and strip of all command authority General Anna Norris, and turn her over to the JRSF immediately. You will bring your selection of representatives of the Council, including at least five Councillors, and the acting heads of the GMCC, to Lucapa Facility in ten hours for negotiations of further terms, arbitrated by the Genesist Collective and representatives of the Equestrian Nation."

With each new stipulation, it was as if a hammer had slammed into the chest of every Councilor in the room. Each reacted in their own unique way, but the Force Captain noted that none remained without some display of emotion, often mixed, and universally accompanied by an ashen pallor that betrayed a reflexive panic response.

Begin threatened by a predator tended to do that to a prey species, the Captain reflected sourly. Doubly so when they wielded strategic weapons that could poke holes in planets.

"If you fail to accede to even a single one of these demands within ten hours, but no violent actions are taken by your forces, then precision railgun strikes will commence against all Strategic arsenal launch points, and all Earthgov Air Force airbases, to be followed by Strategic Antimatter detonation on GMCC if unconditional surrender is not received thereafter."

Steep terms. The rebel forces, for that was what they were in the Captain's estimation, were deadly serious. No hint of bluff. And they had already fully demonstrated their resolve once, inflicting a deep and still bleeding wound in the process.

The hits just continued to fall, no one in either Nightwatch Purgatory, nor any of the networked bunkers, having time to compose anything like a cogent verbal response as Seyal barked out words with perfect elocution, and utterly terrifying disposition.

"This message has been formally prepared and signed by the JRSF executive officer board, a duly appointed representative of the Gryphon Kingdoms with full Crown authority, the official ambassador of the Equestrian Nation to the Genesist Collective, and Councilor Janet Martins of the Genesist Collective."

Well shit. That meant there would be precious little chance to drive any kind of wedge between their potential enemies. They were already acting more or less as a collective whole. Perhaps it was the true nightmare scenario after all.

"We are tracking both Nightwatch Command Planes via the Shenzhou's sensors. If you do not acknowledge this message, or if you take any evasive actions to break our sensor lock, we will strike both Command Planes with over the horizon railgun fire. You have fifteen minutes to reply. End Transmission."

A series of numbers, easily parsed as latitudes and longitudes, blinked up after Seyal's visage had disappeared. With a silent internal groan, the Force Captain recognized them as the live pinpoint positions of both Nightwatch planes.

And a time limit to top it all off. That was very clever in the Force Captain's opinion; Leave no room for anything but decisive swift action, but make the cost of any action besides a decisive and swift capitulation horrifying almost beyond measure.

Textbook 'decapitation and seizure of primacy' strike. The Force Captain idly wondered if Gryphons had ever studied WMD warfare theory and game theory, knowing the answer already deep in the pit of her stomach as a poisoned silence hung over the Purgatory chamber.

The silence did not last. The Captain winced at the sheer volume of the shouting as two dozen Councilors and half as many again of her fellow Officers all tried to speak at once, all at high volume, equal parts outrage and panic apparent in their voices.

"REMAIN CALM, ONE AT A TIME!"

The Force Captain prefixed the words with the shrillest whistle she could muster, which was sufficient enough to make the closest Councilors wince and cover their ears.

At last silence fell, and remained stable.

She waited for three beats, then tapped her earpiece.

"Nightwatch One Actual, this is Force Captain Sommers. Place the vehicle in a wide-turn holding pattern. Disarm all active countermeasures, and make no sudden maneuvers of any kind. Relay same orders to Nightwatch Two. Acknowledge."

The pause before the man's voice came back was just long enough to put some tension in Sommers' shoulders.

"Yes sir, acknowledged. Orders relayed to Nightwatch Two. Nightwatch Two Actual acknowledges."

More silence followed. Sommers gestured to her colleagues at the back of the room.

"Tactical analysis?"

A younger man, couldn't have been more than nineteen, stepped forward, nervously running his hand through his short cropped hair.

"With respect; They can do it. And will. No question. We might get six or seven strategic weapons off of DSOBs in an all out exchange, of which about three quarters might hit stationary targets. We can also coordinate RAC strikes, inefficiently and slowly, but If we target military installations, we'll be at a disadvantage because their primary power is concentrated in the Navy, which can evade anything we throw at it. If we strike civilian targets..."

The lieutenant gulped, and an older woman, a Corporal with graying hair standing over his right shoulder finished his thought in deadpan tone.

"If we strike civilian targets, the Gryphons will kill us all."

Sommers raised one eyebrow, then turned her gaze first to the Councilors shown on the teleconference feed, then the ones in her own Purgatory chamber.

"It is the recommendation of this command that at this time we move to capitulate to their terms as-stated."

What other choice was there? The damn bird lions were a force to be reckoned with alone, and even when unarmed but for that with which they'd hatched attached to them. How much worse when backed by other Equestrian allies, with access to JRSF munitions and technology?

And an antimatter warhead still on the board?

That was a recipe for a short war indeed. Very bloody, on both sides to be sure, but very short. And not one Humanity would have even a zero point zero zero one percent chance to win as far as Sommers knew from the AI sims.

There might be substantially fewer Gryphons left at the end, but there would be no self-governed Humans, let alone any armed ones. Hardly any at all above the age of seventeen in the bleakest scenarios, where the Earthgov chose to inflict strategic bombardment on Gryphon civilian populations on Earth, and the Kingdoms responded by executing every single Human adult of fighting age and hale physical disposition who would not surrender, then converting all eligible younger Humans to their species, and the ineligible remainder to Equines.

Not so much the forced Conversions of the PER, as the pragmatic offering with a smile of the only way left out of Hell after a large percent of adult Humans on the planet were reduced to smears, and the land was scorched in radioactive fire.

The AI seemed to think very little of the likelihood for Human surrender at a large scale after the first strikes.

The lieutenant was right. They could do it. Every last bit of it was within their power. They'd almost done it once before to a species with a larger military than even Earthgov's, by numerics, and a roughly equally dangerous biology to their own.

But according to the files Sommers had read, while the Trolls had extracted a blood price for the war from the Gryphons, the Avians had in turn beaten the Trolls to within inches of extinction. Vergant on sparing only the children, were it not for hefty political intervention from Equestria proper.

They would do it again, if provoked sufficiently. And would not stop if strategic weapons had been used on civilian targets. No matter who begged, pleaded, groveled, threatened, or bargained.

And capitulation in the present did not mean wholesale surrender in the future. Plenty of options that spoke to the need to 'live to fight another day.' But Sommers knew the hardline Councilors, the HLF sympathizers in particular, would be a tough sell on that concept.

They wouldn't be thinking in future strategic terms, just in terms of present blood-lust for the four thousand dead, and the damage that Isaac Wrenn had inflicted, and the increasingly bold maneuvers of the JRSF against the Military Police.

They'd want to 'save face.'

As if her train of thought had been prophetic, Councilor Xaelus' voice thundered forth from the room's speakers.

"Capitulate? Force Captain if you suggest anything so moronic again I will have you relieved of duty and shot for treason. What we need now is a strategic deployment and strike plan that will---"

"No."

Though the word was quiet, it was also delivered so firmly, that it cut Xaelus off as if someone had stricken his windpipe.

Sommers' head whipped around to see who had spoken. A young first-term Councilor named Cam Lindstrom. His jaw was set like the bow of a ship, and nothing in his face betrayed anything besides a calm recognizance of the seriousness of the situation. Nothing except for the fire in his eyes.

He rose and straightened the hem of his modem gray sport coat before Xaelus could bluster out a reply, and continued speaking smoothly, with an incredibly natural, and preternaturally calm tone.

"For those of you who don't know me very well, I'm Cam Lindstrom; Bio-Technological Combine party. I want to make sure everyone in this room fully understands the seriousness of this situation. My party has, at my insistence, commissioned several independent studies to simulate the outcomes of war with any number of the Equestrian species."

He raised his hand to cut off any objections, even as several Councilors and Officers drew breath, injecting an explanation into the gap with practiced swiftness.

"Our methods were different from the military's. Instead of asking a Human-template AI to fight another Human-template AI, both loaded with dry technical specifications about the Equestrians' weapons, armor, histories and biology... We bought or commissioned AI patterned off of each and every Equestrian species that we could. And we loaded *them* up with all of those dry statistics, and had them OpFor sim against our best Human-template AI in over a hundred fifty thousand distinct scenario permutations with twenty million iterations. Each."

Lindstrom raised one eyebrow and held out his hands, gesturing expansively to first the Purgatory, then the teleconference screen.

"Would you like to know what happened? Councilors, we did not just lose, and lose in every single iteration of every single scenario. We lost in less than sixty five days. And that was in a best-for-us case simulation where we struck first with the entirety of the strategic arsenal against the JRSF, and all Equestrian potential military beachheads on Earth, and we gave our AI a handicap by way of theoretical strategic weapons that could strike into the barrier from orbit, in the vein of Thor."

Silence greeted Lindstrom's words. Panic rising again. But he was clearly a savvy individual, so he moved first to drive home the punch to the gut, slamming his fist firmly into the conference table with each word of the first sentence, then dropping to a lower, calmer register for the follow up.

"Nine weeks Councilors; That is all it took for them to reduce our military to zero, AFTER we used the hypothetical strategic arsenal of your General's wildest dreams on them in a fantasy best-case opening blitz! I can't even get approval for a damn travel expense in nine weeks. They would have us strung out by our colons already if they really wanted to. The fact that they didn't retaliate by immediately wiping us out is the *good* news. They do not want to hurt us. We have a chance to go on living, and comfortably at that. We should respond *constructively...*"

Cam glanced around at each occupant of the room in turn, finally ending with Xaelus' image on the screen.

"...Or we might as well start picking out our preferred means of suicide. Me, personally, I'd like to die by jumping out of the plane's rear hatch. I've always wondered what flying was like. Perhaps I can assist some of you on your own ways first? I'm sure I could work out how to smother someone with a bunk pillow?"

Sommers found herself deeply impressed. In less than a minute the most junior Councilor in the room had seized the reins of the conversation in an absolutely inescapable grip, all while coming off as completely affable, and exceedingly competent.

Lindstrom nodded once sharply into the silence before speaking again, injecting just the right amount of warmth into his hypnotic tone.

"No takers? Good. Now that mass unconstructive self fuckery is officially off the table, why don't we see to these mostly very sensible arrangements of Seyal's? If it's not too much trouble, I'd appreciate living to see breakfast, terrible galley food on this bird notwithstanding."

Fyrenn

One second there was nothing, and the next she was there. I watched in no small amount of fascination, time slowing to a crawl by reflex, as the pinprick of white-hot light expanded out into a violet and black singularity, then just as quickly snapped into a familiar Equinid shape, finally vanishing in a wreath of dull tendrils with a 'WHUMP' sound.

Veritas looked exactly as she had the last time I'd seen her. At least, when she'd been corporeal, before she morphed into a star filled energy cloud and wisely ran as far as she could from what she had done.

Suddenly it all made a sick kind of sense. The Wisp ship had arrived when we had expected an assault from the PER. The Diamond Dog troopers were a signature of their assaults, and the Wisps had come with Trolls to back them in force. Veritas was certainly no kind of Pony I'd ever seen, and she had a frightening frequency to her appearances in my nightmares, and we'd all seen her transform into some kind of energy being right before our eyes.

I'd suspected there was a connection for a long time. But at last, all the pieces clicked. Veritas was a Wisp. And the Wisps had funded and led the PER... But to what end? I had the sickening threads of an idea, but was too preoccupied with the forthcoming battle to begin tying them together in any meaningful way.

Since I had no ranged weapon to-claw, carbine and pistol long since expended, I settled for raising my sword into a defensive position, and spreading my wings to block access to Skye. In an instant Neyla had taken a similar defensive stance.

For her part, slower though her reaction was, Aston wisely placed herself directly over Skye, deploying heavy shield panels from each forearm to provide a final barrier to assault.

Veritas' voice rang out across the compartment. Cold. Frigid. Like the sucking darkness of deep space, but as a sound.

"I might've known. When they told me you were here, I had a feeling this might require a personal touch."

Rage sang through my sinews like voltage over a high tension wire. I levelled my sword directly at the foul thing's skull, and grated out every word of my reply with as much cold, calm, directed hatred as I could pour into them.

"You killed Robert. You attacked New York. You've tried to destroy Genesis. Your choices made it personal. And you might very soon regret that you did. I warned you I would find you. And end you. And now you're here..."

Beside me, Neyla grinned. And hissed. A predatory sound, and expression, that almost frightened me, and would have been enough to melt even the most courageous Human or Pony into a puddle of weeping begging flesh. The way she finished my thought for me was the cherry on top.

"Big. Mistake."

Skye glanced over her shoulder briefly, and raised one eyebrow.

"Is that bitch-ass purple fuckstick back? I always wondered if she might be a Wisp. You want me to crush her like a bug for you? The way I did the others? I'm almost finished over here, it'd be no trouble. At all."

I allowed only a tenth second to lock eyes with Skye before returning my gaze to Veritas. The Wisp seemed to appreciate Skye's tone, and presence least of all. Canny as she was, she'd probably realized just how much of a threat Skye was.

Veritas' reply was underscored by a dramatic transformation. It began in her hooves, and swept up across her withers and neck, ending in her head, horn, tail, mane, and an ethereal set of wings as she tripled in size. Her coat dropped to a shade of purple so deep it might as well have been black. Her eyes changed to fiery purple flames dancing around teal, almost reptilian slits, more like Changeling eyes than Pony.

"I am no mere Wisp. I am The Nightmare; Queen of all Dispossessed, and ruler of the void. Rightful inheritor of all that our forerunners stole from us. And for your insolence, little foal? I will have you as a host for my most trusted lieutenant. Once I have finished breaking you to my satisfaction, by making you watch everyone else in this room perish. Slowly."

The bright pinpricks of sparkle in her mane shifted into something resembling actual stars against a deep black field so inky and dark, that it made it easier by contrast to pick out the subtle purple still in her fur. As a final touch, a dark crystalline black armored peytral and hoof guards blinked into existence with the sound of rock snapping against metal.

Oh. *Fuck.*

As soon as that intense thought cleared from the front of my mind it was instantly followed by the realization that perhaps it was we who had made the big, very big, mistake.

The not-quite-Alicorn thing in front of me was most definitely not just some small ghostly thing riding along in the brain of a simple Unicorn. It was something that radiated menace, and power, a hate for life, and hunger, just as intensely as Celestia or Luna radiated all the opposite emotions and intentions.

I moved my sword slowly back to a more defensive posture, and murmured over my shoulder to Skye.

"Keep working. We'll handle this. Join us when you're done. Aston? Stay with Skye."

Veritas... The Nightmare... Began to slowly pace back and forth, and as Neyla and I stepped forward slightly, and apart, into a defensive spread. Her chuckle was almost as unnerving as the words that came after it.

"I have waited a long time for this. For revenge on your kind, especially for their outsized part in the first two losses. But as the forerunners still like to say; The third time is the charm."

If she meant Humans when she said forerunners... I had to drop the tantalizing train of thought almost instantly as she fired something that looked like a tear in the very fabric of the universe at a point right between my eyes.

Pulling into the tightest flip I could manage at the fastest rate I could manage, it was barely enough to reduce what would have been a straight shot to a graze against my left side. The bolt sheared a layer off one of the heavier armor plates just by the lightest touch of passage, causing the weak remainder of the area's defensive matrix to flicker before it re-solidified in a thinner depleted layer.

She was fast. Very fast.

And powerful.

But it occurred to me in that moment that she had run from us during the battle in the PER tower. That meant she didn't fancy her odds against Kephic, Varan, Neyla, Skye and I in a confined space. At least, not in the depleted magic environment of Earth.

Who could say what frightening things she'd be capable of in Equestria? I knew that while moving a Thor rod just a hair had nearly cost Celestia her life in Earth's rarefied Thaumatic environment, Luna had erased one from existence, and dumped all of its energy right out of reality, and all it had cost her were a few days' recovery.

We were two Gryphons short of that original compliment, but Aston had power armor, as we all did, and a few shots left in her rifle. And Skye's magic combined with the particle pulses seemed to be able to hurt the Wisps. Badly.

If we could stay alive long enough for Skye and Aston to join the battle, we stood a chance.

I flicked my eyes left to Neyla, and in a microsecond the train of thought passed from me to her, and she nodded once sharply. In the next microsecond, the beginnings of a plan flashed across her eyes, the tips of her ears, and the cant of her stance.

Don't ask me to explain how I knew. But I knew.

So I did the stupidest thing I could imagine, because she needed an opening.

I charged the Nightmare head-on.

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
Twelfth Month, Ninth Day, Celestial Calendar

IJ

For the second time in only a few short days, I found myself staring at dead Changeling corpses on a table. And for the second time, I felt a deep sadness.

They were spread out on two old wooden tables in a commandeered basement room attached to the Night-Guard barracks. A suitable place to conduct a post-mortem away from the eyes of any, but those that could stomach it, and whose expertise was needed.

They weren't mine. They weren't my Drones. I wasn't responsible for them.

They weren't even from my Hive, from the time before my rule; A close examination of their thaumatic signature had answered that question quite swiftly. Rather they seemed to have been directly dispatched by OverQueen Chrysalis herself from the Central Nexus.

But I pitied them deeply. Wished their deaths hadn't been necessary. That they'd been given the same chance I had.

And yet I knew there had been no other way. Never realistically could have been any alternative.

In most stringent technical terms, a round from a Gryphon 'Thunderblade' had been the final cause of death in both cases. Cold comfort. The one bearing savage gashes from my hoofblades would have most certainly died whether or not Kephic had shot him.

I made a strong mental note, dispatched to my second and third in command in the same breath, to begin looking at ways of morphing multi-layered armor structures that would be more resistant to such weapons. And to begin a study as soon as feasible of the utility of mixing manufactured crystal or alloy plates with our own morphic armor for maximum efficiency.

I trusted the Gryphons with my life. Not only did I have no other choice, but I'd seen and experienced enough that even if I did have a choice, I would have chosen to trust them without hesitation or regret.

But technology spreads nearly as fast as rumors. How long before Diamond Dogs, or Yaks, or Minotaurs were armed with similarly potent devices? Or even members of Chrysalis' own forces? That last thought made me shudder.

I could see why Celestia had made the expression she did when she'd seen the guns for the first time.

I was amazed she hadn't said something acerbic to Sildinar then and there. Demanded perhaps that he pack them up and get them out of her city.

But she was too busy I suppose, trying to quell a panic. A balcony address to her subjects had done wonders. She'd even alluded to me as one of her defenders. Already cannily laying the political groundwork for what was to come.

And I was not relishing that which was to come for me, far more imminently.

Stan noticed my discomfort. Somehow he seemed to have reached a point where he knew my feelings with accuracy approaching that of any Changeling linked directly to me. He nibbled softly at the right side of my neck. I didn't pull away. I needed something to ground me before I did what needed to be done.

"I'm sorry. Not for him, he was an ass. But for you."

I sighed, and turned to nuzzle Stan, muzzle to muzzle, keeping my response in the same low tone that denoted a private conversation.

Luna, Kephic, Varan, Sildinar, and Shining Armor were all present. Each made their own attempt to look busy, or in some way otherwise occupied as I spoke.

"They were doing what they were indoctrinated to do from spawn. They never knew any other life. Or any kind of choice."

Stan nodded, and crooked his neck around mine, whispering in my ear as he did so.

"But if either of 'em had killed you, then no one else might get to know that freedom."

I brushed my neck against his, savoring the moment for a long breath. Close contact for exclusive and individuated love was a concept completely alien to life in Chrysalis' Hives.

And for a Changeling, directed love is a potent thing. All the more when it is inexplicably directed right at you in spite of what you are. I'd feebly tried to describe it to him once. A melange of color and scent and taste metaphors to try and pin down something so exquisite that it was almost painful.

So exquisite that I rationed our moments of contact harshly.

I didn't know if Stan fully understood, but I think he understood just well enough.

The truth was that it was extraordinarily hard not to spend every waking moment by his side, and half of those with our lips locked. And that would be a terrible distraction at a time in my life when I most needed clarity and perspicacity.

I rationed our affection both so that I had a future for myself to work towards, not just goals on behalf of others... And because if I gave in completely, it would be like giving a dehydrated and dying Pony water.

How could you ever ask them to stop after tasting something so sweet as fresh, cool, clear water in a desert?

"Thank you."

With the whispered response in his ear, I pulled away, and set to preparing my magic. A cold, sharp, unfeeling, horrifying thing of a spell. Like a poised scalpel above a helpless eyeball. Albeit a dead one in this case.

It still felt so wrong. After so much time spent free of the probing of my mind by others, to inflict it once more, even if the victim was dead already, and the infliction would save future lives.

Get it over with. Plunge the scalpel in. Hesitation only makes it worse.

I reached out with a streamer of faint amber magic, and touched the first infiltrator's horn.

It took less time than a single heartbeat to know that something was very wrong. Considerably longer to figure out precisely what.

Memories flooded into my mind's eye. The last moments of life. A flash of hoofblades. The shock of a passing blur of pink and teal. The crack of a gunshot and a thousandth of a second of white light.

Whispered plans in the castle hallways. The journey to Canterlot from the Central Nexus...

But with each memory, a second layer. As if every event had been experienced twice each time... Once with a detached, yet firm and overriding malicious agency. A red-tinged blue haze that was frighteningly familiar.

And then once again with the more familiar bitter chitinous flavor of a standard Drone, tained sharply by the harsh notes of fear. Even despair.

I severed the link, gasping for air. All eyes in the room were instantly drawn to me. Stan placed one wing comfortingly over my back, a somewhat comical gesture considering our height differences. At the time any amusement was totally lost on me.

I raised my gaze and locked eyes with Luna. I could see my words put a chill in her veins even as I uttered them aloud.

"This infiltrator was being possessed by a Wisp. It had been for some time."

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
December 9th, Gregorian Calendar

Fyrenn

From an external perspective, the fight must have looked like the most terrifying, wondrous, mythic thing a Human could have imagined for a mural. Or maybe a comic book page.

Neyla's initial plan of engagement had gotten us this far; Dancing in and out of Nightmare's strike zones, hammering her with fast strikes and then vanishing in a rhythmic dance that was almost like a musical production in its fluidity.

The Nightmare reared, striking out with both hooves even as my sword came across the strike just in time to deflect it. Neyla seized the brief opening, and dropped from the apex of her wing assisted jump, firing her armor thrusters as she forced the tips of both her sword blades down into Veritas' back.

The 'CLANG' of the basalt hoof-guards against my blade was so intense that it sent pulses down through the blade, my bones, and into the deck plating sufficient to rattle the whole room. Sparks flew everywhere. The impact was matched a tenth second later by the brilliant flare of magic as a microsecond miniature shield stopped one of Neyla's blades, and reduced the trajectory of the second to a glancing hit.

But it was a hit all the same, our first in almost twenty seconds of whirlwind engagement. Though the Nightmare was quick, and clearly deadly, we'd opted to do our best to stick to melee combat. Not just because we lacked ranged weapons, but also because it made it much harder for the Nightmare to hit us with any of her weaponized spells.

Veritas tried to fire off one of those spatial tears again, retribution for Neyla's strike, but the Gryphoness was just slightly faster, sticking a three point hero-landing on Veritas' left side, and bringing up her off-claw sword to deflect the blast.

The tear ricocheted off the alloy of the blade, and punched a three foot hole in the far wall, continuing out into the corridor, and then the void space between decks.

As Veritas turned to make her failed strike, I noted that the blast had laid a deep carbon score into Neyla's blade. But I also saw that Neyla's other blade had indeed drawn blood. A black viscous substance that glistened with points of light, like little chips of mica.

If it bleeds, you can kill it. A longstanding Special Forces rule of combat.

Aston, God bless her timing, must have seen and thought the same, because she chose that exact moment to open up with her carbine. Three searingly bright blue bolts of particle energy. Nightmare was forced to raise three rather significant-energy-expenditure shields to stop them peppering her head and neck.

Barely sparing a picosecond to plan it out, I seized on the dual distraction of Neyla's hit, Nightmare's subsequent miss, and Aston's follow-through to launch my most reckless attack.

With a screech, half lion roar, half eagle keen, and all war-cry, I pushed off the deck, flapped my wings hard, and fired my suit thrusters, first forward and then down. On the down-stroke, I beat both wings against the side of Veritas' head, and I struck at her shoulder with the downward force of the sword.

The blade pierced armor, then flesh, and then with an incredibly satisfying crunch, bone, sinking all the way in up to the hilt patterned after Skye's own cutie mark.

What happened after took place in a span of less than one quarter of a single second.

A cry of rage, and pain, in equal measure. The sound was so loud that the bone plates inside my ears designed to protect against overpressure closed reflexively. A horrifying multi-tonal note that seemed to come from a thousand voices all at once.

At the same time a blast of magic in all directions, so powerful that I had to release my grip on my sword, or risk losing my foreleg. I dimly noticed Neyla being thrown against the chamber's ceiling, then righting herself shakily once the pulse had passed.

For my part, I barely managed to fire my armor thrusters enough to turn what would have been a spine cracking impact with the transparisteel wall of the matter fuel chamber into a beak-jarring impact more equivalent to being shoved by Brelik in a training session.

As I came to rest, I watched Nightmare's enraged and pained expression morph into a sneer that was all of the former, and none of the latter. She glowered, and an immensely powerful spellweave flew into existence around her horn.

With a 'CRACK' as loud as thunder that rattled the entire deck, I watched the majority of my sword wink out of existence from its place still lodged in Veritas' shoulder, as if struck by lightning. A feat against the Gryphic alloy that not even Genesist particle weapons could remotely replicate.

The singed and cracked hilt fell to the deck with a mournful clang of metal on metal.

How I wished in that moment for my short dirks. Tucked safely into their slots in my Gryphic armor, and painfully far out of reach.

As if in response to the thought, Neyla slid one of her own blades across the deck, passing it between the space of Nightmare's hooves at blinding speed. I snagged the weapon, and rolled forward into a fresh attack maneuver.

Ignoring the assault, as well as Neyla's supporting feint, Veritas instead did the one thing I truly feared.

She fired a searing and massive bolt of energy directly at Skye.

Aston was slow by Gryphon standards, as any Human would be, but in Earthly terms she was very quick of reflexes. And she had the advantage of only needing to take a very small half-step.

Knowing exactly what she was doing, to my horror, with no time for anyone else to offer any added defense, or assistance, she took a firm half-step to her left, placing the entire armored bulk of her body between the bolt, and Skye.

I watched in a frigid, hollow mix of anger, pain, and fear as the spatial rip ate through her frontal armor like a railgun round through a thin steel plate, and travelled right through her sternum. Mercifully the maneuver was not in vain, and the rear plating of the armor sapped the last of the bolt's energy, the rest having been spent on the frontal armor, bone, and flesh.

Every motion in the room came to a halt. A whole heartbeat passed, during which Aston glanced down at the through-and-through hole in her body, then up at me.

Veritas leered triumphantly. A smile that lent me all the impetus I needed.

With no care for myself in the moment, I charged, body slamming the not-quite-Alicorn in a move that was so stupid, and so brutal, that it actually got the better of her. I sank my left talons into the flesh of her neck, ignoring the horrific frigid cold that overtook them, so intense that it almost felt like a burning white-hot lump of lead had been drizzled onto them.

As Veritas screamed in pain again, I raked my talons deep into the sinews of her neck, all the while beating against her skull with my wing joints, like an angry swan let off the chain, and savaging her side with Neyla's sword using both front and back blades alike.

The creature's black ichor began to flow freely, drenching us both in frosty acidic gunk that hurt like the devil. Neyla struck next, embedding her own blade up to its hilt in Vertas' other side again. And again. And again.

And then Skye stuck.

The sizzling teal and sky blue interweaved bolt came out of nowhere, like thunder on a clear day, slamming into Nightmare's skull with a force that dragged all three of us backwards several steps.

Another cry, but this time one in a voice I only half recognized. It sounded like Veritas, but not quite. And there was no hint of anything like the eerie chorus of the Wisp. for a tenth of a second, Veritas' eyes flashed to the brink pink round pupiled orbs of a Pony.

A shadowy apparition, part starfield, part void of pure evil, flicked into existence just to the side of Veritas' head, before snapping back. The slit teal eyes wreathed in fire returned. But there was something new behind them.

Real, true fear.

Gotcha now you monster.

I threw my whole weight, and every last erg of the suit's thruster power into one final shoulder-slam, forcing the stunned Nightmare first into the far wall with a loud 'CRACK' and then down onto the deck.

She glowered up at me as I raised Neyla's sword, firing off a shockingly complex spellweave in an incredibly short time, somewhere over my shoulder in the direction of the antimatter, before squeezing out a shield to deflect my strike.

As the blade connected, I watched one final spell form over her horn, words hissing out from between clenched teeth as she began to vanish away into a familiar looking microsingularity.

"Die. Cursed Champion of Seldar. In fire."

I staggered back as the shockwave of air filling the recently vacated space resonated in my chest, collapsing to the deck as my adrenaline surge began to slow. The pain of the offensive and defensive wounds that Nightmare, and the Wisps that had come before, had inflicted on me began to return in force.

I could smell a fair bit of my own blood in my feathers.

I turned my head to see Neyla had already ripped the emergency scabbie foam pack from Aston's leg hardpoint, and began to spray the substance with abandon into her gaping wound.

Skye was preoccupied with the torpedo, and the antimatter bottle again, now wreathed, I realized with rising panic, in twin halos of dark black and purple magic.

Skye's next words did nothing to disabuse me of my fear.

"Oh. We are *so* dead."

Comments

[Numinos]

Ooooh, that was quite an epic fight. Also, a little hints and nudges lore-wise. Looking forward for more!

[17JosephLC]

I hope Aston makes it long enough to get the Gryphonization potion into her. That’ll fix her right up.

Also, props to the Councilor guy who actually has a working brain in his skull. With him at the helm, there might be some self-governing Humans left after this whole situation gets cleared up.

[Guardian_Gryphon]

11030293
Oh... There is so much in the next few chapters. It's not even funny. The dike bursts and a whole mess comes roiling out.

11030465
In reference to both items; We shall see...