Marcel sat in the captain’s chair, glaring out of the viewport at the pair of enemy cruisers. His fingers drummed against the arms of his chair as he awaited a response from the ground teams. Nervous tension filled the air, and the Captain could practically smell the younger crew members’ nervous sweat as they silently worked their individual stations. A few kept throwing glances towards him before turning back to their consoles. They had slowly brought the ship back around from the dark-side of the planet in preparation for their attack, and now all they could do was wait.

A grimace graced his face as the side of his fist suddenly pounded against the arm of his chair, making several of the younger men and women jump. “What the hell is taking him so long?” Marcel fumed, “It’s been too long, we may as well have a giant bull’s-eye painted on the hull.”

A crackle of static came from the comm station, cutting of the Captain mid-rant as the young Colonel’s voice rang out, “Captain, we are ready. Just wipe out one of the ships, and we’ll do the rest.”

Marcel couldn’t stop a brief snigger, “What, from down there?”

“Yes.” The Colonel replied firmly, “Princess Celestia swears they can pull it off, and I trust her.” He paused before adding, “And the Princess says to stay out of the path of the sun.”

The comm went dead and everyone looked towards the Captain, their breath held as they awaited his word. His aged eyes looked out of the view port once more, and a thin, devilish smile graced his lips, “You heard the Colonel, we got a cruiser to take down! Order all hands to combat status! Ready the missile pods, and get the Mag Cannon charged!”

A chorus of affirmatives rang out as the young crewmen began gearing the ship up for a fight. Marcel could feel the power thrumming through his ship as it came to life, almost as eager for the fight as he was. The crew spoke in excited shouts, each sailor swinging between anticipation of battle and fear. A few of them seemed ready to crack under the stress; their brows soaked with sweat and tension showed in their young shoulders. The Captain silently hoped that they wouldn’t break when the fight actually started.

One of the enemy warships ponderously turned in their direction. Marcel felt his heart thunder in anticipation of the fight as he ordered the ship to come around the moon. The ship’s engines roared to life, and soon they were powering for the pair of cruisers. A small swarm of fighter craft scattered from the hanger bay of the frigate forming a protective cloud. Bright flashes of light appeared around the larger enemy ships as their own small vessels.

The smaller enemy craft closed in with the humans’ vessel, only to be quickly eliminated by the experienced human pilots supported by anti-air guns spread along the Remembrance’s hull. Marcel couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across his face as his ship pushed past the debris without a pause. His eyes scanned the pair of cruisers, searching for a weakness. They had begun to turn in formation, each staying close to the other’s side. Maybe a little too close…

“Hm…” the Captain pondered aloud, “They’re not too bright… I wonder…” His smirk cranked up a notch and he called, “Fosters, bring us abreast of the cruisers, and keep our nose pointed at ‘em. Don’t give ‘em time to maneuver.”

“Sir?” the helmsman asked, “Are you sure about that sir?”

“You countermanding my orders Lieutenant?” Marcel asked in a calm, cold tone.

“No sir!” she barked, “But regulations state that a helmsman may if said orders put unnecessary risk on the crew or the ship, sir!” A brief pause, then she added with a smirk, “But they never told us what to do if your Captain is batshit insane, sir.”

The words caught him off guard, but gave him a bit of hope. Not all of his crew would be spineless, at least. “What you do if your Captain is, as you say, “batshit insane”, is follow orders.”

“Aye-aye sir!” she called, and quickly plotted a course on her nav console. The Remembrance surged forward, circling around the slower ships easily. The bridge crew glanced from their consoles to stare at the enemy ships before ducking back to their work.

The Cye cruisers whirled in place to track the human frigate, and Marcel found himself holding his breath silently. As they turned, the enemy ship’s bow on far side clipped the stern of the fore-ship. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to cause any major damage, but it did cause the fore ship to over-spin. Now the Cye ship acted as a barrier against the other ship, while giving the Remembrance an easy target.

“Fire the cannon!” Marcel called out, “And give the metal bastards a nice salvo of missiles.”

Thunder emanated from below the deck and a dark-red glowing streak of molten metal passed through the short distance to strike the enemy amidships. The magnetically fired round tore through the Cye ship, leaving behind a gaping, splintered hole in its middle. Several chemical contrails crossed over to dot the enemy’s hull with brief flashes of fire.

Glittering clouds of shattered metal spread from the broken warship as the bridge crew cheered their victory. The other ship held in place as its robotic pilots tried to make sense of what happened. Before too long its bow began to nose under the dead ship, eager for blood. The glinting silver metal appeared from under its ally’s shadow, startling the Captain with a realization; he had put himself between his foe and the sun.

“Good shot Simmons,” Marcel called encouragingly, receiving a bright smile from the middle-aged man at the console in return, “damn fine job all of you. But now Fosters, time t’ get us the hell outta here. Burn for as far away as we can get, and stay outta the way of the sun.”

“Yes… sir?” she responded confusedly as she tapped a new course into her nav computer. The ship’s engines hurtled them away from the now dead cruiser and its lumbering friend.

They were well away from the slower vessel before it could remove itself from the grip of its ally’s lifeless husk. The enemy warship turned and began to give chase, emerging from the shadow of the other cruiser into the bright sunlight. Intense white light blasted from the ship’ engines as it made to pursue the smaller human frigate.

The Captain nodded to his communication officer and ordered, “Get me the Colonel.”

For a moment the bridge was silent, until the young Colonel’s voice crackled across the comm, “Are you ready for support?”

“Damn straight!” the grizzled old sailor barked, “Send ‘em to the recycle bin!” The line went dead, and Marcel was left to wonder what the groundside team had planned.

He didn’t have long to wait. One of the crew manning the scanners stared at her console in confusion before calling, “Uh sir, I’ve got a radiation spike.”

“From the planet?” asked the Captain, glancing expectantly towards the green and blue orb just visible in his view screen.

“Uh…” the ensign stammered, “No sir. It’s coming from the sun.”

For a moment Marcel’s mind blanked out at her words. He gave his head a brief shake and called, “Turn us around, this I gotta see.”

The ship quickly rotated back towards their foe; when the larger warship and the sun filled the viewport the Captain’s jaw dropped. The glass darkened to save the eyes of everyone on the bridge, but it didn’t stop them from seeing the surface of the sun change. A bulge seemed to appear on the ball of burning gas. From the bubbled area a single, bright line of concentrated heat and light burst forth to strike the bow of the Cye ship. The light was so powerful that, even with the viewport at its darkest setting, it was blinding

Metal boiled away from the contact only to refreeze in the vacuum, giving the doomed ship a glittering aura. The ray slowly tracked back along the ship towards the stern and neatly cleaving the warship in half. Armor gave way without a fight, and the ship seemed to writhe in pain from the new stresses on its hull. The line of light traced further towards the ship’s stern and struck the reactor, detonating it and turning the dying ship into a brief sun.

Deafening silence filled the bridge as each sailor tried to wrap their heads around what had happened. Captain Marcel stared at the debris field that used to be an enemy warship and forced himself to swallow past the lump in his throat. His voice was weak and shaky as he called out, “Get the Colonel back on the line; I wanna find out what the hell just happened!”

Short-lived gusts of wind blew from Celestia’s wings as she settled back to her hooves. Jaze couldn’t stop himself from staring at the snow-white alicorn, his mind reeling with shock. Light slowly faded from her eyes as they settled back to their usual violet color. They were standing in the torn up ground in front of the trench line, accompanied by Luna. The air seemed far warmer than it had moments before, and the remains of the Cye cruiser could be seen making bright, burning streaks across the sky.

She turned to look at him with a soft smile before her knees gave out and she collapsed. He rushed to the falling Princess’s side just behind her younger sister, between them able to keep the tall pony from crashing to the ground. The Solar Princess shook her head to try and clear it while the pair holding her studied her worriedly. She felt surprisingly warm against the young Colonel’s hands, almost feverish, and he could feel her trembling slightly with exhaustion.

“Are you alright?” Luna asked softly as she held her sister up.

Celestia smiled reassuringly, but her voice was weak and tired, “Do not worry sister, I am fine. I just have not used that much magic in a very long time.”

“With all due respect Princess, you’re not fine.” Jaze whispered angrily, “You look like death warmed over. Why did you do that?”

“It worked, did it not?” the elder Princess replied smugly. “This way, we didn’t risk any more soldiers in a risky battle inside one of those ships.”

He opened his mouth to argue, only to close it again in frustration. Her logic was sound, though the dark-haired soldier wished she had told him her plan first. He heaved a sigh and admitted, “Yes, that may be true. But you could have been hurt, and then where would that leave us?”

Before the tall alicorn could respond, his comm crackled and the voice of a perturbed Captain Marcel practically screamed in his ear, “What the ever-loving HELL was that?!”

Jaze looked to Luna and silently asked her to take hold of her sister for a while. The dark-blue alicorn nodded and moved to take the taller pony’s full weight. He gave a quick nod of thanks and put a finger to the small device in his ear to answer, “What did it look like?”

“It looked like the gorram sun got pissed and just blew the hell outta a warship!” the Captain spat, “The hell did you do?”

A grin spread across Jaze’s face despite his efforts to stop it, though he just managed to stave off laughter enough to say, “I told you not to underestimate these ponies.”

Static washed over the Colonel’s ear as Marcel heaved a sigh, “Never said they could make the friggen sun as a weapon.” He paused a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing, “But, to business. We’ve got roughly a hundred Marines aboard the Remembrance, would you like them groundside?”

Relief spread across Jaze’s face, “That would be great; we could use the help down here.” His face darkened and he glared over the broken field, “We lost a lot of good people.”

Silence buzzed through the comm for a moment before Marcel gently said, “They didn’t die for nothing kid. Why don’tcha tell your people to take a break, they damn well earned it. What y’all did today is nothing short of miraculous.”

“But we’ve got a lot of work…”

“Sod the work!” the Captain growled, “I’ve got a hundred soldiers here who’ve got nothing better to do, let them do some heavy lifting for a bit. Have your men get some shut eye, they need it.”

“I think we will take you up on that, as much as we can.”

Luna waved a hoof to catch his attention, and asked, “Do they have any medical personnel aboard? Our doctors and nurses are over worked but there are still many wounded that need attention.”

“I heard, and we’ve got a full medical suite.” Marcel answered, “I’ll send down the docs and supplies to help out as well. Anything else?”

“I think that’s it.” Tension eased from the scarred soldier’s shoulders as he added, “Some rest sounds great about now.”

Jaze could hear the smile on the Captain’s face as he said, “Rest, relax, and enjoy it. That’s an order soldier!”

Dmitri failed to suppress a sigh of relief as an earth-pony nurse propped up his injured leg. He was in a single-occupant room at the local hospital, the Marine medical tents having become over full, sitting on the same uncomfortable bed that seemed to grow in every hospital in the galaxy. The bed was shoved up against the wall opposite the door, while a small instrument table took the place of a night stand. A few monitors were located unused against the wall to his right, and an IV stood guard over the left wall.

The nurse, a mare with stunning gold eyes, a mahogany coat, and a flaxen mane, helped him remove his armored suit. Soon he was left wearing nothing but his underclothes. Cool air flowed over his bare skin, a welcome break from being cooped up in his sweaty armor for so long. His eyes shut as he leaned back against the wall of the small room. There was no where he needed to be anymore; he was free for the moment. Pain lanced up his leg, reminding him of the price for this calm.

He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride; he had saved someone. The pain knifed through him and made every twitch of his leg nearly unbearable, but it had been worth it. Remembering the kid and her older sister together still put a soft smile on his face, though his smile turned into a confused frown as the memory continued to the quick kiss the orange pony had given him. Even now, his heart thudded as he recalled the brief touch of her soft lips against his cheek, and his stomach roiled nervously as if he was in a fight.

A brief tap on his arm drew him back to the present. He looked up to see the nurse giving him a warm smile while her hoof rested on his arm. Her voice was soft and sweet, but only just managed to be calm as she stated, “A doctor should be here to help you soon, but there are a lot of a patients with more grievous injuries than you. It may take awhile for you to be seen to.”

Dmitri nodded in understanding, “Don’t worry, I get it.”

The nurse looked relieved as she nodded and turned to leave, but on her way out the door opened to admit Applejack. The orange pony had a look of worry on her face that slowly settled into relief as she looked at the shirtless man on the bed. She turned to the nurse and quickly asked, “Is it alrigh’ if Ah stay here with him fer a while?”

The mahogany nurse gave a smile and a wink, “Of course, your coltfriend could use the company.”

Applejack’s face colored and her voice filled with nervous tension, “But he’s not my…” The golden-eyed nurse ignored the farmpony’s protests and quickly left, leaving behind a very flustered Applejack.

The farmer’s eyes turned back towards the young man on the bed. Her gaze was strictly focused on his face, and after a moment he realized why. His exposed skin reddened to match her crimson cheeks. Every so often he could see her eyes flick across his exposed form before jumping back to his face. The sound of his heartbeat thundered in his ears, and it grew quicker with each passing second.

A rumbling noise emanated from his throat as he tried to get his voice to work. He tried several times to speak, but each time he could only flap his jaws uselessly until he finally stopped. Humiliation filled his mind at his own inability to speak; for some odd reason he still couldn’t get the feeling of her lips on his cheek out of his mind.

“Er… Hey Dmitri.” Applejack finally managed to spit out, sounding just as flustered as he felt.

“Y-yeah AJ? What’s up?”

“Ah… Ah jus’ wanted t’ say…” She gulped and whispered, “Thanks, again. If ya hadn’t been there…”

A smile spread across his face, and he waved his hand dismissively, “It was nothing, really. Anyone would have done it; I just happened to be the one around.”

“Not e’erypony woulda done that Dmitri. Lotsa folks woulda just let ‘Bloom d… di…” She swallowed hard and continued shakily, “Woulda let ‘er get hurt. Ya didn’ let that happen, and I ‘preciate it. Yer a good stallion; Ah mean, yer a good man. Yer a lot stronger than I had thought when I first saw ya in Jaze ‘n Trixie’s house.”

Deep green pools locked to his, and once more his heart began to pound. Seeing the gratitude in her eyes made a strange warmth roil through him. He was suddenly aware of her wandering gaze, and his cheeks shone brightly. Even the twinges of pain from his leg went ignored as he stared into the absorbing green orbs of the pony. He felt he should say something, anything, to her, but he couldn’t find proper words again. His mouth opened to speak, only to have the door burst open and a flustered looking golden-yellow, pink maned pegasus pony with saddlebags laden with medical supplies stepped into the room.

“Oh my gosh I am so sorry it took so long!” the winged pony exclaimed, though her voice was still barely above a whisper, “I’m…”

Applejack failed to stifle a quick laugh, which brought the yellow pegasus around to where the earth-pony had stepped out of the way of the door. The farmer smiled warmly and took her friend in a brief, one-legged hug, “Hang on there Fluttershy, yer alrigh’. We was tol’ that it could be awhile ‘for anypony got here.”

“A-Applejack?” stuttered the flustered pony. Confusion shone in her eyes as she looked between her orange friend and the injured human on the bed. Her face lit up with sudden understanding, and she mumbled, “Sorry… didn’t want to interrupt anything…I’ll just go now…”

The timid pegasus turned to leave, but her friend caught her gently by the shoulders and pulled her back into the room, “Don’ go! Dmitri needs a doc; he’s hurt pretty bad.”

Fluttershy gasped, her hoof flying to her mouth, and whispered, “Oh goodness, I forgot! Oh please don’t be mad at me, I…”

“Ms. Fluttershy!” Sands called forcefully, startling the nervous pegasus, “I’m not mad, but I do have a very painful hole in my leg. So could you fix that, please?”

“Oh, r-right…” The winged pony unwrapped his leg with great care, not batting an eye at the bloody wound. Applejack turned her head away as her usually-timid friend set to work on the young soldier.

From the clench of her jaw, he could tell the apple farmer was close to being sick. That, and the decidedly green tinge just peeking out of her fur. Every bone in his body wanted to tell her to leave, and yet he stopped the words from leaving his mouth. Despite her looking ill, he felt more at ease with her near. She turned to give him a brief, comforting smile before turning away again.

A soft smile spread on his own face that quickly turned to a grimace and a hiss of pain. Fluttershy had begun cleaning the wound with a cotton swab soaked in a burning liquid, and it took every ounce of willpower he possessed not to cry out. His hands wrapped around the edge of the bed in a white-knuckled grip; he refused to utter a word in front of the orange mare. Her praise rang loudly in his ears; he wanted to prove himself worthy of that praise. He was tough, he could handle this. No problem.

Still, he was relieved when the swab was removed and the timid mare began to rewrap the bullet-wound with sterile bandages laced with both antibiotics and healing spells courtesy of the resident unicorn physicians. Cooling sensations swept aside the pain in waves of sweet relief; the spells obviously worked. Fluttershy finished wrapping his wound, tying the bandages tight against his leg to keep them in place, and stepped back to inspect her work.

He looked at the shy pony and gave an encouraging grin, “There, fixed. That wasn’t so bad.”

“Right.” Fluttershy looked up at him with the sternest, most intimidating face she could manage, which still failed to impress the young soldier, and ordered, “N-now you can’t-t b-be moving around. So no walking, jumping, running, or any strenuous activity. And definitely no f… fi… figh…”

“No frolicking in the flowers; got it.” When she looked up in confusion, he gave a small wink and smile to let her know he had understood what she really meant.

Relief flooded her eyes, and the timid pony packed up her medical supplies and turned to leave, “No I’ll get out of your manes; I can understand wanting to be alone. Together.” Crimson patches splashed across her yellow cheeks, and the pegasus quickly left without a backwards glance.

“But we’re not…” Applejack called after her friend just in time for the door to click closed behind the pony’s bright-pink tail. Her dark green eyes turned back to his, confusion sparking in them.

Dmitri couldn’t hold back a laugh as he said, “Why does everyone seem to think we’re an item?”

Long, black bags filled with the men and women, mares and stallions who had given their lives in the trenches just outside Ponyville were laid in neat rows behind the medical tents. Several of the tents had to be removed to make way so the bodies wouldn’t be stacked atop each other; a fact that had Jaze’s heart aching with sorrow. His gilded armor glinted in the sunlight, the inner layer slowly becoming damp with sweat.

He stared out over the field from where he stood next to the medical tents, biting back a bitter scream. Every black bag was filled with another of his mistakes. His legs trembled under the weight of responsibility, and he couldn’t stop himself from seeing brief glimpses of the lives he had let end in such a violent manner. Each person or pony lying before him had once had a family, and he was the reason they could never see their loved ones again. Sairugi weighed heavily on his hip; the sword felt like it had slowly gotten heavier the longer he stared out over the deceased and now felt like it become a small planet dragging him down.

The unmistakable sound of hooves crept up on his side, and he whirled around to see Trixie standing a few feet away. She halted as he spun, staring at him with wide, soulful eyes. Even seeing her failed to bring more than a quickly small spark of happiness that was quickly extinguished. Her mane and tail were messier than he had ever seen, and exhaustion shone in her violet eyes.

Trixie took a few more cautious steps towards him before explaining, “A couple of Marines told me I could find you here. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He remained silent, and she eased up to him until she was standing at his side. She kept her voice low as she asked, “What are you doing here Jaze?”

“Seeing the price of failure.” His voice was much flatter than he had expected, surprising even him. He looked back out over the rows of fallen soldiers, trying to think of ways he could have saved more of them. Everything that had happened was his fault, each dead comrade a grim reminder of his inability to keep everyone safe.

“You mean the price of losing this fight?” Trixie asked innocently, drawing him out of his own brooding mind. He slowly turned back to her with a dark scowl that sent visible shivers down the pony’s spine.

“No, I mean my failure.” His gloved hand came up and pointed at the nearest body-bag but a few feet away, “See that? Each of those men and women depended on me to get them home safe, to make the right calls to keep them alive. I blew it; I let each of them down in a way I can never make right. Because of me those soldiers are dead, because of what I couldn’t do.”

“Now, Jaze.” Concern filled her voice, and she stood on her hind-legs to place her fore-hooves on his shoulders, “That is not the way to think about it. Each of those men and women were prepared to die. You couldn’t have saved them all; that is completely impossible and you know it.”

“Maybe not saved them all,” the Colonel countered, turning his head from the deep violet pools pulling him in, “But I could have surely let fewer of them die. Maybe…”

“No!” she ordered, yanking his head back around to face her with a hoof on his jaw, “Do not go down the ‘maybe’ path. Trying to think of ways you could have done better will only make you all the more bitter. Focus instead on what is.” Her hoof swept out, indicating the camp, “How many soldiers did make it through? And how many mares and stallions are getting to hug their foals again because of what you did?”

“And how many sons and daughters won’t get to hug their fathers and mothers again because of what I’ve done? And how many…”

“Jaze.” interrupted the magician, “Listen to me, please.” He fell silent, staring into her large, expressive eyes. When she was sure he was paying attention, she continued, “What happened to them isn’t your fault. It could have happened to anyone, so just count yourself lucky that there wasn’t more dead. Or that you weren’t among them.”

Her hoof gently stroked his cheek, sending another quick spark of happiness through him. His gloved hand slowly reached up to take the hoof, and his heart couldn’t help but sing when she didn’t shy away from the false limb. Phantom warmth spread up the mechanical hand, bringing a slight smile with it.

The young man gently pulled her hoof away and whispered, “I just wish they didn’t die for nothing.”

A blur at the edge of his vision caught his eye, and he had no time to avoid the azure hoof that crashed into the side of his face. His head snapped around and the blow sent him reeling, causing the azure magician to fall back to all four hooves. A bright red mark appeared on his cheek where he had been struck, stinging painfully. He looked up at Trixie, who looked utterly livid, and somehow he knew she had held back with her slap, though it was still the hardest he had ever been hit.

Violet eyes flashed angrily, and she called out, “Don’t you dare demean what those poor soldiers did by saying they died for nothing. They died so others can live; you would do well to remember that as you seem to have forgotten what your Marines were doing here.”

“But if I had never been here…”

Trixie walked over to him and wrapped her forelegs around his waist, “But you are here, and you can’t change that. You are the one that has said that you cannot change what has happened.” She buried her face in his armored chest, “So please, stop tearing yourself up over this. It is just going to hurt you.”

Jaze opened his mouth to argue back, but the fight went out of his body as the truth in her words wormed into his mind. His mouth slowly closed, and he gently wrapped the pony in a warm embrace.

“Thank you,” he whispered, “I don’t know where I’d be without you right now Trixie.”

“Dead in a ditch more than likely.” The azure mare looked out over the black bags and tugged at his arm, “We should leave; this is not a good place to get some rest.”

She led him away from the bodies, and they passed through the bustling camp as quickly as they could. Soldiers still rushed through the camp, barely giving the pair any notice. A few would offer a quick nod or salute to their Colonel before moving to the next task they had been assigned. Trixie stayed close at his side; she didn’t seem to be going in any particular direction except away from the field hospital.

Up ahead of them the scarred soldier saw a spot of pink among a field of olive drab bouncing towards the landing area. He nudged the pony at his side and pointed towards what could only be Pinkie Pie, giving the azure magician a questioning look. She gave a confused shake of her head in return. They set off in a jog towards the ball of energy in pony form, and Jaze already felt a bemused smile forming on his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a similar grin forming on Trixie’s lips.

Pinkie saw them approaching and raised her hoof in a wave and shouted, “Hiya! Whatcha doin’?”

“We had planned to ask you the same question.” stated the azure mare, “And just what are you doing?”

“Right now?” chirped the party pony, “I was just gonna wait here for all the new arrivals so I could welcome them here because I know it can be scary when you don’t have any friends and I don’t want anypony to be scared when they come to Ponyville because everypony is so nice around here and…” The poofy-maned pony paused for a moment to take a deep breath to continue her explanation, only to suddenly find a hoof stifling her voice.

Trixie offered a painful smile, “Thank you, we understand.”

“But you know you’re not supposed to be in the landing area Pinkie.” Jaze stated, though he couldn’t stop a small grin from taking the force out of his statement.

The energetic mare looked up at him, her lower lip wobbling as she neared tears, “B-but… If I don’t welcome everypony that’s coming in, then might get scared and lonely and that’s…”

The powerful thrum of dropship engines filled the air, and the three looked upwards to see a few of the boxy crafts coming down towards them. Pinkie used her best puppy-dog eyes and stuck her lower lip out in pout. Her eagerness and sincerity melted the Colonel’s resistance. He gave a quick nod and said, “Alright, we can let it slide this time. But as soon as… Hey, are you listening to me?”

The bright-pink mare wasn’t paying attention to a word he had said, as her eyes were transfixed on the sky above. At first he assumed that she was mesmerized by the dropship, and when he turned his eyes upwards that was all he saw. But soon, he could see tiny flashes of blue light blinking into existence before vanishing, only for another flash to appear near the previous one. He began trying to count the winking lights but soon stopped at over two dozen, though the flashes continued. Confusion registered on his face that was mirrored in the mare next to him.

“Jaze,” she asked worriedly, “what are those, pieces of the destroyed ships?”

“Can’t be.” he muttered, “They would be streaks of fire, not flashes. It looks like a starship dropping out of…” Like a charging bull, realization struck. Jaze paled as he finally realized just what was happening, but he needed to some way to confirm it. His hand flew to the comm in his ear, and he flipped to the Remembrance’s channel.

“Captain, Captain Marcel do you copy?” he practically screamed into the communicator. He felt Trixie’s eyes on him, and could feel the uncertainty and fear radiating off her. His own chest was tight with apprehension as he waited for a response. But the line remained dead for far longer than he was comfortable with.

Finally, he heard the grizzled old sailor’s voice crackle back over the speaker, “Dammit, Jenkins! Get that fire out, vent decks E and D. Everyone there’s already dead or had evaced already. But if you don’t get that damn fire out, we’re all dead.” His orders delivered, Marcel finally turned his attention to the waiting assassin, “Colonel, shit hit the fan big time here. We’ve pinged more’n two hundred warships with more coming in every minute. A few already shot the living hell outta us, so if you got a plan, now would be a great…”

An explosion sounded through the earpiece, and Jaze reflexively slammed his hand to that side of his head as he grimaced at the sudden noise. He could still hear the bridge crew, though the sound was now muffled greatly. Marcel’s voice screamed at the crewmen to abandon ship, but soon another explosion thundered over the comm and the line went dead.

He waited a moment, hoping against hope that the Captain would somehow continue to speak. But as time wore on he had to accept what was going on. His hand slowly flicked to the all-hands frequency, and he barked into the comm, “Everyone, get back into the trenches.”