The main power flickered before Nathan and the ponies got anywhere near the command room; Nathan pulled up short and cursed quietly to himself as he looked around. In the distance, his enhanced hearing picked up the screech of tearing metal and the rapid popping of automatic fire. His cochlear implant came to life.

“Operative, our visitor has broken free, and is heading for the communication center. Kill it.”

‘Of course it has.’

“On my way, sir.”

Nathan snapped his Martian-made C-90 heavy pistol into his hand, checking the slide before waving the mares along after him as he sprinted down a side corridor. Sunset Shimmer galloped forward to keep pace with him, giving the human a serious side eye.

“Do I want to know?”

Nathan smirked and did his best to suppress a chuckle. He liked this one.

“The Seraph escaped, and we gotta kill it.”

“Oh is that all?” Starlight deadpanned, smirking after a moment.

“Trixie does not like that look, Starlight. What are you-”

Down the corridor where the holding cell had once been looked like a charnel house; at least four guards lay in bloody heaps, some in several pieces. One in power armor lay still, his chest and helmet caved in- and another was covered in bullet holes. Nathan scooped up one of their assault rifles and a few grenades, frowning. One was missing…

‘It knows how to use our weapons?’

Mana was snapping angrily off Sunset’s horn as she looked the dead men over, angrily pawing the ground. Her fiery eyes stared up at Nathan.

“I want this thing dead. All of them…”

“You and me both,” he replied quietly, “But we have to keep our heads. We win because we out-think them- remember that.”

Thankfully, she forced a cool down, the magical aura spreading over the rest of her body but seeming more in control. They had practiced group fighting, at least the basics of it. Sunset was out of practice with most of her magic, but was talented with a shield. Her magic expanded outwards around them, feeling like a warm breeze over Nathan’s skin, even through his armor. Trixie was a whiz with minor teleports, transmutations, and cantrips- Nathan was relying on her for distractions and opportunistic attacks. Starlight though… Starlight was their ace, and she knew it- grinning up at Nathan eagerly. They turned as one to race down the corridor, following the trail of bodies and destroyed machinery.

The doors to the communication bunker looked as if they had been wrenched open by claw, and smashed bullet fragments lay in piles around it. Through the hole, just visible, was the tall, broad figure- clad head to toe in white armor, soaked through with blood. He was not typing- indeed, his hands were simply pressed to the screen, but the screen was scrolling and flickering at a break-neck pace. The Seraph seemed entirely focused on the task at hand.

Three fragmentation grenades magically zipped into the confined space, slamming into the screen and body of the communication suite- and erupted. Fire and smoke billowed throughout the room, and the Seraph’s snarl was ferocious.

“Starlight!”

Nathan and Starlight Glimmer charged into the room at magically ludicrous speeds; when they had first tried Acellero, Nathan had found out the hard way that G-forces still applied. But with a tight, body-fitting shield from Sunset acting like an inertial dampener, it was bearable for the trained operative. They had to assume that unicorn bodies were just used to acting along to their magic. Trixie had given them both a cat-eye spell, charged as far as she could push herself. Nathan’s vision was hazy, but keen enough to pick out the Seraph’s outline, now turning to face them.

His assault rifle snapped up and barked, the Seraph’s own shield sparkling as the bullets skittered off; a magical blast from the unicorn sent the Seraph back a step- and he struck back. Even with Acellero, Nathan barely dodged the claw-swipe that would have taken his arm clean up, and a spinning back-hand nearly caught a flipping, floating Starlight. This creature was much faster than before, that was obvious.

The cat-eye spell suddenly caught out, and a small bit of panic built in Nathan’s throat- until a flash spell set off inches in front of the Seraph’s eyes, and it yelled in pain. It hurt Nathan’s eyes as well, and Starlight yelped out a curse- but both began to fire again. Bullets pinged off Nathan’s shield, and he was dodging again- the Seraph had picked a rifle of his own off the ground and was spraying the room. Another claw-swipe sang through the air, and Starlight yelped as it caught her, flinging her several feet through the air, but did not break the sweating, cursing Sunset’s shield.

“Keep it up!” Nathan yelled- and then he was in front of the snarling beast.

Their rifles slammed into each other, and Nathan let it go, bringing up his pistol in one hand, and combat knife in the other- but it had cost him time. The Seraph’s claw swung down- and was encapsulated in a blue glow, straining mightily- Trixie yelled in pain from the doorway. The pistol barked as it its .50 AE rounds tore into the Seraph’s shields at point blank range, spattering Nathan with near molten fragments- until the fourth punched through, and into the Seraph’s thickly muscled shoulder.

The beast didn’t roar in pain- it launched forward, and Nathan’s eyes went wide as he felt teeth crunched around the shields and his shoulder, and /flung/ him back towards the door. Pain lanced up Nathan’s side as he landed and rolled, doing his best to get back up- his left arm was responding sluggishly. The alien had turned away from its assailants, its uninjured arm clawing open the side wall in a hail of sparks, ripping itself bodily through. Trixie stared in horror at the severed fingers it had left in her magical grip as it pulled away, dropping them with a shudder.

“Command, it’s-”

“We see it, Operative; it’s heading for the escape pods. Your left clavicle is snapped, and your shoulder-”

Nathan tuned the director out as he surged forward, still under Acellero’s power; Sunset and Starlight kept pace with him, horns lowered as they skidded through the wreckage and tore after the beast. They had to stop this monster, now.

Aboard the Phobos, the declaration of Defcon 2 had sent the research station into a tailspin, metaphorically. They had been hosting a few different Equusian species, showing them the non-classified projects that they hoped might be of use with terraforming Equus back to a more livable state. Deer especially, but there was even a dragon ambassador in attendance. The command staff of the Phobos was watching only for incoming asteroids of Seraph identified boarding pods slung off them. They paid no attention at all to an escape pod screaming at full speed away from the Deimos, or to the other escape pods drifting lazily away. Their transponders had been disabled, and so they resembled only trash modules haphazardly abandoned.

No one noticed as the one functioning pod turned itself towards the floating hulk of the Seraph Lander.

Rear Admiral Lewis was getting rather tired of the alarms on the Daedalus- especially when they went off while he was asleep. Then the gravity of the current situation smacked his brain back into full consciousness, and he was racing to the command center. The Equestrian Defense Fleet, what was left, had been monitoring the situation Sol-side for about half an hour now; it had been agonizing, listening to the fall of Titania, and the near destruction of Ceres itself. Lewis was happy to admit he had shed a few tears at the word of the Crystal Royal’s protection of his home.

A few of the weaponized rocks were still in system, but the fleet was mobilized now, and Lewis had every confidence that they could wipe out the weapons with little more loss of life. Hence, allowing himself to sleep for the first time since the mine ship had attacked. But…

Captain Johannes met Lewis as he entered the bridge, handing him his AR goggles and directing the admiral to his command seat. The AR screens and controlled lit up as he sat down- and cursed. Sensors had picked up a Ceres-class asteroid roaring in system, followed closely by a pair of Seraph vessels. Cruisers, much like the mine ship from before, but slightly bulkier in tonnage, and with a fatter bow. They were on a high velocity burn away from the asteroid, and heading straight for his battered fleet.

“Fighters are prepped and waiting for your orders, sir.”

“Good man. Get them launched and in a position to engage the asteroid. We’re going to take those cruisers head on. Have we got word on the Ceres’ Pride?”

“She can fight, admiral, but won’t be moving much. The lance damaged her reactor system, and the captain doesn’t want her out of fortress mode.”

Nodding, Lewis reached out to begin typing out commands for each vessel; the battleships would stay staggered, as would the cruisers and frigates- a straight battle line would only allow another of those short range jumps to bypass them again. The battle AI would take control of any mass driver weapons, calculate flight paths, and began to fire salvos- maybe forcing the Seraph to move would negate their ability to battle jump, but he couldn’t be sure. Heidallman drives just couldn’t… do that.

Messages had already been sent down to the surface, and their sensors lit up as a shield began to form around Canterlot and the vast refugee camp at its base. Celestia was acting fast- good. The door behind them opened, and Lewis perked in surprise at the voice that piped up.

“Captain; Admiral. Might I join you?” Princess Luna asked softly, stepping forward and dipping her head in respect.

Lewis had not been made aware that she was aboard; a glance at Johannes told that he had not either. Huh. He held a hand out and beckoned the princess over, passing her a set of AR goggles made for ponies.

“Of course, princess. My apologies, I wasn’t aware you were here.”

The alicorn daintily settled the glasses over her luminous eyes and smiled, “I teleported myself and the Lunar Guard to this vessel- I wanted to check on our recruits after the initial battle, and to offer whatever aid I can.”

‘Teleported… from the planet? ...damn.’

“Well it’s an honor to have you, but the Seraph are-”

Jumping. It was faster this time, with the Seraph beyond where the last cruiser had been by several minutes. Both cruisers jumped just in front of the lead battleship, the Republica, which had luckily gone into fortress mode; the plasma lances spattered across the EM fields, and the battleship replied with an equally ineffective battery of nigh-invisible lasers that flared across the Seraph shields as the cruiser zipped past. They were in a gauntlet now; torpedos racing in to explode against shields, or be wiped out by small plasma flares. But the Seraph weren’t focusing on the smaller ships. The AI recognized their plan quickly, relaying this to a stunned Admiral.

‘Shit.’

“Launch all fighters, now! Everything out, and power away from the Daedalus!”

Even as the CAG relayed the orders, the cruisers got a firing line on the supercarrier; lances and waves streamed out to blast and tear at their forward armor. Their railgun was knocked out in the first salvo; the forward EM emitters, down to allow the fighters to launch, were hit and disabled, and alarms screamed as air was vented from the stern. Johannes was yelling orders over the din, and the supercarrier turned to show its broadside torpedo and missile ports, firing as fast as their machinery could load new ammunition.

From his position watching the sensors, Admiral Lewis stared as the bulbous forward heads of the cruisers exploded outward- they hadn’t seen the seams. The bows of each cruiser were hundreds of boarding crafts, now screaming in to lock onto the Daedalus’ hull. He reached out to tap the ship-wide communique command.

“All crew, prepare for boarders. I repeat, all crew of the Daedalus, prepare to repel boarders!”

He turned to order the princess to the VIP bunker- but the alicorn was gone. Only her goggles lay on the floor, still displaying the Seraph life-signs on the pods.

Author's Notes:

Whoo! Got this out before work! Please let me know what you all think!