“What the doctor’s trying to say, Havoc, is that we are all being played like a damn fiddle.”

Captain Firehawk’s words were followed up by him reloading his sidearm before nodding in the direction of Doctor Moon Dancer’s escorts.

“Private Robe, Vest, prepare the doctor for transport.”

“I’m more than capable of carrying my own findings, Captain. It’s all on this crystal archive.” Moon Dancer replied, holding up two crystals the size of an apple with her magic, “With a duplicate just in case.”

“Still, we need to make sure you keep an escort.” Firehawk told her.

“We’ll keep Crimson with her, Robe will join me and my team up at the front. Scootaloo, go ahead and help Crimson keep the doctor safe.” Havoc added in. His reply was a chorus of ‘aye aye’s before everypony fell in and they started their advance towards the hangar.

In a perfect world, whatever caused the chaos and bloodbath that was currently coating multiple passageways aboard the GDA Canterlot, would have turned tail and ran the moment that the ion storm got within a 20 kilometer radius of the aerial carrier. Instead, the moment the team pushed on past the large battlefield outside of the bridge, laser fire started impacting the bulkheads all around the team.

“For Kane!” a voice buzzed out, getting an exasperated sigh from Havoc, but something was... off.

“Deadeye, see the weird aura around their heads?” he asked. Pip nodded before putting a round through one of the changeling’s heads, making it drop immediately as green pooled around what was left of its neck.

“Looks like magic, Havoc. Headshots still work though. Definitely gonna help me make precision hits for the rest of this op.”

“Everyone got that?” Havoc asked over the team frequency.

“Damn right!” Ruby Robe belted out, brandishing her combat shotgun and pumping two slugs into the nearest gryphon trying to charge their position. The first blast caught her wing, making her stumble right into Robe’s barrel as she pulled the trigger again and caused the gryphon’s chest to become a cloud of feathers and red.

“Holding up fine back here, by the way.” Crimson vest added, “VIP’s hunkered down just fine.”

“They’re pushing again!” Hotwire interrupted.

“Suppressing fire, don’t let anyone rush up on us!”
______________

Shots rang out as Gunner put half a belt down the hallway with an angry growl. Ever since he, Patch, and Sakura had left the engine room, he felt like they were being followed. Every couple minutes, he would shoot random spots along the walls, ceiling, or just down the passageway when he felt eyes on him.

“I’m tellin’ ya, we’re bein’ followed an’ it ain’t frien’ly.” Gunner muttered.

“Well next time let me know before you start wasting ammo.” Sakura ordered, “Last thing I need is to jump and waste mine too because you keep shooting at shadows.”

“Heh, he might be.” Patch said with a laugh, “Who knows, maybe Nod has a team on board.”

“Do you honestly think that if Nod had a team aboard, they’d be escorting three commandos? If Nod had any sense, they’d be getting intel, not shadowing us.” Sakura deadpanned before another burst caught her off guard and caused her magic to flicker around her sidearm.

“Sorry…” Gunner murmured, “But I thought I saw something down the hallway… see the… see the purple…?”

“I see it.” Sakura whispered, “I see it! Move!”
______________

“Sakura’s team has contact, they aren’t Nod.” Hotwire announced over the din of combat, getting a scowl out of Havoc and a gasp from Moon Dancer.

“Not Nod? What in the blood-soaked bugger hell could be on this Celestia-damned ship besides us!?” Deadeye exclaimed, the anger in his voice surprising Havoc as much as the sudden use of profanity.

“Sounds like our VIP’s fiddle-playing third party.” Firehawk quipped.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Captain, but how in Tartarus did all these Noddies get onboard?!” asked Havoc before pouring more fire down the hallway.

“We managed to capture a large amount of militia, a couple of platoons worth, who’d gotten caught out during an ion storm. A riot happened after we brought them into the brig however. Their Confessors did nothing to help the situation… I swear, even if this war ended tomorrow and everything went back to being sunshine and rainbows, I think those zealots would continue fighting regardless and yelling at others to join them.” said Firehawk, sighing as he reloaded and then continued to fire. “Normally, such a situation would have been resolved in a timely manner with extreme prejudice, but our third party decided to use that very moment for target practice.”

“Speaking of, is the contact the others encountered chasing your teammates?” Moon Dancer asked with a cringe as yet another laser hit the wall near her.

“As far as they can tell, no.” Hotwire replied, punctuating her sentence with another steady burst from her rifle. Once she heard a click, she ducked down to reload only for another gryphon to see the lull in the suppressing fire and try to make some progress against the GDI survivors.

“For the Messiah!” the former Confessor screamed, sprinting forward with a laser rifle he ‘liberated’ from the contraband lockers during the initial prison break. His first shot went wide, hitting the ceiling. His second shot impacted the cover that Moon Dancer wasn’t completely behind. His third and final shot was dead on, heading straight for the unicorn scientist only for the laser to hit the wrong target.

“GET DOWN!” Crimson Vest screamed, tackling the doctor out of the way as the second laser hit. Before she could get herself into cover, the third blast hit her in the neck, passing through completely and causing a significant portion of her neck to flash-vaporize.

“NO!” Ruby Robe shouted as her friend dropped to the floor and began to convulse. As Moon Dancer pulled the fallen pony aside and started treating her, Robe reacted the only way she knew how; through pure, unthinking rage.

All Havoc saw was a blur of red fur and a shotgun being held in an orange magical aura as the young lance corporal sprinted forward and tackled the gryphon who shot her friend. Once she had him on the ground, she put the barrel in his beak and fired. While most ponies who went into a rage like this, something completely unheard of before the war, would simply stop once they had avenged their friend or loved one, Ruby Robe never lost her situational awareness. Before she could become another casualty, she began laying down her own suppressing fire as she advanced once more. Two changelings were caught in the open trying to take advantage of the gap that their Confessor had created, and a green pegasus with inert tiberium growths on his hooves took two shots in the head from Scootaloo as he tried to pick off Ruby.

In a matter of seconds, Ruby Robe and Scootaloo had turned the tide of a one-sided firefight.

“There’s our opening! Everypony move up on to the other side of that bulkhead! Doc, stay here with Crimson until we clear the next section of hallway!” Havoc ordered, dashing ahead and finding the nearest cover on the other side of the doorway that he could find. Deadeye, Firehawk, Scootaloo and Ruby Robe followed suit, grabbing cover and opening fire immediately. Hotwire stayed behind the door and sealed it, providing cover and assistance for Moon Dancer as she continued to try and keep Crimson Vest alive despite the giant, smoking hole where her throat used to be.

“Sakura, it’s Havoc. We have a pony down and are pushing to the hangar slowly. Get to the carryall, get her in the air and see if you can’t pick us up at an external hatch closer to the bridge. I’d rather not have to fight for every inch off of this bucket.”
______________

“Copy that, we’re still moving towards the hangar, and our timer on the reactors still has plenty of time left on it. We’ll get our bird in the air ASAP.” Sakura said into her headpiece while she gestured forward. With that quick motion towards the nearest bulkhead, Gunner and Patch trotted forward while Sakura checked her EVA again.

“Damnit…” she muttered, just loud enough for the two stallions to hear her.

“What’s wrong?” Patch asked, looking back at her.

“Countdown stopped, whatever is on the ship bucked with my hack… I have to go back.” she replied quietly, walking over to them slowly but not crossing the threshold of the doorway. With a sigh, she hit the lockdown switch and shot the controls once the locks engaged.

“We are not leavin’ you behind, Sakura!” Gunner barked, his armored hoof denting the wall next to doors console.

“No choice!” Sakura’s voice barked back over their helmet speakers, “If I don’t change the timer again, this ship goes up in 10 minutes. That means no survivors, no data for GDI High Command, and whoever attacked this ship gets away without a trace.”

“Then let the storm take her!” Patch argued.

“I have to go back and do a manual detonation so that Nod can’t get their hooves on this thing. We can’t be sure that the ion storm will ground her and I’m not taking that chance. Go!”

“Damnit Sakura, Don't!” Gunner shouted, punching the wall again only for the lights in the hallway to go out.

“Gunner, whatever Nod brought that’s been eating away at this birds insides is already making way too much progress, we have to get back to the hangar.” Patch said, placing a hoof on his teammate’s shoulder.

“... promised ‘im I’d watch after ‘er…” the giant stallion murmured as they both turned and ran.

“Promised who?”
______________

Havoc ducked below another burst of magic, not bothering to watch it spear the wall behind him and melt away the armor. In reply, he brought up his sidearm and put three rounds into the offending pony’s left eye. After the last shot hit home, the small aura around his head disappeared and he dropped to the floor. All around him, other ponies and gryphons who had previously been fighting with the resolve of Black Hand elites just dropped dead, screamed in terror at something the GDI team couldn’t see, or started shooting at each other. Havoc, Ruby Robe, Scootaloo, and Firehawk immediately took the opportunity and started gunning down anything not wearing a GDI eagle.

After the team finished mopping up, Ruby Robe ran over to the doorway where they had left Moon Dancer and Crimson Vest. With the proper knock, Hotwire opened the door and Ruby’s face fell at what she saw. Despite the doctor’s best efforts, her friend didn’t pull through. Moon Dancer had found a pilot’s flight jacket and draped it over Crimson Vest’s head, covering the body as best she could with what she had.

“I’m sorry, Robe, the wound was too much and I don’t have a full medical suite here.” the older unicorn whispered. Though before she could comfort the young soldier, Flash Sentry whistled, getting all eyes on him.

“Mourn later, we need to move.”

“Surely you can spare a few minutes, Captain.” Moon Dancer said.

“He’s right, ma’am. We need to get on that carryall and out of here fast.” Firehawk answered with a scowl, “What few sensors I still have linked to my EVA show that ion storm getting closer by the second. We stay, we die.”

“That means we move on. Everypony reload and follow my lea-buck!” Havoc shouted as the ship rocked to the left hard.

“Wind gusts are already hitting us!” Firehawk announced, “We have five minutes at most before flying off my ship becomes impossible.”

“Then we leg it. Pip, grab the good Doctor, Hotwire, escort the Captain. Robe, Scootaloo, you’re on point with me. Now run!”

“Pardon me, ma’am.” Deadeye said before scooping Moon Dancer onto his back and galloping forward.

After a few more minutes of sprinting, dodging or putting down insane prisoners, and one moment where they had to wait for some strange swarm of bugs to pass down the hallway, Havoc’s team finally made it to the hangar. Much to the team’s collective dismay, the ion storm was clearly visible outside.

“Well buck.” Hotwire deadpanned.

“Buck is right!” Patch shouted as he and Gunner came bursting into the hangar too. “Countdown timer got sabotaged, Sakura had to go back and fix it.”

“Where the bloody Tartarus is she!?” Havoc shouted.

“She…. she wouldn let’us ‘elp ‘er. She stayed behind…” Gunner told him, his gaze focusing on the floor. “Put a locked blast door between us an’ ‘er before we could react…”

“And you just left her!? Did you even..” Havoc started shouting again before snorting and bringing his voice down in an attempt to calm himself, “Were you able to even try and go after her…?”

“Negative, sir.” Patch answered, “She locked us out and even if we could have cut through the door in time, we would have had to evac before getting back to the engine room.”

“Celestia damnit… and there’s no time to go back for her…. BUCK!”

“That means we don’t have a pilot.” Hotwire interjected. “Unless Captain Firehawk…?”

“Never piloted a damn thing in my life. I’m a soldier turned flag officer.” the old pegasus replied.

“Then we’re stuck here until the storm or whatever is on this ship kills us.” Deadeye added in.

“I can fly.” a quiet voice interjected, causing everypony to turn and look at the wounded orange pegasus with the dirty purple mane. “I.. well, I know how to fly.”

“I thought you were just a crew chief, Corporal.” Firehawk said.

“I’ve been training in the sims on every GDI aircraft in the records since the day I was assigned to the Canterlot, sir. I can fly us out of here, I know I can.”

“Hotwire…?” Havoc asked, looking over at the team copilot.

“If she can pilot, I can still work my magic running the power systems. Hey kid, how many times did you run the carryall sim?”

“Every other day, ma’am. It’s the second most numerous ship in the air force, outshined only by the Mk. I ORCA so I figured my best chance of starting as a pilot was by flyi-”

“That’s a yes.” Havoc interrupted, “Everyone pile in! Scootaloo, Hotwire, get us off this ship.”
______________

“Admiral, EVAs are picking up a launch from the Canterlot.” a bridge officer announced, “It’s Dead Six’s carryall.”

“Get me a visual, lieutenant.” Rainbow Dash replied, perking up a bit from her spot in the command chair and smiling a little when she saw the sensor image of a single carryall speeding off towards her ship.

And then that ship dodged a burst of lightning and rolled with wind gust.

“Are you sure the EVAs are picking up the right ship…?” Dash asked, “That thing’s moving like an ORCA.”

“Scans confirm it ma’am. Transponder is a perfect match too.”

“Then who the hell is piloting it?”
______________

In all his years in the guard, Captain Firehawk had only been truly afraid only one time. When asked about, it he usually evaded the question or said something about it involving a lord’s mistress, a love poison, and estrus being involved. Today he marked down his second time of ever actually being afraid of anything. Scootaloo had just pulled off another evasive maneuver that would have thrown everypony against the ceiling if she hadn’t demanded that they all strap in as tightly as possible.

It didn’t help that the young pegasus had just flipped the damn carryall, again, and cut her engine power. With a shudder, the craft was still miraculously moving upward, the result of a typical ion storm updraft. After it had subsided, she punched the engines and rolled the aircraft out of the way of another lightning strike.

“How’re you predicting those?!” Hotwire asked, her face showing true terror the likes she had never known before, even back when she lived in the yellow zones near Changeling territory.

“Radar blacks out a few second before each hit! Ionization messes with the instruments, other than that I just guess which way it’s gonna hit!”

“YOU WHAT!?”
______________

“Damage control teams to the flight deck! Looks like a hard landing for them. Helm, turn us around and get ready to punch it, I want us away from that ion storm and away from that Kodiak the moment that bird touches down.”

“Teams have been dispatched, Admiral.” the EVA replied, “ETA, 40 seconds.”
______________

“30 seconds! Get ready for a hard landing everypony!” Scootaloo announced. They were coming in a little too fast for comfort but that storm was still sending bursts of electricity towards them and she didn’t want to even try and land this thing ‘gently’ under what amounted to combat conditions.

“Landing gear deployed.” Hotwire stated, “Power systems still nominal.”

“Give me full power on ventral boosters, burn one second for every five on my mark… mark!”

“Burning!” Hotwire told her, “Trajectory solid, 10 seconds to contact.”

“Compensating for wind mileage… Brace!”
______________

“Safe touchdown! Repeat, safe touchdown on dorsal flight deck elevator!” somepony shouted.

“Lowering lift, carryall is secure!” another crewman added in.

“Helm, all ahead full, get us the hell outta here!” Rainbow Dash ordered. At once, the EVAs that helped run her ship put every bit of reserve power into the Double Rainboom’s engines and within seconds, she was breaking a few speed records on her way away from the ion storm.

“Any readings on the Canterlot?”

“Captain Sentry reports that one of their team had to stay behind to detonate the spark reactors, recovery was impossible.”

“Explains why we aren’t picking up anything in that storm…” the sky-blue pegasus muttered, “Debris?”

“No spark reactor detonation has ever been recorded, Admiral.” her EVA replied, “All power systems on the GDI Kodiak Mk. III series are magical. Simulations of the destruction of a spark reactor estimate a 0.0001% possibility of debris. The consensus within the GDI Academy of Applied Magic is complete disintegration of the vessel and anything near it.”

“If you say so. We’ll send in a recon team after this storm passes, but for now, mission accomplished.”
______________

Scootaloo was resting on one of the cots provided by the crew of the Double Rainboom when Ruby Robe blurted out a nearly panicked “Attention on deck!”.

“At ease.” Rainbow Dash answered once both of the young mares had bolted to attention. “Ruby Robe, Captain Sentry wants to see you back over at his carryall whenever you can get over there.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” she replied, and then galloped off towards the hangar. Scootaloo on the other hand relaxed slightly while still favoring her injured leg.

“As for you, Scoots… boy am I glad you’re alive. When the news hit that the Canterlot was in trouble, I thought the worst had happened.” the sky-blue pegasus said, sitting down next to Scootaloo. After a long, silent moment, the two started elbowing each other and giggling a little before Rainbow Dash got Scootaloo in a gentle headlock.

“You little rascal, always getting into trouble even without me there to bail you out.”

“Aw, come on! I didn’t even pick that fight!” the orange mare retorted with a smile. The last time they had been able to just relax like this was before the war. Ever since the fighting had started, Scootaloo had barely been able to see her surrogate sister.

“Yeah yeah, but you’ll be picking plenty more once your transfer goes through all the right EVAs.”

“Transfer…?”

“Scoots, you piloted a carryall through one of the worst ion storms Equestria has ever seen. You did some tricks in that bird that I didn’t think they were able to do!”

“Just… just beginners’ luck, really.”

“Yeah well, if it was beginners luck, then I can’t wait to see what happens when you get formal training. You’re getting real piloting training, and then you’re gonna get your hooves on one of the best birds in the air force.” Rainbow Dash told her as she let the younger pegasus out of the headlock. Once Scootaloo was loose, Rainbow Dash brought up the EVA on her left foreleg and tapped in a command. On cue, Captain Firehawk entered the room and sat in front of them.

“Corporal, I want you to know that what I’m about to show you is very secret, but since you’ll be one of our test pilots, it’s time to introduce you to what you’ll be flying.” the old guards-stallion announced. As he talked, he had his EVA project a hologram of an aircraft schematic.

The fighter jet had a forward swept-wing design, central-placed engines with the air intake placed just rear of the forward stub wings, dual cockpits, and enough firepower to knock a whole squad of Vemons out of the sky.

“Flight Lieutenant Scootaloo,” Rainbow Dash said, announcing her promotion, “I’d like you to meet the Firehawk.”
______________

A knife flying straight at her head was not the way that Ruby Robe expected to be greeted by the Dead Six. Even stranger than that was the fact that it was Havoc who chucked the damn thing.

“Sir!?” the young mare screamed in confusion as she not only ducked said knife but pulled it out of the wall with her magic and had it held up in a defensive position in record time.

“Easy there, kiddo, if you weren’t able to dodge, Hotwire would have stopped that blade. The fact that you dodged and went straight for the weapon speaks volumes about what I saw on the Canterlot.” Havoc replied, “Come, sit down with us.”

Carefully, Robe levitated the blade back to Havoc who skillfully grabbed it with his teeth and set it back in its sheath on his right foreleg. Once she was sure she wasn’t going to be attacked again, she filled in the empty space of a circle made by the surviving members of the Dead Six.

“Sakura is gone, there’s no treading lightly around that point.” Havoc said once Robe was seated, “And the Dead Six just aren’t the Dead Six when there’s only five of us.”

“We need another teammate and pretty much all of the previous candidates are now in Zone Trooper School.” Hotwire added.

“‘An we ain’t waitin’ a month for one’o them to get done.” Gunner interjected.

“Long story short, you proved that you can hack it with us.” Havoc finished, looking back up at the young mare sitting before him. “How’d you like to become the newest member of the Dead Six, Ruby Robe?”

“Do I get to pick my nickname…?” Robe asked quietly, looking from pony to pony as she gauged their reactions.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not.” Pip answered.

“Well then…” Robe answered with a grin, “Blunderbuss reporting for duty.”
______________

“Show me what you have, Doctor.” General Ironsides said. His face was still showing the wear of too many sleepless nights despite Princess Luna’s protests and the last thing he really wanted to deal with was one of the R&D department’s eggheads taking up valuable time, but Firehawk vouched for her and her findings so he figured he would humor the mare.

“Well, sir.” Moon Dancer replied as she plugged her crystal data archives into the console, “We are not alone in this fight against Nod, I’m uploading the data to you now over this encrypted channel and it has my own security measures in place as well, so Nod won’t get their hooves on it.”

“What do you mean we aren’t alone…?” the aging general asked, looking over her findings lazily.

“There’s a third party in this conflict, they may have instigated this entire war.”

“... clarify…” Ironsides ordered, his eyes widening slightly as the sensor ‘ghost’ that Moon Dancer recorded started to form on the screen in front of him.

“Visitors from another world, or maybe somepony that we never encountered on our planet before tiberium landed. They started the riot that disabled the Canterlot and then used her for target practice. Plasma weaponry the likes even Nod doesn’t have battered her to hell and I don’t think they realize I collected readings.”

“So there’s another faction to deal with… well buck me sideways and call me a dragon… this doesn’t bode well for us, especially if what you’re showing me is any representation of the rest of their military… what exactly am I looking at, anyway?”

“One of their capital ships, sir.” the doctor stated as the image finally coalesced. It looked like a spine with short ribs. The rear of the hologram showed what they assumed were propulsion systems while the ‘ribs’ were undoubtedly docking space for fighters. At the front, a pincer-like formation around the assumed command center of it, “It vastly out-guns the Kodiak and her fighter compliment is most likely huge.”

“An assault carrier…”

“Meant for planetary assault if it can break the atmosphere, and we have no reason to think it can’t.”

“Which just makes more bad news for us… what happened to the Canterlot after you got off her, doctor? The reports are still being filed and I’d prefer a personal report.”

“Destroyed when her spark reactors detonated in an ion storm.”

“Well… at least there’s some good news, despite the losses I’m sure happened aboard her. Send me all your findings and then get some rest, Doctor, and let’s just be happy that Nod didn’t get a hold of one of our biggest counters to their numbers.”
______________

“Ma’am, we have a Kodiak in sensor range, she’s pretty beat up and on an intercept course with the airfield.” a changeling announced to his floor chief. The gryphon in charge of security for this particular air base scowled slightly before walking over and looking at the radar for herself.

“Impossible…” Gilda muttered, “Can they see us?”

“Weapons aren’t charging and they aren’t initiating any active scans… but they’re heading straight for the main flight line.”

“Get the SAMs primed but don’t fire just yet, those GDI dweebs might not know there’s a base in front of them and we don’t want those railguns to have a clear target.”

“They’re hailing the tower, ma’am.” another gryphon interrupted, “It’s a Brotherhood channel, Darius Victor Niner.”

“Audio only.”

“This is Lieutenant Sakura, former GDI Dead Six. Tell the Messiah that I have his Kodiak.”