Starbound Ascension: The Next Generation

Chapter Seven: A New Conglomerate

Hovering in deep space the alarm sounded in the EMS Sky Buster. The troops all gathered in the war room for the briefing to their next mission. Ship was at the head of the presentation as she prepared the hologram.

“Ladies and gentlecolts we have a request from a new contact. I know it's been a few weeks since any major action and now that we've had a nice long vacation I'm sure a lot of you are itching to go. So, here we are!” Ship projected the hologram from the center of the room. It showed a floating spatial map of the universe which zoomed in to their sector and then to a planet located in the alpha quadrant, “We are traveling to Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy. As you may or may not know some decades ago this planet was nearly destroyed by a massive alien tentacle monster that crash landed on the planet via a meteor. The native human population fled to their farther colonies and in the years following formed the Earth United Force. This new conglomerate is a massive private military company that aims to restore Earth to its former glory and to protect it at all costs. They are a corporate powerhouse buying out major military based companies and manufacturing firms such as Atlas Corporation and Nanite Systems. Now more prolific and influential than their own government they have requested us as an audience. Especally you Jet.”

“Me?” Jet pointed to himself, “Why?”

“Something to do with your father. I had a talk with the CEO in his request statement and he wants to see you for a special mission.”

“Count me in!” Jet didn't hesitate, “I want to know what he has to say about my dad.”

“Cross, you're coming along too as the diplomat with Jet and I. Let's do our best for the first impression. Mac! Jump us to Earth in this universe,” Ship ordered to the sleeping unicorn, “Mac!”

“Wha-Geez I already got it done when you guys were in the briefing. Look out the window,” he yawned as he reclined back in his seat and snored.

“Oh... Well, carry on then! Good job I guess,” Ship shrugged, “Saddle up fellas we got a head honcho to meet.”

As the dropship arrived planetside two offload the three leaders of the NGJSF they were greeted with a massive military facility in the heart of what was once Seattle Washington, USA. Off in the distance was a mountain that had been cracked in half by the catastrophe that befell earth some time ago. Although the sky was blue the water was tinted a shade of yellow as much of the blood of the terrestrial monster polluted the sea in the wake of the destruction. A large dome shaped building dominated the south end of the EUF headquarters taking up almost the size of a cityscape. The three ponies trotted on forward and were met with the leader of the EUF with his two subordinates and an open topped military truck. The lightly tan Asian human with glasses stepped forward and smiled.

“Welcome ponies of Equus to Earth! I am CEO Troy Gambino of the Earth United Force. Thank you so much for taking time to meet with me,” he held out his hand and Cross was the first to accept it.

“And greetings to you my friend. I am Prince Iron Cross. Diplomatic officer of the Next Generation Joint Strike Force and representative of United Equus. These are my associates, Captain Ship McDaniel and Captain Jump Jet,” Cross bowed as he finished. Jet and Ship nodded as well.

“Captain Jump Jet huh? I personally knew your father and he saved my life on many occasions. Up until a few weeks ago I never knew he had a kid. Come on guys! I'll give you the tour,” Troy had them ride in his personal transport Sunderer. The six wheeled truck was bulky and sat high above the ground with armor stripped away leaving an open air cabin modified from the base version. The ponies sat in the rear and took in the sights as Troy continued to talk, “What you're seeing is advanced warfare. The EUF has the single largest standing military known our race and we answer to no country. Unlike the government, we don't keep secrets of our capabilities. We don't sell policy, we sell power. We are a super-power for hire.”

They passed by a scout helicopter landing in the middle of a somewhat crowded military plaza with soldiers in casual attire just going about their day. As they cleared the plaza a metal gate slid open to reveal a blue and gold plated tank rolling off to the side.

“M439 Vanguard MBT. Those are some of my favorites,” Troy commented, “Power isn't just about the ability to destroy. The EUF has built infrastructures in places like Mars, Earth's Moon, and our frontiers. We do in a few years what it takes governments decades to accomplish. In fact, the truth is, we're often more effective than the governments that hire us, namely the Terran Republic.”

They passed by another interesting sight. There were strange VTOL attack craft that sat on elevated platforms undergoing maintenance. They matched the blue and gold of the Vanguard tanks that rolled by earlier.

“What are those?” Jet pointed to them.

“Those are SF-2B Reavers. Our main light CAS gunship built by our Nanite Systems Aerospace branch. 30mm nose mounted M20 Mustang cannon and those are being equipped with Breaker rocket pods and Hornet missiles. If you look to your left you can see some exosuits the UPF has exported to us. Did you know we collaborated to make those? The UPF outsourced us to manufacture a fraction of those at a discounted price from their own companies. We couldn't say no to the extra cash and the basically have the same anatomy as us body wise, not ability wise,” Troy went on as two exosuited soldiers boosted to a ledge opposite of them and over the truck. They continued on down the road and into a high rise office building in the center of the base. They took a seat in the CEO's office and began their meeting.

“Thank you so much for the tour. The EUF is a welcome sight, unlike the UPF's constant dislike of Equus,” Ship smiled.

“Oh yes, I am aware of that. Pardon my French but that is bullshit I tell you. Now, onto the meeting. I've called you here today for a special request. Look, from now on I will support you, your nation, and your unit from my good will. But there is this thorn in my side that I think you can help me with,” Troy adjusted his glasses and sighed as he viewed out the window into the distance, “Do you know how long it took to rebuild Earth just to this point back from the brink?”

“No sir,” Jet cocked his head as he gave a neutral statement.

“Twenty three years. It would have taken hundreds, maybe thousands of years had your father not saved my life Jet. When Earth was destroyed he was the first to welcome me onto a new planet. Same with your father Iron Cross. I hope he is doing well.”

“That he is. Thank you Mr. CEO,” Cross kept his formality.

“Please, call me Troy. I wouldn't have it any other way. And Jet, you are so much like your father. A brilliant leader, strong, and with a great sense of justice.”

“Oh, why thank you,” Jet had a smug smile and looked to Ship.

“And his ego as well,” Ship's ears flopped down with her eyes rolled.

“If you're anything like your father I want to see you out there on the battlefield. Sorry for going off track but here is my mission for you,” he started up his projector and closed the blinds to darken the room the briefing began, “Several weeks ago one of my best friends and officers, Lieutenant Mira Torren, was murdered by our rival PMC group: the Galactic Combine. Of course, they deny all charges and somehow all evidence to the murder was burned by a 'mysterious' fire that razed the crime scene. Without a shadow of a doubt the Galactic Combine was responsible for her murder and we want justice no matter what. I know this might be an underhanded tactic to hire a foreign group to help us do our dirty work but the Galactic Combine is an evil corporation that strives to do nothing but to exploit and profit from others misery. The EUF on the other hand has done many good things and truth be told we could do this ourselves but we wouldn't want our rep to be spoiled by going on a freelance vigilante mission. Which is why we want to hire you guys for the ops. The best special forces Equus has to offer, showing the other space empires what it means to be a pony huh?”

“You got that right! You seem like a trustworthy guy. I'd like to say yes but I have to respect Ship and Cross' opinions first,” Jet looked to them.

“I agree as well. This is a good chance to make an impression on your nation. What say you Cross?” Ship turned to him next.

Cross nodded in agreement, “Likewise. You have our support.”

Troy crossed his arms, smiled, and nodded, “Thank you very much lady and gentlecolts. And Jet.”

“Hm?”

“Salamat po,” Troy smirked. Jet did as well.

“Walang anuman!” Jet waved back to him as he prepared to leave.

“Oh and before you go why don't you familiarize yourselves with our equipment. If we're gonna be supplying you from now on you should get some trigger time with our guns and vehicles. I suggest you pick your team for the mission and prepare for our training courses beforehand. Meet with my wife, May, when you are ready.”

“Again, thank you for your support,” Ship turned back and waved.

“Don't mention it. Now go on. I expect nothing but the best,” Troy turned around and closed his door. The ponies went back outside and discussed the situation.

“So, who's up for this mission?” Ship asked to Jet.

“I'm bringing the two new recruits: Water Wings and Blue Circuit. My sis is coming, so is Prelude, Rush, Hornet, and Flip. I might change my mind once I know what we're up against. Let's meet this May he was talking about,” Jet and the others were directed to the training facility where a power armored Caucasian officer stood by to welcome them in. She was an imposing figure standing about seven feet tall in her armor and towered over the four and a half foot ponies in the room. Her helmet was off to one side on a table and they could see her green bandana and short flowing brown hair.

“Alright Captain Jump Jet is it? Gather your men for a crash course in our weapons training. The mission will be a stealth operation so I hope you're prepared,” she donned her helmet to her impressive salmon tinted armor. It looked far more capable than even the UPF exosuits outside. It was obviously a sort of prototype armor only being used by the humans of Earth, “Like my armor?”

“Yeah, mind if I ask where we can get it?” Jet grinned sheepishly.

“Sorry but this is our prototype Mjolnir Mark VI power armor. Unlike your standard slap on exosuit I had to undergo extensive augmentation and genetic manipulation to even use this armor. One wrong twitch and this armor goes nuts breaking all my bones. The amount of control needed to work this armor takes years of training and muscle memory. The process itself is very painful and has left me unable to have children. Doesn't matter though, my husband didn't really like kids anyway. Never planned on it,” her voice was somewhat muffled through the helmets speaker.

“Okay, let me get my team down here. Yo Blossom! Can you gather up Pass, Circuit, Prelude, Rush, Hornet, Flip, and my sister down here?”

“You got it Jet! Everypony pile in!” Blossom signaled the awaiting soldiers to board her dropship. A few minutes later they fast roped in right outside the training area and gathered around.

“Okay, let's head to the range this building across the street,” May lead them into the lobby of the shooting range. Various EUF exclusive arms were mounted on the wall with labels neatly denoting each weapon.

From left to right Jet read the labels out loud, “BAL-27, EM-1, IMR, and XMG-1s?”

“EUF developed arms. The BAL-27 was my go to assault rifle when I used to work for them,” Blue Circuit spoke up.

“Which is why I brought you along for the ride rookie,” Jet glanced over to him and smiled, “You're our foreign weapons expert.”

“Oh, I did not notice you there Circuit. It's been a long time since you worked for us,” May turned around and greeted Blue.

“Yup. Got back to Equestria, said these guys needed the extra hooves. Who am I to pass up?”

“Knowing you, you wouldn't. At least you can help me out here.”

“You got it Miss,” Blue saluted to her, “Man, this place brings back memories.”

“Let's get started,” May activated a sliding metal door which opened in front of them to unveil a shooting range with guns lined up neatly on racks, “Take your pick. Personally I like the MORS. Not as good as the UPF X-8 Spectrum but it's a lot more accurate. Only downside is that you have to chamber each round since it has no mag. The Atlas 20mm is overkill but good luck hauling that around for long. XPR-50 is nice, that was always a favorite human weapon since 2025, been around ever since.”

“Circuit, what do you recommend?” Jet turned to his squad mate.

“BAL-27 is pretty run of the mill compared to our R101Cs. If you don't like to run out of ammo the IMR is nice. It 3D prints its own ammo so you'll never run out. HBRa3 is also pretty beastly, hard hitting but the rate of fire slows down for more accuracy when you pin the trigger. If you favor SMGs I can't get enough of the ASM-1. These guys gave me my own unique one and I call her the Speakeasy. Those ones are the SN-6, the ones next to those are the SAC-3s, and the last are the AMR-9s.”

“And compared to UPF weapons?” Avia passed up the training and sat on the sidelines with her trusted Smartpistol and her own newly gifted UCP Bullpup handed to her from Strella during their vacation.

“Well, let's just say the UPF have them beat,” Circuit winked, “That's my personal opinion anyway.”

“Well, he's right in some ways. UPF weapons are far more refined than what any of us are packing. In their universe humans went extinct a long time ago and at our current tech level which is why they are far in the way the most advanced space empire out there,” May explained, “Alright, Circuit and I will teach you individually to use our guns. The operation will be tomorrow at 0600 dropping into Auraxis. Ready up.”

-----

At the dawn of the next day the NGJSF pierced into the atmosphere of the planet Auraxis. On the continent of Esamir they were flying in low and in cloak mode to assault the Eisa Tech Plant held by the Galactic Combine. Esamir was a barren, icy wasteland dotted with frozen lakes and spires of violet crystals sporadic among the landscape, jutting out of the ground to heights exceeding twenty yards. One of these crystal pillars passed by Blossom's dropship and grazed one of the wings lightly.

“Strike one you are en route to the area of operation. I'll give you the briefing here,” Troy was on the radio communications to instruct them. They all lined up at the back of the dropship ready to drop out with their 3D maneuver gear and pulse jump kits, “Your mission today is to infiltrate the Eisa Tech Plant here on Esamir. The plant is heavily guarded by Combine forces and you are to break inside and steal any data regarding Mira's murder from their central computer hub located at the heart of the tech plant. Once you secure the data you are to offload it back to us and exfil out of there. Go in, get what you need, and get out. I want this to be a clean operation. I don't want the Galactic Combine to find out the EUF sent you guys in.”

“Solid copy. My team does not have any EUF traceable items equipped. But thank you for the gifts,” Jet radioed back out and turned to his men, “Burn cards! Use them now just to be safe!”

“Already used mine,” Circuit smirked, “It's a surprise just in case we need it.”

“Here, I got mine,” Rush burned up his newly acquired EUF burn card that replaced his Dragonfire drones with a EUF built WASP sniper drone armed with a suppressed sniper railgun and capable of cloaking.

“I still got that biofoam from my last burn card,” Flip looked to his medical packs and looked out of the open cargo doors as they neared their drop zone.

“Hey, has anypony seen my sister?”

“Boo,” Avia startled Jet with a permanent cloaking device, “Guess what I burned.”

“Ghost Squad burn card. Good thinking sis,” Jet readied up with the rest of his squad, “Okay! We're at the drop zone! Deploy! Deploy!”

All of them jumped out without any ropes or parachutes and used their pulse jumps to softened their landings. Circuit was the only one not equipped with wall running gear and instead had a UPF exosuit.

“Okay, we're clear. Snipers post up! That means you Prelude and Hornet,” Jet gave his order as they all cloaked and darted to the facility. Hornet and Prelude set up shop on a nearby hill laying prone.

“Prelude, 'Net what do you see?”

“I see a lot of activity down there Jet. Some weird walking aliens striding along on three tall legs on patrol. Can we get intel on these?”

“May here, I've posted up a mile away from the tech plant providing recon. Those are Combine Striders. The GC are the leading bioengineering firm known to mankind. They excel in creating advanced silicon based organisms and biomechanical weapons. Those giant floppy cannons are powered off of dark matter. One shot and you'll be as intact as getting sucked into a black hole.”

“Copy, moving into the open everypony stay cloaked!” Jet and the others ran out into the open once a patrol had passed. They proceeded southeast into a collection of buildings and hid inside, “Alright, hunker down in here. Avia, scout ahead for us will you?”

“Roger,” Avia parkoured up the outside wall and on top of the building still invisible to everyone, “Got some mini-striders on the road. What of these?”

“Do not engage! Those are Hunter Striders and they can detect cloaked infantry. Let them pass and watch their scanning beams,” May relayed to them.

“Hold up! Two guards on the middle tier of the tech plant. They're watching the building you're in fireteam,” Prelude alerted quietly.

“Combine Overwatch soldiers. How you wanna take em out?” May asked over their comms.

“Let me handle it,” Avia shot out a grappling hook with her 3D maneuver gear and accelerated to the middle tier of the plant. She used her cloaking and dispatched the two guards with her silenced Smartpistol, “Tangos down. Dumping the bodies over the rails. Okay good! They landed out of sight looks like you're cleared to move up!”

“Squad, post up to the door,” Jet and the others stacked up and looked out, “Crap! Two guards by the main entrance in white armor. Looks like their elites.”

“Hey Jet, I've also got a guy looking right at us to the building on our left. Top balcony, do you see him?” Flip pointed out from the shadows.

“Yeah! Keep down! Snipers, you got shots?”

“Roger, Hornet and I will take the guys at the main gate. May, can you take out the balcony overwatch?”

“Copy that Prelude. On your mark,” May waited until the ponies fired first. All three of their shots landed in sync and dropped their targets. Jet and Flip took the initiative to drag the bodies over with their grappling hooks and hide them in a closet next to them.

“Halt, scanning beam. Enemy aircraft overhead looks armed. That pinging is also annoying,” Jet peeked out to see a flying bioengineered creature the size of an attack helicopter.

“Careful Jet. That's a Combine Gunship. Wait for it to leave the area completely, it doesn't need that scanning beam to pick you up. It uses sonar to see.”

“Shit! Avia get off that roof now!” Jet called out.

“Got it! Whoa!” A scanning beam barely grazed her scalp as she could hear the gunship hover close to her. The gentle ping of a sonar organ on the craft could give a false sense of security with its subtle sounds resonating past the deafening chop chop of a ducted fan rotor and jet exhaust that supplemented the frankenstein biomachine. Her heart was pounding as she could hear the gunship fly over and look at her with its undermounted compound eyes. Avia's eyes widened and she gasped in fear, “Shit!”

“Avia! Avia what's going on?!” Jet whispered with a hint of panic. There was a pregnant pause followed by a sigh in response from his sister.

“Holy crap I thought that thing saw me. I thought it was looking at me,” Avia hid herself under a pile of boxes and caught her breathe, “You're clear, that gunship bugged out.”

“Copy! Patrols are cleared, moving into the main facility,” Jet and his squad entered and hid themselves in the shadows to charge their cloak. Avia took this time to rope down to them unnoticed and entered through the same way they came in.

“Too close,” Avia stood next to her brother.

“It's okay little sis,” Jet gave her a comforting and short hug, “You're doing good.”

“We've lost visual of you six. Should we reposition?” Hornet asked.

“Negative why don't you use those motion darts to highlight enemies through the walls?”

“Copy Jet!” Hornet and Prelude loaded in their tracker darts into their sniper rifles. They landed them nearby and the darts started to scan for ten seconds. It detected two guards walking to them from behind a generator.

“Did you hear about that assassination we pulled off on that EUF officer?” their voice was almost completely shrouded by a mechanical sounding filter. The scratchy robotic voices echoed through the near empty hallway.

“May, did you get that?” Jet radioed out.

“Copy, we need to verify it though. The terminal is close to you guys! One flight of stairs up!” May linked them the interior plans of the base onto their HUDs.

“Yeah Lieutenant Mira Torren. That gave us a good distraction to hold our dealings with the Pulsar Miltia in secret,” the guards kept talking.

“No kidding? I was wondering why I got that bonus. What are we doing helping out those guys anyway?”

“They want to unite all the space empires and put an end to all indifference. To me that's pretty noble of them, even though they are a bit aggressive. By the way Bob I heard some candy ass ponies beat the United Pokemorph Federation in their latest wargames. Looks like the Feds are growing soft,” the two guards walked past the hidden ponies.

“Dumbasses. Ponies are a fucking cancer in this universe.”

Jet sighed quietly and with deep anger, “Can we kill these guys?”

“Do it,” May gave them the good signal. Jet took both of his grappling hooks and pierced them right into their throats and pulled them back in for a good double buck as they bled out on the floor.

“Annd done. Glad I got that out of my system,” he spat on the corpses before stuffing them behind a plasma generator, “Let's move. Pass you see anything on your motion tracker?”

“Negative boss,” Water Wings scanned around back and forth with her hoof mounted tracking device.

“Me neither, up the stairs! Let's go,” Jet pointed up as Avia and Circuit boosted up to scout forward.

“Dude, hold up, There are a lot of technicians here working on crap,” Circuit slowly dropped down to let his cloak recharge. Avia still sat atop one of the server consoles serving as the low wall to the main access terminal.

“I also got a lot of overwatch all around us on the railings surrounding the terminal. They got this place locked down. If you guys go up the stairs you'll be fucked,” Avia reported in.

“Change of plans. Circuit toss a threat grenade!”

“Gotcha,” Blue bounced one on the ground underneath a computer without anyone noticing and the smart grenade highlighted all the enemies in the room in bright red and through any surface.

“Everyone sync their cloaks and grapple up on my go onto the railings to take out those guards all at once. Ready? On my mark,” Jet aimed his grapple to the outside rails. His team did the same and got into position to pounce, “Mark!”

They all grappled up and cleanly stabbed all of the guards looking down at the control terminals. With the high ground taken they all uncloaked.

“Squad! Gun em!” Their suppressed weapons rang out and killed all the technicians working in and around the terminals. They grappled down to the main room and started to get to work, “Terminals cleared! Mac Book, Troy, can you guys get an uplink?”

“Hold on, let me get my cheat codes working,” Mac typed away to crack into the Combine network, “There! Downloading the files onto the EUF database.”

“Impressive. You've got one hell of an IT guy on your team,” Troy came up on Jet's visor and nodded, “That's it! That's all the data we needed to verify. Get out of there.”

“Roger that!”

“Jet! We got a problem!” Hornet came on the line.

“What is it?” Jet asked before a pulse of plasma impacted next to him destroying the console, “Well there's the problem! Ship! We've been compromised! Requesting immediate exfil!”

“Solid copy Jet! Blossom is on her way back!” Ship radioed out as a full scale firefight erupted at the tech plant.

“They're flooding in like ants! Hornet and I are engaging!” Prelude kicked things off with shots from his MXM DMR. Hornet took down the harder elites with his M320 LRR firing massive .408 Cheytec rounds right into their center mass. They were doing their best to stop the flood of Combine from overwhelming their friends inside.

“Get out! Follow me to the roof! Mac can you disable those AA guns?”

“Working on the cheats Jet!” Mac took a sip of soda and typed with fury still linked into their mainframe.

“Can you hurry up? We don't have time here!” Avia grappled up onto the roof, “Looks clear! Landing pads are clear!”

Suddenly a loud mechanical growl and the sound of rotors lifted up from behind the tech plant with a fierce pinging sound that encroached behind Avia. She turned around before getting hit by a burst of hot plasma from the automatic gun of the Combine Gunship.

“Avia! Avia! Respond!” Jet was caught up in his own firefight.

“Jet! Avia took a big hit! She's critical! Rush! Get that drone out for some support!”

“You got it! WASP active! Let it do its thing,” Rush covered them with his drone hovering close. The sniper railgun mounted on it pinned down the enemies around them with accurate fire thanks to Rush's custom AI software uploaded onto it called the Guardian Chip. The cloaking of the drone also gave it the element of surprise to any unwary foe.

“That gunship's got my sis pinned up there! Can you snipers take it out?” Jet requested.

“Negative! Gunship is fully armored against small arms fire! EUF Reaver ESFs and Liberator heavy gunships are en route to assist with exfil!” May supported them with her own sniper fire from her MORS.

“Make some moves team!” Jet and a few of the others used their momentum to wall run and chain their parkour to flank around the soldiers surrounding them, “Needle grenade out!”

Jet threw a special flechette grenade into a group of Combine elites as he dashed into a piece of hard cover opposite to them. The grenade exploded with tiny tungsten darts that were made especially to not cause collateral damage or blow away cover. However it was brutally effective at piercing their body armor and painted a fine red mist onto the wall.

“Room cleared! I've got you guys covered! Get to the landing pads!” Jet fired suppressing shots behind him as his team moved up, “Suppressing fire!”

“Go! I got you covered,” Wings came up to pat him on the shoulder. Jet moved up with his group as Pass covered.

“Jet we got a situation!” Hornet came back over the line.

“What is it?”

“Gunship's got a bead on us! I-ARGH!”

“Hornet! Hornet! Dammit Prelude give me a sitrep!” Jet shouted.

“Hornet's been hit! That gunship's fire is extremely accurate and it's got me pinned on the ridge!”

“I'm fucking done with that thing! May can you get that thing's attention?”

“Yeah, what you gonna do?” One shot from her MORS attracted the gunship off Prelude. Jet cloaked his way outside and onto the landing pad.

“Flip! Stabilize my sister! I'm gonna try something really stupid!” Jet shot out his grapple onto the enemy gunship and jammed his knife into it to hang on for dear life, “Die you bastard!”

Jet started ripping off panels to expose the organs of the biomechanical beast. With point blank shots from his new UPF P33 Pereira revolver bits of green goo splattered out of the gunship as it cried out in pain with screeching metallic growls.

“You like that! Gonna fuck you up!” Jet pulled the pin on the last of his needle grenades and jammed it right into the fleshy internals of the craft. He detached himself and softened his impact with a well timed boost. With a soft thud he could hear a series of chained explosions as the gunship careened out of control and blew apart into gibs of metal and organic parts, “Gunship is down!”

“We got bigger problems! Jet you've got Hunter Striders inbound on you!” May alerted him as the pack of three mini striders ambushed Jet out in the open. They shot out tiny darts that impacted near him and exploded a few seconds after impact. Jet caught a few blasts and was wounded but not out of the fight.

“Fuck you!” With one click of his revolver he knew it was out of ammo. With his knife gone and no time to reload he still fought on, “I'm gonna punch this shit!”

Jet took another grapple to latch onto one of the Hunters and started a rodeo attack with nothing but his bare fists. He tore away at the access panels and started to wail on the fleshy organs inside with blunt force trauma as the beast violently tried to shake him off.

“Come on! Come on!” Jet was all scratched up and providing a great distraction for his squad to get to the exfil point. The rest of the Hunters were confused as what to do to aid their ally as their programming prevented them from firing their explosive rounds next to friendlies, “I WILL END YOU!”

The rodeoed Hunter staggered as it fell to the ground in death. Unluckily for Jet it managed to pin him underneath its body as the rest of the pack closed in.

“Jet! We're getting hammered up here! They've surrounded the landing pads to ambush us! We can't move and they're too many! AHH!” Pass got hit by a Combine Sniper as her right arm was slightly exposed from cover.

“Shit! I'm not in good shape either! I'm pinned under a Hunter I punched to death!”

“Strider!” Prelude cried out as the main Combine Strider charged up its incineration cannon to fire. A tracing laser was aimed right at the NGJSF squad and one blast would kill everyone it touched.

“Drop it in now!” Circuit took his radio and screamed into it.

“Manticore inbound! Splash in 3, 2, 1!” Troy came over the radio before the strider fired its gun. In the blast that followed a large mist of green washed over the whole tech plant and flooded every corner with a biological weapon of precise devastation. All of the Combine forces fell in droves as the Manticore bomb washed over the whole area. The NGJSF were all unaffected and immune to the selective plague.

“What the hell was that?!” Jet sighed in relief as the enemies started to die off.

“Manticore,” Troy came over the radio as a EUF reinforcement flight flew over. In his personal Warbird transport he hovered over to Jet and landed right next to him to help pull him from the carcass of the Hunter, “Your father saved my life, so I'm here to return the favor. Manticore is a bio weapon we've been developing for years following your fathers death. It targets specific genotypes and we can drop it in without any friendly causalities whatsoever. It's what we used to kill of the Earth monster. Thanks to you this invasion was justified. Looks like the Galactic Combine is gonna be forced to merger with us now to save their ass. Thank you for all your help.”

“What about my team?” Jet asked weakened.

“Flip here. Avia, Hornet, and Pass are stable. They're walking but it's gonna take some time for them to recover. The biofoam really helped. How you holding up boss?”

“Shitty. I'm gonna be out of action for a while.”

“I still can't believe you punched a hunter to death,” May entered the Warbird as it gave her a lift as well.

“By my bloody fucking hooves I did...” Jet sighed and reclined back to relax after the successful operation.