As the other members of Team Unity and some of the higher-level Ryders gathered at the center of the camp early that day, Russell wasn't sure what to expect.

Looking at Alex's direction, the Admiral looked disgruntled, almost angry about something. The C.I.A Agent Mako went up to him and said something Russell couldn't identify. Alex replied in a smaller tone, almost inaudible.

"Attention members of the Equestrian Remnantian Coalition and my fellow Ryders!" Locust demanded. He had learned the Commander's name from Twilight Sparkle, now sitting close by her friends in a select corner.

"Our first order of business, My intelligence operatives discovered a large orbital kinetic strike weapon above the planet identified as ARES. The payloads consist of large pods containing vast amounts of Dust, if left unchecked, that one satellite can decimate the Kingdoms of Remnant and annihilate millions in the blast alone. If we are to save them, we ask that volunteers please raise their hands to participate in the assault to destroy the satellite and, per Ms. Schnee's request, return the payloads to their rightful owners." Locust explained.

"Why return the payloads?" Master Chief Fong asked.

"According to Princess Twilight's calculations, if this specialist team simply blasts the satellite into the atmosphere, it will simply plummet, creating an explosion more massive than a single payload would create." Locust's second in command, Auklet, elaborated.

"What if we temporarily take control of the satellite, use it to our advantage, and then do whatever that guy just said?" Wildcat asked.

"It would be too dangerous. The weapon itself is too destructive to even consider use that close to a kingdom." Blake explained.

"What else?" Yang asked.

"Our next order of business is location of Adam Taurus and Cinder Fall, we discovered their whereabouts, in an underground city similar to the one underneath their 'Mountain Glenn' called the 'Subterrains'. It is a hub for Inquisitor activity for Vale and Atlas. This is where most of our ground forces will be focused. The task is simple. Discover a way to prevent ARES being used remotely, and capture either Taurus or Fall. If anyone attempts to kill the Inquisitor before we can question them, there will be severe consequences." Auklet debriefed.

"They know we're coming, so this is probably the most dangerous out of the two." Alex called out.

"Can I say something? If they know we're coming, we're f**ked! We can't handle those assholes or their army! What do we have besides a few thousand people, about 10 or 12 of which are actually able to fight back?!" Mini asked.

"I have asked some friends in Adenien for a favor, soldier. You will be augmented with an Exo-Suit in addition to your Atlesian Paladins, should they fail." One of the Ryder's intelligence operators, Ceril, answered.

"Okay, now this actually is Titanfall." Moo Snuckel blinked.

"I got this, I'm like Alex now." Vanoss smugly announced, unsheathing a sword that looked like it had been ripped straight out of some weird Cthulhu anime game.

"What in fresh hell is that?!" Alex gaped.

"It's an Apothicon Sword I got from Black Ops 3 Zombies." He replied.

"That looks awesome!" Ruby stared.

"Yeah, I've seen enough of... this sort of thing... to know where this is going." Sirius face-palmed.

"Poor, poor man." Mako cringed.

"Squid swords aside, we need volunteers for the space mission. Raise your hand if you want to do this." Alex shook his head and asked.

"I'll go." Cloudchaser steadily raised a hoof.

"Yeah, that sound epic!" Flitter immediately waved a hoof.

"Anything to get away from whatever Evan's holding." Weiss raised both hands as she steadily walked away from the owl.

"You're just jealous of how awesome this squid sword is." He defended.

"Eh, screw it. Space." Haunt shrugged.

"I'm going with Weiss, it's not like I can leave her alone up there." Ruby volunteered.

"I'll do it." Russell raised his own hand. It sounded cool enough, he just hoped it wouldn't turn out like that Call of Duty game.

"Boop!" Nora poked Ren's face before waving.

"I will assist the young ones." Auklet nodded.

"May the Divine watch over you, brother." Locust held two fingers in the air as a sign of respect.

"Likewise, Commander." Auklet returned the gesture.

Alex finally stood up, walking towards Commander Locust.

"The rest of you are coming with me to the Subterrains. We need as many people as humanly possible working on this." Alex ordered. Many of the 6,000 people working on the operation cheered him on as those who had risen their hands were rushed over by Auklet.

"I thank you, soldiers, for volunteering for this mission." Auklet nodded.

"We won't let ya down, Auk. Lead the way." Haunt shrugged.

"I set up some temporary launch zones I had the drones build in our sleep. The rockets should blow us into the atmosphere. From there, use the afterburners on the suits I'm handing out to maneuver your way around the satellite. I have a large containment silo that we can fill with the payloads once we're done collecting the Dust, it should be able to survive the fall. Get your suits and move onto the ships. May the Divine watch over us." Auklet instructed, handing out a suitcase for the humans who volunteered, and some for the ponies as well.

----

The suit was slightly uncomfortable, and cumbersome at best, but at least maneuverable. Grabbing the lever-action rifle that the Ryders supplied him with, he stood up, intending to head towards the ship.

"Leaving so soon?" Someone had called.

Looking behind him, he saw Ms. Nikos. The two had been close friends since their encounter, he smiled back, nodding.

"If I can't bring this thing down, who can?" Russell replied bluntly.

"Relax, Russell. You have two of the best huntresses I've met fighting by your side. I have full confidence the squadron will complete the mission."

"That makes two of us." He nodded.

"Here," Pyrrha handed him another mag, "Just in case."

"Thank you. I gotta go." Russell nodded, putting the mag in his back pocket.

Russell made the trip to the rockets as fast as he could. Ignoring the fact that this thing looked like a 5th grade science project and probably unable to get off the ground, he climbed the steep ladder into the ship.

"Alright, It'll take about 20 minutes to get there! Walker and his crew will arrive at the Subterrains at around the same time! Let's show these Red Star bastards how to party!" Haunting yelled out amongst the charging teams.

Russell climbed into his seat and strapped in tightly, he even put on the helmet.

"Let's go! We gotta move! Ruby, get on!" Cloudchaser pulled the girl inside and strapped her in.

"That's the last one! Let's get this tin can in the air!" Russell called out.

His words were immediately answered by a large weight pressing against his chest.

"What, no countdown?!" He gasped.

"Woo!" Flitter yelled excitedly.

"ARES, here we come!!" Haunt screamed as the ship continued to fly straight upwards.

----

Wow, Remnant from this height was beautiful.

It looked a lot similar to planets such as Equis and even Earth. A large blue marble with green and brown land mass indiscriminately strewn across the surface.

"Wow, you can see Vytal from up here!" Ruby gaped as they leaped out from their rocket and into the zero-gravity of space, guns by their sides.

"And there's the satellite." Haunt saw a large black-and-orange communications satellite modified with a large revolving chamber at the base.

"That's ARES?" Cloudchaser gasped. ARES was roughly as tall as a building, and surrounded by little black and orange specks. Probably enemies.

'Icarus 0-1, have you made it to the satellite?!' Alex asked from the radio.

"Affirmative, Admiral. We're currently nearing the target. What's your ETA for the Subterrains?" Auklet asked.

'We've started the assault already!!' he yelled.

"Just as I figured, Red Star Hell-jumpers are guarding the damn thing." Haunt scoffed.

'Do what you can! I'll handle the mess down here!' he screamed as gunfire blasted in the air at his location.

"Ruby? Can you take out the guards? I doubt they can hear the gunfire all that well." Auklet ordered.

"Sure thing!" She smiled through her helmet.

Converting the deadly scythe into it's rectangular sniper-form, she aimed two well-placed shots into the helmets of their enemies, blood spraying out of the glass visors and floating in clumps.

"Got 'em." She mildly celebrated.

"Watch yourselves, I doubt they're the only ones." Cloudchaser shook her head.

"I'm heading above the sat. I'll try to find a way to remove the payloads from up there." Russell said, sending power to the boots and flying above the orange-and-black satellite.

He stopped himself just in time, two Hell-jumpers.

"Iris, can you patch me into their comms?" Russell asked.

"On it!" She chirped.

'I just don't see why we have to stand guard.' one of them said.

'Yeah. I mean, who the hell's going to stop this thing?'

"Your looking at him." Russell said as he fired a shot at one of the Hell-jumpers, a piece of glass from the visor fragmented and shattered, and a piece cut tight through the other's suit before he suffered a similar fate.

"Icarus, I found a way to get the payloads!" Called Weiss.

Russell flew to where the ice queen was currently opening the large satellite's canister, large rods containing multi-colored crystal nested inside.

"Holy hell." Haunt gasped.

"So that's dust." Flitter blinked.

"Load it onto the crate!" Auklet ordered.

The rest got to work pulling out the large projectiles and loading them onto the crate.

"Keep in mind, this thing can survive a fall from space and still not explode, but don't screw this up while the crate is still open!" Weiss ordered.

"Okay, then. Sheesh!" Russell threw up his hands as he loaded another dust rod inside the crate.

'Open fire!'

Crap! Hell-jumpers!

"Watch yourselves!" Auklet ordered as he returned fire, shooting their enemies as accurately as possible.

Russell also helped clear out the Hell-jumpers, and the others had almost finished loading the crate when suddenly the satellite exploded before them.

Someone shot through ARES while a rod was still inside.

"Damn it!" Cloudchaser strained, grabbing a hold of Flitter before she could fall too far. Auklet was not as lucky. He fell away and started to burn along with the dead satellite ARES, horror fresh in Russell's mind.

"Do we have the rest of the rods encased?" Weiss asked.

"I think so... When's our ride coming up?" Haunt asked.

"Watch out!" Weiss warned as more Hell-jumpers attacked. Haunt was immediately ripped a part by gunfire, unable to scream as they tore through the suit, and his bloodied corpse slammed onto the still-opened crate of payloads. Dropping them onto the planet below.

"No!" Flitter gasped as the rods fell out.

"God dammit!" Russell reached out.

They all shot back at their enemies, Russell blew the brains out of one of them before shooting another in the chest, killing him as he drifted about the cosmos.

'Icarus 0-1, what's your situation?!' Vanoss yelled.

"Vanoss?!" Ruby asked.

'We lost contact with Alex and Blake a little while ago! Anything important happen?!' He asked.

"We lost Auklet and Haunt. The crate was blown down to the planet's surface while we were loading. Mission compromised." Weiss disappointedly replied.

'Shit. That's not your only problem. They have another one of those things up there, you see it?' Vanoss asked.

"Oh, hell." Cloudchaser gasped. Sure enough, there were another one of those things about a half-kilometer away.

"We're on it. Ruby, Kill the Hell-jumpers." Russell ordered.

"Is that really how you address a superior officer?" Weiss scolded.

"Got it." Ruby nodded, ignoring Weiss' obvious annoyance.

Four shots were fired, and the satellite was probably open.

They flew over there in about 6 seconds, this satellite was noticeably different. Similar design, but they would have to find another way to stop this thing.

'If I remember what Alex said, this thing can't be taken down manually, but if you can blow it into Remnant's atmosphere, it should burn and detonate the payloads before they hit the ground. But you'll either be blown into space with no air, or get stuck on the satellite and burn up with it.' Vanoss instructed.

"Got it. Moving to the top." Russell said.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Weiss asked.

"Following orders." He bluntly replied.

"You know what'll happen to you, right?" Flitter gasped.

"I heard what Evan said. I don't have that long a lifespan anyway." Russell spat.

"Why?" Ruby asked.

Damn, he didn't expect to be asked why.

"Why do you have to go? And don't say it's because Alex'll probably court-martial you." Cloudchaser said.

"I've got the Adenien Retrovirus. This thing'll deteriorate my insides until nothing's left. I only got about a month or so, and there's no cure anyways." Russell sighed.

"What?" Flitter blinked.

Russell visor-palmed.

"It means the virus will eat me from the inside out."

"Ew." Flitter shuddered.

"That's why I'll handle the sat. You guys get back to Remnant." Russell ordered.

"No! We aren't going to leave so you can die in a fire or lack of oxygen!" Ruby said back.

"I've got no choice! I'll die anyways!" He yelled back.

"Wait, where are Cloudchaser and Flitter?" Weiss asked.

"Ready? One! Two! Three!" The two pushed the satellite from the top end towards the surface.

"No! You idiots!" Russell flew up to stop them.

"We'll take care of this! Go with Ruby and Weiss!" Flitter said.

"Like hell you are!" Russell yelled back.

Russell grasped Flitter in an attempt to throw her off the satellite.

"Cloudy! Push!" She yelled as she continued to struggle.

"No, god dammit! You'll get yourselves killed!" Russell tensed.

Flitter accidentally pushed the magnetic boot option at his belt, causing Russell to cling to the surface.

"Dammit! Stop!" He pulled at his legs, trying to move them to no avail.

He saw Ruby and Weiss watching from the rocket they were to take home. Ruby was visibly crying and Weiss was trying to pull her in.

"They made their choice! We can't stop them!" Weiss sighed depressively.

"They're coming back! They have to!" She waved both arms towards them as Weiss sealed the door.

"Push! Get this thing in orbit!!" Flitter continued to tug at his grasp.

Finally, Russell felt gravity pull them down as some various pressure systems and fail-safes ignited, blowing sections of the satellite apart. Both Pegasi were caught by the solar-paneled wings on the satellite and plummeted alongside him, orange flame circling around them.

'Ruby? Weiss? You there?!' Russell heard Alex yell through the radio.

'We're here, Alex.. But Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Russell chose to take out the second satellite.' Weiss sighed bitterly.

'Russell?! Come in!! Damn it! No response, Sergeant Majors Leone, Cloudchaser, and Flitter have been Killed in Action.'

Suddenly, Russell heard a bunch of loud bursts. The payloads!

Russell could only watch as his vision was completely engulfed by red and blue, even white before his vision ultimately faded to black. And his breathing ceased. Forever.

Author's Notes:

Destoyer be like 'Introduce a new character only 6 chapters before... Aaand he's dead.'

Rage in 3...2...1