Dreams are a strange territory. Many have spent careers trying to find the meanings behind the strange and convoluted paths they might take. Entire fields of psychology and philosophy have been guided by such pursuits.

Fortunately, Infiltrators are taught far more practical psychology, based on study and statistics rather than pure speculation and tenuous correlation. Sure, there’s the occasional prophetic dreamer or invasive dreamform, but those are distinct magical phenomena, not the normal product of a typical subconscious mind. Normal dreams typically mean nothing more than that a thought happened to come to mind, whether it’s some long-held fear about getting stuck in an alien form, a recent interest in a particular brand of snack cake, or some casual thought or memory. Defeating a giant ambulatory blueberry waffle by eating it is less likely to be a deep-seated issue with your parents or repressed sexual fantasy, and more likely to simply mean you’re about to wake up hungry.

I am glad to have been taught this way, because trying to decipher the metaphor behind the neon-green cybernetic male alicorn griffin in custom power armor could take months, fill a thesis paper, and possibly lead to eventual insanity.

As is, I only even remember that one detail, out of the rest of what must have been a supremely strange dream, because he teleported to my left side and buzzed, in his electronic yet clearly feminine voice, “Target in sight.”

The rest of the dream was lost to the volatility of short-term memory as my slowly-stirring conscious mind latched onto those words. More words followed as I became aware of waking up. “One is taking lead.” Other voices overlapped, the calm urgency piercing all the way to my consciousness. Some were distorted, but the two I had made out were crystal clear. Not a single artifact. Close.

My heart was pounding as I jerked awake, adrenaline already burning in my veins. My eyes opened to a dimly lit room, with Echo lying curled neatly beside the bulk of the power armor she had been working on. I quickly snatched at my saddlebags and the networked PipBucks within, nearly falling out of bed in my haste.

All the voices were filling my left ear. The right was silent.

Echo made some soft sound, but I ignored her. My attention went first to the PipBuck monitoring the Serenity channels. The voices were coming in on multiple channels, and I caught snippets of formation, maneuver, and enemy sightings. Channels blinked out and flashed to life as information spread rapidly through the Serenity chain of command.

I quickly switched to my own PipBuck, confirmed that I was set to the private channel, and hit transmit. “Dusty, are you awake?” Echo grunted and stirred at the noise, but no reply came over the radio. “Dusty!”

The soft, alien sound of magical energy weapons barely reached my ears through the thick walls. My ears shot up, head snapping around. A dozen red marks filled my E.F.S. I switched to the command channel, nearly shouting as I broadcast a warning. “The Cumulonimbus is under attack!”

More shots sounded as the entire world leaped into action. Dusty’s groggy voice came across the radio, asking, “What’s going on?” just as a klaxon sounded, and the cloudship twitched beneath me, banking into a turn.

Hail Burst’s voice answered. “The Cumulonimbus is being boarded. Enemy strength is at least a platoon, likely more. I’m getting word of enemy fliers spotted approaching the army from west and southwest--”

The radio squawked with electrical interference, the dim light by the door flickering for a moment. Hail Burst’s voice returned, a little harsher than before. “Be advised, we are now on internal defense and can not provide air support. Enemy is using matrix disruption grenades. We may lose communications.”

Echo was wide awake as the sound of distant but rapidly growing combat echoed through the ship. “What is going on?”

“We’re being boarded,” I said, scrambling out of the bed.

“What?” she blurted, eyes widening. “They dare!”

Dusty spoke across the radio. “Understood. Do you require assistance?”

“Negative,” Hail Burst replied. “Too many hostile fliers, and we can’t give air defense. Those whirligigs would get torn apart. We’ll hold or take as many of these bastards down with us as possible.”

“Don’t get killed!” Dusty said. “We need you ponies a lot more than we need your ship!”

The voices from the Serenity force were coming quicker and louder, overlapping each other with the frantic calls of combat. I pulled out the relevant PipBuck, switching around to find the right channel.

Echo stood tall, her mane flared and blowing as if her power was coursing directly through it. “Whisper! We are leaving!”

“No we’re not!” I said, still switching channels. “We’re safe for now, and you can teleport us out if it gets dangerous. Now be quiet, I need to work!”

“But--” Her mouth snapped shut, followed by an aggravated growl. “Fine! But we are leaving the moment I think you are in danger!”

Another distant explosion rattled the locker behind me, and I found an active Serenity channel. “--partment one is breached, light resistance. I’m seeing lots of contacts moving now.”

“Understood. Get to defensive positions and get ready to push. Just like we practiced.”

I quickly checked my notes, comparing the channel numbers. If my earlier information was correct and they hadn’t changed anything, this was platoon-level traffic in the first platoon, Alpha company. I bumped it up a channel, listening to company-level communications. It was only a few seconds before I was rewarded. “Command, One. Hoofhold secure. Minimal resistance, we should be able to take the second line before things bog down.”

“Copy,” the reply came, just as clear as the others; the company headquarters was nearby. “Proceed. Two, hustle aft and get that breach going. Push hard before they can relocate.”

Crap. I hit transmit again. “Hail Burst, someone spotted a bunch of changelings going toward the rear of the ship, and they might have explosives. They may be trying to breach there.”

“Shit,” she replied, then, “Understood.”

I was already switching to the private channel. “Dusty, I’m pretty sure we’ve got an entire company hitting the ‘Nimbus.”

There was a pause, possibly as he switched channels to reply. “Copy that. They’re launching an offensive across the entire western edge of the army. If it starts getting bad up there, you get the hell out.”

“I will,” I said, and switched back to the command net.

“An entire company,” Echo darkly intoned. “I would say it has already gotten quite bad.”

I slowly turned my head, watching all of the contact markers moving around, both friendly and enemy. “It’s not bad until Serenity gets close. It’ll only take a second for you to teleport us.”

She grumbled, turning to focus once more on the door.

I noticed one non-hostile mark moving relatively quickly to our door, just before the latch moved. “And don’t kill Bloodbeak, please.”

The door opened to reveal the griffin in question, her rifle slung around her neck as she peered in. “Hey! I think there’s a fight going on!”

“We noticed,” I said, quickly waving a hoof for her to enter before transmitting again. “Hail Burst, this is Whisper. What do you want us doing?”

Bloodbeak slipped in, shutting the door behind her, while I waited for Hail Burst’s reply. It came a few seconds later. “Whisper, monitor channel eight-nine for internal defense, but don’t get in their way.”

“Understood.” A moment later, I was on the new channel. “This is Queen Whisper and company joining this channel. Anything we should know?”

A stallion’s voice immediately replied. “Welcome to the party, Whisper. This is Bastion. What’s your location?”

“Echo, Bloodbeak, and I are all in my quarters.”

“Copy that. Intruders on that deck have pushed halfway to your position, but we’ve halted them. You’re good for now, but be ready to move.”

“I understand. We’ll be ready.”

Another explosion shook the floor. It was almost as if they didn’t care about the state of the ship.

“This is a bad decision,” Echo growled, horn glowing as she glared at the door. “You’re not contributing to the defense, so there is no reason for you to remain.”

“My job hasn’t changed,” I said, not wanting to elaborate more with someone else listening in. “And I’m not bailing on these ponies. We’re staying until Serenity starts overtaking us or the order is given to abandon ship.”

Bloodbeak started. “What? You don’t think they’ll do that, will they?”

“Serenity outnumbers us up here,” I said. “Probably two-to-one or more. On the other hoof, the Loyalists have great defensive positions. I could see it going either way.”

Another Serenity transmission caught my ear, and I quickly singled it out as platoon-level traffic in the second platoon. “Charge set. Pull back. Call when clear.”

While the squads rapidly called out in reply, Bloodbeak sat, shifting her rifle to point roughly at the door. “So, uh, what’re we doing?”

In my ear, some changeling called out “Fire in the hole!” three times. The sound that followed wasn’t the deafening, ship-rattling explosion I had expected. It was a distant, dull thump, as if someone had dropped something on the deck. “Go, go, go!”

“We’re sitting tight here,” I said, even as my heart beat harder. Hostile contact markers were all around. Some must have been Serenity soldiers flying around outside the ship. It made it hard to tell where the boarders were. “I’m on the radio with the Loyalists. If we need to move, they’ll let us know.”

“Oh,” she said, clearly nervous. “Okay.”

My right earbud crackled loudly with a new voice. “Intruders breaching in engineering! At least a squad of power armor. We do not control the compartment.”

“Five, are you in position?”

“Almost. Deck one is clear back to engineering. Still moving up on deck two.”

Left ear, again. “Engineering secure! Enemy forces seen withdrawing into deck three and four main passages.”

As I listened to the rapidly escalating combat, Echo snorted and jerked her head toward the power armor. “Whisper, you should get in the armor. I have not yet completed the repairs, but it will still provide protection.”

I glanced at the armor, grimaced, and shook my head. “Not a good time to learn how to use power armor,” I said. “Besides, I don’t want to look like a Serenity soldier. The Loyalists are expecting me to look like a queen.”

On that note, I focused my magic, pouring it into retaking my regal disguise.

“Great,” Echo grumbled. “Now you’ve made yourself an even bigger target.”

I ignored her, focusing on the radios. Calls were coming out quickly from both sides, and I looked over the local map on my PipBuck, painting a mental picture of the battlefield. The changelings at the front of the ship, the first platoon, were probing the defenses, but several Loyalist and two Militia squads were fighting them off. The second platoon, in the rear, was pushing hard on all decks. They were trying to keep up the momentum, but my warning had cost them the element of surprise, and the Loyalists were slowing them down.

Slowing, but concerningly, not stopping.

Bloodbeak fidgeted with her rifle, checking the chamber before resuming her aim at the door. “How the heck did they sneak up on a cloudship? It’s in the middle of the sky!”

Several distant explosions echoed through the ship, and the light flickered in time to several high-pitched discharges. More matrix disruption grenades.

Without looking up from my screens, I tapped a hoof to my chest. “Black chitin and black armor, at night, under a fully overcast sky. Changelings are about as well-adapted to nighttime operations as you can get, even without our shapeshifting.”

The weapon fire had intensified, ringing through the corridors. Several loud radio calls indicated Serenity’s first platoon had launched a hard push on all defensive positions. Neither side seemed to know how well it was going.

“Or someone was sleeping at their post,” Bloodbeak grumbled. “I know guard duty gets boring, but still…”

One of the Loyalist units had fallen silent. Bastion was giving orders to another. “Three, pull back to the next stairwell. Four isn’t responding. I need you to get a few ponies down there to secure the starboard passage, deck four.”

On Serenity’s side, a squad leader was reporting. “We’ve broken through on deck four. No more resistance. We’re pushing up to secure stairwell S-two.”

I double-checked the map. We were on deck three, and if my guess was correct, that stairwell was just down the corridor and around the corner. The swarm of hostile contacts swirling around made it impossible to tell who was where.

Ten seconds later I heard the rapid discharging of magical energy weapons as Loyalist and Serenity forces clashed. Radio calls reported the contact.

Seconds ticked by, turning to minutes. The defenders on deck three and four had been pushed back from engineering, but had regrouped and were now holding the line. Neither side seemed to have a good picture of how the fight was going in the aft of deck two. Explosions rattled the ship, quickly reported as being on deck one, near the bow. Three reported making contact with survivors from Four. Moments later they reported being fired on by those same survivors. The Militia squad leader gave a rushed report of being overrun and fell silent.

How long had the fighting been going on? Ten minutes? Twenty?

I checked my PipBuck’s clock. Six.

“Queen Whisper.” Bastion’s voice was firm and controlled in the midst of the chaos. “Do you know the way to the sick bay?”

I keyed in. “I can find my way.”

“Good. Move there now. That’s our fallback. Say when you arrive.”

“We’re on the way.”

Echo’s glanced to me. “We’re what now?” Apparently she hadn’t switched to listen to the new channel.

“Going to the sick bay,” I said as I slid the networked PipBucks back into my bag, then turned back to my own. I took a moment to double-check the local map, then rose to my hooves. My rifle floated beside me. “Okay. Follow me.”

I opened the door, the sound of weapon fire suddenly much louder. Close. I peeked out the door, looking down the corridor. Vacant. I could make out two, maybe three magical energy weapons firing in that direction, all in slow, steady bursts. Suppression fire, I assumed. Far enough away that I didn’t see any flashes. Close enough to be terrifyingly loud. Somepony shouted directions, though I couldn’t make out his words.

Echo remained close on my flank as I led the way, with the power armor floating along right behind her. I trotted to the closest junction, well away from the fighting, and took the dim corridor. The air shook with a nearby explosion and the volume of fire surged. A changeling on the Serenity channel was reporting an enemy counterattack, though I didn’t catch where. Bastion was loud in my other ear, giving quick updates to various squads. I don’t remember all the details now, just the general gist of the commands: collapse and consolidate. They were losing ground.

A couple more turns and a short set of stairs later, we reached the sickbay. I rushed in first, immediately greeted by a pair of pegasi. “Holy shit!” the first one shouted, snatching up a tray in his bandaged hooves before taking to the air, while the other pony scrambled back to put her empty bed between us.

“Easy,” I said. Neither were armed or armored, and a quick glance at my E.F.S. suggested they were non-hostile. I floated my rifle back to my side, the barrel pointing straight up. “We’re on your side.”

Echo and Bloodbeak had entered behind me, shutting the door, the sound of combat abruptly muffled. The stallion paused, looking over us before something like recognition flashed in his eyes. He still held the tray defensively, hovering in place. “What’s going on out there?”

I glanced to his leg, noting the lack of PipBuck. Without power armor, he was entirely out of contact. “We’ve been boarded,” I said, advancing into the room to get away from the door, and took in the surroundings. There were about a dozen ponies still in beds, and only a few were awake. Several carts of medical equipment were parked by various beds, cluttering up the room, but also offering some degree of cover. Then again, the carts were probably made of thin sheet metal, and might not stop anything more energetic than fragments and thrown rocks.

Behind me, Bloodbeak moved to what seemed to be a nurse’s station, with a metal desk that looked a bit more promising. She used the desk to brace her rifle, covering the door. Echo, meanwhile, set the power armor down just before the closest medical bed and strode lazily into the center of the room.

I looked back to the pegasus stallion, still holding his tray. “Bastion told us to fall back here.”

Which reminded me of his request. I lifted my PipBuck. “Bastion, this is Whisper. We’re in sickbay.”

“Copy,” he said. “Hold tight. All forces! Final positions are C.I.C., sickbay, and corridors between on decks two and three. Peel back now. Two, how strong are you?”

“We’re all up. Six strong.”

“Good. Once we’ve consolidated, you’ll be lifting the wounded out.”

My ears flicked back. The implication was clear: we were going to lose.

The pegasus mare had emerged from behind her bed. Her wing was wrapped in bandages. “We need to get into the fight!”

I looked up from my PipBuck. “Do you have any weapons?”

“No, but the armory is nearby.”

I looked back to my map. “Is that the room one deck down and about three rooms forward?”

“Yeah.” She had started to trot forward, but halted; I wasn’t exactly blocking the way, but she’d have to get close to slip by, and seemed reluctant to do so.

“That location has already been overrun,” I said. Or at least, it was right on the front-line and about to be abandoned, but the fine details didn’t matter right then. “Everyone is falling back here.”

I saw her eyes widen a hair, recognizing the meaning of what I said. She immediately shook it off. “Fuck that. I’m taking this armor, then.”

“That is not yours!” Echo snapped, eyes narrowing. Then, more reasonably, “And besides, it is not yet fully functional.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” the mare snapped.

A soft thump almost escaped my attention, only to be followed by an urgent broadcast from Hail Burst. “Breach! Port-side access! We have more intruders!”

I looked at my map. If I was reading it right, the port-side access was right alongside us, one deck down. Between the relocation and local conversations, I’d missed any communications planning that move.

The pegasus stallion had finally set down the tray and flew over to us. “Look, we’re not staying here--”

I held up a hoof, cutting him off, then moving the hoof to my ear to signal the reason for my action: there were more radio calls. “Intruders, port-side corridor, deck three! Three is cut off!”

“Two is in contact. We’re pinned down!”

“There’s a fuckton of bugs on the port side. C.I.C., they’re moving your way!”

“Five, I need you at the C.I.C. as quick as you can. One, support Two. I need you breaking through to the sickbay and extracting the wounded.

A burst of weapon fire made everyone in the room flinch. It wasn’t outside, but it was close.

Echo raised her head, declaring, “It is time to leave.”

“One second,” I said, and hit the transmit button again. “Bastion, this is Whisper. Echo can teleport the wounded out.”

“Do it,” Bastion replied. “Evac everyone in the compartment. Call when clear. We’ll keep the bugs off of you.”

I gave a quick look around the room, making a count. Two conscious and mobile. Five in varying degrees of consciousness but not mobile. Seven unconscious, likely sedated. I turned to Echo. “Okay, I need you to start teleporting these ponies out. Get them to safety. Bloodbeak and I will keep guard here until the last ‘port out.”

“No,” she said, head held high and expression firm. “You will leave now. Staying is--”

“We don’t have time to argue this,” I said, and pointed a hoof at the nearest bed-bound pony. “Dusty isn’t here, so I’m taking charge. Get them out.” With that, I turned, trotting over to Bloodbeak at the nurse’s station.

Behind me, I heard an aggravated growl from Echo, followed by a pop and flash of purple. Taking cover behind the desk and readying my rifle, I saw she had taken the two mobile pegasi and two of the bed-bound ponies. Four trips, then.

“Well,” Bloodbeak said as I crouched beside her, giving a lopsided and insincere grin. “This is fun.”

Several more burst of magical weapon fire echoed through the ship, followed by a pair of explosions that made the lights flicker.

I had my sights lined up on the door. “You know these rifles aren’t going to do anything against power armor.”

Her grin slipped away. “Ah. Yeah. That’s a little less fun.”

Hostile marks were moving all around, too many to localize. Rapid radio calls came on both sides of the fight. The Loyalist “Two” unit was heavily engaged and taking casualties. A Serenity squad leader reported that they were assaulting the C.I.C.

A purple flash announced Echo’s return. Thirty, maybe forty seconds had passed. Four of the beds glowed purple, floating up from the deck to surround her, and with another flash, they were gone.

Bloodbeak glanced my way. “Don’t suppose you have anything harder-hitting tucked away in those bags? Like a missile launcher or something?”

My mind immediately flashed to the explosive charge. I’d have to dig it out, wire a blasting cap, set it, set the detonator, get it outside the room… “Nothing I could use in time. We’ll be gone in a minute.”

Hail Burst’s voice sounded in my ear. “C.I.C. is lost. Five, we’re coming to you by that starboard stairwell, thirty seconds.”

“Understood. We’re in heavy contact. Will try to hold for you.”

A series of hostile-contact markers abruptly swung by on our left. Some Serenity soldiers had passed by, probably just below us, or maybe in the corridor just outside. More were following after them. The sound of combat hammered through the walls in all directions.

Another flash and pop. Echo snatched up four more beds. Then she was gone again.

The cluster of moving marks I had noted didn’t move past us. They came to a stop, just a few degrees left of the door. I snugged the stock of the rifle against my shoulder, eying down the sights as best I could. My voice came out in a quiet, low growl. “I think they’re just outside the--”

The sharp, rapid blasts cut me off, bits of molten metal flying from the joints of the door in flashes of orange and pink. I flinched back, then steeled myself. Adrenaline burned in my veins. The shooting stopped. There was a metal-on-metal crash, the door flying across the room with a power-armored buck. I focused down my sights, ready to engage S.A.T.S. at the first hint of movement. I couldn’t penetrate power armor; I just needed to delay them for a few seconds.

Movement. I hit S.A.T.S. The world seemed to sharpen as I followed the motion. The sights aligned with smooth ease. Rear aperture. Front post. Grenade.

My heart lurched. I lunged to the side, hooking a foreleg around Bloodbeak and bearing her down to the ground. We collapsed in a heap behind the desk, my head buried against the floof of her neck, a foreleg shielding my head and other ear.

I heard the muffled clatter of the grenade, the crash of something falling over, and then the hammer came crashing down on us. I reeled, gasping to regain my breath as I rolled off of Bloodbeak. Hostile marks were already in the room. At least three or four of them. S.A.T.S. was down. The air was thick with haze, dim from the blown-out lights. I could barely hear the stomp of metal hooves and the crash of a medical cart being knocked over past the pounding in my head.

Bloodbeak rolled her head--maybe moaned something, I couldn’t tell--and I quickly placed a hoof on her beak. I pushed against the nearby wall with a hindhoof to push me more tightly against the desk, hiding us as best I could.

I turned my head again, trying to pick out the contacts that were in the room from those further away. Most moved quickly through the ward. More equipment was knocked aside, clattering loudly, and hopefully hiding my rapid breathing.

One had not continued on. That contact moved slowly. I heard the armored hoof-steps, drawing closer to the desk. I brought my rifle up, close to my chest and aimed at the corner of the desk, then dug in my pack for a grenade; I didn’t know if it would kill someone in pegasus power armor, but it might delay them for a few vital seconds.

How much longer?

The mark continued to move. I aimed my rifle at about face-height. Maybe their muzzle wasn’t covered. Maybe the eye lenses were weak points. I had to hope.

I found the grenade and pulled it free. A twist of magic pulled the pin, and I flung it over the desk, hoping I wasn’t about to kill any ponies who might have survived the first grenade.

The response was a startled gasp of breath, followed by a loud shout. “Grenade!” Armored hooves clattered and banged, and the hammering blast of the grenade bucked me in the chest. As the world settled again, I grabbed for the next grenade. I’d just gotten ahold of it when the space lit up in eye-searing red and pinks, bolts of magical weapon fire peppering the wall behind me. Several parts of the desk flared brightly, some disintegrating.

Behind the red and pink, I must have missed the flash of purple before the room exploded. Blinding light strobed through the room as a deafening, crackling boom shook the air, and over it all, Echo’s voice boomed out, clear and terrifying: “Begone!”

Then the world plunged into darkness. The thundering sound cutting off, only a rattling echo and a numbness in my ears. All the lights had blown out. I pushed myself up, blinking at the ghostly images burned into my eyes, and peeked out over the desk.

The room was destroyed. Bedding was charred and burning. Walls were scorched. A nearby medical cart looked partially melted. The husks of four power-armor-clad changelings smoked and smoldered. The shadows thankfully hid the more grisly details of the changelings’ demise. The air reeked.

In the middle of that destruction stood Echo, her horn still illuminated, eyes glowing pure white, mane and tail flared with power. Her head turned, fixing me with her pupil-less stare. “We. Are. Leaving.”

With a flicker of purple magic, our suit of power armor and the last two cots floated into the air, the only two objects apparently untouched by whatever terrible magic she had unleashed. I grabbed for Bloodbeak, but Echo’s magic grabbed us instead, lifting us unceremoniously into the air.

The world twisted around us.

My hooves hit dirt. I staggered, gasping, and tumbled onto my side. It took a second to reorient. Dirt. I was on the ground. The flickering orange light to one side was a campfire. I was beside a large tent. We were in the camp. As I blinked away more of the after-images in my eyes, I saw ponies moving around us. It took a moment to recognize the Mareford Militia bardings and the medical symbols on the armors’ flanks. The medics were moving around the beds arrayed haphazardly outside the tent, many of which I recognized as coming from the Cumulonimbus.

Bloodbeak was sitting at my side, blinking and shaking her head. “Oof. Wow that was weird.”

I pushed myself up to sit. To my side, a pair of medical ponies hurried to the cots floating to the ground. The closest had several growing bloodstains, its occupant still. Ragged cuts had torn up his side, and the medic shouted for assistance. I wavered, wondering if I had done that to him, until the flicker of light above drew my attention upwards.

I could barely see the Cumulonimbus above, a faint silhouette highlighted by the flickering lighting in its supporting clouds. Lines of light flashed, piercing the sky; the Gemstone ponies were going to work, trying to pick off Serenity’s soldiers. Even their magical lasers were having a hard time finding targets in the dark at such a range.

Numbly, I turned to my broadcaster. “Bastion? It’s Whisper. The sickbay is empty and we’re all off the ship.”

“Understood,” Bastion replied. “Thank you. All aft units, peel back to deck one and join with us, we’ll be breaking out there.”

My head was slowly clearing up after the battery of explosions. I still felt off-balance.

Hail Burst spoke on the radio. “All forces, lift all fire around the ‘Nimbus. We’re breaking out now. We’ll be coming in fast on the main camp.”

As Dusty passed on instructions, I pushed myself up to my hooves. I wavered, my sense of balance swinging around for a moment before stabilizing. I looked to Echo, who stood imperiously, unfazed. “...We should get to Dusty.”

She simply nodded, and I turned to start walking, with Echo following close on my flanks. Bloodbeak scrambled to her feet to follow, calling out, “Wait for me!”

I wound my way through the maze of tents. I would have flown, but I didn’t want to make myself that much of a target. A few ponies started when they saw me, but most paid me nothing more than a passing glance.

The whole time, the radios continued to sound in both ears. A Serenity platoon commander was giving a situation report to her commander. “We’re secure here, but they smashed all the controls. We have no control over the ship. We have no steering control, no throttle control, no weapons control. It looks like hasty sabotage. Should be quick for the engineers to fix.”

I glanced up. The Cumulonimbus was still hard to make out, though it looked to be flying out over our front line. A storm of magical weapon fire filled the sky near its bow as Loyalists and Serenity soldiers exchanged fire. I turned back to look where I was going. There was nothing I could do about that fight at the moment.

In the other ear, some Loyalist soldier called out on the internal defense net, “Last mare!”

Hail Burst replied. “Hit it.”

Seconds later, the sky lit up. I looked up again to see the massive fireball lighting up the underside of the clouds, enveloping the Raptor. The lightning-laced clouds were ripped away with a final, dying flash. Shadows flickered in the sky, massive fragments of the ship carried away by the tremendous blast. The fireball rapidly burned out, leaving a cloud of smoke trailing behind the now-ballistic vessel. The guttering light revealed the massive rent torn through the side and belly of the craft.

Hail Burst had just hit Serenity with its own trick, and by the looks of it, to devastating effect.

Bloodbeak shouted something in surprise, and I could hear similar yells from around the camp. The rolling thunder of the explosion washed out those sounds for a moment, quickly fading into echos. Starlight’s voice cut through all of it, loud in my earbud. “Whisper!”

I quickly switched back to the private channel and replied, “I’m here. We’re all safe and on the ground.” My message delivered, I accelerated to a trot, while casting quick glances at the falling cloudship. With the fireball burnt out, it was visible only by the wisps of flame in the torn-open sections. I could barely make it out as the Cumulonimbus fell toward the valley to our west, slowly tumbling, before disappearing below the horizon of the nearby tents. The deep sound of its impact reached us seconds later.

It was the second time the great cloudship had fallen from the sky, and I had a feeling it would be the last.

The radio traffic had gone into overdrive. Serenity was a chaotic mess of voices, coming too quick and loud to pick out individual conversations, and I was too busy running to pull out the PipBuck and switch to individual channels. Dusty was calling for status updates. It was Two Bits who gave the first clear information.

“Command, Ranger Lead. The Cumulonimbus came down roughly two hundred yards out from the west-most defensive line, on the southern slope of the valley. The local hostiles have broken off. I’m going to push some forces forward to secure the crash site. Should give us a better defensive strongpoint.”

“If you can take it safely, do so,” Dusty replied. “Hail Burst? What’s your status?”

There was a pause. A moment of acidic tension before her voice came across the radio. “Unclear. We’re falling back to the main camp to regroup and assess.”

“Understood,” Dusty was saying as I rounded a corner, spotting the silhouette of our motorwagon some fifty feet away. Seconds later, I slowed and trotted into the headquarters. Dusty was lit by the dim screen of his PipBuck and the weak lantern hanging over the table. A few other Mareford ponies were gathered around him. He looked up from the map, a flash of recognition and relief crossing his face before turning back to his work. “Air, call when your last pony is on the ground.”

Starlight scrambled up from her seat. “Whisper! Holy crap I’m glad you got out of there!”

Echo stepped past me. “It is as I said. I will not permit any harm to befall her.”

“Yeah, uh-huh,” Starlight said, trotting up to me. “But you’re okay, right?”

“I’m okay,” I said, flashing a smile.

“It was pretty awesome,” Bloodbeak said with a grin. “Scary, but awesome. Echo fried a squad of power-armors!”

Dusty glanced up from the map. “Glad you’re all okay, but we’ve got a battle going on. If you’re not HQ, I need you out of here. Sorry, Bloodbeak.”

“Nah, no problem!” She said with a chuckle. “I’ll go keep watch or something.” She gave a playful salute before turning, trotting off.

Once she’d left the loose circle of the headquarters, Dusty looked to me again. “Any new info for me?”

“Not yet,” I said, setting out my PipBucks and scanning through Serenity’s channels. “I’ll let you know if I get something.”

“Good,” he said, then raised a hoof to tap at his ear, maintaining eye contact. I assumed he meant to use the radio. I nodded, and he returned to his map.

Starlight sat beside me, fidgeting. I think she was trying not to pry, not when we were still dealing with a battle out there. I reached out to rest a wing across her back. I’ll admit, a nice, heavy pegasus wing is much better at that than a thin changeling wing, but from the smile she flashed, she still appreciated the gesture. “So, what happened up there?”

“We were boarded,” I said, reply coming slow and careful as I tried to focus on the radio traffic. Trying to follow multiple conversations at the same time is a difficult task, even for one trained in social surveillance. “About a company of Serenity soldiers attacked. They got in close without being seen. It was a mess.”

Most of the traffic at the moment was in regards to the advance on the wreck of the Cumulonimbus. On the command net, Hail Burst finally reported in. “Command, Loyal. All Enclave forces are on the ground.”

“Copy that,” Dusty replied. “Gemstone, Command. Air is clear of friendly forces. You are free to fire on anything in the air. Flare going up momentarily.” He turned, gesturing with a hoof to one of the nearby Militia ponies, who immediately trotted to the edge of the shelter, floating out a stubby grenade launcher and loading a round. He fired it into the air with a deceptively soft retort for such a large round, and a second or two later, the area lit up in a soft white light.

A flurry of snaps and flashes followed as Gemstone ponies opened up on newly illuminated targets. I had to assume it was going well by the sound of things, as I couldn’t see it myself. I remained under the shelter; my radios were a more important focus for my attention.

Mareford and Trotsen ponies were radioing reports as they advanced along the southern ridge of the valley. A Serenity commander reported the advance, and was told to withdraw and yield the position. No crisis yet. Then the request went out, again, for company Alpha’s status, and this time, there was a reply.

I listened carefully before raising my own PipBuck, still on our private channel. I started the transmission, murmuring quietly so that nobody else could hear. “Serenity forces just reported their Alpha company as combat ineffective. Most were on the Cumulonimbus when it blew. No casualty counts, but they have a new acting commander, and she said Alpha effectively no longer exists.”

Across the shelter, I saw Dusty’s mouth tighten into a faint, grim, smile, and he gave a little nod, all the acknowledgment he could give with other ponies around him.

“That’s good, right?” Starlight asked.

I nodded. “It means we took a good chunk out of them. Now it’s just a question of how big a chunk they took out of us.”

Fortunately, I could see a group of Loyalists coming our way, as if to answer that question. Unfortunately, my E.F.S. showed they were not all friendly.

I turned to my PipBuck again, murmuring into the radio. “I’ve got a hostile contact in that group. The pony to the left of Hail Burst. Our left.”

Dusty’s head snapped up, eying the approaching pegasi. Echo had turned to face them as well, eyes narrow and head back, as if she could stop hostile intentions through the strength of her condescending glare.

When that failed to work--the pony in question walked right past Hail Burst towards me--she took a more direct approach. Without warning, the offending pony was jerked off his hooves in a glow of purple magic, the barrels of his weapons pointed straight upwards.

Shouting filled the headquarters for a moment, until Echo’s powerful voice cut through the shouts of surprise. “This pony has hostile intent toward Whisper, and I will not allow him to bring harm to her!”

The pony in question kicked out and flapped his wings, trying to pull free of the magic. “I’ll show you hostile intent!” he shouted. “That traitorous bitch let them in!”

The shouting was much more focused as Hail Burst’s head snapped around to him. “What?”

“That is a lie!” Echo boomed. “She was in my presence the entire time, and had no part in this attack!”

“The fuck she didn’t!” He twisted, but despite his efforts, the barrels of his armor-mounted weapons didn’t budge; there was no way he was going to win that fight against Echo’s magic. “We were doing just fine, but the moment she shows up, suddenly hundreds of those fucking bugs show up out of nowhere! She fucked us!”

Hail Burst grimaced as she stepped in front of him. “Enough. Let him down.” She waited until Echo--frowning and reluctant--did so, before speaking again with a voice of firm authority. “Crimson, I know we just got screwed pretty hard, but she wasn’t in any position to aid our enemy. Celestia knows I’d love nothing more than to kick the flank of the one responsible for it, but lashing out at our allies isn’t going to help.”

“Fuck them!” he shouted in her face. “We shouldn’t even be here! We’ve got our own war to fight, instead of mucking around in the mud!”

“This is our war!” Hail Burst snapped back, jaw tight. She wasn’t shouting furiously like him, but there was definitely some heat behind her words. “We’re fighting for what the Enclave stands for, and that means we’re not turning our backs on ponies again. This isn’t a debate. Return to the rally point and wait there with the others.”

“And fuck you,” he said, baring his teeth in a snarl. “I’m done with this shit. I’m going topside and finding some commander who’s still fighting our real enemy.”

She stared at him, eyes hidden behind those amber lenses. When she replied, her voice was icy. “Your input is noted. You’ve been given a lawful order by your superior officer, and I expect you to follow it.”

He opened his mouth, building up to shout back at her, but checked himself at the last moment. His wings lowered to his side. “Fine,” he said, practically spitting the word at her, then turned and walked off, muttering under his breath.

She waited until he’d disappeared behind another tent, and gave a tired sigh.

Dusty had stepped over from his map. “Is this going to be a problem?”

“No problem,” Hail Burst said, turning back to him. “Crimson just runs a bit hot at times. He’ll cool down. What’s our situation?”

“Serenity forces harassing the lines to the west through south, with scouts elsewhere. They’re falling back in the west, but I think they’re trying to make us pull forces off other positions. Now we’re without our eyes in the sky, so we’ve got a pretty poor picture of things. The whirligigs are grounded. Too vulnerable. How’s your force doing? What’s your strength?”

“Pretty shit,” she said with a bitter snort. “About twenty five combat-capable. Some of the wounded will be back in the fight once they’ve gotten some care, but that’ll only bring us up to thirty, maybe a bit more.”

“Damn,” Dusty muttered, then shook his head. “If you’ve got a couple scouts you could spare, I’d appreciate some recon near our lines, but don’t risk your ponies. The rest I’d like to keep here in case we need to defend from an air attack. Get some rest and recover.”

She nodded. “I can do that. I’ve still got the two scout teams out past our lines, looking for that megaspell.”

“Sounds good,” Dusty replied, hesitated, then added, “I’m sorry for how this went.”

“Not your fault,” Hail Burst said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “We knew the damn bugs would come back for the ‘Nimbus. I just wish I knew how many we took down with it.”

I looked up. “I might be able to help with that.”

Everyone’s attention turned to me, and Starlight sat a little more upright, tense under my wing. I drew it back to lie beside the other before continuing. “Between friendly radio traffic and E.F.S. contacts, I’d estimate about one hundred to one hundred twenty hostile soldiers boarded the Cumulonimbus. I also have excellent low-light vision, and a good view of the ship when it went down. I didn’t see many of Serenity’s soldiers get away, unless they disguised as friendly pegasi. You likely took out about a hundred of their soldiers.”

She frowned in thought for a moment before giving me a simple nod.

“That was quite an explosion,” Dusty noted.

“They may have rebuilt her,” Hail Burst said, a hint of a proud smile touching her lips, “but we lived her for years. They brought the fight to our turf. All we had to do was hold them off long enough to sabotage flight controls and set charges in the bomb-chariot magazine. The bombs might be impact resistant, but that’s nothing a few demo packs couldn’t solve.”

“Well it certainly worked,” Dusty said. “Sorry about your ship, but I’m glad you took some of them down with it.”

“Thanks.”

A thought occurred to me. “Did Soaring Heart make it? I didn’t see him in the sick bay.”

“He did. He was forward, helping with the combat wounded. Bastion said he was going to go back to help evac the wounded until he heard you got them out. Thanks for that, by the way. I’m not sure if we could have fought our way out if we had to move them, too. It was a close thing as it was.”

I nodded. “I’m just glad it turned out well. Relatively speaking, anyway.”

“Though it reminds me,” she said, looking back to Dusty. “Sorry to say, but none of the Militia soldiers made it. They got overrun by power armor. By the time we pushed back out, there was nothing but ash.

Dusty grimaced, then quickly shook it off. “Understood.”

There was a pause as another radio report came in. “Command, Ranger Lead. Lead elements are at the crash site. Hostiles have broken contact and fallen back west. Securing the site now.”

Dusty raised his PipBuck. “Command copies.” Then he looked back to Hail Burst. “I’d like to try salvaging any functioning weapons, if you don’t object. The Gemstone ponies have been doing good work holding off Serenity in the air, and I’d like to supplement that as much as possible.”

Starlight’s ears perked up at the mention of salvage, which prompted me to start thinking on the subject.

Hail Burst thought a moment, then nodded. “I’ll send a couple of technicians to direct salvage, if the Militia can provide some spare hooves for the work.”

“We can do that.”

“Good. Though, I hate to say it, I’ll have to insist that all salvaged Enclave technology will be returned to us once this campaign is over.”

“Of course,” Dusty said with a nod.

“If I could make a request?” I said, drawing their attention once again. “I know you pegasi have a lot of technology that can float. Do you think there might be anything salvageable that could lift an antenna and cable up a hundred feet or so?”

“We have a lot of cloud tech,” Hail Burst said, her head tilting slightly in a way that suggested a suspicious expression behind those amber lenses. “Why?”

“Because I’ve had a hard time listening in on outlying units here on the ground. It’s why I went up to the Cumulonimbus. Once we’re moving, terrain is going to be more of a problem, and communications will be even more important. I figure it’ll make sure Dusty can communicate with everyone regardless of circumstances.”

Dusty cocked his head slightly, looking almost as if he was going to object for a moment. “...Well, it’ll certainly be better than relaying from unit to unit.”

Hail Burst shrugged. “Sure, whatever. If we’ve got the time, we’ll see what we can get, but the weapons come first.”

Starlight hopped to her hooves, grinning. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll get it! Salvage is my thing. Well, that and being an awesome shot, but mostly salvage!”

Hail Burst hesitated, head slightly askew. “You’re a unicorn. You can’t do anything with cloud tech.”

“Oh,” Starlight said, her ears flicking back. “Right.”

I nudged her gently in the side. “You could ask Bloodbeak to help you. I think she’d like having something to do.” I glanced to Hail Burst. “If that’s okay with you?”

Her head rocked a little, as if she were rolling her eyes behind those lenses. “Fine by me. I’d say ‘don’t break anything,’ but...”

Starlight laughed and gave me a quick hug before dashing off out of the headquarters. Hail Burst excused herself as well, returning to her own troops. Dusty and I returned our focus to the continuing skirmish, interrupted only by Starlight and Bloodbeak running past, clambering into our motorwagon, and riding off with the trailing sound of eager laughter.

There was little in the way of fighting, it seemed. Serenity had fallen back from the west, while the company to the south was engaging in light, harassing fire. Only the occasional probing force was sent in at the other directions, advancing only far enough to find pony forces, exchange a few ineffective shots, and fall back. I quietly passed on the details to Dusty.

In turn, he issued the orders to start resting in shifts. Sentries and lookouts would hold the line, swapping out regularly, so everyone could get some sleep.

“They’re probably trying to keep us up,” he said to those of us in the headquarters. “Tire us out so we can’t march far tomorrow.” It seemed reasonable to me.

Then I caught a Serenity transmission that made my blood run cold. “Command, Mantis One. Eyes on new hostile vic near the crash site. Looks to be the command wagon. Requesting permission to engage.”

“Wait one, Mantis.”

I was already lifting my own PipBuck, checking that I was on the private channel before whispering into the broadcaster. “Starlight! Some Serenity soldier has the wagon in his sights. Get to cover!”

There was a long pause with no sound but my heartbeat before Starlight’s voice came across the radio. “We’re inside the ‘Nimbus. They’re not going to shoot my wagon, are they?”

“I don’t know. Just stay safe in there, and keep an eye out.”

“I’ve got E.F.S.,” she noted. “Not a single hostile around.”

“Okay… okay, good. Just be careful.”

“You know it.”

I gave a soft sigh of relief, and waited. It was half a minute before Serenity’s commander spoke again.

“Mantis One, Command. Hold fire. The enemy command element is still in the main camp.”

“Mantis One copies, holding fire.”

I slowly relaxed, settling back into the routine of listening to broadcasts, and tried to push away that sense of danger. I disliked the amount of intel they had on our position, but it was hardly surprising, and more importantly, there was nothing I could do about it at the moment.

Minute by minute ticked by, while the probing of our lines continued. Ten minutes after my little scare, Serenity command ordered a platoon to make a probing air attack from the northwest, with the intent of slipping by to hit the main camp. I quietly passed on word to Dusty. He, in turn, was ready to react the moment a Loyalist scout reported possible enemy forces, and seconds later he had sent another flare up.

The Gemstone ponies opened fire again, and this time I leaned out from under the shelter, watching the flickering lines and soaring bolts of magic fill the air. The distant Serenity formation, nicely visible in the flare light, scattered and reversed course. On the radio, a changeling commander was calmly calling to fall back.

The flight returned some time later, probing a different part of our defenses, and then another. Each time, our response was the same, and each time, they fell back. Half an hour later, Serenity’s commander called them off.

Then she called a unit I had heard nothing from that night.

“Package Brachinus, Command. Enemy air defenses are degraded but too effective for strike. Stand down for the night. Expect updates when enemy forces start moving.”

The reply was almost buried under audio artifacts brought on by distance. “Brachinus copies, Command.”

What was this? The only other “package” they had mentioned had been the negotiator. That was something special, something outside the usual military action. Perhaps this package was, too?

First Braconid, then Brachinus. Were they related? Did they only sound similar? They both sounded vaguely scientific, though I had no idea what, specifically, they might refer to. Maybe if I had a good dictionary. There was a vague possibility someone in the army might know what they meant. More likely, the only ones to know would be Serenity spies, who would probably be very curious why I’m asking about their special units’ names. That ruled that option out.

Negotiators came under a flag of truce to talk, not sneaking in past air defense. Possibly this was another infiltrator?

No. They probably had spies already, and sneaking more in wouldn’t require such a massive military distraction.

This was something that needed surprise. Something that needed safe skies over the heart of our camp. Something that they were unwilling to take any chances on.

I couldn’t be certain of what they were planning, but I could make a good guess.

I raised my PipBuck, murmuring quietly into the broadcaster. “Dusty? I think they just called off an attempt to drop their megaspell on us.”

He glanced up from the map, meeting my eyes. I could see my own concern mirrored in his expression. I keyed in again, passing on what information I had. It wasn’t much.

The battle, such as it was, continued, but it had fallen into a routine. Dusty retired for the night, leaving one of the Mareford aides to listen to the radio and wake him if needed.

With ever-growing fatigue from lack of sleep, I finally turned in, as well.

Sleep came fitfully, my ear filled with the sporadic calls on the Serenity radio.