(Fallon)

Upon entering the temporary ATLAS bay I see something strange, there are UEC units engaged with other UEC units. One group of them has set up a defensive position and is guarding the techs and engineers while they prep our mechs. And the other appears to be attempting to keep us from deploying. One of the defenders, an earth pony I think they call them turns to me and yells for me to get into my mech, while he covers me. Raising my fist in acknowledgment I lob a grenade dwarfed by my armored gauntlet towards the crowd of UEC troopers the pony is engaged with. It sails through the micro gravity and detonates, sending bits of bone and shrapnel into the air.

“GO!” She yells before raising up and firing what appears to be a kind of auto-shotgun

“Iceman! Defend and Open cockpit, mark following as non-hostile until proven otherwise.” I yell marking the defending the mare and the others with her grey. As I near the armored shell of my atlas a glint of movement catches my attention beside the mare. A Pegasus dives from a scaffolding and sails down towards her, position.

She turns her head, ducking behind cover as she attempts to return fire. Not about to let my new “friend” be shot in the face, I raise my right arm without breaking stride and fire a burst of flechettes towards the pegasus. The result is instant gouts of blood and tissue explode out of the flying mare’s side. The rounds tare one of her wings off, sending it pinwheeling off into the bay. The dead mare’s momentum carries her forward and she slams into the deck beside the earth pony like a missile, kicking up dust with her studin stop of momentum.

“Thanks!” she shouts to me as I use my jump jets to leap into SD’s cockpit.

https://youtu.be/A7xXe-qlQjY

“Got it sir!” Chief Burban Jack says as his white and orange ATLAS steps out of its bay shooting the hostile UEC troops. On the opposite side of the bay, Helldiver team-Angel are entering their own Atlas units. The lead mech piloted by Helldiver “X” is the first to step out followed by Snafu

“Get out. We are going to vent the bay.” Helldiver “X” says to the friendly UEC soldiers who nod and escort the techs and engineers out of the door. On one of the screens showing the NAC colors, general Packers face appears replacing the NAC logo, he is in a vac suit on the bridge of the Manitoba. The klaxon blares and the lights go out as air is vented from the bay. One by one the Moths of Moth team-one, and the Helldivers of Team-Angel exit their bays and near the bay’s door.

“Moths, Helldivers. This is General Packers, the Leathy’s holding clamps are jammed. I need that ship in the fight, get over there and get them open, break them if you have to.”

"Yes sir." we return, checking our seals, and weapon readouts.

“Good luck.”

“We dive so humanity survives!” X yells as the door opens. In the distance, out HUD’s mark the Lanky fleet in red. The Lankys are over sixty thousand kilometers away from their massive hulks invisible in the black, the only visible ship from their fleet is the claw ship, which only appears as a dull red star in the distance.

There are Fighters of every kind engaging the Lanky’s trident fighters, and shooting down their long range missiles. UEC pegasus fighters, NAC shrikes and avengers, NE Gungnir's, SRA torkovs, UAF asagis, all flying around attempting to cover the larger UEC, COG, and Helghast ships while they attempt to pull from moorings.

“We dive so Humanity survives!” we all echo before activating our mech’s jump jets and leaping jetting out onto the ship's hull.

========================================================

(Space)

‘Celestia one-one you have one on your tail. Hang on hard shell im almost there.’ LT rainbow dash reports.

“I can't shake em!” the changeling pilot swerves his fighter in an attempt to shake the glowing alien fighter. Banking to the right and narrowly avoiding a three round burst of spikes his fighters computer picks up on a second hostile above him.

“Move to two, two six one.” a human’s voice says over what is supposed to be a secure channel. The changeling does as the calm human suggests and a missile lock warning flares to life on his screen. Ahead of him he sees one of the NAC’s black and red fighters heading head on towards him, under the fighter a missile leaps from its hard point and streaks towards him.

“Port bank now! Firing one!” seeing what the human has planned he banks his fighter just as another missile lock warning appears at his rear. The human’s missile streaks passed narrowly avoiding the aft maneuvering fin, and slams into the alien fighter.

“Thanks.” the changeling says as he watched human fighter flip around its axis and rocket off back the way it came.

“LT Dash, im clear.” he reports.

==================================

(Fick)

“Trombley, you're aiming too high.” I tell the SAW gunner lying prone on the ground firing on a group of UEC troopers, currently engaging another group of UEC soldiers.

“Mikels, move your fireteam to that building.” highlighting the building, and setting a waypoint where I want his team on the taclink.

“Got it!” the corporal yells as the streat erupts in a hail of incoming gunfire. Around me the men and woman of the ninth are hunkered down behind the negligible cover of cars and the much more substantial buildings. From the other end of the street I can see a squad of Helghast soldiers also engaging the UEC troops, we have them in a three way crossfire.

“Grenades incoming.” I hear private Carson say more calmly than i think he actually feels.

“Deploy counter measures.” The first grenade is intercepted by suppression foam as we as a group enter cover. The air is kicked out of my lungs as the concussion hits, in another ally further down the street the second grenade lands beside a private caught with no cover who attempts to pick it up and throw it back, he grenade goes off in his hand.

A third grenade sails into the ally we are in and I’m about to order Miiora, Trombley, and Perkins out, when the aforementioned tymerian spins and smacks the deadly orb with her tail. The grenade sails up and out of the ally, exploding above the building beyond. Dust kicked up from the explosion drifts down from the roof.

“Nice”

“Holy shit that was fucking awesome.” Trombley cheers from his prostrate position on the ground.

The sound of metal scraping on metal screeches into my ears and I use the rifle to peak around the corner. What I see is strange It looks like a connex box is being pushed forward towards us. Upon seeing a unicorn poke his head out I raise my weapon, but stop when he waves me over.

“Perkins, trombley cover.” they flash their acknowledgments and begin firing again. I sprint from my position and towards the connex box, dropping to my knees and sliding the last few feet. I feel hands grab me under the armpits and drag me behind the box and I look up to see the blue maned pony smirking at me.

“You humans have got some balls on you, i'll give you that.” he says helping me up. Once I'm back on my feet I see three earth ponies and two centaurs bracing to push the large metal container.

“Whats going on? Why are you guys shooting at each other, isn't that our job?”

“Well normally yes. But some of us think that Rarity's plan to attack you guys in the station like these ponies are is fucking dumb. So we figured we could help the Helghast or you, and we figured better the enemy we know, then the enemy we did not.”

“You are going to get into a lot of trouble for this i would assume?”

“Oh you know it, come on let's get your pony's back in the fight.” The unicorn says with a sad smile pressing a hand to his horn.

“Platoon! Advancing cover, stand by. Move by squads.”

=====================================================

(Space)

Two UEC cruisers hover before the docked Manitoba, their shields alive in attempt to keep the largest non alien ship in the system protected until it is able to protect it self. The ship itself launches a wave of nukes towards the Lanky ships while her PDC’s attempt to keep the Trident fighters from getting too close.

Ninety kilometers from the station the picket of UEC, COG, and Helghast ships fire everything they have at the Lanky ships. The only Siegebreaker in the picket the NACS-Donnager manages to slag one of the regular black seed ships in the distance before the lankys respond with a torrent of penetrators. The UEC ships nearest to the Donnager close in and overlap their shields protecting the siege breaker from what would be a crippling blow.

Two african frigate fighters, burn hard for a lanky seed ship that has strayed too far from the rest of the pack. Ahead of them two dragon kingdom cruisers fly shielding the nimble african ships from a storm of penetrators before breaking off at the last moment. Four holes burn themselves into the Lanky seed ship's hull the result of the african ships spartan laser cannons. The UEC ships unleash a torrent of missiles into hole in the massive ship's hull, before racking it with their energy lances.

Large sections of the seed ship are sliced into, on either side of the ship from the high energy beams. And the africans take full advantage of this and launch two nukes each into either end of the ship, where the energy lances had struck. The entire seed ship is split in two as the nukes detonate in an expanding sphere of radiation and super heated gas.

===================================================

(Fallon)

The L-blade now slightly glowing, swings up and around my shoulder slicing a Lanky open and spilling what I assume to be its intestines into space. The alien screeches silently as I punch it in the side of the head before shoving my assault cannon into its ruined stomach and fire a round off. The entire thing explodes as the LHO round detonates.

“Come on!” I shout reloading my autocannon before clomping forward.

Beside me Helldiver Snafu kneels beside one of the Leathy’s holding clamps attempting to interface with the control panel. This is the stupidest thing I could be doing. If the Leathy is slammed towards us Snafu, Big dog, bender and I will be smashed between the ship and the station. If the Leathy was smaller, her drives less powerful she could just rip herself free. But since she is a siege breaker if she tired that she would either end up moving the station or and more likely tear a chunk out of it. So here we are trying snafu out of his mech trying to force the clamps controls to let the Leathy loose.

“I need my ship launched yesterday. Tear it off, the Helghast can bill me later.” the Leathy’s skipper a man in his late nintys says earning a chuckle from the Moths and Helldivers.

“Snafu get back, Bender, Iceman break it.” Chief Bourbon Jack says from behind his ballistic shield.

https://youtu.be/mEoeSTwTmCg

“Got it/Finally.” Bender and I say at the same time. We both raise our assault cannons and both fire at the joint. The holding clamp was designed to handle micro meteorite strikes and general wear and tear of docking with space ships. It isn't designed to handle an anti-LHO round, the shells tear into the joint before exploding shearing the clamp in half.

“Done.” Bender says a smile evident in his voice. A scream fills the tac link and we turn to see other Moth’s mechs pinned down by two atlas sized Wendigo. His mech struggles to get back to its peds. The mech is kicking its feet and swinging its arms firing wildly with its weapon forcing us to take cover behind our ballistic and magnetic shields.

The mech suddenly goes limp as a clawed hand tears open the cockpit hatch. Face Hopper is torn from his mech screaming and firing on the Wendigo with his arm gatling. The little flechettes do nothing but appear to piss the thing off as it shakes its massive head and silently screeches at us. The second lanky scratches and raises its arm letting loose with a three round burst from its weapon.

“Fuck!” I poke my assault cannon around the edge of my shield and take aim at the retreating form of Face Hopper. I don't pull the trigger, I can't kick is my brother, I can't do it. The moment comes and passes as another group of lanyks moves in and begins engaging us.

“Chief, permission to go after Face Hopper?”

“Negative, we have a breach in the station. The fuckers broke into one of the fighter bays, and are swarming into the station. They have quarantined off the area for now, but they don't know for how long. Iceman, Big dog, Bishop go.” Burbon jack orders before two of the Helldiver mechs marked Loco, and steal move up with us.

Miiora is inside with the ninth. She will be fine, no the ninth is equipped to deal with UEC targets not Wendigo, she won't be fine. This knowledge inspires me to break off into a sprint towards the nav marker, marking the hanger bay the Lankys made their ingress point.

===========================================================

(Spaceport - Civilian Level)

The sound of the blaring alarms could be heard in every section of the port. Aryanne hunkered down hefting her auto shotgun, her small squad’s orders were simple. Do not aid the humans, do not aid the civilians, provide backup only to other UEC soldiers. Provide cover, do nothing, absolutely nothing, to save the Spaceport unless it appeared that it would become under UEC control. And she hated this. She was from Germaneigh, a proud soldier of the Earth Pony Country, and one of the first that Celestia declared unwavering support and friendship for. Of course that friendship ended after the death of their Führer. She knew what had happened, all of them did, but Celestia brought in hundreds of Unicorn and Pegasus soldiers, all there for the single reason of maintaining order while she assumed control of their country.

Celestia’s rule was as false as they came in her eyes. That… She could think of a thousand things to call Rarity, none of them could be considered kind, and any one of them could land her into some trouble because she dared to speak ill of her commanding officer. That’s when she heard the sound of the blast doors ripping open, she looked around the corner they were placed at, and she saw the first of them, like something out of a nightmare.

Tall, white, and moving with a fluid grace, it had one huge clawed hand jammed between the sliding door. It began to move and she looked away that is when the screams started. All around her smaller roughly human sized aliens run around. One of the aliens lets out an ear splitting wail that sounds like a warning siren, before it turns its eyeless head to face her. One of the earth ponys with her manages to shoot it in the head before being tackled to the ground by three more of the strange aliens.

He struggles on the deck while the beasts fight over him, tearing his arm from its socket, with a wet tearing pop. He attempts to cover his severed arm and screams in pain as another of the three eyeless bone colored aliens slices open his stomach with its claws and begins feasting. His screams echo in the halls followed by the sounds of tearing flesh and a sound like teeth on bone. But the screams of her squad and the others never stop, following her as she turns and runs.

Not our fight, not our fight, not our... Oh Celestia rut me in the tailhole!

The mare had tried to do what she was commanded to do. If she, and the other Earth Ponies didn't agree with Rarity's plan they were to offer no assistance to civilians or the NAC.

Rounding a corner and seeing that human foal cry for its mother had been more than enough reason. She didn't agree with taking slaves anyway. Not that most any unicorn would realize it. She was a grunt, meant to fight their battles. Still she ran forward, tackling the large white thing. Causing it to stumble back, pushing it with all of her might and making it move away from the miniature human.

She felt it pushing against her strength and something inside drove her to keep going.

"Not gonna hurt a foal on my watch!"

NAC soldiers watched as she turned and kicked the Lanky in the head. There was quite a bit of expectation, tons of it, but seeing the Lanky's head whip to the side and it stumble wasn't it. She turned toward them.

"Are you going to stand there, or are you going to get your flanks in gear and help stop these twat sniffers?!"

There was a mummer, but soon NAC and to their surprise more of the UEC soldiers began to join in the fray. The Earth Pony that first jumped danger found herself lifted and thrown against the wall. Her body slid limply to the floor, but where she fell others kept fighting. They kept pushing. Unicorns tried to throw magic at everything, Pegasi attempted to fly over or away from it, but Earth Ponies pushed it out of their way.

“DUST EM!” The lead human shouts prompting a storm of their nail like flechettes to slam into the thing. Eventually one of the NAC soldiers a tymerian by the looks of it steps out of cover with a large bore rifle. The boom from the rifle is defining even in the auditory hell that is the hallway at the moment. The round sails down range and slams into the things chest blowing it apart.

“Thank you.” she says before the sound the Sirens erupts from the corridor she was just in. panicking she turns and slams a hand onto the control panel prompting it to slam shut. On the other end of the small window one of the aliens screeches.

“What the hell was that?”

“Sirens, on the other side of the door. The larger ones broke in and the sirens came with them.”

“Shit I don't know what a siren is but it doesn't sound good, Carson seal that door. You come with us.” The lead humans says before one of the other humans runs up to the door with some kind of hand torch and begins sealing the door.

“Done.” he says before the small window’s glass shatters and a barbed spike is fired into his head.

“Fuck.” the human says, as his comrads body fall s to the deck. From the Other end the wail of the sirens, their call for blood.