The sky above the refueling station was on fire. Lances of energy from the Element of Magic's energy rakes flew across the sky attempting to swipe NAC fighters from the sky.

https://youtu.be/xkTLLa9atB8

All the while a dogfight raged between the veteran pilots of the Manitoba's combined shrike wings and the centuries old UEC pilots sent to destroy them.

"Oh I know you did not shoot that pink shit at me!?" Eagle shouted as the ex-onyx guard threw his fighter into a sharp tail spinning roll.

The maneuver threw his fighter out of the path of the searing pink bolts of energy and forcing Rainbow Dash into overcompensating. Her shrike screamed passed banked hard as Eagle capitalized and burned after her.

On instinct the mare dove her fighter hard for the hull of the much Element of Magic. At the last second she pulled hard back on the stick shooting mere feet from the hull as two missiles slammed into the hull.

She rolled her fighter to the left as a stream of tracers tore through the path she was just on. This human was decent but...

She pulled hard on the stick and dropped throttle as they cleared the hull. Her modified shrike dropped as its nose rose into the air. The frame caught wind and the entire fighter bucked as the human screamed passed blasting her with its tail wind.

"Got you." she smirked, while her fighter's missile lock screen flashed. Like she thought he was decent, but not good.

The missile detached from the external rack and shot off. As she readies herself to bank off she watches the human flip its shrike into a backflip and as she turned back she sees a line of tracers reach out and destroy the missile. "Ok maybe you're good after all. But let's see just how good you are."

[Missile lock six o'clock.....Missile lock…]

"Shit deploy chaff and flares!" Eagle shouted as he pushed his fighter into the red zone.

Rainbow watched her opponent red tailed fighter throw itself into corkscrew. What looked like sparks and streaks of glowing smoke erupted from either side of the fighter. As it twirled into a shallow bank that took his fighter past one of the Element's observation and sensor towers.

The two of the three missiles flew wildly off course and exploded among the sparks. The final missile looked as if it was going to hit; However, as the human passed the tower the missile struck the support pillar and exploded.

"Damn it!!" the rainbow maned peasus shouted as she followed after her target. "Where are you? I'm going to make your kind pay for perming Applejack's brother."

Her fighter then shook and she saw her shields flaring. Worried she looked around too before seeing looking up where she saw the human was coming right at her. His cannon was flaring spitting grenades in streams that spattered against her shields threatening to make them fail.

In response she yawned and pulled to port as the human shot passed her. Rainbow's fighter turned and soon she found herself behind the human once again. Sucking in a breath she squeezed the firing stud on her flight stick.

"Oh you did not shoot that pink shit at me!?" Eagle shouted as he jinked and juked, rolled and yawed his fighter every which way. "Hold on there Big Day, I'm coming!" Knight Two said over the tac-link.

The firing abruptly stopped as he felt something take a chunk out of his wing. Looking over, he discovers he was partly correct, but instead of parts, a chunk of the entire wing starboard was missing. "Command Knight one, Command Knight one, I'm ejecting, repeat ejecting."

No sooner had he sent that out does another of the pink bolts slam into the tail of his fighter. He felt his shrike buckle and scream as its engines struggled to keep the plane in the air. Clamping his mouth shut and crossing his arms over his chest Eagle's shrike sealed and detached the cockpit section as the fighter exploded.

A brilliant orange fireball filled the night in front of rainbow dash as she watched the humans fighter explode. However, instead of the red kill confirmed icon flashing she saw a blue ejection detected flash across her HUD. As she watched the cockpit section of the fighter she had destroyed sail downward separate from the explosion.

"No you don't bust..." she began before a barrage of grenades slammed into her shields. Looking up she saw two fighters heading straight for her. One was another shrike with more generic marking. But the other was one of the COGs transforming fighters, it's armor was so dark it was almost impossible to point out. However, as she zoomed in she saw a black gear emblazoned on the fighter craft's canopy.

After spending some time on the tram, which took them from the main complex to the division they needed to head to. When the tramcar finally reach the tram station. Fallon and the others got off and walk through the station with caution. They all made sure to check their surroundings and stayed in a tight group.

After going through several corridors and lobbies, taking out whatever UEC guards they encountered. Fallon, Big Dog, and Gusty, finally arrived at the main entrance to the weapon research division, which was in a corridor t-intersection. Unfortunately there was one major problem. Which was in the form of a massive steel blast door.

The three were standing in front it with Fallon in the center, Big Dog to his left, and Gusty to his right. Who was scavenging one of the dead UEC guards they had taken out earlier for any ammo or items that may be of use to them. While she was busy, Big Dog and Fallon were staring at the blast door, trying to figure out a way to get past it.

Big Dog said with a bored and perplexed face. "Well... That's a big door. So, any ideas on how to get past this? How about you pony girl, you know how to open this?"

Gutsy finished scavenging and was putting the two grenades along with the ammo into the duffle bag. "Well, unless you got something to penetrate a two-foot thick reinforced steel blast door, which is covering both the front and back of the main door, which happens to be two foot thick as well. Then, No."

The two men stared at the unicorn mare with the look of befuddlement on their faces. All the while she continues talking, "Oh. It gets even better even if we do manage to somehow open the blast doors and the 1st main door. There's a long corridor that leads to the weapons research division. The floor itself is lined with electrified metal plating which starts from this end and all the way to other end of the corridor, where another set of blast doors and 2nd main door awaits us and to top it all off, There's a set of gun cameras at the end of the corridor just for those who were thinking about flying over the electrified floor."

The two men were even more befuddled than before. "What the fuck? Isn't that a bit overkill?" Big Dog said. "Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with Big Dog here. That is overkill, I mean isn't that a bit much for one division?" Fallon said for the first time since the three arrived at this location.

'Mind you if someone was able to steal our shit they would have the Onyx Guard on them so fast they would get whiplash.' Fallon thought to himself.

The mare simply gives him a smirk and says, "Not for the head researcher named Twilight Sparkle, I swear that mare is paranoid as fuck and just loves to over complicate things. But then again that's the kind of thing to expect from her.", Gusty said with a hint of contempt for the purple alicorn.

Big Dog and Fallon looked to one other both giving an inquisitive look to each other. The two men could not help, but get this feeling that Gusty has some history or some sort of grudge against this Twilight Sparkle character. Both of them silently decided not to push the matter unless it was absolutely necessary and looked back at the unicorn mare.

"Hold on a sec, you're a unicorn can't you just... I don't know, use your magic to teleport us pass all this and right into weapon research division?" Big Dog said.

"OK, first off not all unicorns are proficient with magic. The most common spell your everyday unicorn pony could use is telekinesis and even then it takes practice to levitate multiple items and lift heavy objects. Only unicorn ponies with the special talent for magic can use the more advanced spells such as teleportation, high-level magic shields, combat spells and, etc.

"So does that mean you can't teleport?" Big Dog said with an amused expression on his face. The unicorn mare gives him annoyed grunt and says, "No. I can't. And that's the second thing, even if I do know the spell I can't use it as long as I have this magic nullifier on my horn." she gives the dark crystal ring a small flick of her right finger which lets out a small pinged sound.

"Courtesy of Ms. Sparkle,... But even if I didn't have this on my horn. I still wouldn't use my magic all that well because it gives me an agonizing headache because of my...... condition. Let's just leave it at that, alright?"

After hearing Gusty's long explanation, Fallon was in deep thought for a while. "Hmmm,... We can't exactly stick around here for too long we need to get in there and get our gear as soon as possible. So is there any other way of getting this open and bypass the security devices in the corridor?", He said to Gusty.

The unicorn thinks for a bit before answering his question. "Hmm,..... No, we would need a code and I doubt anyone with it would be around now. Gusty said with a sigh.

"Damn it.", Fallon exclaims and then sighs in annoyance, "Alright,... If we can't go through here isn't there another way in, Gusty?", he said to the ex-UEC sergeant.

The mare let outs a sigh, "I don't know for sure. Let me take a look around.", She said and then started walking towards the corridor to their left when she passed the two humans and was midway down the corridor, she stops and remembers she still has the flip-top bullet lighter that was made from a .50 cal round she took from that UEC dead guard earlier. She turns around and calls out for Big Dog.

"Hey, Big Dog!" she shouts. The man hears his callsign and turns to the unicorn with a somewhat confused look.

"Here catch!" she said before tossing the bullet lighter to the human. he caught it with his left hand and starts to examine it for a bit, "Why are you giving me this?" He questions the mare.

Gusty just gives him a slight shrug, "I don't know. I figured you have more use for it than I do. Keep it as a war souvenir or something who knows you might have something to tell your kids or grandkids once this asinine war is over. If you manage to survive long enough that is." She gives him a confident smirk.

Hearing this and noticing that look she was giving him. Big Dog decides to give Gusty the same confident smirk as well, "Hm, Thanks. I think I'll keep it.", He said and proceeded to put the bullet lighter into his left pants pocket.

Fallon sees this and was glad the two were finally getting along. Ever since their first argument and when they left the detention block the two have been very wearied with one another and if any of them stood any chance of leaving this place they all needed to trust one another.

After several seconds had passed. Gusty found something that might get them into weapons research division. She called the others and they quickly walked to her location.

"OK, are you suggesting we all crawl through the air vents? Can we even fit in there?" Fallon said looking somewhat complex.

"Do you have any other better ideas? Because this is probably the safest way to get inside and don't worry the vents on this level should be big enough for a pony or human to move through on all fours. We just need to blowout these two latch locks to get this air vent cover open." Gusty explain and pointed at the aforementioned latch locks.

Fallon nods his head in acknowledgment and raises his pump action shotgun. He aims it at one of the latch locks when he was ready to fire. Gusty and Big Dog took several steps back not wanting to end up getting hit by either ricocheted shot or the heavy air vent cover when it swings open.

When Fallon sees his two comrades clear the way. He pulls the trigger and quickly fires the shotgun twice taking out first latch lock and then second one. Once he fired the weapon he immediately moves back. The air vent cover swings open making metal squeaking sound as it moves back and forth.

Fallon then moves into position to boost someone up into the now open air vent, "Ladies first.", He said slightly kneeling down with his hands together with one palm showing. "My, my, didn't take you as a gentlecolt, Fallon" Gusty said with amused and sarcastic tone.

"Just hurry up and hop on," Fallon said. The unicorn mare walks up to him, removing the duffle bag from her shoulder and laying it near him. After getting into the right position, Fallon gives her a boost right up into the air vent. She grabs onto the edge of the opening and proceeds to pull herself in.

Once Gusty was inside she stretches out her right arm from the air vent opening, "OK hand me the bag.", she said.

Fallon did what she asked and tossed up the bag to her. Which she grabs it with her right hand and brings it up into the air vent. Once the bag was bought up, Big Dog walks up to Fallon tucking the pistol into the waistband of his pants.

"Alright, man. You go up next.", He said getting in the boosting position. Fallon puts away the shotgun by using the shoulder sling on it. Once it was out of the way, he places his foot on Big Dog's palm and gets into the right position.

The man below him boost him up into the opened air vent and pulls himself inside and as soon as his friend was inside. Big Dog crouches down and with all his strength high jumps towards air vent. His hand claps against Fallon's and the MOTH helps his brother into the vent.

Once they all got inside the air vent. They found themselves in a midsize chamber, the ceiling of it was only high enough for them to stand while kneeling and high above them, there was a large air fan which was rotating slowly. "Wow, that's a safety hazard." Fallon comments earning a jab in the side from Harris.

They each look around and found there were at least four vents, two of them were only big enough for a rat to crawl through. So the last two air vents were the only two choices since they were big enough for either a human or pony to crawl through on all fours.

It was uncomfortable, but nothing that three battle-hardened soldiers could handle. It was cramped and dark and they're only source of light was from a UEC tactical light that Gusty took off from a griffin UEC guard right after she broke his beak and then shaped his neck thereby finishing him off.

After what felt like several agonizing hours later, they finally reached an opening at the end of air vent they all crawled through. Fallon was the first to stick his head out and see what was there. What he was a massive air shaft that appeared to be endless from above and below.

Lining along the walls of the massive shaft were various air vents some the same size as the one they were in, while others were smaller. There were also a single row of maintenance lights lining one of the air shaft walls going from above and below.

However, what really got his attention was far below he sees a large contra-rotating fan. A two fan with the blades arranged one below the other, and rotating in opposite directions and it was still rotating at mid-speed.

"Well? What do you see, Fallon?" Gusty said behind him, while Big Dog remain silence listening to the conversation between two. "It looks like we reach some sort of large air shaft. It's a pretty deep one too.", He said while looking around the shaft.

He then notices right cross from where they are, there was another air vent the same size as the one they were currently in. However, it was about distance from here to there was about five feet. There was no way they could jump over with so little to no room. So, he had only one option to go with.

"I can see another air vent right crossed from here. Looks about the same size. But it looks like we're going to have use the steel ledges and sidle along the walls, but there's only about a half foot of room on them so we have to be careful." Fallon explained.

Both Gusty and Big Dog were a bit hesitant, but silently agreed. Fallon then slowly and carefully moved out the air vent open. When he was in a good position he started sidled along the walls of the air shaft. He was focused on getting to the other air vent not bothering to look down or anything.

After several agonizing minutes, Fallon safely made it to the other air vent and was now crawling inside it. She can't help, but sigh in relief. He turned around inside the vent and now facing her. "Alright pass me the bag, Gusty.", Fallon said with his left arm stretched out.

"OK, get ready." The unicorn said, who was now in a kneeling position holding the bag with both hands and was moving her arms back sideways readying to toss the bag to Fallon. Which he was ready to receive it on his side. "Catch!" She shouted tossing the bag over towards the human.

Fallon barely managed to catch it though it had almost pulled him down, but he regained his balance and tossed the bag into the vent. Now it was Gusty's turned to come across. She had to be especially careful when she sidled along the walls of the air shaft being careful not to accidentally step on her tail.

This was one of the rare times where she wishes she was born as a pegasus instead of a unicorn. And there was a moment she almost lost her hoofing on the steel ledge and with a quick glance saw the contra-rotating fan blades. She quickly regains her balance on the ledge and after taking it few breaths of relief she continues on her way being slightly more cautious.

It wasn't the fact that she feared of dying, unlike her misguided kind she was more than prepared to meet her end for most of her cursed life. She just didn't want to die leaving her two new friends in a bad situation before they could all escape from here and off this planet. Besides it's not like her curse would even slow her to stay dead.

Now it was Big Dog to lastly go next. He was already halfway there when all of a sudden there was a thunderous boom and the whole massive air shaft started shaking.

Causing Big Dog to lose his footing and balance and fall into the air shaft. "OH SHIT!! AAAAAHHH!!" he exclaimed as he was falling to what seems to be his end.

"HARRIS!" "BIG DOG!" Both Fallon and Gusty exclaimed at the same time in horror and dismay. It looked like the man was about to be shredded by the blades. When out pure instinct he grabs onto the edge of one of the many other air vents nearby during his downward descent, it was just so happens that he was falling at the right angle when he did.

"Fuck." Veteran Harris said as his pistol slipped from his pants and fell into the fan with a noisy metallic screech and shower of sparks.

"Big Dog, stay there I'm going to toss you my knife. Use it to cut handholds and climb back up." Fallon called down to him.

"Got it!" Harris responded and a few seconds later the mono filament knife fell down the shaft and Harris snatched it out of the air by the handle. “I'm coming up."

With a sigh and a grunt he slashed the first hand hold into the wall the metal yielding to the molecular edge like butter. "Harris be careful I don't want you to become a statistic of bad OSHA standards."

"Shut the fuck up, Fallon! I didn't go through hellish months of MOTH training just to die on some god forsaken planet!" Harris said slamming his foot into his fifth toe hold.

Several minutes filled with grunting and muttered curses passed. Fallon was getting bored and watched the smoke billow and swirl around in the dark expanse. At his side he saw Gutsy asleep leaning against the vent wall farther along.

'Gotta catch the winks when you can I guess.' he thought to himself as Harrises black and bloody hand finally slapped onto the vent they were in. Braving his feet against either side of the vent Fallon took the hand in both hands and pulled.

"Let's go to planet Tearus... Let's catch us an alicorn... It'll be alright we won't need it they said. We don't need no pussy mechs or pussy power armor oh no! We can do it with HEBA suits. It'll be glorious they said.......... I swear if I ever see that bastard Williams again, I'm going to fucking rip him a new one.....", He said in a sarcastic and contemptuous tone as he flopped onto the floor. Harris had that I am going to kill something look on his face.

"Here's your knife back... Bitch" he said from the vents floor holding up the still preteen blade. Without a word Fallon took the blade and placed it back into the hidden sheath in his bionic. "There's the Harris I remember." Fallon laughed out waking Gutsy.

"Fuck... You... Fallon."

https://youtu.be/UPnqwwtjcfE

I leap over a tank as it fired its cannon, the shell exploded in the ground showering us in dirt and mud. My right hand retracts as I deploy my close combat spike and drove it towards the top of the vehicle.

The four foot diamond tipped spike slammed through the top of the vehicle giving me the leverage I was looking for. With a grunt I flip the tank onto its side using its underside as cover from incoming fire. Taking this chance I withdrew my hand from the tank and reloaded right and left arm cannons while crouching down.

With a thought my mech linked to the network and a small box appeared in the top right of my vision. Red carrots marked last known positions of hostile units.

"Prowler activate Icarus mounts."

"Acknowledged pilot."

Below me, I could see Spike, Barb, Blisk, and the other two changelings from the ATV taking cover in the crater made by the tank's shell. "I will suppress, get ready to move." I yell glancing up for a fraction of a second and seeing the rest of the Roughnecks moving up.

They nodded and I went to work. Instantly the rotary gatling on my mech’s back came to life at the same time as the auto-cannon. The two weapons lifted from my back and swivels over my shoulder and above the improvised cover I had made.

As soon as Prowler had a firing solution a torrent of auto-cannon shells and grenades streamed down range. I could see ponies and other UEC personnel who had held their ground being torn to shreds, blown apart, or turned to mulch and hamburger under the combined firepower of the Roughnecks and my Helldivers mechs.

There was a commotion behind us and I turned to see two Atlas mechs stop firing. Instead, they appeared to rear back before an ear splitting screech filled the net. Instantly as if as one the two mechs snapped out their L-blades.

The blades seemed to pulse and radiate malevolence as glowing crimson veins pulsed along their lengths. And as if possessed the mechs broke formation and began a full tilt sprint toward the enemy line.

As they passed the midway point a white armor shrike Siafu burst through the tree line. It fired its weapon with one hand as it speed to the line. A unicorn rose up from a fox whole and attempted to bring a rocket launcher to bare, but instead was snatched up by the speeding mechs free hand.

Much to my horror I watch as the mech crushes the unicorn and proceeds to stuff the body into its cockpit section. I had to stop myself self from throwing up in my helmet when I say the cockpit already full of pieces of dead bodies and dripping with gore and blood.

The mixing streams of blood ran down the once white mechs chest as it formed with the other two Atlas mechs as the slammed into the line as a group. "What the fuck?"

"Whatever they're taking the fire let's get in there." Lieutenant Razak shouted. As one we moved forward. And I can already see the Helldivers in group of ground troops springing ahead of the others.

Hey Snafu how about a throw?' Looking over I can see a woman in vantablack Helldiver battle armor. The gear on the left side of her chest plate marking her as a current or ex-Onyx guard

In response I lower my open hand as the woman approaches. As soon as her feet touch the metal I rear back and hucked her as far as I can without overshooting the clearing. I watch her sail through the air, her jump jets flaring out behind her as her armor's gyroscopes fought to keep her up right.

I watched her activate a grenade as she needs the ground and throw it at a tree trunk a moment before she landed in a ploom of smoke that took her under the tree. The grenade exploded turning two celebs that were turning to track the falling woman into shrapnel pincushions.
The woman whose name plate now flashed in my HUD as Helldiver, veteran. Kōzuki K. The now identified Helldiver shot up from under the fallen tree like a rocket sending a rocket assisted knee straight into the snout of a diamond dog. The k9's muzzle crumpled under her armored knee and as she dropped down she dropped into a slide as she pulled retreated her rifle.

Her jump pack angled its thrusters and pushed her along as she fired from her back. Placing a three round burst into each of a four man squad of UEC soldiers. She slowed and jumped to her feet delivering a vicious superman punch to a pegasus pony's face.

As the pony crumpled she slung her rifle and ducked under a clumsily thrown punch by a griffon. In response Nagata grabs the bird and impales it on a piece of destroyed vehicle before she pulled her side arm and shot a different pony in the face as the mare drew close.

"Damn, remind me never to piss her off." I say to no one in particular. [Acknowledged pilot.]

The woman turned as a large ploom of mud and water was kicked up and sprayed at her. A large dragon had landed intent on killing her specifically.

"God damn it, how many times do I have to kill this motherfucker?" I grunt out firing my Icarus mounts into a crowd of UEC troops. However, with its attention on the human at its feet it failed to notice the fifteen ton mech barreling toward it.

With one fluid motion I stoop over blocking the dragon's claw with my shoulder while scooping the woman up in my other hand. Instantly she crawled onto my mechs back as I made a fist and punch my mechs clawed hand into the dragons chest.

Rust colored blood gushed as I fired my wrist cannons. Large bore flechettes and grenades explode inside its body causing more blood to pour from the wound. Before finally the ordinance burst from the beasts back, with a satisfied grunt I punch the dragon in the face while drawing my hand free.

"And stay down." As soon as I say this a storm of tracers strike my mech and I throw out my left hand deploying my magnetic shield.

Ahead of me I can see two Helldiver Siafu armor shrikes their marking marked them as squad bravo-six-gamma. That squad had gone dark an hour ago that doesn't make sense? Each of the two mechs left huge rooster tails in their wakes. And behind them I can see several other Siafu mech silhouettes

I was about to engage when two tarantula hawk gunships fly overhead their drop bays open. There was a series of loud booms as mechs black and blue Atlas mechs began slamming into the ground. Each of the mechs was marked as MOTH Team-3.

But I didn't need to my HUD to identify them. The red crosses decorating their mechs and telescoping sword hilts they had clamped to their hips told me all I needed to know. And I heard the woman still riding on the back of my mech echo my words.

"The Templar."

As if spooked the three red mechs with the glowing L-blades beat a hasty retreat into the forest. As one the two of the Templar mechs in clamped the hilts from their hips and a fucking sword snapped out like a telescope.

"Ghosts of men charge as the seas crash. Pattern Theta... Confirmed, the pack hunts as the pride fights." came a voice from the Moths formation.

"With me brothers! For God! For Earth!" The MOTH marked as "Crux" shouted. Before charging towards the group of advancing mechs.

"Captain we have three UEC Thorax-class escorts on an attack vector at two, six, three mark two, seven, one." The sensor operator reported her chitinous fingers dancing across the panel.

"Understood. Gunnery redirect starboard aft rail guns six, nine, and seven to intercept." The caption of the Nostromo said as the ships light flickered once again.

https://youtu.be/JK6qifpTCzc

On the holo-screen he watched another UEC cruiser disintegrate as it was struck by the ventral particle cannon. The display was a sea of vector lines, multicolored icons, and data streams that to the untrained eye would look like gibberish.

The captain watched three of the vector lines on his ship swivel to teach three red icons that were nearing the ship. There was a fraction of a second where it appeared the ships would be able to avoid the gunnery crews' efforts, but their aim was true.

In space the three rail guns swiveled on their mountings each one glowing with built up energy as they tracked their targets. Then, in a ploom of expelled coolant the tungsten rounds burst from their guns.

The three UEC ships, each operated by a crew of fifty UEC sailors confidently began their attack run. Their energy rakes charged as their single condenser guns fired bolts of magical energy into the flank of the massive human ship. The three ships' shields fared violently before failing spectacularly. As their shields were never meant to deal with the types of force delivered by a rail gun round they instantly failed allowing the tungsten slugs to slam into their targets.

Like a horse swatting at flies with its tail the Nostromo's rail guns gutted the three small one hundred meter vessels like the annoyance they were to a ship its size.

However, in response to the brazen and frankly offensive attack the Nostromo's dorsal particle accelerator then began to slowly turn like the turret on an old wet navy battleship. It's target was one of the UEC's destroyers. There was a scramble on board said ship as the ship's commander watched the large ship turn its gun on them like a tank turret. "All hands aband..."

The ship's shields instantly failed as the three invisible particle beams slammed into it before running the ship through. The ship's entire midsection split under the gaze of the powerful weapon. The two halves of the ship began spilling atmosphere and personnel into the void before the reactor exploded.

At the massive ship’s side its siege breaker escorts continued to drill holes into the UEC fleet from range with their gauss cannons. Not wanting to fall afoul of their energy rakes. A blinking tight beam message from beside one of the UEC destroyers made the captain of the Nostromo smile "Helmsman move us in to cover inside this debris cloud. Gunnery drop this ship's shields."

Twelve EMR missiles burst from their tubes and angel themselves towards the targeted ship before firing their boosters. The UEC destroyers clumsy condenser cannons and rakes burst to life in an attempt to stop the missiles. Its escorts added their own rakes and cannons tried to aid the ship.

One by one the missiles were destroyed, but three found their mark the first two slammed into the ship's shields causing them to flair and fail before the missile final slammed into one of the ships windows. Arcs of electricity began to ark and spark from the ships hull as a message came to the Nostromo.

"Drakes call from shrouded wings. A wolf among the flock finds a light in the dark. Petals bloom and ears ring as snow falls. Pattern Delta commencing." Angeling one of the ship's cameras the captain of the Nostromo magnifies and stains to see a ghost ship pulling up alongside the crippled UEC destroyer.

When the altimeter on Habu's HUD showed we were nearing the edge of the stations radar envelope she was taking a page out of her dearest ones book. Using the external cameras on the Cazasore gunship she watched in fascination as she panned her vision around and could only see a vague profile of the second dropship.

Than her vision abruptly changed and she was back to staring at Lt. Fick sandwiched between Col. Levoy and the Onyx guard. "Mechs ten seconds to drop." The voice of viper two-six's pilot came over the company channel.

This was apparently one of Avery Fallon's favorite parts of being a mech pilot. However, as the door opened below her. The only thing separating her from the trees speeding by was a carrying clamp she thought her love was insane. The trees drew closer and closer as the dropship lost altitude until the pilots voice came back over causing her digestion chamber to drop.

"Habu, Standby for atlasfall." The pilots said in a cool and calm voice over the speaker. "Viper six-four ready." She replied. Ancestors she was nervous, but she was worried about her love even more. What were the UEC doing to him now?....

It felt like her egg sack had been kicked into her chest as the carrying clamps released her mech and she began falling. The fall lasted maybe all of six seconds but to her it felt like hours when neared the ground she threw her arms open wide. Then, WHAM she hit the deck and was down. As she stood up and gained her bearings she saw Trombley's mech make landfall and ran over to it.

"Camouflage, Habu; status?" I asked as I watched Trombley's mech stand up and pull the rifle from its back and activate its Icarus mount.

"Habu, Camouflage; Status is green. I'm fine.", he said as we saw two more mechs slam down, turning she saw two crimson Helldiver atlas mechs marked as "Alpha" and "Bravo".

The two mechs sent their green status as several injured MOTHs from the infiltration teams outer cordon filtered into our clearing. There was a slight commotion as Charlotte's Gungnir "Ice Queen" made a slow fly by before transforming into infantry mode and landing in the clearing. Then, there was a thunderous boom as the final mech hit the ground and it was none other than her lover's as yet unnamed mech Sierra Delta-6624.

The ATLAS-3 stood out among the groups of ATLAS-2s and ATLAS-1s. It carried no weapon in its hands instead it's weapons were in its arms as evidenced by the two sets of barrels sticking out of the wrists. And reportedly it had other weapons inside its arms build-in compartments.

"Sierra Delta-6624, Status report?" Charlotte asked the "head" of her mech turned in its direction.

The white and red mech lifted its arm up to its sensor dome and inspected it's exposed weapons barrel before dropping its arm to its side and turning to face us.

"I am fully operational Captain Dunois." It's deep voice resonated with an almost subsonic undertone as its Icarus mounts sparing to life. Behind the imposing mech twin L-blades sprang forth from their hinged sheaths.