(Fallon)

"Move." I say as the entry hatch of the Black fly drop ship opens to the hangar deck of the Manitoba. I push the alien with the side of my rifle, making her stumble forward and almost fall off the ramp much to my comrades amusement. When the prisoner gets to the bottom of the ramp she is met with the sight of a full Space born infantry or marine platoon in full battle rattle, with the muzzles of their M66's aimed at her face. The marines are packed in so tightly that I can’t even see the flight deck around us and only hear the sound of engine noise and shouting.

"Well who do we have here!" The SI lieutenant says through the company channel of our armor from the front of the group of heavily armed marines.

"The Resistance says she is someone called Cadence a member of something called the ruling council." I say through the external speakers in my helmet.

"I am Princess Cadence ruler of the crystal empire and prominent member of the Ruling council." She corrects. The SI lieutenant steps forward and gets so close to her that I can see her reflection in his mirrored visor.

"I think you are under the assumption that we give a shit. You are a not royalty any more, what ever rights you thought you have were forfeited when your kind took that rock from the NAC. You are a prisoner of the North American Commonwealth, your highness." He says and I see her eyes widen in what I assume is fear or understanding that the UEC has fucked up in a big way.

"The skipper says to take her to the 'special' brig under guard. She will so the Fleet intell guys can do their jobs. You will post a 24 hour guard on her, If she has to piss, or take a dump she can deal with it. Execute." He says in a tone that leaves no room for leniency.

"Yes sir." The marines deliver a crisp salute and badger the prisoner forward.

When they separate to make her walk she gets an eyefull of the inhabitants of the Flight deck. Humans that race that she and her race thought were dumb and backwards, are crawling all over the flight deck preparing ships that make the best of their gunships they have look like wooden toys in comparison. I have never heard of the special brig before, butI have a strong supposition that it's an air lock.

Time spent planetside just a little under 12 hours, time spent in decontamination, medical post mission check up, a particularly long debriefing, weapon return, and equipment inventory check just a little under 12 hours. When I finally fall into my bunk after grabbing some sandwiches from the NCO mess I've been awake for close to thirty hours. Even without the nogo pills they offer to us after missions I fall asleep almost instantly, dreaming dark dreams of ash and fire.

In the morning or what passes for it in a windowless star ship in deep space. I go over to the ops center to check on the results of our mission. Our team wasn't the only one to go planet side, two more teams hit the dirt just after we did to locate and mark two smaller UEC settlements on the same continent. Nether team dropped with a combat controller, the other missions were less eventful than ours and both teams made it back to the Defiant and Carson without any casualties. Overall the mission was an unqualified success we took a prisoner, fifteen troopers on the planet tagged three major settlements and eight UEC bases sabotaged for the planetary assault. We learned the locations of five UEC colonies and the location of a suspected resistance held world from our esteemed guest. Last but certainly not least Private first class Frobes is now Corporeal Forbes. The fleet is on the move towards Trappist-B under full mcon, most of this day we have been at full burn and are now on turn a round. It won’t be much longer now and us grunts have been getting ready. As I move passed the gym and hear an assortment of troopers working out singing a sort of Frankenstein cadence.

'see that soldier in the black beret, it’s how he earns his pay, now see that soldier in the black beret! Jumpen to earn her pay, TA trooper all the way! Now see that soldier in the green beret! its how he earns his pay, see that trooper in the green beret, Special forces earn his pay.' I glance in and make eye contact with staff sergeant Miles.

'see that soldier in the scarlet beret, Droppens how he earns his pay! See that man in the scarlet beret, callen strikes down earn his pay! Hooyah all the way!' I don’t even make it five steps before the red lights began flashing.

"Combat stations combat stations, All hands combat stations. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill. All ground troops retrieve your Assets and report to your drop ships. Sargent Fallon, corporeal Lavoy, Corporeal Forbes retrieve your armor and weapons before reporting to CIC." well shit it is gonna be one of those days.

We have two sets of gear issued to us labeled A and B, The A set we use against humans they are the bulkier but more protective battle armor however they do have a visor and a smaller oxygen supply. The other is the bug suit and an M88 rifle that fires a depleted uranium tipped armor piercing shell with a piggybacked fragmentation warhead. It takes a lot of speed to pierce a Lankie hide and that means a lot of caseless propellant and that in turn means monstrous recoil. Meaning that the old M80 rifles my grandmother used were single shot vertically stacked twin barrels. Now the whole assembly looks like a sort of old shotgun only with a larger barrel and only carrying five shots. The M88 isn't much use against the SRA and won't be much use against the UEC do their small size, the m88 is only good against the large Lankies. As I hurry into my bunk I put on my A set and scramble to CIC, when I enter the Bridge it's a buzz with activity.

"Sargent Fallon Reporting" I say upon seeing the Skipper in his vac suit he sees me and delivers a slight salute and I see myself in his mirrored visor.

"Corporeal Lavoy reporting"

"Corporeal Forbes reporting." The two of them say upon entering the room Lavoy is carrying an M66 with an incinerator attachment. The incinerator is just as it sounds, a flamethrower, but unlike the flamethrowers used by our great great grandfathers it is designed to be used against people in ballistic hard shell. It fires a jet of gelled potassium, salt, and gasoline so the flame burns hotter than the old flamethrowers, sticks like napalm, and burns with a purple glow that can reach out and touch you at sixty meters. So whatever armor the UEC has, won't be able to stop it, and it doesn't use the large backpack tanks of old flamethrowers instead it uses a sort of magazine.

"At ease Gentlemen, i have new orders for you, I want you to coordinate a boarding action on one of the UEC ships. The reason for this is that our esteemed guest has informed us of the various species that make up the UEC. We want information on the slave cast specifically, anything you can get numbers, planet locations, resistance bases, anything. If we can help the enemy of our enemy maybe they'll be our friends." Captain Packers says

"Sir sensors just picked up thirteen signatures on infrared. Thirty million miles from the planet." A lieutenant on one of the sensor stations reports.

"Show me." The hollow projector in the center of the room showing the fleet, planet, and the four red symbols of the UEC ships. Suddenly flickers and there are now thirteen new red icons on the tactical plot above the planet moving into formation with the fleet. Most of the ships are 250 meters long the largest being three hundred.

"These things have got some balls going up against this fleet with a bunch of frigates and a cruiser. I would be insulted if this was the SRA because if it was two of our hammerheads could blow through them like it’s going out of style. But since we don't know dick about their capabilities we'll play it safe. Get me tight beam to the rest of the fleet." He says calmly.

"There listening sir." A corporal at the Commutation station says.

"This Manitoba actual to all NAC forces in the system, they know we are coming begin reverse burn, and bring all weapons online, standby to deploy shuttles. Exit Mcon we are moving in no one open fire unless I give the order, hold just inside weapons range. Defiant, Carson move in stealth mode and flank em. This is it people lets show the UEC what happens when you steal from the North American Commonwealth. "

"Sargent get your LT and pick your team and report back here when you are done."

"Yes sir, let's go guys."

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

(UEC)

"Look at the size of those things." A dragon says from the sensor station in front of the window.

"Bring it up on the Viewer." The captain says from his command chair. The unknown fleet is brought up on screen showing ten ships the smallest being three hundred meters long. Every one of the ships bristles with turrets and hatches of some kind, none of them seem to have a single window and on their side is a blue rectangle with a horizontal line of three four pointed stars. The captain gets a strange look on his face as he tries come up with a plan of attack. He then stands up and orders a Kleese to get the UEC representative. They wait five minutes before...

"The alien fleet has come to a halt just outside of our weapons envelope."

"Hail them." The ambassador says as she enters the room.

"Which one ma'am"

"The one in the center"

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

(Fallon)

"Incoming signal from the Lead UEC ship, captain." The comms officer says as my team and I enter the CIC. The Combat information center isn't that big and five troopers in full Battle rattle make it a little cramped.

"Speaker." The skipper says before getting a nod from the comms officer.

"To whom am I speaking?" folding his hands behind his back Captain Packer sounds more than a little pissed.

"This is ambassador Sweetie Belle of the United Equestrian Conclave. I welcome you to UEC space I hope our two cultures can have a long and peaceful relationship. From what planet do you originate?" a female voice comes over the speakers.

"Our home planet is classified. Nor is it what we are talking about."

'Ah what a nice planet classified is, with the moon named fuck off, orbiting the star none of your business.' I send to Forbes over the squad channel earning a chuckle in response.

"Very well. what is your name?"

"I am Captain Packers CO of the NAC Manitoba, 92nd fleet." he responds standing slightly straighter, he looks over to the weapons officer receiving a nod in return.

"Well captain was it your troops who aided a resistance group on the surface of this planet?"

"Yes." well that was rather frank.

"Why would you aid the humans? Obviously your race is much more advanced and intelligent than those savages." I could see the Captain's fist clench and could hear various profanities over the squad comm.

"We retrieved a call for help and responded." The captain lied.

"Well if that is the case, I say our cultures meet face to face. Do you have a delegate on bored Honorable captain?"

"Oh I have one of those. But I won't send our delegate without an escort."

"Of course. Captain we will be happy to accommodate your delegate."

"Perfect we will send our delegate immediately." The captain says with an obvious smirk in his voice he looks our way and nods . We salute and make our way to the hanger.

"How stupid are these things." One of the privates says as we enter the hangar bay.

"Let’s move people." I say over the company channel as we scramble up the drop hatch of a Dragonfly drop ship.

"Dropping." This is the most dangerous part of any insertion. Especially a boarding action if the UEC decide they don't want us in their ship they can blow us out of the sky and we will be nothing but a big fat target. In the blink of an eye forty men and women will be a fine cloud of shrapnel and organic matter. Despite this all around me there is whooping and hollering like some big sports event.

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

"The alien the shuttle is on the way, followed by four smaller crafts no doubt escorts from the Manitoba." A gryphon says.

"Excellent, I can’t wait to meet our new interstellar neighbors." Sweetie Belle responds doing a little excited bounce.

"Well they will be here in five minutes, Ambassador." The alien captain says.

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

(??)

The wait for the Delegate was killing the young Tymerian. The alien fleet was close enough now to be seen and it’s ships were absolutely massive dwarfing anything in the entire UEC fleet. The one of the two Kleese remarked privately that the ships looked vaguely human in design.

"There is the Shuttle now." She says pointing a scaly claw at a vaguely insectoid shape approaching the Dragon's Breath.

"Indeed, and a heavily armed shuttle at that." The Zaltule says one of his front lower leg scratching at the deck, with his multifaceted eyes fixed on the large cannon fixed to the bottom of its hull.

"What a shhtrangh design." the other Kleese says from her other side as the alien shuttle flies passed the window.

There as an audible clang as the alien shuttle lands in the shuttle bay. The three of them join a small crowd of other slaves and move to the shuttle bay to maybe get a glimpse of the aliens. Their shuttle actually looks like a giant gray insect at rest and is so heavily armed it could probably wipe out the entire hangar bay and still have enough ordinance to do it again. One of the UEC troopers approaches the craft and immediately stops when the multi-barreled turret on the shuttles' chin swivels in her direction. There is a popping hiss and a ramp on the rear begins to lower and a whole myriad of aliens in bulky green, black, and dark blue armor stream out. Their faces couldn't be seen behind the mirrored visors of their helmet as they spread out in a circle around the shuttle.

"Well that currently was something." a voice says.
==================================================================================

(Fallon)

"That must be the Ambasitor." The LT says from the ramp beside me as we step down. I hear the various comments about the other races over the squad channel.

"Are you Sweetie Belle?" Once we are at the front of the mixed company of Fleet, SI and TA troopers.

"Why yes I am." a whitish equine with a horn and pastel hair responds.

"I am Ambassador Patters, this is Sergeant Fallon my body guard and my escort." He responds to which she gives an excited almost juvenile smile and a slight bow.

"It is a pleasure to meet you ambassador, Welcome aboard the Dragon's Breath. This way please."

"You four stay here! Company fall in!" As I walk past a crowd of aliens with collars on I make "eye" contact with what I assume is a female reptile of some kind.

"Begin according. This is being broadcast across the UEC. This is our first encounter with another space faring race. Now that we are here let's get started." Sweetie Belle begins sitting in a center chair between two more equestrians one yellow with red hair, the other orange with wings. The a camera on the wall begin to blink. These things couldn't make this any better if they tried. We then proceed to exchange a lot of BS while learning at least something from the UEC ambassadors. But two hours of this has started to get on our nerves so we cut to the chase.

"We want you to release Princess Cadence from your custody."

"You are in possession of NAC Property, She will stay in NAC custody until it is returned." The captain says over the speaker in the conference room. I stand next to Forbes behind the LT as he sits at one end of a large table, staring down the UEC guards standing behind Sweetie Belle.

"That is unacceptable she is the matriarch of the Crystal empire and what property do we posses?"

"The Trappist-A star system is property of the North American Commonwealth, You will evacuate the Colony of Camelot and return any humans you have taken Immediately or it will be seen as an act of war." the LT says

"That is impossible the humans serve a key function in our slave cast. We can't simply hand over a quarter of our work force for you. Besides you appear to be able to work just fine on your own, What possible purpose would the humans serve in your obviously advanced culture." Sweetie Belle.

"The humans are a major part of the NAC, and their home world is our home world as well." The LT lies to her face.

"Impossible, the Colony as you call it IS the human home world. They could hardly survive without us." The regular equestrian to Sweetie Belle bells right says.

"We won't let..." the orange one begins before the captain comes back onto the intercom. Then we get a flash on tight beam from the rest of the fleet and the game is over.

"I have had enough of this. Hand over the humans in your possession, or our fleet will blow you to slag and take them."

"HOW DARE!..."

"NO HOW DARE! YOU THIS PLANET WAS COLONIZED BY AND TERAFORMED BY HUMAN COLONISTS, AND THEN YOU AND YOUR KIND ARRIVE AND STEAL IT. Your princess Cadence was very helpful after our intelligence officers were done with her. We won't get anything else out of our prisoner so now she's nothing but very inefficient ballast. You want her back, you can have her." The captain yells over the comm. The looks on the UEC ambassadors faces are priceless so take a quick snapshot with my helmet cam, they have no idea what is going on. Manitoba comes about in the window taking a sharp turn to port flashing an indicator light over one of the airlocks.

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

(UEC)

All over the UEC every twilivision screen capable, is showing the live video from the Human home world. The negotiations that were going well so far have now done a complete 180, and now the video changes to that of a close up of the NAC ship named Manitoba. They watch as a grey door opens under the flashing light, and to their collective relief they see Princess Cadence looking only a little disheveled. Before a door behind her opens and an alien walked in, instantly the princess turns around and begins to panic before a voice comes over the seekers.

"You bastards want Princess Cadence, Back you can have her. Master sergeant, please return their princess."

"Yes sir." A cold voice laced with venom responds before the soldier slams his knee into her stomach.

He then proceeds to press something inside of the hatch opening the clear door to space. leaving only a small film of something behind the princess. All around the UEC onlookers can see the princess appeared to be pleading with the soldier only to have him respond by drawing his leg up and kicking her into the cold vacuum of space.

"Lieutenant let’s show them our little surprise." Upon hearing this the camera designed to capture dramatic shots immediately changes back to the room that holds the ambassador and the three aliens. Then as one the three aliens raised their visors showing human faces.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING!"

"Sargent, corporeal torch em" then as one the three of them lower their visors and the bodyguards of the NAC Delegate unslung their rifles and set fire to the ambassadors and their guards. Their screams fill the air as they writhe on the ground flesh falling from bone. When the door to the conference room opens and a dragon and gryphon security team enters shotguns raised they are met with a gout of violet flame. As even the dragons writhe on the deck the the lieutenant stands up and looks towards the camera.

"It looks like negotiations have broken down."

Author's Notes:

Let me know what you think?

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