I checked the charts on our guest once more. She had been more than willing to allow us to try some simple tests, and so far what I see is beyond amazing. Somehow her telomeres are stuck in a constant state. They actively function in such a way that she won’t age. It also seems that there is something else, a sort of mutation, or mutative agent, that has been introduced that allows her to heal from practically any kind of external influence given time. Her only request has been to work on armor and clothing for the troops. She is actually quite skilled in her craft, and I would be lying if I was to say there wasn’t something exotic about her.

“Dr, which test are we performing today?”

I give her a gentle smile. I do because she is going to be testing the limits of her immortality today. I believe that Dr. Josef Mengele would almost balk at what we have planned for her. Oddly enough she has continued to volunteer for this. At no time have I had to threaten or use the carrot and the stick theory to get her to assist. Instead she seems perfectly fine with our testing.

“We’ll be working with some venoms at first, but there is something that I would like to test. It’s a vacuum test.”

Her eyes almost lit up, “Oh, so you want to see if I will survive in a pressureless, weightless, and complete vacuum environment like space, right?”

I nodded, “That’s correct.”

She smiled, “Then please, let's start with that.”

I walked her toward the environmental room, and once she stepped inside, I began the test. I watched as the computers counted down the oxygen in the room, I could see the pressure leaving, causing the titanium walls to suck into themselves slightly, and I could see her blood vessels popping up all over her. A moment later she bled out of her eyes, ears, nose, and she hit the floor. Once it was done I restored pressure, I restored oxygen, and I walked in to watch her do something she shouldn’t have had the ability to do. She sucked in a breath.

“It appears that even in a vacuum you will survive. It’s fascinating. If we could reproduce the methods that gave you this ability… I dare say we would never have to worry about losing another soldier.”

With a grunt I toss a fragger down the corridor as I roll to the other bulkhead. There is a vicious double explosion and I press myself flush against the wall as a cloud of shrapnel flys past, followed closely by two large gems that embed themselves into the decking.

The keening has become slightly louder now, but I better the red from the edges of my vision as I lean out firing two laser bolts into the chest of a changeling. The female bugs body goes limp but stays standing thanks to the zero gravity.

‘Brace Brace brace, hard burn stroke warning.’

All at once changelings and our team is slammed to the deck as the Galactica begins its acceleration burn. Around me I can hear the ship groaning on top if my squads own groans of pain. Trombley and Forbes are pinned to the deck on top of their guns while Durge across the way and Miiora to my left are flat on their sides neither of them being ready for the sudden acceleration. Along my body I feel my armor injecting me with the juice to prevent me from stroking out, a feature all pod head suits possess.

But ahead I can see the changelings are in a similar position many of their number are exposed lying prone on the hall. Looking over to Big Dog and Marcus struggling to their feet under the six G burn. Then with a grunt and drag my arm up and begin to push myself to my feet.

I can almost feel the eyes on us as Harris, Douglas and myself push ourselves up. The assisted servos in my legionnaire armor whirr in protest as I push myself onto one knee with a scream.

Dragging my other knee I stand and see the other two members of my impromptu kill team are also in a similarly strange position. Its then that as one we seem to notice something Somehow we are able to stand and move under a sustained six Gs something that would turn any normal human’s muscles into a fine pudding.

“What the fuck?” I exclame taking an experimental step forward, feeling as though I was under two Gs rather than six.

A flash of green light at the end of the hall draws my attention prompting me to lean to the side allowing a green bolt of magic to sail harmlessly past. Before with one smooth motion I swing my N-4 up with my right hand and blast the offending changeling.

“Holy shit.”

Something brushes passed my shoulder and I look up in time to see Harris sprint past. My ole old corporal instructor took one then two bounding steps and seemed to fly down the corridor toward the changelings at the other hand of the short passageway.

However just as we reached the three quarter mark the ship bucked and the gravity cut out again. The sudden change sent several of the un prepared changelings into the air just as we reached them. Being unprepared for the sudden shift myself, fire my jets in attempt to stop myself. Unfortunately I had raised my feet to prepare to hit the wall and unintentionally sent the heel straight into the helmet of one of the infiltrators. The entire front edge of the standard battle armor helmet buckled and caved in under the force of my accidental kick.

“Harris, Duglas, what the hell is going on here?” My voice comes out in a crack as I accidentally head butt a helmet less shifter, caving its skull in.

“I've got no idea man, but this feels great!” Harris then proceeds to launch a changeling down an adjacent hall way with a vicious front kick.

Slamming my boot down and taking hold of an overhang I manage to swing myself around to anchor to a bulkhead. “Above” me Duglas curls his fist back before punching a changeling square into he throat, causing a treble popping noise as the exoskeleton snaps and caves in.

Pain Sears through my left side and I turn on a changeling who had fired a flechette round point blank into my side. The shocked expression on his face is priceless as I snap my hand out back handing his helmet with my bionic before putting three laser bolts through his chest.

“Guys what the fuck is going. Gahhh!” It feels like someone has injected lava into my body. The shots through me doubling me over.

The clicking of mag boots paired with scraping meet my ears and an armored tail lands in my peripheral vision Miiora then. Seconds later two pairs of arms helped me to the deck and propped me against the wall.

“Fallon what the hell was that? I've never seen anything like it, we were under a sustained six Gs but the three of you were moving around like nothing happened.” Levoys voice cuts through the overly loud panting from Miiora. Reaching into his pack he pulled out a scanner before plugging it into a port on my armor.

“Put that away Levoy, I'm fine, I just need a second to catch my breath.” I waved the android away opting to take a sip from the water nozzle in my bucket. My chest burned, and pumped a rapidly dulling pain in tune with my heart beat. After about a minute of sitting around I shifted my weight and took a Miiora’s extended hand. Shakely getting to my feet I shake my head clearing the fireflies from my vision.

“...Alright, we’ve got a job to do….” my first unsteady step moved a lot faster than I had expected knocking me off balance. The ship shifted again as we began accelerating again and Miiora bless her heart actually managed to catch me before I could fall under the single gravity.

“Iceman’s right we need to move…” Douglas called out. But from my position awkwardly pressed against Miiora’s new-svalbard battle armor I could see the onyx guard wasn't doing much better than I was.

We pressed on and soon after several agonizing minutes of being awkwardly shuffled along by Miiora I began to feel better. The feeling of having my guts and general insides ripped out was replaced by a dull throbbing but even that to was rapidly dissipating.

The blue icon marking the annihilator siege breaker Tombstone began to slowly crawl away from Galactica as the rest of the escorts began to move to intercept. “This is colonel Prower we are engaging the enemy.”

“Fighter screen, this is Galactica actual. Standby for deployment. Stay back in range of our PDCs they should help to even the odds until we can properly engage.”

“All squadrons report, go no go.” The fleet wing commanders shaky voice was shallow and distant as nearly five hundred fighters began streaming from the massive UEC fleet.

“Escadron Valkyrie prêt.”

“Razgriz, standing by.”

“Black Knights locked and loaded.”

The squadron call offs began to blur together as Barron watched the tactical plot. The large triangle representing Galactica sat almost alone supported by a single hammerhead heavy cruiser.

The rest of the battle group had begun their acceleration burns toward the incoming UEC at this point. Opting to maintain a relatively tight inverted V formation until signaled. With a single annihilator the Tombstone, two orca battlecruisers Belligerent, and Indomitable, two hammerheads the Normandy, and Babylon, as well as about fifteen smaller frigates, destroyers, and corvettes their chances of survival were dim.

The COG ships moving toward the enemy armada were insanely outnumbered. As the final scans came in Barron’s blood ran cold as he saw the numbers. Almost forty of the UEC’s five hundred meter super destroyers their equivalent of a COG battle cruiser burned toward the third planet in the system. A noticeable portion of them were noticeably from other the non pony nations in the UEC like the gryphons, dragons and changelings.

‘Radiation warning, firing Orions.’

Flying in formation with their larger cousins fifteen of their smaller three hundred and fifty meter Luna, celestia, cadence, and thorax class destroyers. And beside them another assortment of fifteen ships the Barron didn't recognize, nor did they fit any UEC or ACM silhouettes.

“Private Thomson I want a full spectrum scan of those ships at the rear of the UEC formation, as well as the one in the center.” Barron leaned forward in his chair his vac suit creaking against the restraints. “Right away.”

Several minutes passed during which the Tombstone’s magazine of nine Orion missiles emptied themselves. On the screen the thousand ton missiles sailed forth firing their nuclear burst charges to gain speed. But even at their exceptional rate of acceleration it would take hours for them to reach their targets.

‘Those ships are throwing a lot of heat, could they be repurposed civilian ships?’

“Preliminary reports coming in general sending to your screen now.” The sensor operator said from his position. Reaching over his shoulder Barron swivels his screen in front of him and his eyes grew wide.

“What are...?” Adama’s voice is hollow a dry rasp clear in its tone. “Korvek battle cruisers?” the voice of the marine standing century cut through the din on the bridge drawing several sets of eyes to the large dark brown kleese.

“Explain corporal.” Barron ordered, quickly swiveling his command chair around to face the man. “Sir, as you may know the kleese held its own fleet of warships before the UEC conquered our home system.”

“Yes we were aware of this it was part of the briefing we receiver on your species. Out with it.” Adama said his eyes half focused on the tactical plot and the marine.

“Well sir the ships used by the kleese were very similar to those used by the COG today. Utilising many of the same types of weapons in use by humanity today. With the exception of using plasma weapons in the place of your rail guns. As well as energy rakes a weapons system that is used by the UEC today as they stole the designs from kleese ships.”

“General Barron, Colonel Adama, I have an incoming data burst from the UEC fleet. Attempting to decrypt.” The ships AI spoke drawing attention from the rather uncomfortable zaltule.

Several minutes passed as the bridge crew of the crippled Galactica watched its escorts begin to take a gamma formation. Knowing this was probably going to he the last time he spoke to his old classmate Barron decided to wish him good luck. “Comms, send a message to colonel Miller. Send him... God's speed, and good hunting.”

The battle to and from the brig was heated and bloody. With the infiltrators reported to have successfully extracted their target and were now on the fast track for hanger deck sixteen.

But the COG special forces and standard space born infantry and home world defence troopers had managed to bog down the infiltrators in a bloody battle of attrition on Galactic's green deck. The massive five hundred meter artificial biome had originally been placed on the ship to allow the embarked COG Fleet and embarked soldiers a place to relax on ship along with several bars placed around the ship.

An explosion knocked Avery Fallon off his feet to fall heavily on top of his rifle. Cursing he watched it pinwheel away as he spun on his back and threw another grenade around the bush the grenade had come from.

When he was able to roll onto one side he saw a figure in NAC ultra light powered armor facing him and holding its helmet with both hands just as stunned as Fallon. For a second both soldiers stared at the rifle then each other both judging they didn't have time to dive for the weapon.

The infiltrator reached behind his back for a weapon so Avery did the only thing he could do what he was trained to do when facing someone in power armor. The MOTH launched himself through the air to tackle his opponent before he armed himself. A pistol came around towards Fallon who survived only by tucking his head and using the top of his bucket to bash the other under the chin.

The blow made them separate and caused the pistol to sail up and over the bush. The other man howled and clumsily drew an evil looking knife from a sheath on his forearm. Holding the knife for slashing he held his other arm out wide to trap Fallon against a tree. So Avery raced inside the other man's guard wrapping him in a crushing bare hug that made the armor creek under his enhanced strength.

The knife came down into Fallon's back. Where it snapped and slid away, his undersuit having stiffened and produced a slippery hump where the knife was predicted to impact. As they struggled Fallon flipped his monofilament knife out and rammed it into his opponents ribs.

“Why won't you just die Earther the cog are traitors! Woul Solowada!” The opponent screamed using the full power of his light power armor in a futile attempt to break free of the crushing grip.

“You’re the traitor welwala!” Fallons words came out in a choked gasp as the two spun around and slammed each other repeatedly against a bulkhead. Fallon slammed an elbow into the caleb's chin then pressed a knee to his chest ordering his new armor to exceed its safety limits.

The two suits one assisted and one powered strained and whined with warning lights flashing in each visor. Until Avery gave a mighty jerk backward and the enemy's left arm tore away at the weak shoulder joint in the armor taking the flesh and bone limb with it. The soldier slumped backward as blood spurted out only briefly before a seal of foam formed over the wound. Only the suits AI kept the man from going into shock pumping pain killers and what not into his spine.

He actually tried to stand and face Avery defiantly. Before the modified moth viciously swung the torn armored limb like a club straight into his injured opponents face plate. Once, twice, three, times until the man went limp on the ground and Fallon finished him by stomping hard on the point where breastplate met helmet snapping the neck bones beneath.

“God damn! I couldn't get a clear shot.” Forbes was on one knee his rifle wavering as this section of the large artificial biome inside the ship was dead silent.

“You dun tore his arm off and beat him to death with it.” Looking around Fallon could see Mii’ora, trombley and Forbes’s visors were raised and their pupils were as big as they could get. “I mean damn, I've heard people say that before but I've never seen someone do it.”

Ignoring his friends comment and the stares he clicked to dampen the painkillers his armor was pumping into him. When the armored limb had torn loose it had almost popped Fallons shoulders out of their sockets. “Where is my rifle?” His voice was deep and obviously trying to hide the pain.

In response Mii’ora reached down and with a flick of her tail sent it sailing towards her suitor who snatched it out of the air. “Thanks.” He said quickly pain evident in his voice as he checked the weapon for damage.

‘We found the prisoner, her group is surrounded requesting assistance.’ A man marked as “Delta: SAS” sends over the tac link.

“Copy Delta we’re oscar mike.” Marcus spoke up. But as the group of marines, moths, and formers arrived on the scene they were shocked at the sight before them.

Held up in an artificial ring of artificial rocks were around forty of the infiltrators but what they saw at their center made both Fallon and Harris’s blood boil. It was Supreme commander Rarity the mare who had tortured them. This is what this was about they had been told they would be interrogating a prisoner but his was too good to be true.

But just as the still growing mass of marines and pod heads were about to assault their position every one of the enemy troops began to convulse violently. Several seconds later the first of them began to drop dead followed closely by the entire group falling over like god had simply flicked off a light switch.

No one moved for several seconds not knowing what to do this could be a trap after all. But soon a brave soul stepped forward toward the ring of dead enemy infiltrators. Veteran Blare according to her marker moved to the first still form tentatively weapon pointed at the probe body like it was a snake that might bight her at any moment.

When she finally reached the first body she kicked her foot out striking the prone male form in the crotch. Several of the men watching winced knowing that if anything would get a reaction that was certainly one of the most effective.

Seemingly satisfied she continued forward “checking” several more bodies before finally reaching Rarity's still form. Blare reached into a soft pouch on her armor and retrieved some kind of device and from their position fallons and Harris could tell it was myrialos in design and waved it over the body. She tilted her helmet to the side before fiddling with the device and turning in a circle with the scanner.

“... Their all... dead?” veteran Blares voice called out over the group channel.

With that another group of marines ran forward. They each took up positions around the diameter of the ring and leveled their rifles small pilot flames igniting under their incinerator attachments.

With a sick kind of pleasure Fallon and Harris watched as the entire group was set ablaze in the micro gravity. Completely unaware that soon the war was going to be entering into a new chapter.