“...All Eagles, prepare to launch...”
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“The New York occupation forces are all being commanded, controlled and supplied by these ships. It is up to us to take them out. With only Twenty four F22s it will be tough but I have come up with a suitable plan of action...”
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“...plane is fueled and ready for you sir”
“Thank you. Rainbow, Get to your plane. Lets rock and roll”
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“...We will split our planes into four squads of six. Echo squadron will target the engines of all three ships. That will stop them getting away. Rainbow Squadron, led by Rainbow Dash, will focus on the ships outer defenses. Cobra squadron, led by me, will focus on breaching and boarding the ship. Dread-naught squadron will act as support, covering the other three squadrons from enemy fighters...”
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“...Close the lid...”
“...Rodger that, closing lid...”
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“...Cobra squad will be boarding the largest ship. The ships hangers are shielded so we can’t just fly inside. Fortunately, the ships hull shields are offline for some reason. Violet believes that they do not work inside an atmosphere. This means it’s hull is still exposed. We find a way inside, fight our way to the hanger and bring the hanger shields down so Liam can drop off troops...”
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“Cobra 1-1, you are online. Systems online and tracking”
“Rainbow? How you doing?”
“Doing good Courage. The Mechanics, are prepping me to launch”
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“...Once the troops are on board, we will seize the ship and use it’s main gun to destroy the other two ships. Once the other ships are destroyed we will set the ship to explode and pull out. Once the ships are gone, their ground forces will have no air-support and no supplies...”
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“Cobra 1-1, I need you to tap the breaks, check your flaps and stabs...”
“Rodger that checking flaps and stabs...”
“We’re good left side!”
“We’re good right!”
“Rodger that. Bringing Visor HUD online. Prepping engines to launch”
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“...Once the mission is complete we will return to the carrier. We launch in three hours. We can’t wait around for more ships to show up. Dismissed”
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“Weapons and counter-measures are good. Targeting systems check, Radar check. Prepping to launch”
“Good highs, good lows, no lights out and your ready to go”
“Cobra 1-1, all systems check. Your free to launch. Runway is all yours”
“Rodger tower, firing engines”
I fired up the engines and began to launch. The plane shot across the runway and launched itself off the other side. I slowly began to ascend into the sky.
“This is Cobra 1-1. All systems clean, running smoothly”
“Okay. Cobra 1-1, Cobra and Rainbow squadrons are away. Prepping the last two squadrons for launch”
“Rodger that control. We’re gonna go ahead and circle till all birds are in the air. How are you doing Rainbow?”
“Not too bad. This isn’t much like the simulations. Gonna take some time to get use to”
“Don’t worry Rainbow. You can practise for the next few minutes”
“...and you have us on the ground supporting you” Twilight's voice coming through our ear-piece.
“Yeah! Ya can do it sugar cube. No-Pony can fly like you do Rainbow” applauded Applejack.
“Awww thanks girls...”
“Alright! Lets keep this professional girls!”
“Sorry Courage” Rainbow said in apology.
“Alright, good speed, good drive, all systems green. Engine temperature looks good. I’m ready to go when you are”
“This is Rainbow leader, all systems green here. Same for my squad” Rainbow replied.
“This is Echo leader, all systems, reading green”
“Dread-naught here, all systems go”
“Alright. All squads are go. Form up on my tail and move to the target, heading 2-0-4. How copy?”
“Good copy! Forming up on your six”
“Leveling at your six”

“Alright, we are approaching target, two minutes out. Check your systems and prepare to engage”
“Checking systems. All ready to go”
“Bogies inbound...” Echo leader warned me.
“Alright everyone. Fifty plus Bogies, thirty seconds out. Echo team, break away and proceed to your objective. Everyone else prepare to engage hostiles. Prime your weapons and get in formation”
“Echo team, breaking away”
Many black, triangle shaped fighters approached at high speed. They looked a lot like human stealth fighters.
“...Ten seconds...”
“Alright. All birds, prime weapons...” I paused for a few seconds, “...engage”
We all fired our machine guns and launched two rockets each. We flew past the ships as we traded bullets.
“Alright, break formation and engage hostiles. Looks like they’re coming back around”
“Cobra 1-1 more Bogies at our twelve”
“Rodger dread-naught 1-2. Dread-naught squad, engage the Bogies at our twelve”
“You got it Cobra 1-1. Engaging Bogies at our twelve”
I turned my plane round to face the ships that passed us. On my radar I could see my squad forming up behind me in an arrow formation. The ships had also turned around but some had flown round to come from our right side.
“Watch the side!”
The ships fired again, as did we. More ships went down as we passed them by. More ships were being deployed by the Cruisers.
“Alright. All birds split up and engage. More hostiles inbound”
“Got it. Breaking away”
We all split up and flew up above the clouds. The ships followed us up, guns blazing.
“I’ve got two on my six!”
“Rodger that Cobra 1-3, Cobra 1-1 moving to assist”
I moved towards Cobra 1-3 to find two ships pursuing and firing at him. I fired my machine guns as I flew in from the side. I took out one ship and damaged the other. The damaged one broke it’s pursuit on Cobra 1-3.
“Thanks, Cobra 1- OH CRAP!!”
More ships flew out of a cloud and almost collided with me and Cobra 1-3. We managed to flip our planes sideways to avoid crashing into them. We re-leveled our planes.
“Shit! More inbound! We gotta take them out!”
“Rodger that, looks like we got ourselves a proper dog fight...”
I flew in behind two ships and took them down with my machine guns. Flames burst from the cockpits and wings as my bullets hit. Two fighters then pulled up on my six and fired at me. I swung sideways to dodge their fire and they followed in close pursuit.
“Shit! This is Cobra 1-4! I’m hit! I’m hit! AAAARRR-”
I saw an F-22 ahead of me explode violently and three fighters flew from the smoke, firing lasers at me. These fighters were different. They were the shape of a boomerang pointed forward. Lasers right under the cock pit in the centre of the shape. I turned away and flew right. All five of the fighters followed suit.
“This is Cobra 1-1, five fighters at my six”
I continued to fly side-to-side, dodging the incoming lasers and bullets. The dashboard then started flashing red.
“Missile lock!” yelled my Co-Pilot. Yes, I forgot to mention we all had a Co-Pilot.
“Deploy Flares!” I ordered.
“Flares away!”
The enemies fired rockets and missed due to the flares. The ships behind then started to take fire from above. Two of my F-22s were firing at the hostile fighters. Four of the fighters went down and one pulled back. Unfortunately it pulled back and locked onto my team mates. Two rockets were released by the fighter and went straight for the F-22s that helped me out. Both of the F-22s deployed flares but one wasn’t lucky and was still hit.
“This is Cobra 1-2! I’m hit! Losing power! Can’t hold ‘er!”
Another two fighters came from the side and finished off Cobra 1-2 with lasers.
“Ah shit!”
Boom! Cobra 1-2 was now gone also. We also lost contact with the rest of Cobra squad. Only me and 1-3 remained.

The ships passed and flew away and more emerged from the cloud layer.
“More inbound!” warned Cobra 1-3.
“Ignore them! Move for the objectives”
We flew passed the ships, trading more bullets as we did, and flew back down below the clouds.
“Rainbow squad? Status?”
“Dead! We got into a little fight now only me and Rainbow 1-4 remains”
“Join up with me and Cobra 1-3. Dread-naught? Where did you go?”
“This is Dread-naught. We broke away to support Echo. The engines of the primary and one secondary are down. 1-3 and 1-4 are down but Echo is still at full strength. Moving for the last target now”
“Rodger that. Me and Rainbow squad are going to engage the primary and try to board it”
“How exactly are you going to board it?”
“Don’t worry about that, Just protect Echo till they take down the engines”
“Rodger, Dread-naught out”
Lasers and bullets started flying in from behind as the ships caught up on us.
“Cobra 1-3 and Rainbow 1-4, drop back and deal with those tail-gaiters”
“Rodger!” they both replied. They both pulled back and took out the ships behind us. More started coming from the front and side.
“All around us! At least A hundred plus”
Lasers and bullets and rockets flew from all directions.
“Flares away!”
All the rockets missed but I was hit by a few bullets.
“My flaps and stabs on the left side are damaged. Losing stability!”
“Shit! I’m hit too! Losing power to the engine!!”. Rainbow was panicking. “Losing power to everything!! Ah!”
Boom!
“RAINBOW!!” I screamed.
Out from the smoke of the explosion I saw Rainbow flying away with her Co-Pilot in her hooves.
“Oh thank Luna!!” I sighed in relief.
“I’m okay! Managed to eject at the last second”
“Okay. Cobra 1-3, Rainbow 1-4, cover my approach! Co-Pilot. I need you to take the stick. Me and Rainbow are going to board the ship. Fly over the top of the ship and I’m going to jump on top”
“We’re traveling at like 300mph! If you jump, you’ll be launched a fair distance forward”
“That’s why I jump before we get above the ship”
“You’ll have to time it-” we were hit by another laser shot. “Urgh! -time it just right if your gonna land on it. Not to mention the landing will hurt!”

We made it close to the main ship and the Co-pilot was leveling up the plane. I opened the canopy and climbed to the nose. It wasn’t easy with the rushing air. I grabbed the end of the nose with my left hand and looked back at my Co-Pilot.
“Can you slow down some more?” I asked.
“Nope. Not unless you want me to fall out of the sky”
“Alright! Get ready to pull away!”
“Ready!”
“On three... One..... two.... Three!!”
The jet slowed down dramatically and I was throw forward towards the ship. This is when I realised how stupid this was.
“Why the fuck did I put myself up to this?”
I approached the edge of the ship and crashed down at an angle, bouncing across the top and hitting an air vent! I looked up to find my P90 in front of me. The clip that attached it to my chest had snapped by the force of the landing.
“Ah shit! That hurt!” I got up and rubbed the back of my neck and stretched my back. “Rainbow! Join me on the top of the ship”
“Got it!”

Rainbow landed on the roof and let go of the Co-Pilot. I looked at the Co-Pilot.
“You got a weapon?”
He drew out an M9 pistol, “Sure do sir”
“Good, we could use your help. Let make our way to the hanger. There’s an airlock over there”
We approached the airlock, Two F-22s flew over our heads, followed by a few fighter ships.
“This is Echo! We have taken out all objectives and are now engaging the enemy fighters! We’ll keep them busy so the transports can make it in”
“Rodger that Echo 1-1. We’re making our way to the hanger now”
I rubbed the back of my neck again then I opened the air-lock.
“Are you okay Courage?” Rainbow asked with concern.
“Yeah, my neck just hurts from the landing”
“That was a very stupid thing to do you know. Im surprised your alive”
“Can we just get going!”
“Of course, sorry”

Inside the ship now. The walls had a lovely patterned, red and black, decoration scheme. It looked really futuristic with LED lights everywhere. We were making our way to the hanger, though we had no idea where we were going. We had been sneaking around for almost ten minutes before we found our way. I really should have revised those schematics before coming on this mission but I was so caught up with teaching Rainbow to run the Jet flying simulations. It didn’t matter now since we DID find it in the end. We had to sneak past many Pony guards. It seemed that the dragon soldiers were the grunts and that the Ponies had higher authority. I would have thought it would be the other way round. I didn’t see any dragon warriors on board except in the hanger.

“Alright. Im guessing that control panel right by the hanger door controls the hanger’s shield”
“Why didn’t we land our troops on the ship’s roof?” asked the Co-Pilot.
“Well erm.... I dunno...” I said in slight confusion.
“Well because the transports would be vulnerable to the fighters up there...” Rainbow explained.
“She has a point”
“Right....” I pulled out a flash bang. “Lets get to that panel”
I threw the flash bang through the door. A few ponies approached it to investigate the metal cylinder. Stupidly I was watching them stare at it. Luckily Rainbow pulled me away and covered my eyes. After it went off Rainbow looked at me, “Are you stupid? Lets go!”
We all got up and ran across the hanger floor, firing at the few dragon warriors. The dragon warriors were still blinded by the flash bang but their scales protected them from our bullets. We took cover by a docked fighter that was landed close to the panel.
“Alright Liam! Make your approach! The shield will be down in a second”
“Alright Mr. Boss!”

I moved to the panel. A holo-screen appeared, similar to the one Twilight interfaced with before we found Discord. I didn’t know how to shut off the shields with this thing so I observed the screen for a second. I found that on one side was a “Deactivate Shields” button. Convenient.
“Alright Shields are down! Make your approach Liam!”
I took back cover behind the fighter. Ponies on the cat walks firing their machine guns at us. The dragon warriors were just slowly walking towards us as our small arms fire bounced off their thick scales. They were firing away at us with lasers.
“Any time now Liam!”
“I’m on it boss! Don’t get your over sized nappy in a twist!”
“Liam! Seriously! Now!”
One of the dragon warriors jumped up on the ship we were behind and aimed to shoot us. I just stared hopelessly at him as he grinned at me evilly.
“Ah shit...”
He pulled his weapon up to shoot but thankfully he was hit by a massive transport that flew through the hanger door. The transport spun round so the back end faced the back wall. The other ponies, four marines and Pete jumped out from the back of the transport, all the marines firing their heavy assault rifles at the enemy. Twilight formed a barrier around them to protect against the incoming fire. The hostile ponies retreated but the dragon warriors stayed to fight. On the back of the transport, Gavriil was loading the transports mounted weapon. He began to fire it at the dragon warriors. The dragon warriors didn’t stand a chance against that kind of power.
“You die this day Behemoths!” he yelled as he ripped the dragon warriors apart with his heavy machine gun.

The transport soon landed down on the hanger floor and the room was now secure. A second transport had also landed and brought us an additional twelve marines. While six of the marines secured the hanger, I had everyone else gather round me.
“Alright. Violet, give me the blue prints to this thing”
Violet laid down the blue prints of the ship on a small crate, “There you go boss”
“Alright. We are here. We need to get here, to the control room. Me, you three...” I pointed to three of the marines, “...and the ponies will make our way through these lower levels and up to the control room. Liam, Violet and you six...” I pointed to six of the marines, “...will head here, to the power generator and plant charges. Once I use the ships weapons to destroy the other two ships, we will pull out and detonate the charges. That will destroy this ship also and the enemy lose all footing in New York”
“Why do you always get to go with the ponies?” Liam asked, frowning at me.
“Because I want to make sure they’re safe. Plus I could use their magic if we run into Trixie or Discord”
“What if WE run into them?” Liam complained.
“At the power generator? Why would they be down there?”
“I don’t know... They could be?”
“Lets go guys! You always complain about us wasting time!” blurted Rainbow.
“She’s right. We’re wasting time. Lets go!”
Liam, Violet and the six marine left the hanger to make their way to the generator. Me and the ponies prepared to leave but suddenly one of those bloody super soldiers jumped down from the first level canopy. He fell and landed, using his JET PACK to slow is landing. This one had an over sized mini-gun which was so big and heavy that even HE needed two hands to hold it.
“Seriously!! I thought those things were human!!” I yelled.
“They probably ar-OH CRAP GET DOWN!”
We all took cover as the super soldier fired his mini-gun. Our first transport then exploded right by us. Me, Rarity and Applejack were blown away by the blast. The soldier then slowly swayed his mini-gun to point at us, not letting go of the fire button. Just before the bullet fire was pointed at us, Twilight brought up a barrier between us and the soldier. The marines then began to fire at him. The bullets bounced off the soldiers tough armour. Twilight’s barrier began to break. I could see the purple barrier cracking like glass. I got up and threw a flash bang. It went off right by the super soldier but it did not affect him in any way.
“Shit really?”
The barrier broke and I dived behind some crates for cover. The ponies did the same.
I then saw Liam preparing to jump from the cat walk above the soldier.
“Hay! Noob!” Liam yelled before jumping off the cat walk. Liam landed on the soldiers back and wrapped his arms around his neck. The soldier dropped the mini-gun and tried to reach back to get Liam off. I quickly got up and moved to the soldier. Two of the marines did the same. The marines pulled out their knives and moved to attack. The soldier was still struggling to get Liam off. A marine slashed at the armour, causing many sparks. The soldier then kicked the marine back, the second marine coming from the side. The soldier the elbowed that marine as I approached. The soldier then managed to grab Liam and threw him at the first marine trying to get back up. He then swung to punch me but I dodged and jumped up on him and stabbed him in the throat. My thrown body weight had knocked him to the ground. The soldier moved his hand to grab me but a marine jumped on his arm before he could. I swung my knife into his other hand, pinning it to the floor and then drew my pistol to shoot him.

I put my pistol against the glass visor of his helmet. Before I could shoot the soldier spoke in a strong female voice.
“I die for Lord Discord, his great power will lead us all to great prosperity” she said in a sort of Prayer.
“What are you saying?”
“You will die by Discord’s Power! Heretic!”
The soldier lifted HER arms from the floor, knocking away the knife and marine that once held them in placed, and moved to grab me. I pulled the trigger before she could. Her arms dropped lifelessly to the ground again. A large, bloody, cracked hole now had a place on her helmet visor. I timidly removed the helmet to find a young human female.
“How is this possible?” I mumbled to myself.
“We don’t have time for this. We have to get going” Rainbow said insistingly.
“Of.... of course... lets get going...” I said Vacantly. I was so surprised to find a NORMAL human female under that massive suit of steel and firepower. Surely you would need like some kind of mutant body builder in those things. Not... not a young female who looked young enough to still be in school. Anyway. I didn’t have time for this. I swiftly got up to move to the bridge with the ponies.