“Wraith, what have we got?” Rook asked, his voice rasping out from the darkened corridor. Above us the air ducked vibrated slightly as the tiny link drone buzzed around. “Hang on… got it! Four clops on the far side that I can see. Standard affair, two shotguns, two rifles.”

“Alright apex we go in hard flashbangs and fraggers. Hijack, blast tape on the door. Iceman right, Big Dog left, Hijack, Amp and I will take center. Wraith your on fire support.” He didn't bother asking if we understood as he materialized from one of the lightless corners in the room.

Letting out a short “Hooyah” before stacking at the hatch. We waited for Hijack to clear the bz before turning our heads away from the door. “Breach.”

The door blasted open flying from its weak unarmored mounting and into the room with the ponys. Being the first ones in Iceman and I took a fragger and flashbang in each hand and tossed them into the room.

There were four then two more thunderous booms before we rushed in. Sighing in I leveled my N-4 and ventilated the unicorn in front of me. Five ruby bolts of electronically supercharged energy lanced out burning down the fatally injured pony where he stood.

“Clear left.” Behind me I heard three blaster reports as Iceman finished off his target. “Clear right,”

Hearing the sound of crunching glass I pivoted leveled my rifle and fired two shots into another of the ponys as Hijack shot him. His kevlar armor couldn't stop a regular flechette from an M-66. So it didn't stand a chance as six bolts slammed into and through his chest.

There was a crash to my left and I turned to see Rook slam a struggling mare into what used to be a desk. “No no please!” She begged before her words turned to screams as the onyx guard drew his knife before gutting her where she stood.

“Big Dog how much farther?” He asked flicking the blood off of the monofilament blade before kicking the dying pony to the deck.

“Past this corridor to the right and out onto the exterior of the station. Then another two miles down and into the exterior docking bay. It should be a straight shot through the docking tube from there. From there…” I had to pause to bring up a schematic we had acquired from the Glimmering Wake one of the defector UEC ships the Gally hand inside one of her docking bays.

With the 3D wire frame schematic superimposing itself on my bucket's visor I rattled off the directions. “We head aft toward engineering for, twelve bulkheads before going up a deck. The navigational computers and slave collar control should be on that deck.”

A noise from the next door cut me off. We all heard it and Iceman and Rook took positions on either side of the hatch. Sparks flew from the seems as someone cut through. Then the building shook, its already damaged frame rocked from an exterior explosion. “We need a ride to get over there in time. Apex one to Booker one come in.”

“We here you Requesting immediate orbital support and exfiltration. ” Rook yelled into the com.

There was a pause as if the comms station officer aboard the galactica was considering. “Request is denied Apex one.”

Fallon didn't even wait for Rook to respond before cutting into the channel. “This is Veteran Avery Fallon, what the hell do you mean request denied!?”

“Don't you take that tone with me MOTH.”

“Listen whoever you are.” Fallon began his voice dripping with anger. “You fucking get support down here Now. Or the first thing ill do when I get back to the ship again is hunt you down so we can talk about my tone in person. You got that?”

No one in their right mind wanted an angry moth gunning for them. Especially not a dark ops MOTH or one of the three nanosized super soldiers in the fleet. When the comm officer spoke again he sounded much more charitable. “Sirs I have orders that out rank yours. We are to send no craft into that region. No exceptions, that area is too hot. Galactica out.”

“Time to get creative Apex, We're gonna have to get ourselves out if this. Gally says it cant send down fire support or an exfil dropship.” Rook said cutting off the comm.

“Are they thinking that would be too easy?” Hijack said tossing a fragger through the door as it slid open. There was a mad scramble as the UEC soldiers on the other side rushed to get away and failed.

“So we kill em all and hoof it.” I said slamming home a new charge pack for my N-4. “Simple enough. Seal your suits. Iceman you good?”

“I'll live. Good to go.” Iceman said before kicking down one of the doors leading to one of the airlocks.

Piling into the airlock Rook spoke up as the air began cycling not. “Alright people, once were outside we keep moving. Don't stop and let them get a bead on you. Remember your spacing and watch your thruster fuel.”

The lights turned red and sound disappeared as the last of the air was vented out. We waited for the door to cycle open only for it to stop half way. “Oh fuck… you!” Rook took a step back from the jammed airlock door and kicked it.

The door dented in from the blow before he took another step back and really gave it a stiff kick. This time the damaged door flew off of its rail and was sent spiraling off into space.

“Well that's one way to open a door.” Hijack said before brushing past me and firing his jump jets. He sailed off into the distance barley pulled by the asteroids gravity.

“Lets go people on the bounce! KTF.”

After that we all jump out into space rocketing from the cramped airlock and onto the surface. Our polychromatic armor shifted images on its surface as we moved. To the casual observer we would be almost impossible to spot only being a vague outline.

The adaptive camouflage on our legionnaire battle armor is a holdover from the older HEBA bug suits used on Lanky worlds and by the Helldivers. It's not terribly useful in most environments because it tends to drain our suits battery relatively quick. But in situations like this where someone has to get across a distance quickly or has to stay stationary it's a godsend.

As we leapfrog forward I catch movement to my left in an external passageway. “Shit, Freeze!”

Our squad slams down into the dust of the asteroid and stops dead. No one moves a muscle as our armors adaptive camouflage renders us as five vague outlines. “Clops second passage to our left, seventy five degrees.”

“I've got eyes.” Wraith called out as a window appeared on my HUD. It showed the window the UEC squad was looking out of. “I can ventilate.”

“Negative we ca…” Rook cut himself off as one of the ponys, a pinkish unicorn with a super models figure moved her slender fingers to the side of her head. “ Scratch, Do it.”

There was a flash about five hundred meters to my right. This also seemed to catch the attention of the mare behind the window. She moved fractionally before the window stared from the impact and side of her head exploded. Blood, brain, and bone sprayed as the .50 caliber depleted uranium flechette from Wraith's longshot tore through the window and the passway itself.

The pony beside her looked about ready to shout something before his head exploded aswell. The window took another round before finally giving up the ghost. Violently exploding outward as the pressure from inside the passageway escaped into space. As we watched the five remaining ponys struggled weakly as they were sucked out into hard vacuum.

“Looks clear the rest of the way up.” Wraith said as the window from his feed panned our path. “Alright let's move people. Double time.”

When we finally reached the docking collar I had a feeling the UEC knew someone was going to try to board their ship. “Hold up, look down there.” Big Dog says bringing us to a halt at the ledge just before the tubes.

Landing I and the rest of the team crouch down eyeing the marker the Big man had placed on our huds. “Damn it thats alot of clops we won't be able to take em all… suggestions?” Rook said his voice conveying his annoyance.

“Well we could bust the tube and rush in, it would key em off but it would be fast.” Hijack said from his perch.

“No we can't do that it would trap the slaves on board…” Wraith commented before peering along the hull if the ship through the scope of his longshot. “We could cut our way in?”

Rook seemed to like this idea. His head perked up a bit and he turned slightly to face me. “That could work… Iceman what do you think?”

“It would be alot easier than venting, and a hell of a lot quieter than blasting open an airlock. Alright let's do it.”

Rook nodded at that and spoke softly into our squad channel. “Alright, let's do this quick people torches out.” With that we kicked off of the station propelling ourselves toward the looming UEC destroyer.

The UEC dont use the same ship classification we do. For example a cruiser for us would be a destroyer for them and a vice versa. This tends to cause a lot of confusion when talking to UEC defectors because they usually get the ships mixed up.

For example the ship we are currently falling towards. Because in space flying eventually turns into falling. Is a big red hulled dragon vessel the prow ornaments and other decorative garbage gives that away. My bucket says that from nose to drove its about three hundred and seventy meters, roughly a third the size of one of our linebacker cruisers.

Even their super destroyers at almost four hundred and fifty meters were only three fourths the size and half the raw tonnage of our big missile cruisers. This one was of the Luna class being a rough middle ground between the two classes in size.

When we reached the halfway make we flipped around and fired our jump jets in bursts to slow ourselves down and land lightly on the hull. Unlike the new human shields used by Galactica and her sister ship Nostromo. UEC shields do not stop all outside influences, hens why we are able to land on the hull and not be turned into a fine puree by obscene amounts of electricity.

Crouching we crossed the hull as quietly as our mag boots allowed. At this point we had to disable our adaptive camouflage to conserve battery life. So as we moved across the sleak hull our glossy black armor shined dully from the battle far over head.

At the head of our hexagonal formation Rooks onyx legionnaire armor was much darker than ours. His vantablack plates seemed to absorb all light making him invisible to the naked eye in space. I myself could only see him because of the contrast against the brightly painted hull.

When we reached our destination which was a maintenance hatch of some kind we set to work. Big Dog, Hijack and Wraith set up a perimeter while Rook and I took out our cutting torches. I have heard a rumor that some SAS commando had single handedly managed to capture an entire UEC cruiser with a cutting torch alone.

For a second I stared at the torch. It was utterly ordinary made of flimsy metal and plastic, a cheap tool. But years ago before the war with the UEC the NAC had used one of these as their only weapon. For an entire year a group of marines and pod heads fought off dozens of SRA soldiers. When they were stranded on a hostile world being over run, fighting for a beached whale of a ship, deck by deck day by day.

Those were the most desperate of times. Modern warfare had devolved into hand weapons wielded with savagery. Like some ancient fantasy novel of never was, with swords and magic.

The torch was utilitarian. It was fashioned like an oversized flashlight, heavy duty. A piece of equipment some sanitation worker might carry down into the dirty dark for the most practical of reasons. There was nothing elegant about it, it is not a some relic from a lost age of nobility and honor.

Handing my N-4 to Big Dog I flicked the studio and watched as the twisting electric fiery blade sprung up from its housing. Like a shining beacon in the darkness of the galaxy.

With a nod to Rook we plunged the torches into the hatch. The sudden flaring of light caused my visor to darken as I cut a circle into the door with my overgrown flashlight. The door yielded to our cutting torches and we managed to jump into the now open door before a blast shield closed. Immediately we were bathed in a darkness with swirling red lights. With a gesture Rook had Hijack disable the alarms and repressurise the airlock.

“We're making good time where to now?”

“Three decks down, then follow a port passageway then the navigation computer is on the right.”

“Alright gents let's…” Rook was cut off when the hatch leading to our commandeered airlock slid open.

A shocked UEC maintenance crew took several steps back when they saw us. We must have been quite the sight five black armored humans standing in a red lit room.

Rook was the first to act, dashing forward he swiped his torch in a horizontal line cutting two of the maintenance workers in half. The others turned and began to run from the crazy sword wielding human. This proved to be a bad move because when they made it halfway down the hall I ran them down and sliced them to pieces.

My bucket picked up incoming projectile and I turned to snatch my N-4 out of the air as Harris brushed past me moving down the hall. Flicking the torch off and securing it to a holder in my leg armor I followed after him.

Vaulting over the banister leading to the next deck down I land the back of an unprepared centaur, who bucks trying to shake me off before I jam N-4s barrel into its thick neck. My rifle bucks in my hand as it sends a bolt straight through the big cows throat.

Jumping off I land in a crouch before rising my rifle and sending two more bolts into the corpse's squadmates. The sound of firing jump jets draws my attention and I turn to see Big Dog deliver a jet assisted knee strike to the face of a caleb. Bones crunch under the force of the nanotized moths blow and the caleb's head bounces off of the bulkhead in a spray of red.

There is a flicker and as one our kill team turns sending two shots each into the chest of group of UEC marines. The bolts of electrically charged energy sear through their kevlar analogue armor and they slump to the deck.

“Almost there, Iceman, Wraith on point.” Making the belter affirmative we wag our pinkies and thumbs on our free hands in a circular motion then forming a fist.

The two of us move up the right hand bulkhead as we move. Behind us the sound of boots on the deck seem to echo in the almost empty passageway. “Clear right.”

Bounding past Fallon I pear around the opposite corner. “Clear left.”

Waving two fingers Fallon gestures for the team to continue. Eventually we found ourselves entering what could only be described as a slum. “I feel like someone's gonna steal my wallet.” I commented off handedly as we moved.

“Yeah reminds me of the pitt.” Iceman added referring to the main Pittsburgh PRC. “Id go with Ceres my self, it has that homey vibe.” Harris cut in sweeping his weapon across a grime covered wall.

As we move our group cycles our fields of fire, with at least one of us facing the front and back at any given time. It is during one of the sweaps that we ran into our first slave stationed on the ship.

To our shock she was a human. Dressed in an outfit that left almost nothing to the imagination it was obvious what her purpose aboard the ship was. She had several scratch marks and bruises along her legs and around the blinking silver collar around her neck. Her auburn hair was a mess and she looked half starved.

She came out of a door ahead of us and at the sudden noise we turned our weapons in her direction. Smartly she raised her hands in fear taking a step back as we drew near. “Hey mom what's going on out there? Has master come back?” Another voice called out from behind her.

“N…no dear…” She was cut off when Iceman took a step towards her. The sexually abused slave flinched back upon seeing her partal reflection in his glossy black armor.

“Relax ma'am. Uuuhh.. sheshalo, ki'iko nio kree?” aah that's what he's doing. That makes sense his girlfriend was a slave just like this woman. Maybe she wasn't the same kind of slave but maybe he could get her to work with us.

The woman's eyes widened fractionally. Clearly not expecting this strange human to speak tymerian. She seemed to consider for several seconds before responding. “Tymer, jero nok?”

“...Yes I... understand. Xortov. Niko. Nee? Neeo kree?” He slowly lowered his rifle before gesturing for us to do the same, before reaching into his leg pouch and pulling out two nutrient bars and gesturing for the woman to take them.

The woman seemed to not be expecting this and hesitantly took them before nodding vigorously to Iceman. Before gesturing down the passageway and making a series of hand jesters. The woman then touched a hand to his arm forearm and he curled index, middle finger and thumb into a claw before touching them to the lip of his buckets jaw. “Alright we'll be back as soon as we can ma'am. Thank you.”

“No thank you lord.” The woman says before turning and rushing into the room.

“20s what was that about?” Hijack asks sweeping his weapon low and training it on the passageway behind us. “She said that the masters were mostly out on the station and pointed us in the direction of the collar controller. She seems to think that it will be heavily guarded with the ship docked “

“That would make sense. If the slaves were going to revault it would make sense to do it somewhere that would actually matter. After all how many of them can operate a star ship? Not many i’d reckon.” Rook says before gesturing us forward.

As we crossed the deck we slowly began to see more and more slaves around. Either going about their regular duties or whatever it is slaves do when not working. We got several startled glances and several approving nodes and gestures as we advanced before finally exiting the slum and entering the final stretch.

“Hijack, blast that door.”

“On it boss.” Crouch walking forward I slid blast tape over the hatch see me and took a step back. “So twentys word on the comm in that you proposed to that snake of yours.”

“I wouldn't really call it a proposal… more of a suggestion really.” Fallon said stacking on the door behind me. He checked his rifles charge pack and slapped at the side of the weapon, “Damn crystals out of alignment, need to replace it.”

“Here I have a spare, so your in love with a lizard? What's that like?” I'll be honest my curiosity was peaked. I had to know what it was like. Especially since i myself had my eyes on a tymerian who was part of our moth teams mech crew.

“Not gonna lie it's a little weird. They cant regulate their body heat for one since they're cold blooded. Plus she's kind of grabby.” He slid his weapons casing off before taking the slagged crystal out and tossing it over his shoulder.

“Why the hell would anyone want to marry a piece of shit like you?” Big Dog asked his deep voice coming over the channel at the same time he stacked up behind twentys. “Set.”

“Breaching.” There is a CRUMP as the door explodes open and we rush into the room. There a flash of scales to our left and I turn to see a tymerian leveling a shotgun towards us.

I turned my gun on the lizard and pulled the trigger but I wasn't fast enough. The sound of the UEC shotguns report echoed through the room as we burned the lizard down with our blasters and Fallon flopped to the deck.

“Oopah! Fuck fuck, I need a trauma kit!” I said rushing forward as we moved to clear the room with extreme prejudice. We found several techs and when we opened the door to some kind or conference room we found about four UEC soldiers in various states of unpreparedness.

The soldiers surrendered almost immediately but as we were in a vengeful mood we didn't give them the time of day. Crimson bolts flashed from our N-4s ventilating them I dragged Fallon up and onto the table while Rook flipped the switch deactivating the collar controls.

“APEX actual to nearest dropship, I need a fucken casevac now!... What the fuck! You fucken desk jockey!”

His breastplate was a ruin, bits of ceramic, and Sandalphon impervisteal flaked off of his armor as he struggled to look at the wound. Blood oozed from Icemans chest as he groped weakly at my armor as I slapped a trauma pack onto his chest. “Come on Iceman stop moving around so much.”

“I..I can't fucken bre-breath!”

“We've got movement six o'clock fifty meters!”

“Suppress! Hijack how bad is he?” Down the hall I heard Big Dog shout something as he and Wraith began firing on something

“Fuck, his right lung is collapsed, and his left is filling with blood i need to perform a thoracentesis. His heart looks fine the nanites seem to have protected that at least.” I said as Rook and I removed Iceman's chestplate. “O-oh fuck m-man! What the fuck man!?”

“Iceman look at me, look at me Ice it aint shit trooper. Look at me.” Rook said as he hunched over the wounded moth and took his helmet off where it thunked on the deck.

Taking the chance I dug around in my mecal bag and applied a liberal amount of quick clot. Before taking a pressure needle and slamming it into his chest, instantly blood started to ooze from the needle as it was drained from his lung.

“Come on Ice look at me…” Fallon had a look on his face i had never seen before as Rook cradled his head in his hands with blood running from his mouth. “...It aint shit Ice.”

“I-I want my mom Rook. I want my mom man.”

“I know Ice, hey I news from the Gally man she's on the way. Just stay with me trooper.”

Outside the firing stopped and the sound of rushing boots met our ears. “We need to move. We pushed em back but I don't know for how long.” Big Dog said rushing into the room.

“We can't fucking move him!” I yelled mashing both hands down to try to stop the bleeding. “Well we can't fucking stay here!”

As we argued I felt something press itself into my hand. Looking down I saw it was a picture of a woman with two kids who looked early like younger versions of Fallon and his friend that NE pilot, and a glossy ruby scale. I didn't need to know where he had gotten that from.

When I looked up he had the most intense look in his eyes I'd ever seen in a man. “Go get the data. I'll keep em off your backs.”

“What the fuck are you talking about Fallon.” Harris said coming over to the table and looking down at him. “I-I mean what I said. I'll slow em down for you koyo.”

“What are you planning Ice? You aint gonna do ahit in your condition.” Rook asked in a neutral tone. “I'll do more than I will if you guys drag my ass around. I im gonna keep em from turning... the collars back on. Then i'm gonna KTF.”

“...Oopah! Fine, Hijack get him as stable as you can. Everyone else let's get ready to move." With that we helped him to the main room and secured his bucket before Rook snatched his tags.

Behind us we heard the distant sound if blaster fire as we moved across the deck to the target room. And when we finally killed our way to the data storage room we heard the distinct double explosion of a fragger detonation. The explosion was much larger than it should have been, so he must have detonated every fragger he had left on his rig.

‘Well that's one way to keep someone from using a console i guess.’ I thought to myself when I felt the deck shake from the concussion.

We finally had the data locked down and stored in a data storage drive and backed up in our armors computers we moved back to the airlock. When we moved back to the passageway we left fallon in it was a bloodbath. There were blaster marks on the bulkheads and dead burning bodies outside of the door leading to what was left of the collar control room.

“Damn, thats some serious KTF if I've ever seen it. He fucked them up” Big Dog said as he and Amp peered into the room.

As we passed I took a glance inside myself out of some kind of morbid curiosity. He had indeed done quite a number on the UEC troops that had come to reactivate the collars. Even now as we climbed back into another airlock we could hear the sounds of the slaves revolting throughout the ship.

We had pulled ourselves out of the airlock and out on the hull when Rook spoke up. “Alright guys basics are hung up at the uuugh command key whatever that is. On the station. They are locked in a pitched firefight with the resistance providing support. But it looks like the UEC held their heavy troops in reserve. Were being redirected let's move.”

When my loves kill team returned with the horrible news of his death I found myself in a daze. At first she had thought it was another human idiom she did not understand. But when the one called Hijack had given Miiora the heart scale she had given to her suitor and the picture he had kept in his breast pocket a pit had formed itself in my heart.

And as the 5th and the MOTH kill team moved through the station to the rallypoint outside of the UECs command key she had been in a daze the entire time. It felt like someone had taken my heart and torn it to pieces. Her immovable rock had been swept away by the tides and she had been unable to stop it. Worse she hadn't even been there in his final moments.

However the knowledge that he had spent those moments denying the egg stealing UEC access to their slave collars did give her a kind of peace. But that had not stopped the tears from fogging her helmets visor slightly nor saved the next UEC soldier that had the misfortune of crossing their path.

I had shifted my joints and rushed the human in a blind grief fueled rage. The impact of our collision sent the my helmet spiraling into the wall and sunk my hornes deep into the Male's stomach. As I clawed and wrent his weak flesh I couldn't help but remember that it had been a human like this that had caused her mate so much pain in the recent past.

When the human drew his knife and attempted both stab and kick me off I wrapped my tail up and around to constrict the offending limbs. Around me I could hear shouts and the belching and odd bursting reports of my squads weapons as they gunned down the humans allies. But I was to focused on killing the human below me. I heard the bones in his arm and right leg crack and crunch as I crushed and powdered them with my tail before I opened my maw wide as he screamed.

She unhinges her jaw and extended her fangs before sunk them deep into the humans neck. My three inch fangs injected venom into the human and as he struggled in agony as his veins began to solidify before dissolving. Through a tear filled eye I saw the humans unruined fist heading for my snout and I let out a deep guttural hiss before snapping my leg up, impaling the arm with one of my claws and pinning it to the wall.

The humans screams slowly turned to whimpers and as I worked my fangs and smaller one inch teeth in deeper. There was a choking gasp as the human spasmed and I flicked my right hands claw across the humans abdomen spilling his steaming innards out onto the deck as he died.

“Come sister, the human is dead.” A calming voice called out through the haze bringing me out of my sorrow filled haze. A hand grasped me gently around the neck and I let the dead human lose too slump to the ground.

When I turned and saw it was my brother and I hissed at him as he stood with his blazer staff. As I backpedaled to retrieve my fallen helmet never taking my eyes off of him. Bra'tac had been there, party to the torture of Avery Fallon on Tearus at the hands of supreme commander Rarity.

Several hours later, by the time we finally made it to the rallypoint I had cooled slightly but the grief was almost unbearable. Thankfully the others in our group had chosen to give me the space I needed. In fact several times they seemed to flinch back as I hissed at them when they drew to near.

All save for Durge the stoic Zaltule w
Warrior, Veteran Watkins my basic training Corporal instructor who had taken command of Snow Viper in my suiters place. And My Suitor's kill team who seemed to close ranks around me but not speaking.

Around us the other members of the spaceborn infantry assault clustered and I knew we were unlikely to be able to move from this point. There were several groups of ACM fighters scurrying about in various forms of armor and carrying different looted weapons.

A sorrow filled whale filled the net as Charlotte's gungnir-2 made wild strafing runs overhead. But the command key must have harnessed all of their remaining unicorns to deploy and sustain the shield they had up. As it stood no one could land a direct hit on the building and any considered infantry rush was thwarted by the troop of adult dragons on station inside of the shield.

Already those dragons had laid waste to an entire platoon of Spaceborne Infantry marines as well as several rushes performed by the ACM. And to make matters worse it appeared that the UEC were amazing their troops behind the shield and getting ready for a breakout push.

At the head of the dragons behind the shield was a black scaled elder dragon. His wings were leathery and covered in ripps and his hide crossed by deep scars. This dragon was well known to the continent of marines and from the manitoba and her original taskforce 21.

This drake had been present during the siege of bagmare and had personally killed several squads of trooper and several mechs. Unfortunately his being here meant that his mental engram was backed up somewhere in the UEC, so when he died he would most likely revive at the closest friendly resurrection machine.

An echoing agonizingly loud chirp came from farther along the road and I turned my head to see a clutch of four wendigo rush a dragon that had foolishly exited the shield to fire its weapon. The four eggshell colored beasts piled onto the drake, dragging it down to the street before tearing it to pieces.

“What do you mean there coming from the south? Their Main force is to the east I'm looking at them…. are you sure?” Fick began before closing his visor and walking off with Gunnery sergeant Perkins at his side.

Beside us Veteran Sugar Watkins “Alright people looks like we're about to have some unwanted guests. Trombley, Garza, Durge get those guns up. Scales, Levoy, mark targets for those guns, Forbes, Bra'tac we're on…”

“HERE THEY COME!”