My eyes scanned the tunnel as my manapul pressed farther into the mountain. Suddenly a swirling ball of salmon colored magic came sailing towards us, illuminating the dark passage as it went. Snapping my arm out I fired my grapple feeling the bit bight into the stone before locking and pulling me out of the way with a violent yank.

Slamming spikes first into the wall I watched the magical projectile sail past my manapul who each manage to hug the wall or dodge out of the way. Nodding to myself I switch my helmets vision mode to ultraviolet revealing a group of six concealed changelings, their carapace glowing a pale yellowish white.

With a raur I released the grapple and leaped free of the wall. Bringing my sword around in a mighty punching stab I feel it's enchanted edge bite into the closest changeling's chest. She went limp as she was impaled to the ground. With a snap I bring my rifle up and fire the earther weapon one handed toward another changeling, a praetorian.

The M-66 bucks in my hand releasing its hoarse report as I stitch a line of flechettes up the males chest. Behind me there one of the beasts lets out a gurgled hiss as it is impaled on Hir'kell's blazer staff. The beast fights weakly before with an effortless yank my second pulles the weapon up and out of the infiltrators abdomen bisecting the creature in a shower of green blood.

The remaining three regrouped and raised their weapons in time for a hail of gunfire to rack their bodys. They jerked back and forth like puppets before their strings were cut and they fell to the ground in bloody heaps.

With a wave of a hand, three of the tymerians in my manapul hefted their rifles and sprinted forward hunched low with their tails trailing behind them like the raptors of earth's past farther into the caverns.

The sound of gunfire rose from the passage, and the blue flashes of condenser rifles came to meet them. Nodding to Hir'kell I checked my wrist computer to check on the progress of the assault.

Many of the tunnels have been cleared leaving only the main central chamber. As I tracked my pupils across the individual cubes representing the various manipuls under my command my HUD flashed with green ready lights.

“All mamapuls ready for final push. Serpent manapul, you will move with the tanks and keep them unmolested. Tanks fire incendiary charges into the chamber, this will drive them from their positions and into the open, as their kind instinctively fear fire. Remaining manapuls hold and move forward on my signal. We mustn't allow over queen Calliphora to escape.” I said receiving another wave of green affirmatives from the manapul leaders.

“Serpents forward.” I said camly before switching four of my left eyes visual feeds to one of the serpents as they moved forward.

The Serpents are a new design of vehicle designed in recent months to combat the earthers mechs. Reverse engineered from stolen UAF siafu mech designs by supreme commander Rarity and princess Twilight.

Magic based weapons, and enhanced speed and flexibility allow for the mechs to be superior to their original UAFCOG designs. But still the machines possessed several flaws, flaws the NAC’s ATLAS, and NE's Gungnir do not lack. Flaws that despite my warnings have been ignored by many of my fellow supreme commanders, and the council of royals have gone ignored.

The machines are to fast for starters and simply lacked any reliability. On top of this the machines simply could not walk, instead they were propelled by four slick wheels with two in each ankle like a roller skate. These wheels would constantly get stuck or jammed, and the overly engineered joints and actuators were too large prone to failing under stress.

To compound it all the machines had zero sense of balance, instead they relied on a tail that hung down from behind the chest of the machine to act as a kind if counter wait. And finally comes the “clincher” as the earthers say, with the death of Casper Williams, and his slave mate Min'baku the machines lack any truly skilled pilots, nor the means to train them. As it stands only nine of the original thirty Serpent pilots trained by Casper and Min'Baku still live.

‘But they are all I have so I will make do.’

On the pad I watched expanding rings beginning to bloom into existence among the amassed ACM troops and old breen changelings. And from the cavern mouth we could hear screams and shouts before cannon began to echo down the tunnel. Then as the smoke started to waft up and intonour caverns I gave the order. “Secondary manapuls hold for five units then move in. Tertiaries move in at fifteen...”

I changed the magazine on my rifle and hefted the weapon. “Primaries begin the assault. For the conclave... For Keshol!"

https://youtu.be/f86GM-17s-g

We charged, with myself and my brother zaltule at the head of our spear formation. Tossing two kleese plasma grenades with my two free hands I turned four changelings to a fine puree before we burst through a and unto the vast central chamber.

The chamber was massive almost a kilometer in diameter, with pods if glowing pinkish white eggs lining various divots in the ground. Towards the center of the chamber a vast swath of the ground was a blaze and I could see the silhouettes of two serpents through the flames, sending bolts of orange magic into confused changelings. The bolts bursts from their weapons exploding into wispy bursts of particles.

Another shell sailed from one of the chamber entrances and burst against a centralized structure of crystalized changeling secretions. Then as I watched the tanks began to wheel down the slope as two hundred kleese from the worker and zaltule cast began sliding down.

Leveling my rifle I fired into a particularly large group of changelings that appeared to be rallying near a rock formation. The tungsten nails slammed through their primitive armor, shredding their exoskeletons and the organs beneath.

A flashing threat icon drew my attention and I swiveled a pupil to see a changeling tank turing its turret in my direction. snapping a grapple line to the side as we slid down the steep hill I swung to the left avoiding the blazing green ball of magical energy as it slammed into the cavern wall.

Retracting the line I opened a channel to the light troops. “Lights move in, eliminate the hostile armor.”

Raspy affirmatives came in and all along the hill I began to see my light troops burst from the cloud kicked up by the kleese advance. The pegasus, gryphons, and neochangelings flew low to the ground sweeping their rifles across the changelings. This served two purposes, first it threw off the enemy line forcing them to tear their attention from my warriors, and two drawing at least a third of the changelings into an aerial battle against their equestrian counterparts.

On the ground however the second part of the lights cohort burst past my position. To my right I watched a human on a rapid attack speeder explode past passing a meer two feet from me. As he moved the two machine guns on either side of the vehicle barked their reports, before four tymerians flew past him forming a phalanx around the vehicle.

My sight seeing was cut off as the terrain leveled off and I broke out into a full sprint. My four legs clicked as my armors plates slide against one another. What followed was a blur of blood, screams and vicious close combat.

Hir'kell found his way to my side in the melee, and together we rallied our kleese brothers to our position, before thrusting the spear tip of our assault into the heart of the enemy's line.

When the ACM and changeling lines broke they rallied to their leaders side. The changeling queen Calliphora had exploded from her vial castle and into our ranks.

“Come scum! I have sat behind my lines long enough!” she seems to rush to cover and rally any changelings near her “for the hive!”

I swiveled a pupil in her direction as I finished off her heir. The changeling princess gurgled once as I withdraw my blade from her torso with a twist. Before tossing her twitching corpse into the dirt at my side. “Like the rest of your race, weak, and inferior.”

“Bastard.. At least i am FREE..while you remain a slave, blind to the truth” she draws a rune scimitar. “And you will only see it too late” her muscles tense up ready to engage

“The Lunar princess has seen fit to spare my homes last city. We have served the UEC since the beginning, and we will continue to serve and expand the reach of the kleese empire far after your kind are gone.” I responded turning my whine body to face her before activating the runeic edge on my own sword.

“If you truly believe that.. Then words are useless” her eyes gain a sharp eige “Just remember these words, one day they shall betray you.” she charged in, quick as a flash “And you will find the tables set to zero!”

Side stepping I stitch a like of flechettes across her body attempting to end the fight quickly, only for her to raise a salmon colored shield at the last second absorbing the shots. Muttering as I am forced onto the defensive I fix the rifle to the magnetons on my abdomen and pull my second sword from its holster on my thorax.

“Kretek!” The weapon snaps out, folding into its shape before locking into place.

She quickly recovers and tries to get around me “the UEC is destined to ruin everything!”

“The UEC is the only way for my people to survive! You should be grateful beast, were it not for them. The kleese empire would have erased your pitiful hives from the stars long ago.” I said pivoting around to face her, keeping my swords at the ready. From my second right eye I could see Hir'kell stalking into a better position with his blaze staff held low.

“But we would have died fighting!” she quickly shoots a dart of magic at hir’kell before creating a blinding light “unlike you who became the toy of the lunar bitch!”

“Hold your tongue, beast. Lest I cut it from your skull. The lunar goddess has blessed me with a purpose again, unlike the rest of the council, she sees the merit in having true warriors at her side. Unlike your kind who surround themselves with pitiful imitations.”

“Second, are you injured?” I inquired over our secure manapul channel. “I will live, supreme commander.”

She quickly dashes in with a horizontal slash trying to use the light as cover “show me your so called ‘merit’ here and now!”

Bringing my top left arm around I parried the blow before using the lower arm to uppercut her in the stomach. Her armor buckled and cracked as I brought my lower right down and slammed her into the ground. “Is this the best the over queen of the Necropolis hive can do? The humans are better warriors than you, and they lack any of the added strengths provided to every other race.”

“Gha!” she crys out rolling away and hopping up “then maybe they will see the promised throne..” she returns to her ready stance glaring at me “i know my end nears..” she fires off a barrage of small magic bolt “but i shall leave my mark!”

The bolts slammed against my armor, blasting scorch marks into its surface before I was able to raise my barrier. On instinct I thrust my arm out and grappled over to a large rock. Using it as a shelter from the barrage I activated my armors camouflage.

The armors surface began to warp and twist as photo reflective panels came to life giving my a kind of adaptive camouflage. Not entirely dissimilar to that used on the COGs HEBA bug suits.

“So now you hide!?” she fires a strong magic blast at my cover “where is your honor?! Maybe my vision WILL come true..”

Through a great force of will, I do not rise to her challenge and instead stalk my way around to the side where one of my fallen brothers lies. With a quickly motion I pick up his blazer staff and diel its aperture to its narrowest setting and throw the weapon at her. Hearing the distinct crackle of charged particles she turned in time to see the blue white force blade sear through her horn. With my primary threat eliminated I unlimnerd my rifle and stitched a line of flechettes across her left wing bringing her down.

“Ahhh!!” she falls to one knee from the hit “damned coward..” she quickly gets back up and charges at me rage filling her eyes. “You truly are a craven toy for that lunar whore!”

“There is no, honor in defeat wench.” When she reached my position, I blocked her blow, and barred down on her. Her diminutive five foot six frame proving to be no match for my nine foot and six hundred pound mass.

Almost immediately her sword arm buckled under the strain and she tried to to dance away. Unfortunately she seemed to have forgotten the key rule in combating a kleese. Never get close, so as she moved I snatched an arm out and grasped her by the maine and pulled her in before crushing her sword arm with my other free hand.

“Aaahhh!” she tries to kick me only to give up as her stamina runs out “so, this is how my hive end.. At least i know that karma shall come to pass..” she shoots me a weak smile “let me share..my vision..as the defeated..”

“Then speak beast. As you fought honorably I owe you that much.” I said holstering the sword in my left hand and shifting my grip from her maine to her throat.

“I see worlds burning.. Moons ripped asunder against a mighty foe.” her breathing seems to slow down in my grip “your world..equis..and many other homeworlds..turned to ash.. As one..race takes..it place..on a throne..” she puts a weak hand on my arm with a small smile “but it will not be alone..”

“I know not..what it will be.. But it.. Will not be..a princess..” her breaths become shallow “for.. I saw their horns..broken upon the ground.. And wings bent gruesomely..” i can see her eyes slowly close “and you.. A broken being.. Left alone to suffer.. Shunned.. By.. all..” her eyes close as her last breath leaves her body.

With a grunt I thrust my sword through her chest before tossing her aside. “The queen has been slain. And once again we have proven that none are greater than the Sixth fleet!” Thrusting my sword into the air a cheer went up through my troops.

Pitbull, Snow Viper, and the Amplifiers crawled low through the brush to an elevated position overlooking a clearing. Down below us roughly sixty recruits walked in a staggered line, talking and joking around with one another.

“On hijack’s shot.” I called out, resting my N-4 on a rock. A shot rang out to my right, the crimson bolt of supercharged energy seared into the chest of a basic lieutenant. “Light em up. K.T.F.”

Instantly the crowded of recruits changed from a poorly managed unit into an unorganized mob. Like chickens with their heads cut off they ran every which way as we fired on their position. In moments the entire first rank of the recruits line were cut down.

Down below several recruits attempted to rally the others with varying degrees of… “success”. One such group of recruits roughly five of them had formed a small fireteam and returned fire in the direction they believed the fire was coming from.

Unfortunately their six o'clock was not where we were, and they were promptly blown to pieces by four grenades from the kleese's mark 21. Another group with Fallons government assigned girlfriend at its head was actually properly engaged until a blaster bolt from her sort of boyfriend slammed through her chest. She crumpled to the ground like a dropped sack before a fragger sailed over the recruits heads, bounced once and detonated with a violent cru-CRUMP!

The double explosion sent shrapnel flying in every direction shredding the recruits light armor and their flesh. With a signal from Wraith our kill team who have better weapons than the basics we command, stood to a crouch. I reached into a pouch on my thigh and pulled out a cylindrical device. With a twist I activated it, waited for the light to turn green and hurled it into the air.

The smart grenade beeped once in my HUD before a small motor sent it sailing into the nearest group of cowering recruits. Around me my moth brothers were doing the same, sending their own smart grenades up and letting the relatively dumb AI brains select targets. As soon as the final grenade hit the dirt they all exploded.

Body parts, blood, and other unsavory things flopped down all around us as we ordered our respective squads to push into the group of survivors to finish them off. They were a sorry sight those who hadn't died in the explosion were either dazed or dismembered in some fashion. We picked them off with almost zero effort.

Two recruits proved to be a hassle however. One my HUD marked as recruit Amethyst Spark, stood and fired her side arm at Fallon. The android beside him however had other plans. Levoy who was beside him moved to inter space himself between her and Fallon, opting to take the small flechettes full in the chest.

The rounds bit into his lightish armor and whitish blue blood seeped from his wounds, but he still stood. This seemed to startle the sultry recruit and as she fumbled a reload he closed the distance, picked her up and hurled her into a tree. There was a sickening crunch as the back of her neck met the wood and she flopped down in a heap with a broken neck.

Another recruit, by the name of Leaf Shadow had the extremely bad luck of revealing himself within arms reach of Durge. In one swift motion the zaltule snatched two arms out and tore the stallion in half. But here's the fun part, the wesley bastard had pulled the on an old fashioned UEC grenade he had on his webbing and when he died his now limp hand let the trigger go and the two of them disappeared in a short but violent explosion.

“Woah! That guy was a badass.” Hijack called out and I was inclined to agree. But that seemed to be the end of it until I heard the distinct sound if a shotgun being racked.

Turning I came face to face with another recruit. He was a tall beanpole of guy who stood around six six. My HUD marked him as recruit McGill, he eyed me and I eyed him in return. He held a shotgun in his hands, not one of the UEC shotguns mind you, no he held an honest to god COG shotgun. One of the big auto shotguns that fired eight gauge flachettes.

“Well I be…” That's all I got out, before McGill shot me in the chest. The flechettes tore through my armor, and I was dead before I hit the dirt.

When I finally climbed out of my sim pod I was mad. No furious would be a more apt turm for my current temperament. That bastard shot me before I could even get a word in edgewise but at the same time I held a kind of begrudging respect for the man. He knew I would have laid his ass out before he could react, so he took the initiative, and KTFed me.

Then came the laughing, high and low my fellow MOTH brothers didn't let me forget the fact that I had just been killed in a god damn training sim. The humiliation is supreme and the jokes at my expense are entirely justified.

“Hahaha, you are the worst! You fucking suck! Oh my god. I thought you were gonna do something not just sit there and take it!” Hijack laughed, hanging down and slapping a hand against his knee.

“That's just embarrassing.” Amp laughed leaning on a pod for support. Even Fallon stood their shoulders shaking as he tried poorly to hold in a laugh.

“Calm down guys, the recruits are coming out.” Wraith said between laughs.

It wasn't that he didn't trust her. Gusty had proven herself when they escaped. She had no love for her kind, and in a strange way she wanted to see them accept their eventual end.

Regardless there wasn't a reason to worry about the Equestrian as she neared the machine he was working on. He watched as her horn glowed, and after a moment her muscles seemed to become more defined. He watched as she began to match what he was doing, and then she began to slowly surpass him.

Avery felt the prick of competitiveness as it awoke in him. He began to match her, pound for pound, until both of them had maxed out the machines. Once that happened the two of them stopped. Gusty's horn glowed once more and he watched as her body became that of a more feminine figure. Her yoga pants and sports bra certainly showed the excellent shape the Equestrian Sergeant was in.

"Want to talk about it?"

He looked at her, and shook his head. “... I don't know.”

She leaned against the wall eyeing him side long, as he took a drink from water bulb. As he did he could taste the almost chalky metallics of the nanites in his blood as he had cut his mouth recently. "It's not easy. I know that."

"I suppose you would."

She laughed, the sound was mirthless, "More than most. A good deal of the others simply don't remember anything between being revived," she moved around to him, looking him in the eyes, "But I get a front row seat to what my kind gets to look forward to after all of this ends."

She stretched, "I get to remember everything, and I know how hard it is to deal with the fact that you were dead. Your body was destroyed, broken, and there's no way it should be together, but instead you're alive, well, and for the most part you can't really process it."

She sat down, her eye contact never wavering, "It doesn't get easier. There is no magic spell that makes you forget about it. You either become an unfeeling, uncaring, sociopathic little thing, or you force yourself to find something worth going on for."

Avery smiled, "What's your reason?"

She grinned, "A nice man I've met. We both enjoy talking, and neither of us are against a causal romp. I'm fine with letting him experiment, and he's fine with me returning the favor. It's nice to find someone that I can be myself with," she smiled at him, "and you've got someone like that too Avery. You have got Miiora, but that doesn't mean that your reason is the same as mine. It can be sure, or you could be like Firefly."

He looked confused. She shrugged forgetting for a moment that she was speeking to a human that was not born in the UEC.

"Long before Luna and Celestia. Firefly was a Pegasus, very hot headed, and she had the most uncanny luck to survive. We were defending our home from a group of dangerous beings when she was brought down by a spear," she laughed again

“she survived, regained the ability to fly, but it wasn't enough for her. She wanted payment back in blood. She was the first out on guard duty, the first to attack, but it was never enough. It was years later, when she had gotten too old, too weak, that she confessed that what kept her going was wanting revenge. For a Pegasus to be grounded is almost the same as taking away who they are. It's a fundamental part of who they are, and without it they're lost. She might have only been wounded, grounded, but in way it almost as if she had died and then was reborn."

Avery looked at her, "Did she get her revenge?"

Gusty nodded, "Compounded several times over, but it wasn't enough. Her last words was that she was empty," Gusty got up, and swished her tail, "I'm not your mama, and I won't try to tell you what to do, but I will suggest that you don't follow her example. She might have been loyal, but Firefly couldn't ever really get past what had happened to her."

Avery nodded slightly his eyes flashing slightly as he used his implant to record the story, "Are you past it?”

Gusty shrugged before turning to leave, "I'm living with it. That's about all anyone can do really."

I groaned, leaning against the wall, feeling the bite of death. It was the same as ever, and I waited. I waited for the damned bastard to appear, to inform me of what I would never obtain. He didn't fail, and there he was. His black robes gave the illusion of him simply floating, but that wasn't the case. No, I knew that his lich like body was walking silently toward me. He came to rest, his hand griping the bell that was once the source of his power.

"Enjoying my gift?"

I spat at him, "As much as ever."

He laughed, his voice sounding like crackled and old, and I watched as he knelt down near me, "The humans, they're trying to contact me. To employ my gifts. Tell me, what would billions be like to the lord of Tartarus?"

I closed my eyes, "You can't."

He laughed, "Of course I can. I can give them immortality, give them the ability to defeat your kind, but you will never perish. No, with that other wrench having the same gift you'll simply continue to be," he laughed again, "And i'll have an army that will bring all into my fold."

I tried to move only to feel my body betray me. I growled at him, and soon I felt myself lifting into the air,

"We've got a few minutes, and you've forgotten your place. Perhaps a reminder is in order?"

It stepped into the room, and I felt my blood run cold. It was pony only in the most basic of shapes. It's dark form made from the collection of necromatic flesh gathered over the years, but that wasn't what frightened me. It was the most basic sadistic drive it had. Every horrible part of my species was inside of it, and It strolled toward me. I felt it lean me forward, I cried out, not able to hold in the terror as I felt the horror grab my coat. It pulled and I felt my skin tearing.

"Remember your place, or otherwise each time you come here, our mutual friend will be waiting."

In the ready room the pilots of Valkyrie, Razgriz, and black knights squadrons sat around talking to one another before the CAG Eagle walked in and onto the dais.

“Okay thank you for coming… As you all know our supply situation is getting grim.” He said before leaning in into the table and fiddling with the various controls.

“Our air supply is being replenished by the station as we speak, as are some of our food stores, but the water in our ships fuel tanks and potables are in the red. On top of that the amount of fuel for our fighters is dangerously low, seeing as how we weren't able to resupply after Tearus.” The colonel paused then letting the news sink in.

“To remedy this the fleet will be jumping to another system with the help of the navigational data the ground pounders managed to acquire. This is the system in question, we are calling HP-696 With a supply station stationed in the orbit of its third planet. The generals plan is to jump Galactica into the orbit of this gas giant to shield our emissions.” His voice trailed off slightly as he adjusted the tactical display zoomed out to show the system in question.

“The system we are going to has two stars. A red giant and a sol like type k star. four rocky planets, and two gas giants. As well as four Alcubierre nodes spaced around the system, two at the ecliptic, one between the orbit of the third and fourth planets, and one at the far end of the system's orbit..” He said gesturing to the various celestial bodies in the system.

“Upon arrival Galactica will deploy one if its two ghost ships to scout the system. Defiant will disengage from gally and engage ita stealth before making another jump here, to fourth planet in the chain. And the one nearest to the station…. This is where we come in.” Eagle typed several commands into the panel and the image swiveled to show a blue silhouette of the Defiant.

“The black knights, Valkyrie, and Razgriz squadrons will disengage from the Defiant along with. A single wing of Flayed fighters will be fitted with special relays and will act as our communications satellites. If anyone detects hostiles in the mission area they are to maneuver into tight beam range of one of the flayed and beam a message to the Defiant. From there we will all regroup and return to the Defiant, and advance to the station where the MOTHs will secure the CIC and send an all clear signal to fool any hostile ships….”

“From there the manitoba will jump into the planetary system and secure the area around the planets space elevator where in the Galactica will move into position and begin a refueling operation. That is where we will come back into play the gally won't be able to maneuver while docked and so we will be working closely with mech teams on the hull to coordinate the defence while they hook up the necessary equipment and protect the cables. Any questions?... good, we deploy in twelve hours, good luck, and good hunting.”