Cotton rested the back of her head against the wall and stared at the ceiling blankly. Deep down she had always felt this day would come, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. She sighed. "I can't believe it's finally happening. Who knows how many of these poor sods are actually going to make it out alive." Cotton draped a foreleg over her eyes. "Dear Celestia, this is a disaster." She heard the doors to the bridge open as more of the crew filed in. She had expected most of them to bail and hide on a DropShip so she was surprised every time another pony walked in.

"What will the crew think, seeing their leader cry in the back of the room like this? It doesn't exactly instill confidence," she heard a painfully familiar voice say.

Cotton moved her hoof to see Obsidian standing above her, flanked by Hazelnut. While Obsidian was smiling at her she could easily tell all he wanted to do was break down in a corner somewhere. As much as losing Slate devastated her she knew he would be much worse off.

"You know, you almost sound like him when you're not yelling or hoarse," she said with a smile. "If only we could do something about that personality of yours."

Obsidian let out a small chuckle despite the situation. "You mean my charm? You and Hazelnut would be lost without it."

Cotton shook her head. "I'm sure we would." She glanced at the doors as another pony walked through and headed to their console. "What are you two doing here? You should be on your DropShip. We're about to jump."

"You didn't think we'd leave without saying goodbye, did you?" Obsidian said. He sighed. "It's nice to actually have time for something like this. There's so much I wish I could have said, before..."

Cotton nodded. "I know what you mean." Losing somepony that close to you in the blink of an eye was a horrible feeling. The four of them had been extremely close, and while she had expected Slate's sense of duty to get him killed before any of the others she hadn't thought it would happen so soon. They weren't romantically attached; Cotton loved each of them equally. Though, she couldn't really call them family either, considering they'd each fucked her at least half a dozen times in their twenty-two years of living. She scratched the back of her head. "Probably not the best thing to remember your friends by," she thought awkwardly.

"Are you sure you're up for this? Obsidian or I could take your place if you want," Hazelnut said with a glance at the distant trueborn WarShip through the windows of the bridge. They probably would have begun to get suspicious with their Captain being silent for so long.

Cotton shook her head and pushed herself to her hooves. "If the others here saw me back out, they'd start to have their own doubts, too. Besides, my place is on the bridge, not the battlefield. It's my duty to go down with the Constellation. I'm ready, trust me."

Obsidian smiled sadly. "I guess we can't change your mind, then." He pulled her in for a hug with Hazelnut joining in soon after. "You always were as stubborn as a mule."

Cotton giggled softly but didn't say anything. As much as she wanted to sit there and talk with them for hours, she also felt like there wasn't much to be said. Just the final moments they were spending together was enough to convey each of their feelings and the three of them stood there silently, embraced tightly.

After a long moment, they untangled themselves and took a step back, sad but determined. "Good luck down there. Kick in a few cockpits for me," Cotton said.

Hazelnut nodded. "You got it. These casket born are going to get a nasty surprise when their DropShips land. We're not as weak as they think we are."

"Commander Cotton? The calculations for the jump are complete," a blue pegasus said, walking up to Cotton with a tablet in one hoof.

Cotton nodded to the pegasus and turned back to her friends. "I guess I'll see you guys again at some point in the future. Just try not to join me too soon, alright?"

Obsidian smiled sadly at her. "Someday. Tell Slate I love him, yeah? He probably already knew that, but I kind of regret never saying it out loud."

Cotton nodded. "Of course." Obsidian and Hazelnut gave her a quick last hug before walking out of the bridge and heading to their respective DropShips. Cotton took a deep breath and turned back to the pegasus, readying herself for the coming jump. "Good. Are they correct?"

The pegasus sighed. "I'm honestly not sure, Commander. The calculations were rushed which increased the chance of a misjump, but I don't think that's our biggest problem. A WarShip isn't meant to jump that deep into a planet's gravitational field. Even if the Constellation isn't outright destroyed, we still might die before we can release the DropShips."

She walked over to a console and docked the tablet she was carrying that displayed a map of the system they were jumping to, nicknamed 'The Stars of the Protector.' Strana was outlined and labeled, and there was a small red dot between the planet and the center of the system. "I tried to place us between Strana and its star. I'm hoping the two opposing gravitational fields will cancel out enough to keep everypony alive." The pegasus shook her head. "It's risky, Commander. Are you sure we should go through with this?"

"You don't have to call me 'Commander.' I've told you that plenty of times," Cotton said as she walked over to the pegasus. She sighed. "I don't like those odds, but it's our only option of survival." She walked over to the head of the bridge and looked out over the other ponies in the large room. It wasn't as full as it should have been for a complicated jump like this; over half the consoles had nopony seated behind them. That was all they needed though, so it would have to do.

Cotton cleared her throat. "Listen up. I know it's sudden to start Jump Zero like this, but we don't have any other choice." She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Slate is dead. He was murdered by Captain Sienna, who was in turn killed by a group of young soldiers." This elicited gasps from across the bridge. "That ship out there," she said with a nod towards the other WarShip, "is not going to be happy when they find out a bunch of freeborns killed their Captain. We either make this jump now and hope for the survival of the rest of the ponies on board, or we sit here and wait for our deaths."

The bridge was silent. Nopony spoke for a long time, all of them too shocked to react. It was a lot to take in. Slate had been the one commanding the ship for over two years, so most of the ponies who worked on the bridge knew him well. Cotton sighed internally. "I guess this is the part where Slate would give a rallying speech. Too bad I'm nothing like him," she thought wryly. "I have to say something, though."

"I know it's hard to take in, but as the crew of this vessel, we're obligated to keep the other soldiers alive, no matter what. We may have lost our commander, but that doesn't mean we can neglect our duties. If we go down, we'll do it standing up to those trueborn motherfuckers, not sniveling like a wounded dog. Any questions? Good," Cotton said without waiting for an answer. "Sorry guys, but that's about as good of a speech as I can give." She turned back to the blue pegasus. "Get those calculations into the KF drive quickly. And try to cut down on the jump time if you can. We're going to alert that other ship as soon as the jump procedure starts, and they're going to start firing at us once they've figured out what's going on."

"Aff," the pegasus said as she saluted hastily before rushing back over to her own console.

Cotton walked over to the large swiveling chair at the head of the bridge. She stopped in front of it and ran a hoof along one of the armrests, hesitating. "Slate's seat," she thought. "Is this all a mistake? Am I leading hundreds of ponies to painful deaths?"

Cotton shook her head. "It's too late to worry about that now. Either we die here, or we die at Strana. It doesn't matter where, so we might as well make a stand." Cotton pulled herself onto the seat and leaned back in it before placing her rear hooves on the railing in front of it like Slate would always do.

"Are you watching, Slate? You always feared it would come to this." Cotton glanced at the other WarShip as the KF field enveloped the Constellation and put a light haze around the ship. With any luck, they'd be on their way to Strana before suffering any severe damage. She furrowed her brow and turned back to face forward. "You won't have died in vain. Once the DropShips make it onto Strana and alert the other Clans to the treachery of our own, this war will be over, and we can rest in peace."

Hazelnut sat down in his seat and leaned back, thinking about the other ship he had seen from the bridge. "The Windigo," he thought. "A McKenna-class WarShip with enough armor and weapons to take on the Constellation twice and live to tell about it, named after the evil spirits on Terra. And it's chock-full of angry trueborn soldiers who would just as soon put a bullet through each of our skulls as even glance in our direction."

With less than a minute left before the ship leaped into hyperspace, it was surprising that the other WarShip hadn't yet begun to fire at them. Were they that disorganized without their Captain? Or had they just not considered the option that anything could go wrong, so nopony had bothered to check up on the situation? If that were the case it could be possible for them to be halfway to Strana before the crew of the Windigo even noticed they were gone.

"Hazelnut? Shouldn't you be in your cooling suit? We'll be on Strana in a couple of hours," he heard a voice behind him say. He turned to see a bright green pony ease themselves into the pilot's seat of the DropShip.

Hazelnut shook his head. "I'll change into it before we land. Somepony has to tell whoever's close to where we're landing on Strana that we're not hostile, but the ones following us are. I figured Obsidian shouldn't be the one to do it, making me the only Star Commander left for the job."

The pilot nodded. "Good point."

Thirty seconds until jump.

They sat there in silence and gripped their seats tightly. Obsidian would have been on his own DropShip by now, probably taking the time to properly mourn his brother in private. They had loaded Slate's body onto the Tub of Lard and had hoped to be able to bury him on Strana. Hazelnut smiled sadly to himself. "No better place to be buried than Strana Mechty, especially for a pony like him."

Akin to an ancestral home passed down through a family for generations, Strana was an important place for the Clans. It was the first planet the six original Clans had fled to, battered and bruised from their first war with the Inner Sphere. Since this would give every Clan a claim to ownership of the planet the Khans decided it should instead be declared neutral territory, becoming home to many wartime production facilities. Most of the new Clans took their names from wildlife on Strana, much like the original Clans did with creatures from Terra.

Hazelnut frowned. If their Khan had decided to attack Strana, there had to be a reason. It was ritual suicide to launch an invasion on a place so sacred to all the Clans, so why do it? He scratched his chin as a dark theory came to mind. "Our Khan knows deep down the war is lost, so I suppose his twisted mind doesn't care about how soon it happens. He only wants to inflict as much damage as possible before the Clan falls.

"What if... what if the Khans from other Clans are meeting on Strana during our scheduled attack? We weren't the only ship involved in the plan, and the other ships were supposed to destroy sites controlled by other Clans. We were the only ones set to attack a Clan Wolf installation. If their Khan is there, that would explain why we were given explicit instructions to kill everypony on site. Were we really supposed to murder the Khans of other Clans? Of all the dishonorable things..." Hazelnut shook his head. It made sense. He couldn't think of any other reason their Khan would attack Strana like this. There was nothing else to gain from such a thing.

Twenty seconds until jump.

The green pony glanced over at Hazelnut. "Hey, do you really think that other ship is going to follow us?"

Hazelnut nodded. "I'm sure of it. If my theory about the attack we had planned was correct, they'll do anything in their power to keep us from making it to Strana. Once they figure out we've left, of course. If they haven't started firing at us yet, they must not have noticed we're about to jump. I can imagine the looks on their faces when they realize we're lightyears away, along with their Captain. They'll probably figure out the smartest place for us to head is Strana, and they'll be hot on our tails as soon as they come up with the equations for the jump."

Ten seconds until jump.

"That's concerning, but comforting at the same time." The pilot faced forwards again and clutched the edges of his seat tighter.

"Well, I guess none of that matters if we don't even survive the jump. I sure hope those calculations are correct," Hazelnut said, shifting nervously in his seat. The other pony shot him a terrified look but said nothing. Not that Hazelnut could have heard him over the ship's robotic voice counting down, anyway.

Five seconds until jump.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Initiating jump.

Hazelnut felt a familiar twisting in his stomach as the ship entered hyperspace. The low odds of an error during a standard jump never bothered him, but in a situation like this, he'd have to be insane to not be afraid. Well, insane or Obsidian. Not that there was much of a difference.

The seconds ticked by and the nauseating effects of the jump began to bear down on Hazelnut. "Normally it isn't this bad. Is it the effect of a misjump or is it just my mind?" he worried, gritting his teeth. His mind had started to feel like it was wading through a pool of water, which quickly changed to mud. He could barely think straight anymore. "No, this is definitely not supposed to happen. Something's going wrong. Is it a misjump? Is it the effect of Strana's gravity?" Hazelnut blinked his heavy eyes a few times as black tendrils creeped in around the edges of his vision. "This is bad. Celestia protect us..." he thought as he slipped from consciousness.

Hazelnut blinked his eyes open groggily. He could feel somepony shaking him and calling his name. "I'm alive, get yer hooves off me," he said, his words slurring together. He raised a hoof slowly to fend off the green shape that was standing in front of him. The fact that they were still alive after a jump like that was surprising to him, though maybe not entirely unexpected.

Hazelnut shook his head to try and clear the sludge from his mind. He managed to focus his eyes on the world around him and saw the pilot of the DropShip standing in front of him with his worried expression outlined by the flashing red lights visible through the glass of the cockpit. He could hear the Constellation's voice repeating itself over and over in a tone of voice he'd hoped he would never have to hear.

Hull damage catastrophic. Evacuate immediately. Hull damage catastrophic. Evacuate immediately...

He rubbed his eyes. "Do you know what's going on?"

The pony shook his head. "No word yet from the bridge. The jump just finished, so they're probably still recovering and reorganizing."

Hazelnut slid out of his seat onto unsteady hooves and glanced out at the red lights. "Hopefully they're okay in there. We can't leave the ship unless they undock us."

The pilot nodded. Being stuck in a nonfunctioning ship with another, larger WarShip following was not a good situation to be in. Just then the ship's harrowing voice cut to static and, to Hazelnut's relief, Cotton's voice came in through the comms on the DropShip.

"Bridge to DropShip pilots. What's your status?"

The green pony walked over to the console and held down a button. "All good here." He was quickly echoed by two more pilots and followed by a third, less convincing voice.

"Good. We're going to undock you now. We're above pretty much the middle of nowhere on Strana, but there's a big Clan Ghost Bear facility not too far from your drop point. Head there and make sure you mention at some point you're not hostile. If the Windigo isn't destroyed when it follows us, we'll try to draw its fire and distract it long enough for you to land. Good luck, soldiers. We'll see you on the other side someday," Cotton said, followed by an ominous creaking sound from the ship.

"Aff, Commander. It's been an honor," the pilot said before releasing the button and sitting down in his seat. "I guess this is it, huh? We die here, or we go on to live the peaceful lives we should have had in the first place."

Hazelnut sighed. "Yeah. Although, I was actually thinking about fighting against Clan Draconequus if we survive this. I know it's what Slate would do, and I wouldn't want to disappoint him."

The WarShip let out an ungodly groan, weakly detaching the DropShips from itself. It barely seemed functional anymore and Hazelnut would be surprised if it could even still move. Strana would surely be taking its toll on the hull, which wasn't designed to handle any sort of gravitational load. The DropShip let out a long beep as it slid out of the Constellation and into open space.

Hazelnut saw another DropShip exit in front of them, this one much larger and designed to hold many more soldiers. Unlike the Tub of Lard and his own ship, which were Leopard-classes and were well suited for regular transport missions, the ship in front of his was a Lion-class DropShip, usually only used in combat. It could carry over two times the number of Mechs as well as a large number of infantry. However, the Lion-class ships were more like giant drop pods with powerful thrusters than actual ships, which would make it impossible for them to fly straight to the Clan Ghost Bear facility. They would have to make their stand wherever they landed and pray the Ghost Bears would send help.

Hazelnut shook his head again and turned to head out of the cockpit. The nausea of the jump had begun to wear off, and he felt steady enough to walk around again. "I'm going to change into my cooling suit. Let me know when we get within comms range of the facility," he said as he walked through the door at the back of the room.

"Aff," the pilot said as he turned the ship to follow the Lion in front of them.

The door hissed shut behind Hazelnut and he walked down the cramped hallway to one of the closets which usually contained the cooling suits and neurohelmets of the other MechWarriors on board. His was the only one left in the small space with the others having been replaced by uniforms, and he pulled it out and headed to the restroom. He didn't particularly enjoy changing in the confined passageways of the ship and avoided it whenever possible.

Hazelnut shut the door of the restroom behind him and quickly stripped from his uniform, not taking his usual care to keep it at least somewhat neatly folded. He couldn't see himself ever wearing it again after today so he didn't see a point in keeping it looking nice. He dropped his uniform in the trash can and reached for his cooling suit which was draped over the sink, but stopped when he saw his reflection.

From this angle, Hazelnut could clearly see the jagged scar on his flank, just in front of his knife-shaped cutie mark. Cotton had given him that a few years ago when they were very drunk on their way to pick up another group of cadets. In her delirious state, she thought it would be cool if it looked like his cutie mark hat cut him. She had chased him all around the ship not stopping until she had accomplished what she had set out to do, which ended up being quite painful for him. Looking back on it, it was actually a fond memory of his, though it was quite terrifying at the time.

Hazelnut smiled sadly to himself. That wasn't the half craziest thing he and Cotton had gotten into on this ship, especially while drinking. The usually mellow pony turned into somepony else entirely when she was drunk and he swore she had almost gotten them killed on multiple occasions. She was the closest friend he'd ever had and he was going to miss her.

Hazelnut sighed and pulled his cooling suit onto his body. "I can't think about that now. The others are counting on me and Obsidian to see them through this, and we can't let them down." He grabbed his neurohelmet and left the small restroom before heading down the hall back to the cockpit.

The pilot looked back as Hazelnut entered the room. "There you are. I was starting to get worried." He pressed a few buttons to put the ship into autopilot and walked over to stare out one of the glass panes of the cockpit. "Come take a look at this. It's a miracle we survived that jump."

Hazelnut placed his neurohelmet on his seat and walked over to peer through the window, looking for what the other pony was talking about. He sucked in a breath. The Constellation was just barely visible from where he stood, or rather, what was left of the Constellation. Almost the entire top half of the ship was collapsed in with bits of it floating off into space. The glass of the cockpit was cracked, though luckily it wasn't leaking air otherwise the crew inside would have died before they could have released the DropShips. The rest of the ship seemed unharmed though, so with any luck, some of the weapons were still functional.

"Damn. I can't believe we're still alive," Hazelnut said, blinking at the mangled ship.

"Me neither." The pilot walked back over to his seat and tapped one of the screens. "I think we're about in comms range of the facility. They shouldn't have any trouble hearing us from here, especially if we can use one of those satellites," he said as he pointed to a few objects floating in the distance.

Hazelnut walked back over to his seat and sat down after placing his neurohelmet on the floor beneath him. "Good. Hopefully they'll actually listen to us." He grabbed his headset off of its stand and placed it on, flicking the microphone down in front of his mouth after clearing his throat. "Here goes nothing," he thought as he tapped a few buttons on his console. A light flickered on just above it, indicating the ship was now broadcasting. Hazelnut took a deep breath, ready to speak into his microphone, but stopped when he heard a gravelly voice through his headset.

"This is Star Colonel Cobalt Dash of Clan Ghost Bear, Silveroot Keshik. State your business on Strana Mechty before we blow you out of the atmosphere, Draconequus scum."

Hazelnut froze with his mouth open slightly. "The Silveroot Keshik? That's the personal military unit of Ghost Bear's saKhan, the second in command of their Clan. If they're here, the Khans must really be meeting on Strana. It looks like my theory was correct," he thought. Somehow that didn't make him feel any better. "Um, this is Star Commander Hazelnut of Clan Draconequus, 84th Freeborn Unit. We defected after we were given orders to attack the Clan Wolf base on Strana in one week's time, and Strana was the closest militarized planet to our last location. We were hoping to find help here. We're not hostile."

The comms were silent for a moment, and Hazelnut bit his lip anxiously. "This really isn't as flawless of a plan as I'd like to have," he thought. "Our survival rides almost entirely on whether or not we can get help here."

After a few more seconds, Colonel Dash spoke up again. "And how can I trust you? Your Clan is known for nothing other than your bloodthirsty and deceptive nature. How can you prove what you say is true? Show me proof, and I may consider aiding you and your soldiers."

Just then, the DropShip beeped, alerting them to another ship emerging from hyperspace. Hazelnut glanced at his console which showed the location and mass of the ship. "Two million tons. Shit, that's definitely the Windigo," he thought before running over to the glass of the cockpit. He glanced out and saw the massive ship floating not too far from the Constellation. While damaged, the Windigo still seemed to be in working condition and would likely be operational in just a few minutes. The Constellation began firing at the other ship with its remaining weapons, hoping to draw their attention.

"Is that proof enough?" Hazelnut said as he walked back over to his seat. "We killed their Captain after they murdered one of our Commanders, so they're probably more than a little pissed off."

The comms were silent again, this time for much longer. Hazelnut began to worry he wasn't going to get a response until a new voice cut in, this one sounding like it belonged to a much older pony. "Forgive me for interfering, Colonel, but I believe it is our duty to help them in this situation. They risked their lives to come here and warn us of their Clan's treachery. If not for them, Our Kahns would have been murdered in this planned attack and we owe them for warning us. Do not sully your Clan's honor by being shrewd."

Hazelnut heard a click, presumably from the Colonel exiting the comm channel. The other voice let out a sigh. "Sorry to barge in on your conversation, but I could not sit by and watch your unit be destroyed after what you did for us. Ah, and forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I am Galaxy Commander Peregrine of Clan Wolf, Red Keshik. DropShips are preparing to leave for your drop location, ETA three hours. We are not nearly as close as Clan Ghost Bear is which is why I wanted to convince Colonel Dash to head to your location, but I guess we will work with what we have. Do not die before we get there. I would like to thank you properly."

"Understood. Thank you, Sir," Hazelnut said before slumping back into his seat. He pressed a button on his console and took his headset off.

"Kind of ironic that the ones chasing us helped us find help," the pilot said, chuckling lightly.

Hazelnut nodded. "Now we just have to survive long enough for that help to get to us." He stood up from his seat and walked back over to the edge of the cockpit to watch the fight going on overhead. The crew of the Windigo seemed to have come to their senses and were turning the ship to bring their weapons to bear on the Constellation. After a brief delay, their numerous weapons began firing, slamming into the other ship's already weakened hull.

"We're entering the mesosphere. If the Constellation can hold them off for just another couple of minutes we'll be safe from their weapons," the pilot said as he turned his head to look down at the planet. A light red haze had begun to envelop the DropShips as they broke through the atmosphere, and they began shaking violently.

"I really should be sitting down for this," Hazelnut thought, digging his hooves into the floor as the ship rapidly decelerated. He could no longer see the fight going on, but he could imagine the severe damage the Constellation would have taken by now. Especially in its current state, it was no match for its much larger and more heavily armed opponent.

As the ship began to stop decelerating and the haze around it disappeared, Hazelnut looked back out the window at the distant WarShips. The Constellation wasn't even firing back anymore; it was just tanking the hits. "Is the crew dead or are their weapons destroyed?" he thought, frowning. "Or, maybe now that their mission is complete they don't see a point in fighting back anymore."

The Windigo fired a final salvo from its autocannons and punched through the Constellation's depleted armor. The large shells tore into the hull and decimated the internals of the ship. The ammunition on the Constellation exploded, shredding it to pieces and flinging scraps of metal out into space. Having defeated their opponent, the Windigo began launching its own dropships which headed straight for Strana.

Hazelnut shut his eyes and turned his head away, fighting back tears. "No, not now. There will be time to mourn later. These ponies need a Commander, and you'll have to be a damn fine one to pull them through this mess," he thought as he walked slowly back over to his seat.

"They did their job. We made it into the atmosphere and now we have a chance at survival. This is all thanks to them," the pilot said, bowing his head for a moment. He turned back to face forward and adjusted their course to follow the Lion DropShips that were falling below them.

Hazelnut reached down to grab his neurohelmet. "Goodbye, friend. May you and every other pony on board have a swift passage to the afterlife." He flipped the helmet around to stare at his reflection. His brown eyes stared straight back at him, a complicated mixture of emotions clouding them. "Because of your sacrifice our Khan will answer for his crimes, and we can finally put an end to this accursed war. Thank you."