“If I’d known you’d find a way to capture a Queen Novo intact, I’d have negotiated better salvage rights,” Squelch muttered as she looked over the after-action reports that he and Valkyrie had just turned in. Per company policy, Twilight was supposed to have done one as well, but the green unicorn agreed to give her a pass on the grounds that she wasn’t a traditional ‘employee’, as such. Also, the less of a paper trail there was regarding the alicorn, the better things would be for everypony concerned, honestly.

“If we’d known that there was going to be a Queen Novo, I’d hope that you’d have been able to negotiate for better pay,” Slipshod smirked at the mare.

She sighed and shrugged, putting the reports away to be read over more carefully later, “established Aris Highlander doctrine is that new firebases are initially garrisoned by a lance of light and medium ‘Steeds with vehicle support,” she offered lamely, “nopony had any reason to think they’d moved in a heavy that fast. I’m sorry.

“A Condition Black was the right call, by the way,” the unicorn added soberly.

That was gratifying to hear, honestly. Slipshod knew that nopony who operated a mercenary outfit liked to abandon a mission. Aside from the obvious financial impact of not only losing out on the pay for completing the contract, and also perhaps even paying a penalty for reneging, many organizations didn’t want to risk acquiring the stigma that their outfit couldn’t ‘get things done’.

While it was true that any mercenary company which continually failed to produce results was destined to go out of business, it was rarely the case that a single botched mission spelled out irredeemable doom for an outfit. While a prospective employer was certainly more likely to offer better work at higher pay rates to companies with excellent records, they hardly expected anypony to have a perfect one. That sort of thing basically didn’t exist. No matter how well-equipped or prestigious the organization.

The fact was, that for somepony to win a fight, somepony else had to lose that fight. If any organization had ever existed that never lost a battle, then they’d have conquered the entirety of known space centuries ago. Even the big players like the Shadowbolts, the Nirik Light Pony, and the Gray Lines Legion had all lost fights with somecreature at some point along the way.

Today it was the Aris Highlanders―or at least one of their subcontractors―who’d lost a fight to the Steel Coursers. Slipshod was pretty sure that the Highlanders would still receive contracts in the future. The same would have been true for the Coursers if they’d pulled out. Their employer wouldn’t be happy, of course, and it was possible that they, specifically, wouldn’t have been eager to give Squelch’s company any more work in the near future―or at least not good paying work―but they’d have found another job somewhere in time.

Squelch understood all of that. So she wouldn’t have held anypony personally responsible for the failure of the mission.

Fortunately, it looked like she wasn’t going to have to after all, “and I guess taking the alicorn on as a pilot was the right call too, apparently,” the green mare added, her lips curling into a wry smirk at the golden earth pony, “Mig says the Rainbow Dash hardly has a scratch on it and it’ll be fixed up in a day. Val’s Parasprite’s a little more roughed up, but it’ll be good to go by the time we’re ready to jump out of the system,” now the unicorn’s eyes narrowed at him, “the Bronco, however…” her horn began to glow, as her magic retrieved another datapad.

The stallion let out an aggrieved sigh, “oh, for Celestia’s sake―”

“Eight tons of ablative plating, half a ton of myomer, two joint replacements―” she began reading.

“Am I suddenly the only pony who remembers the Queen Novo?” Slipshod asked sarcastically.

The unicorn didn’t react to his comment as she continued to list off the damaged components logged by the kirin mechanics, “―three heat sinks, the LRM needs to be rebuilt, thirty-four relays were burned out by all those PPC blasts―”

“It was a Queen. Novo!” he repeated in exasperation.

“―and you were a colossal moron to send a Wild Bronco up against it unsupported!” Squelch snapped at the stallion, her eyes flaring with anger. The earth pony recoiled as the pad was suddenly hurtling his way, deflected at the last moment by his quickly upraised hoof. His employer was out of her seat now, marching up on him, her features contorted by a sneer. Slipshod instinctively backed away from the irate mare until he felt his hind end meet the wall of her quarters, “that is twice―in a month!―that you’ve nearly gotten yourself killed down there! What the fuck is wrong with you?! You’re better than that! You’re smarter than that!” she seethed at the pilot.

“This is a dangerous job, Squelch, you know that―”

“Well it didn’t used to be this dangerous!” she snapped back, cutting him off. The unicorn paused, took a breath, and then finished with a resigned sigh, “or, ast the very least, you used to be better at avoiding it before,” again, she shot him another brief glare, “so whatever you’re doing different: stop it!

“If you get yourself killed out there I’ll―” Squelch sputtered and huffed for a second as she seemed to come up with some sort of punishment that she could possibly inflict on the stallion that would act as deterrent, “I’ll...I don’t know what,” she finished off lamely. Then the mare jabbed him sharply in the chest with her hoof, “but you won’t like it!”

If he smiled, it would be significantly unappreciated; so Slipshod expended a colossal amount of effort to ensure that his expression remained properly cowed, “I understand,” the mare huffed and turned away, collecting her discarded datapad and returning it to her desk, “and I’ll try to take better care of the Bronco―and myself―in the future.”

“Don’t bother,” she sighed, prompting a raised eyebrow from the stallion, “about the Bronco, I mean. We’re stripping it for parts and selling whatever’s left.”

Slipshod blinked in shock, “...what?”

“It’s just not cost effective anymore,” Squelch explained, “it’s never had great firepower, but that hasn’t mattered as much up to this point because we’ve just been clearing out rag-tag raiders and insurrectionists who couldn’t afford a ‘Steed of their own. Now that we have the Rainbow Dash, those sorts of contracts just don’t pay enough to maintain it. We need to take contracts that involve fighting other ‘Steeds.

“Which means we need you piloting something that can hold its own in a real fight.”

The stallion frowned. He’d been piloting that same Wild Bronco for nearly two years. He’d grown pretty attached to it, and all of its little quirks. His employer was right though: it wasn’t the most combat effective design that had ever been produced. It wasn’t a dedicated military chassis after all. It was easy to repair, cheap to maintain, but it also packed the firepower of a true combat ‘Steed half its weight. If they were going to be involved in more fights like the one they’d just been in, he would need a better BattleSteed.

“So what’d you have in mind?”

A pad was floated over for him to look at. Slipshod took it in the crook of his fetlock and reviewed the information contained on it. His eyes widened at what he saw. When he looked back at Squelch, she was grinning now, all traces of her earlier ire vanished from sight, “guess what was in that old Celestia League outpost?”

“Running away from home was the best thing that we ever did,” the rosey pink kirin mare sighed as she stood looking up at the large BattleSteed strung up in the last remaining unoccupied stall of the Galloway, “first we got to restore a Rainbow Dash, and now we’re working on an OG Crystal Cavalier,” Mig grinned with excitement.

“Better than ‘OG’!” her twin called down from where she and a pair of technicians were pulling out one of the weapon mounts so that it could be rebuilt. While the ‘Steed had been intact and undamaged where the salvage teams had found it, it had also been without any sort of maintenance for the better part of five centuries. It would need a decent amount of care before it was usable again. Even more so than the Rainbow Dash, as that had at least had the benefit of being in a vacuum, which mostly preserved it.

The Cavalier, on the other hoof, had been exposed to the slowly corrosive effects of oxygen and humidity for all that time. Still, if there were any mechanics in the galaxy that could effectively erase any evidence of the passage of so much time, it was the two kirin.

“This is a 6b!” Tig was dancing on the tips of her cloven hooves, “double heatsinks! Pulse beams! Endo crystal chassis! Eeee!” the powder blue scaled equine veritably leaped down through the opening that had been created by the removal of the mount and vanished completely into the ‘Steed’s interior. Her voice echoed out from within, “it’s so shiny!”

Mig chuckled, casting an aside glance at the earth pony standing next to her, “you keep bringing us choice ‘Steeds like this to work on and you might just get a chance to make that ‘sequel video’,” the kirin purred.

Slipshod was actually pretty sure that she wasn’t joking. Though, even if she wasn’t, that wasn’t where his mind was at―not right now anyway. Truth be told, he was just as enamored with the new find as the twins were. If for slightly different reasons. For the mechanics, it represented a chance to indulge themselves in a rare opportunity related to a job that they’d loved doing enough to flee a life of near-infinite luxury in order to experience it.

For him, it was a little different. He didn’t regard the Crystal Cavalier as an expression of art and design like the two mares did. Instead, he saw the heavy BattleSteed and the raw combat power that it represented as a large step forward in his personal quest to see the aspirations of his former queen reduced to dust. He wouldn’t deny that, overall, he still didn’t have anywhere even close to the quantity of resources he’d need to destroy Chrysalis. Nopony knew better than he did what was waiting in the Faust system for anycreature foolish enough to think that they could wrest the seat of power from ‘Queen Twilight Sparkle’.

Hundreds of BattleShips. Thousands of assault-class BattleSteeds, all equipped with the advanced technology of the Celestia League which had largely been lost to the rest of the galaxy’s major powers over the centuries of fighting and destruction.

Anything less than a genuine army wouldn’t last past the first few hours after jumping into the system. Slipshod knew that.

However, he also knew that any army had to begin somewhere, and a Rainbow Dash and a Crystal Cavalier were a decent start. Twilight knew the locations of dozens of other ancient Celestia League strongholds, each of which might contain even more potent treasures than they’d found here. The recorded data at these sites also contained information regarding the location of many other sites which the alicorn didn’t know about, as well. Given enough time, they wouldn’t just be able to bring an army to the Faust system, but one that was built upon the very same advanced losmagitek weapons and systems that Chrysalis’ forces wielded.

Maybe it would take many more years―perhaps decades―to get to that point, but he was finally confident that they could get to that point!

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the earth pony replied, his eyes still surveying the salvage team’s latest find, “did your sister bring back any other neat toys?”

“Weapons, ammunition, myomer, plating,” the pink kirin replied nonchalantly, “that sort of thing. There were ‘Steed parts, but nothing that was worth the space they’d take up to bother bringing them back,” she gestured behind them at the Rainbow Dash, “though we do finally have what we need to get the RD properly loaded out,” she smiled, “between that and the Cavalier, you guys should be pretty unstoppable―as long you don’t go tangling with a lance of Big Macs at least.

“We also recovered a lot of stuff that’s mostly useless to us right now, but it can be sold for a good price. So Squelch is pretty happy about that.”

“She could have fooled me,” the stallion murmured under his breath, recalling how his earlier debriefing had gone.

“Bah,” the kirin waved a dismissive hoof, “that’s just because you abused our Whittle Bee,” the mare’s expression became briefly accusatory now too, “again. What’d it ever do to you, anyway?”

The earth pony massaged the bridge of his nose, “Queen. Novo,” he hissed through gritted teeth.

Mig snorted derisively, but her face quickly broke out in a smile again as she returned her gaze to their new acquisition, “well, one of those shouldn’t rough you up too badly anymore,” she announced, “it’ll take us a few weeks to get it all sorted out,” the mare continued, shifting the topic of conversation slightly, “but everything should be good to go by the time we’re looking for our next contract. Has Squelch suggested when that’s going to be, by any chance?”

She had actually, “we’re heading for New Aris, as it turns out,” Slipshod informed the kirin, “it’s the largest market in the cluster, so we’ll get the best price for all that surplus gear clogging up our cargo hold. Should be plenty of jobs posted on the board there too.

“Hopefully one of them’ll take us to the same planet as another of those League bases Twilight told us about.”

“Ah, sailing right into the heart of Combine-controlled space immediately after dismantling a Highlander firebase,” the mechanic said with a smirk, rolling her eyes as she did so, “won’t we be popular?”

“We’ve taken about as many contracts for the Combine as we have against them,” he reminded her, shrugging, “there shouldn’t be any hard feelings,” he thought for a moment, “as long as we don’t run into anycreature who knows a pilot whose death we were directly responsible for…”

“Knowing your luck?” she chided him.

“It’s a big galaxy. The chances of that happening are―”

“―much higher than I anticipated...” the golden earth pony muttered under his breath as he, Valkyrie, and Squelch strode into the briefing room where they would be meeting their employer and receiving their intel dump for the upcoming operation.

The two week trip to New Aris had been largely uneventful, with the majority of the time taken up by his familiarizing himself with the Crystal Cavalier, as well as he and Val working to integrate Twilight into their previously established tactics and doctrine. That had been quite the experience, and not for the reasons that Slipshod had initially assumed. Given the rather abrasive way that the purple alicorn had conducted herself thus far during their―few―social interactions, the stallion had fully expected for the mare to immediately dismiss everything that they said and insist on implementing her own tactics from that point forward.

However, that had not been the case. Oh, the alicorn had certainly had a few...what could be loosely considered ‘critiques’ about the way the Steel Coursers went about doing things; but she had found the pair’s actual tactics to be quite commendable, given their available equipment and numbers. It was something of a novel concept for her, actually. As the nominal developer of many of the technologies behind the first generation of WorkSteeds, and the driving force behind their subsequent militarization, Twilight had been working with them for longer than anycreature who’d ever lived. She’d also never had to go into battle with any fewer BattleSteeds than she’d desired, since she was the one who’d chosen where and when most fights happened, and her personal forces had constituted the next best thing to all the BattleSteeds in existence most of the time.

Being the pony who also―quite literally―wrote the book on ‘Steed tactics, she was able to make several suggestions on how to adapt and refine the duo’s doctrines in order to best accommodate a third pilot. Slipshod didn’t miss the fact that every one of those new engagement profiles also prioritized disabling the target ‘Steed or vehicle, and largely avoided doing anything that might kill the pilot or crew, respectively. Valkyrie didn’t take much exception to this, as her Parasprite didn’t see much direct combat in most cases anyway―provided everything went according to plan.

For Slipshod...it honestly didn’t matter to him either way. His priority had always been completion of the contract. Leaving a body count didn’t earn him any additional bits, not really. Kill bounties on certain contracts were tied to the ‘kill’ of the ‘Steeds or vehicle encountered, not the creatures controlling them. To his knowledge, no employer usually offered C-bit incentives for wiping out infantry companies on the battlefield. It was just hardware that everycreature cared about.

So, if the only way that Twilight was going to reliably help them out was if he made a concerted effort to stop a ‘Steed while putting its pilot in minimal jeopardy, then so be it.

On the other hoof, if one of his shots meant to slag a weapon mounted in an enemy ‘Steed’s shoulder happened to drift a little to one side and snipe the cockpit...the battlefield was a chaotic place with a lot of things in motion. Not every shot could be perfect. The princess would just have to live with that reality.

The point was that the alicorn seemed to at least tolerate his existence now; which was a marked improvement when compared to her initial efforts to crumple him up like a used tissue. She wasn’t a particularly warm or inviting conversationalist―with him―by any stretch, but Slipshod would have gladly endured several long months of the alicorn’s detached aloofness to what he was likely to experience over the next couple hours in this room.

The burnt orange hippogriff hen sitting across the table from them at the far end of the room was staring daggers into the earth pony stallion from the moment he walked in. He noticed that the talons of one of her hands were digging into the surface of the table, etching noticeable groves into the laminated surface. Slipshod idly wondered if it would make things better or worse if he said anything. Best not to risk it, he ultimately decided. He and Val were here mostly as ‘window dressing’ anyway; Squelch was the one that was here to do the talking.

“Jilted lover?” he heard the azure pegasus mare standing beside him whisper. Obviously Valkyrie had taken notice of the special attention that he was being given by the hen.

“I wish,” the stallion replied just as quietly. He meant that, too. Creatures he ran into later after an ‘evening encounter’ who might be a little put out at being a mere tryst―though a rare occurrence―were easy enough to deal with; and more often than not ended up back in his quarters. Being a creature that could read the emotional state of another like the menu at a café had certain advantages when it came to manipulating behavior.

However, that was―unfortunately―not the case this time, “remember that op on Atlantea eight months ago? The one where we were ‘disrupting’ an arms deal between the Aris Highlanders and that Our Worlds League company?” he inclined his head slightly in the hen’s direction, “her brother was the Highlanders’ rep for that meeting.”

The pegasus’ eyes narrowed slightly in thought, “...didn’t we blow up the―oh,” the mare’s eyes widened now in realization.

“Yeah,” Slipshod confirmed, nodding his head slightly, “a week later I received a message from his sister which was...creative about how I’d be punished for that.”

“Oh...well, this should be fun!”

Squelch cleared her throat in a noisy enough fashion that Slipshod felt Doc Dee would have been motivated to prescribe her his most potent decongestant. The two ponies took her meaning and ceased their hushed exchange. Val took up an appropriately prim and proper stance behind her employer, looking every bit the professional ‘Steed pilot that she was. Slipshod felt that he would have been able to look similarly impressive, if not for the fact that he felt compelled to look in any direction but forward, where the orange hippogriff hen was still drilling into him with her intense gaze.

Two other creatures were in the room as well, and both seemed to be largely oblivious to the animosity; or were at least too professional to acknowledge it. Likely the latter, the stallion suspected. Sometimes mercenary companies had histories with one another. That was the nature of the business. Most didn’t take it personally―grudges didn’t typically pay maintenance costs. Sometimes though, that was harder to do. Especially where family was involved.

“That should be everycreature,” a violet tiercel began solemnly, tapping at a few keys on the console built into the table. The room’s lights dimmed and a holographic display materialized in the center of the room, “so let us begin:

“This is System PEA-02-UX. If that doesn’t sound like the name of a typical inhabited system, that’s because it isn’t. Records suggest that it was slated for terraforming and colonization prior to the dissolution of the Celestia League, but efforts were halted when Crown funding dried up. However, we now believe that the terraforming progressed far enough for the system’s second planet to become at least marginally habitable.

“We believe this, because the Combine has received intelligence suggesting that Commonwealth forces are setting up a forward supply base,” the hippogriff paused, favoring all of the other creatures in the room with a pointed look, “allow me to emphasize what I just said in case there was any misunderstanding: Commonwealth forces are setting up a forward supply base. Specifically, elements of the 5th and 12th Dongola.”

Slipshod’s eyes widened slightly as he took in the meaning of what had just been said. It was certainly something that had needed clarification, as the political nuances of Sphere politics usually meant that star nations and their nominal pocket mercenary outfits could be used interchangeably. When the Gray Lines Legion, for example, launched an attack on a Federated Moons planet, it was implicitly understood that they were acting on behalf of the Our Worlds League. Officially there was a distinction, so such an attack wasn’t an actual ‘act of war’; even if everycreature ‘knew’ who was behind it.

In such cases, the appropriate response was for the Shadowbolts to attack something of the Our Worlds League. Not at the behest of the Federated Moons, of course. Just...as a matter of their own, independent, business.

That was how the ongoing cold war of the Harmony Sphere perpetuated. ‘Hot’ wars meant massive mobilizations, huge expenses, colossal body counts, and a lot of wrecked infrastructure that nocreature wanted to have to spend the C-bits to rebuild. It was cheaper to just fling mercenaries at each other like foals having a snowball fight...but with BattleSteeds.

That’s how Chrysalis preferred things anyway.

An open war―a real war―meant that it was possible that one side or the other might actually win. Then, suddenly, the five major powers would become four, with one of those powers now controlling twice the resources of any of the other three. At that point, the three smaller powers would be forced to band together to oppose the new, much larger, nation. To do otherwise would risk a second nation being invaded and annexed. At which point, there would be nothing the remaining two powers could do against the third, overwhelmingly powerful, adversary which now controlled a majority of the galaxy’s resources. When those dominos started to fall, it was inevitable that the worlds of the Harmony Sphere would eventually come under the control of a single star nation again.

Chrysalis didn’t want a single, unified, star nation that controlled the resources of the former Celestia League surrounding her. With no opponents to fight any longer, creatures would stop sending applicants to the Academies on Equus; which meant no food for the hive and, worse, no means by which to replace those in power with her operatives. She’d lose control of the Harmony Sphere, and there’d be nothing that she could do about it.

No, the changeling queen didn’t want open warfare. There was no ‘good’ outcome for her that was better than the existing status quo.

If the Pony Commonwealth was indeed making preparations to launch a genuine invasion of the Hippogriff Combine, then she’d want them stopped at all costs. She wouldn’t be able to do it through ComSpark though. That was established as being an apolitical entity, with no official interest in Sphere goings-on, and thus no stake in how much territory or power any of the five major star nations possessed. So she’d need to act through her operatives in the Combine.

Which explained how the hippogriff leadership had come to learn about this otherwise secret build up of Commonwealth forces on an uninhabited world beyond the Sphere.

What it didn’t explain was why the Steel Coursers had been brought in on this operation―

“Normally,” the tiercel continued after having made his point clear, “the Combine would look to the Highlanders exclusively to clear out such a threat. However, many of their companies in the region are dealing with a TimberWolf incursion,” the violet hippogriff cast a side glance at Squelch and her mercenaries, “which has become significantly more difficult to ward off since the recent destruction of a firebase that was meant to support those efforts.”

Squelch made no comment on the matter. Business was business, after all.

“Things being what they are, however,” the tiercel continued, “House Novo has authorized the funding to hire additional independent contractors for this operation. That is where the Steel Coursers come in.”

“Forgive me, Baron Mar,” Squelch began, “it’s not that we don’t appreciate the work; but I am curious why an operation like this one is going to be so small. If there really are two regiments down there―”

“Elements of two regiments,” the tiercel corrected gently, holding up a talon, “at this moment, we suspect that there are only fifty or so ‘Steeds in total, with support vehicles.”

It was all that Slipshod could do not to snort derisively. ‘Only’ fifty ‘Steeds! With support vehicles! The expression on his unicorn employer’s face suggested that she was experiencing similar thoughts, but their benefactor spoke up before Squelch could voice aloud what would have been improper for him to.

“However, the part that you’ll be playing should mean that you’ll avoid any entanglements with the main body of the Commonwealth forces on the planet. Specifically,” the holographic display shifted to show a map of what the earth pony presumed was the operational area of the mission they were being briefed on. Several locations lit up along the perimeter, “we would like the Steel Coursers and Captain Peregrine’s lance” he gestured towards the burnt orange hen who had remained silent throughout the briefing thus far, “to strike at their observation and communications posts. By hitting their outlying positions from opposite sides simultaneously, it should hamper the ability of the Commonwealth’s reactionary forces on the planet to respond in force to any one attack.

“To be clear: your priorities will be the designated infrastructure. How many of their forces you tangle with is your business; as long as the priority targets get taken out. You are merely the prelude to a larger offensive that is being mounted in a neighboring system as we speak. Once their sensor and comm nets are down, The Highlanders can land their assault divisions and remove the base and its garrison before it gets any bigger.”

The earth pony was chewing his lip thoughtfully as he regarded the projected map. Even if they were supposed to just hit minimally defended perimeter bases, he didn’t like the idea of several dozen ‘Steeds being only an hour away at most. If they got hung up at one of their objectives, they could end up in big trouble. Honestly, he wasn’t entirely convinced that this contract was worthwhile, and wouldn’t have been surprised if Squelch refused to be a part of it―

“Sounds good. We’re in,” the pegasus said succinctly.

Then again, what did he know?

“Excellent. Then let us all get comfortable and begin going over the details for the operation, shall we?”

Two hours later, the trio of ponies were in the limousine on their way back to the Galloway. The briefing hadn’t been anything special, and nothing about their mission seemed out of the ordinary. Though Slipshod did have to marvel at the quantity of information that the Combine appeared to have on the supposedly ‘secret’ Commonwealth base that had been set up on an entirely unsettled world. It only served to reinforce his theory that Chrysalis’ agents had been involved in ensuring that the Combine was in a position to put an end to the Commonwealth’s planned invasion as quickly as possible.

Doubtlessly, Archon Dominus Blueblood would be quite put out at the rather egregious hole which apparently existed in the Commonwealth’s information security where secret military operations were concerned. An investigation would be conducted, those changelings present in his intelligence services would fabricate evidence implicating a suitable scapegoat, said scapegoat would be summarily tortured and executed, and everypony would move on with their lives, satisfied that no such issue would threaten future operations.

The status quo of the Sphere would be maintained and no creature would be any the wiser as to the hows and whys. Just as had always been the case for the better part of half a millennium.

In fact, the only real mystery to any of this would be: “why did you accept this mission?”

Squelch regarded him with a slight frown. A not unusual reaction to having her leadership implicitly questioned by one of her employees. It was the sort of question that she wouldn’t have tolerated at all from just about any of her other employees in the company. However, Slipshod’s position as a ‘Steed pilot―who would be directly subjected to all the associated hazards of the operation she’d ‘volunteered’ him for―afforded him a little more leeway where such things were concerned.

“Because accepting and executing contracts is how mercenary companies like ours make money,” the green unicorn mare replied tersely. From beside her, Valkyrie chortled as she failed to completely suppress her mirth at the response.

Slipshod was less amused, “you know what I mean. Going up against two ‘Steed regiments? With just ours and Peri’s lances? No offense, but you’re not usually this ambitious with our contracts.”

“True,” the unicorn mare conceded with a nod, “and, honestly, this mission is a bit outside my own comfort zone too,” this prompted a raised brow from Val as well as the earth pony stallion, “but it’s our best shot at getting to another Celestia League outpost in the area.

“We’ll be getting routed to PEA-02-UX through the system where the Highlanders are staging their invasion forces. That system is the Dovetail System, which was once home to a League R&D facility, according to our guest. While we’re there, we’ll drop off a team to survey and salvage the site. Hopefully, they’ll pick up a few losmagitech toys without anycreature being the wiser as to what we’re up to.”

“The Highlanders aren’t going to wonder what we were doing on the planet?” Valkyrie inquired.

“We’ve got an untested Crystal Cavalier that’s just been refurbished,” Squelch pointed out with a shrug, “it would be reckless to not put it through a shakedown run.”

She had a point, Slipshod conceded. They’d want to spend a day or two making sure that Mig and Tig got it working right. Or at least find anything that they missed. Still, “a raid like this is still pretty risky,” he pointed out.

“Not if you do it right,” his employer countered, “everything suggests that we’ll get the drop on the Commonwealth forces, which means that you should be able to get in, hit your targets, and get out before their forces can mobilize a proper response. At worst, you’ll run into some of their lighter picket lances.

“If things do go bad,” she amended, “then call a Condition Black and the Galloway will pull you out.

“But, if it’s all that same, I’d rather you avoid doing that unless absolutely necessary. After Kenway, we’re not the Combine’s favorite mercenaries right now. Botching this operation on the fetlocks of raiding one of their firebases might get us on their ‘naughty list’ for a while, and we’re in the heart of Combine territory. I really don’t want to have to pay the transit fees to get us all the way to Federated Moons controlled space without any work along the way.

“We’re not that far in the black.”

“Noted,” Slipshod smirked. He took a deep breath and nodded, “alright. We’ll do our best. As long as the Cavalier works as advertised, we shouldn’t have any issues.”

They certainly knew how to build ‘Steeds back in the day, the stallion decided. The smile spread across his lips grew even broader as he depressed the rear pedals even further, his eyes flicking to the readout displaying his current speed. Twenty-five tons heavier, and yet the Crystal Cavalier was easily able to match the speed of his Wild Bronco. Half again more armor and double the firepower cemented his newfound love for the heavy ‘Steed.

His gaze flickered ahead to where his HUD was advising him of a hostile-marked contact. Several actually. Unconcerned, his forehooves nudged the control yokes they were wrapped around, teasing the crosshairs onto the targets. A helix of rainbow-patterned light bolted from the tip of the lance mounted on the ‘Steed’s right side. A second later and a thousand meters ahead of him, the canvas silhouette of the Demolisher Heavy Tank vanished in an expanding sphere of chromatic electricity.

Two subsequent pulls of the trigger reduced two other mock ‘threats’ to ash as pulses of sapphire energy lashed out and struck them down. He leaned his ‘Steed to the left, guiding it in a wide arc towards the next set of targets. Nearly a dozen transponders lit up in front of him, denoting vehicles of various types and sizes. Slipshod eased back on the throttle and cycled through his weapons as quickly as they would recharge, keeping an eye to the steadily climbing temperature of his reactor.

Even though the Crystal Cavalier had been designed from the ground up as an exclusively energy weapon based platform, and the 6b variant used―now―hard to come by double heat sinks, Slipshod was finding it difficult to maintain a steady volume of fire even while keeping the temperatures dangerously near the shutdown threshold. He suspected that only two or three alpha strikes would be enough to trigger an outright shutdown of the reactor in order to avert a meltdown.

Even so, he was able to make steady progress through the second throng of targets in what he felt was a respectable amount of time. When the last target was incinerated, he flicked open his comm and proudly announced, “that’s the last of ‘em! Perfect accuracy too,” he couldn’t help but grin at the accomplishment, feeling rather satisfied with himself.

“Three hours of work undone in ninety seconds,” came Mig’s sardonic reply through the radio, “how’s the ‘Steed doing?”

“No issues that I could find,” the earth pony stallion informed the kirin mechanic, “acceleration was good, handling was smooth, and targeting was right on the money.”

“Noted. I’ll have the crew do a quick tear-down and inspection all the same once you get back.”

“Mind if I stay out here a little longer?” he asked, “I want to try and get a better feel for the balance at different speeds. See how well it bucks and pivots too.”

“Knock yourself out,” Mig said, “be as rough as you want. It’ll give us a better idea of how it stands up to real wear and tear. So go nuts.”

“Don’t mind if I do!” Slipshod kicked back hard on the throttles and grinned as he felt the ‘Steed suddenly lurch on ahead as it propelled itself back up to a full run.

A second mare’s voice chimed in over the communications channel, “if I might make a suggestion?” the stallion recognized Twilight through the radio’s mild distortion.

“What’s that, Rosie?”

There was a short pause and Slipshod felt himself cringe empathetically with the inhalation that he knew the alicorn was taking as she withheld her annoyance at the use of the pet name that the kirin twins had adopted for her since it had been decided that her name for the purposes of employment with the Steel Coursers would be: Purple Rose. She’s been annoyed enough at the use of a pseudonym as it was, but had at least agreed with the reasoning for its use. Nicknames, she had not agreed to, “...perhaps a mock battle is in order? That would be the best way to simulate realistic wear―minus the battle damage, of course.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” a third mare joined in. Slipshod frowned, wondering why so many other ponies were suddenly so interested in contributing to this conversation. He also couldn’t help but feel a little wary at the note of amusement in Squelch’s voice, “sending out the commands to your ‘Steeds now…” the displays in the stallion’s cockpit flickered briefly before settling down again, but with a yellow hue to them, “...and that should do it. When the two of you are ready?”

“I am prepared,” Twilight confirmed.

“Perfect. Match start!”

“Hey now, wait a min―!” Slipshod began to protest, but stopped abruptly as a column of rainbow light streaked by just ahead of his cockpit, missing him by less than a meter and inducing several rapid blinks as his eyes protested the sudden assault by so many bright colors at once. He jerked his control yokes and heaved the Cavalier hard to the right, away from the source of the incoming fire.

His ‘Steed stumbled, throwing him into his harness, and an indicator flashed on his rear ablative plating to denote where he’d been struck. Twilight had missed him on purpose with the first shot, he instantly realized. She’d forgone the strike against his ‘Steed’s modestly armored barrel in order to scare him into exposing his less protected rear. The stallion grit his teeth and silently cursed how easily he’d been manipulated. Now not only had the alicorn drawn ‘first blood’, but she was also in a position to keep shooting at him while he couldn’t retaliate at all!

An advantage which the purple mare was apparently willing to take full advantage of as more sections of his plating flashed warnings, and his cockpit continued to buck and lurch. He was honestly getting more than a little annoyed at his ‘Steed right now.

After all, Twilight’s weapons were not actually doing anything to his ‘Steed at the moment. As a result of the commands that Squelch had transmitted to their computers, both his and the alicorn’s weapons were shooting little more than brightly colored lights at one another. The energy output wasn’t even high enough to scratch the paint. What was happening was that Twilight’s ‘Steed was transmitting its targeting computer data to his own ‘Steed’s computers so that his Cavalier knew where it had been ‘hit’, and it could register the damage and react to the blows accordingly.

Every jolt that he was feeling right now was actually his ‘Steed’s own myomer muscles throwing him around in order for him to receive the same tactile sensation that he would in an actual fight. The idea was for trainee pilots to be able to get used to the sensation during mock battles so that they didn’t become disoriented by the phenomenon in their first actual fight.

Right now though, Slipshod was just finding it really annoying!

“Alright, princess,” he grunted under his breath as he focused and took hold of the controls, “let’s see how you handle this!” He heaved the control yokes and worked the throttle pedals, throwing his ‘Steed’s hind end around in a skid that allowed him to perform a pivot, bringing his weapons to bear on the princess. He fired, sending out dual streams of pulsed blue energy―

―into nothing.

“Wait, wha…?” the stallion blinked in surprise. His eyes then immediately darted to his navigation map and the blip that insisted his adversary was still directly in front of him.

A flash of prismatic light from above caught his attention. Slipshod’s screens blurred and briefly cut out appropriately in response to the PPC’s distorting effects, much to the stallion’s frustration. He glared at the airborne Rainbow Dash. A tug on the controls slammed his own ‘Steed’s hind end to the ground and allowed him the elevation he needed to track his target. A rainbow helix of his own leapt skyward from his lance…

...only to have the other ‘Steed dart effortlessly to the left with a burst from its jump jets before finally falling back towards the ground.

His screen suddenly flashed with crimson warning messages alerting him to a missile lock. Slipshod’s eyes went wide. He pushed ahead on his control yokes and pedals both, but he already knew it was a futile effort. It would take his ‘Steed a couple of seconds to stand back up and get underway to a respectable speed. Those ‘missiles’ were already in the air, of course. Slipshod closed his eyes in silent resignation as the cockpit shuddered to simulate the peppering of those forty missiles as they hammered home onto their largely stationary target.

Just as Twilight had intended them to.

Every move she had made so far had been carefully calculated to elicit a specific response from him that she could then take advantage of. Had he been watching her do this to anypony else, he’d have found it to be a decidedly fascinating fight. However, as it was his flank that was being soundly bucked up one side and down the other…

The Cavalier was finally back on its hooves, and once again Slipshod was throttling it up to a full run. He fired alternating blasts of pulsed sapphire energy towards the princess’s ‘Steed, noting that his shots appeared to be pulling to the left. Apparently his computer had determined that the damage that he’d sustained in the fight thus far had affected his targeting systems. Not that having a perfectly aligned system was likely to have helped him anyway. Twilight’s Rainbow Dash was doing remarkably well at living up to its name and making a trivial effort of using bursts of its jump jets to dash from side to side and avoid his shots altogether.

Slipshod’s teeth grit in further frustration at having all of his efforts thus far thwarted. He continued to charge headlong towards her, his weapons chain-firing in an attempt to saturate the area and score a hit through sheer volume, if nothing else. It didn’t even occur to him that she wasn’t returning fire until after the fact. Presumably this was done in an effort to draw him further in by not giving him any incentive to veer off.

The stallion’s tunnel vision meant that he was taken completely by surprise when the Rainbow Dash’s jump jets flared one final time, arcing its hind end around into a powerful hook kick which caught Slipshod’s Crystal Cavalier square in the side of its head. His ‘Steed had no need to ‘simulate’ the hit this time as the force of the blow from his opponent’s ‘Steed was more than enough to send his own off balance and careening into the ground. His harness kept him from getting seriously injured, but the wrenching force of the impact still disoriented him nonetheless.

The earth pony allowed himself to hang limply in his sideways piloting couch for several long seconds as he awaited the inevitable announcement of the results of the match through his comm system. Princess Twilight Sparkle had not merely won the fight, she’d given him an indisputable thrashing; and all without sustaining a single hit on her own ‘Steed. She’d enjoyed it too. He could actually taste her satisfaction from here. It’d be deliciously refreshing if he weren’t so distracted by his own eviscerated self-esteem.

“...now that was just sad,” Squelch lamented over the radio, “I almost feel bad about taking High Gain’s C-bits,” a brief pause, then, “Purple Rose, get him on his hooves and teach him how to pilot a damn ‘Steed, will you?”

“I’ll see what can be done,” was the alicorn’s terse reply.

Slipshod’s eyes briefly darted to the ‘Steed’s scuttling command switches. Dying in a reactor meltdown would at least mean he didn’t have to endure whatever awaited him back on the Galloway…

There was a burst of muffled static before he heard the princess’ voice again, “that was simultaneously cathartic and depressing,” Twilight chided him, “I thought you were trained at the ‘best ‘Steed academies in the galaxy’? Isn’t that why the pony whose identity you stole after murdering him went to Equus in the first place? To become an ace BattleSteed pilot?”

Slipshod’s eyes widened in a moment of terror until he saw that the two of them were conversing over a privately encrypted frequency, at which point he allowed himself to relax. A little, “first off: I haven’t ‘murdered’ anypony,” he corrected the mare, insistently, “and second...you’ve been doing this a lot longer than I have,” he winced at how petulant the excuse ended up sounding out loud.

“My excess of experience does not excuse your multitude of mistakes,” Twilight said before starting to list them off. Slipshod wisely chose not to inform her of how much she was reminding him of his old instructors at the academy right now...or how much what she was saying now directly echoed their criticisms of his performance then, “you turned your flank on an actively engaging enemy. You came to complete stops multiple times. You closed to melee range with a more agile foe. And, most egregious of all: you fought in close quarters against a ‘Steed whose capabilities you did not fully understand.”

The earth pony stallion cringed and hung his head. Yep, that sounded all too familiar alright. What made it worse was that he’d routinely exploited exactly those sorts of flaws in his opponents. He used terrain masking and sensor net holes to start engagements from his enemy’s flanks. In their last battle on Kenway, he’d managed to use an enemy pilot’s ignorance of his Wild Bronco’s ability to leap great distances to lethal effect. What was perhaps even worse, was that he knew Twilight was capable of using the Rainbow Dash’s overpowered jump jets to devastating effect! He’d seen her do it!

“I find myself honestly wondering how you’ve managed to survive as long as you have,” she said in a dismissive tone.

“By being a medium-sized fish in the tiniest ponds I could find,” he retorted. It wasn’t like he wasn’t aware of his lackluster skills as a pilot. Fortunately, a high degree of skill hadn’t been required to successfully put his Wild Bronco up against Scorpion Tanks and Savana Masters.

“Was maintaining only a moderately passable competence at ‘Steed piloting part of your grand plan to defeat Chrysalis?” Twilight sneered through the radio.

Slipshod rolled his eyes, “like I ever really believed I’d have a chance of doing something like that,” he snapped back at the alicorn, “I knew it was a pipe dream; but what could I do about it? Even if I’d become the best pilot in the Sphere, I still wouldn’t have had a chance,” he pointed out, “there isn’t enough skill in the galaxy to overcome the numbers she has.”

“When we finally locate the remnants of the Ninth Force Recon, the odds will no longer be stacked quite so steeply against our success,” the earth pony stallion envied the mare’s optimism. He was pretty sure that they’d need more than a small ragtag cult operating out of the Periphery to stand much of a chance against the Queen’s guards, “which means that, if you actually want to survive long enough to see Chrysalis defeated, we’re going to need to work rather hard to lift up your level of skill.

“It would be a shame if you got cored in the opening engagement,” Slipshod perked up in his piloting couch, not able to help but feel a little surprised at the notion that Twilight might actually care about his well being, despite her publicly displayed attitude towards him on the DropShip, “that Crystal Cavalier is a very valuable ‘Steed, after all.”

Oh. Right.

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