Hooves thundered on metal. Wingbeats thrummed through sterile air. Ducking under hatch frames, skirting around dollies and empty gurneys, and galloping along the bulkheads to avoid bystanding crew, Firefly half-ran, half-flew down the corridor in hot pursuit.

“Hangar blast doors are locked down, Timberwolf,” the radio crackled. “Marines are en route to cut off escape to external hatches.”

“Dispatch, prioritize the auxiliary hangar deck. I’m going to herd him that way.”

“Be careful, Firefly,” said Eastwind through the airwaves.

“You know danger is my life!” A feral grin crawled across her face.

There was action now. No longer was she cooped up in a ready room being interrogated or being forced into bedrest by the otherwise well-meaning doctor. The adrenaline coursed through her veins, rousing her to full wakefulness and vitality.

Firefly slid her goggles down, tapping the switch to activate the gyro gunsights. Projected crosshairs and an aim-corrected pipper flashed into her field of view. A double beep indicated that her weapon was synced to her gunsights and ready for action.

“Get out of the way! Get to cover! Lock those hatches!”

Firefly pointed hooves and shouted at the crew to get out of the way. It was mostly to clear the corridors for her own movement, but she also knew that if the assassin began shooting again, there would be collateral damage. The shooter turned left at the intersection, using all fours to run along the far wall of the next corridor, bleeding off some of his forward momentum to turn quickly.

Azure eyes darted quickly up and down the corridor as she skidded around the intersection. It was clear, devoid of either bystanders or jetsam. She sighted in, the gun pipper dancing around the target as her repeater spooled. As if reading her mind, the assassin whirled around, using his wings to glide and maintain forward momentum while using his limbs to slew his weapon on target.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The report of the griffon’s rifle filled the corridor with thunder. Firefly freed herself from the deck with her wings, tracing out the circumference of the corridor with her hooves as she leaped onto the wall, then the overhead, then the opposite wall before returning her hooves to the deck. The whip-CRACK of supersonic bullets flying past stung her ears, deafening her in the confined space. Ricochets behind her made her wince.

Firefly hammered the trigger. A high-pitched whine filled her ear as her repeater spat its counterargument. Violet lances streaked down the corridor, stray shots leaving glowing orange pools of heated metal in their wake. The assassin deftly wove his way through the stream of tracers, twisting and turning as if executing some arcane gymnastics routine.

A burst of rifle fire forced Firefly into cover. She slammed into an open hatch in her bid to avoid certain death. The bullets pinged off the thick metal harmlessly, but by the time Firefly had peeked out again to track her opponent, he had vanished. She could have sworn a thousand curses, but the telltale sound of talons on the grating of a ladder gave away the assassin’s position. Firefly dashed to the end of the corridor and with a powerful flap of her wings, launched herself up through the overhead hatch.

Anticipating another spray of bullets, Firefly rolled hard out of the hatch, diving down a side corridor as she burst into the intersection from below. As expected, the fusillade tore through the air where her head and neck had been mere moments before, bullets dinging off the far hatch. Firefly followed the muzzle flash back around the corner, snapping off a burst with her repeater before resuming her pursuit.

“Timberwolf, this is Dispatch. The starboard auxiliary hangar is locked down tight. All exterior hatches other than those leading to the hangar have been sealed.”

“Good. Get corpsmares and an arcane ops detail to the hangar. If this guy turns out not to be a griffon, I want to be ready for it!”

Firefly wasn’t about to rule out a changeling infiltrator. In fact, she was almost hoping for it. It was far easier to attribute the betrayal to a shapeshifting gun for hire than someone who had willingly shot them in the back. Whatever he was, he deserved a bullet to the head.

Just like Skywind.

The whisper of her darker thoughts nearly made her choke in mid-run. She knew in her head that Skywind didn’t deserve death. A good beating perhaps, or a thorough thrashing from the brass to knock him off his pedestal were both acceptable; something to show him he was just a regular pony like everyone else. But in the back of her head, the thoughts of killing him outright persisted.

FOCUS! She screamed in her own head. There was too much at stake for her to afford distraction.

Finally, the corridor terminated in the upper level of the starboard hangar. The work crews had abandoned it in the wake of the lockdown, leaving only the husks of half-finished runabouts and ARC ships on the hangar floor. Firefly dashed in, slamming the hatch behind.

“Just you and me now, asshole,” she growled under her breath.

Firefly vaulted the railing of the upper level, gliding into the nearest piece of cover, an ARC ship that rested on its port side. Her breaths came louder than she’d wanted them to, her pounding heartbeat drowning out any signs of the assassin's movements. She jerked her head to the left at the clatter of metal. The griffon was changing mags.

Immediately, she peeked from cover, zeroing in on a flash of movement behind one of the ships. The gunsight pipper slid over her target. Firefly tapped the trigger, firing off a quick burst. Purple tracers skittered across armor plate and the hangar floor. The griffon bolted from his hiding place, snapping off two shots as he flew. Firefly ducked behind the ship’s hull to block fire. She then repositioned, clambering up onto the deck of another inactive ARC ship and posting up behind an armored deck shield.

“Timberwolf, this is Dispatch,” the radio operator’s voice crackled over the airwaves. “I have marines on standby and the requested medical and arcanist teams ready to breach the hangar.”

“Hold your forces, Dispatch. Sending everypony in would just give him a window to escape in the chaos. Secure the perimeter and lock the door behind me! I’ll handle this.”

“Understood, Timberwolf. Good luck.”

“Firefly, we might have something.” Eastwind’s voice cut in immediately after the dispatcher signed off.

“Go.”

“Rafale pulled the guy’s files. His name is Anderson Steelfeather. Lance Corporal. Did three tours in Indrek with Marine Special Tactics Group. He has a history of infractions with both the Aquellian Marines and the Alliance fleet.”

“Disgruntled bad egg?” Sunburst said.

“This isn’t right.” Firefly’s eyes narrowed. She kept her voice to a whisper. “There’s no way this can be a coincidence.”

“We’ll find out more when we interrogate him,” Rafale said. “Bring him back alive.”

“Wouldn’t you usually say in one piece?” Sunburst cracked.

“I don’t care how many pieces as long as he lives. Rafale, out.”

“Harsh,” Thunderlane muttered before the radio cut out.

The brief respite that seeking cover brought gave Firefly time to begin formulating a plan, or at least considering it. Steelfeather was trapped. The hangar was locked down tight and there were marines with rifles pointed at every possible exit. Unless his benefactors pulled a big damn heroes moment and peeled open the external blast doors, there was no way he was getting off the ship.

Unless he didn’t plan on escaping.

Her thoughts raced. Was there a bomb? Another unit of infiltrators? Some sort of sabotage on board ship?

The click of talons on metal echoed through the hangar. The noise was different, not the solid clanks of armor plate, but the muted clicks of metal spars above. The gantry! Firefly leaped from superstructure to superstructure, galloping over armor panels and radio masts until she reached the catwalks above. Her breaths came heavy in the musty air thick with the smell of old grease and warm electronics.

Green tracers lanced out of the shadows. Firefly threw herself from the gantry, falling over the side of the catwalk to avoid the incoming shots. A flap of her wings launched her back up from the other side of the catwalk. In mid-roll, she snapped off a burst from her repeater into the darkness before alighting back on the walkway.

A surprised squawk burst from the shadows. First the clatter of metal on metal rang out as he dropped his rifle. Steelfeather’s form flailed wildly, claws scrabbling at metal as he attempted to right himself. But it was in vain. He lost his balance and fell from the gantry.

We need him alive! The directive flashed in Firefly’s head as she dove over the edge. She streaked through the hangar, her hooves barely catching the fallen griffon before he hit the deck. Firefly grabbed hold of him, rotating to put her body between the griffon and the deck. The wind exploded out of her lungs as her back met cold metal.

For a moment, all was still.

“Remind me never to do that again...” Firefly groaned.

Suddenly, Steelfeather jumped to his feet. Firefly’s eyes darted to his destination. The griffon’s rifle lay just meters away. She whirled her hind legs around, sweeping out the griffon’s legs from under him before using the momentum to snap herself back on her hooves. Steelfeather stabilized himself on wing, drawing his sword bayonet as he spun.

Aquellian steel flashed in front of Firefly, the polished edge sweeping a hair’s breadth away from her muzzle. Firefly slipped backwards on wing and hoof, flipping out her own knife as she evaded the griffon’s strike. A power flap launched her back toward her foe. Her adamantite blade lashed out in a counterattack aimed at Steelfeather’s face.

CLANG.

Metal met metal as as Steelfeather intercepted the strike with the flat of his blade. He followed up with a kick to Firefly’s chest that opened her guard for the thrust that immediately followed. Firefly parried, driving the tip of Steelfeather’s blade past her chest and into the deck.

Her off hoof cracked the griffon across the face. Following through, Firefly wheeled around on wing and hoof, grappling Steelfeather’s neck with her hind legs. She gave a sharp twist, yanking his paws and claws off the ground and smashing his head into the deck.

The sword clattered to the ground. Firefly kicked it away and brought her blade to Steelfeather’s throat. “Give it up! You’re done!”

The griffon was having none of it. In a flash, both wings shot up from the ground and slammed together on either side of Firefly’s head. The sudden pop in her ears and a vicious punch to the throat sent Firefly reeling backwards, gasping for breath.

She was vulnerable. She hated being vulnerable. The surge of furious adrenaline purged the disorientation from her head, allowing her gaze to zero in on the escaping griffon. Steelfeather was just a few steps ahead, making a break for his rifle.

Firefly’s repeater beeped ready. She sighted in and fired. Steelfeather cried out. His rifle slipped from his claws and spun away, out of reach, the weapon’s front grip and the griffon’s forearm both sporting smoking holes from the unearthly heat of magical bolts.

The tang of heated metal mixed with the sickly odor of burned flesh. But Steelfeather was still standing. He drew his knife from his combat vest with his good arm, opening his wings and throwing himself at Firefly with a wild battle cry.

Firefly crossed her front hooves, catching Steelfeather’s knife arm in her wrists and attempting to wrest control of the blade from her opponent. The griffon gave a quick flap of his wings, using Firefly’s front legs as a pivot to swing his leg straight into her chest. Anticipating the counter-strike, Firefly flexed her abdominal muscles and pushed forward to catch the attack on hardened muscle instead of exposed flesh.

She twisted her body around, threatening to snap Steelfeather’s wrist if he didn’t follow. Follow he did, spinning axially along with Firefly. A flap of her wings put Firefly above her quarry.

She slammed her hind hooves into Steelfeather’s stomach, sending him plummeting to the ground. Her finishing blow aimed at his neck was turned aside at the last moment by a jab from Steelfeather’s knife. The griffon’s lion tail suddenly lashed at her face from behind.

Firefly curse as her eyes snapped shut at the sudden assault. She disengaged, somersaulting backwards and landing back on her hooves. She shook her head and blinked several times to clear the sting of hair from her eyes. In the split second she had paused, the griffon was upon her.

Steelfeather’s blade was a blur. Firefly wove in and out of whirling steel interspersed with sweeping kicks and flashing feathers. Even with only one good arm, Steelfeather moved as if he had no handicap. Every one of Firefly’s attacks was viciously riposted and every defense rapidly circumvented.

Suddenly, a thought struck Firefly. She slipped backward ever so slightly, goading Steelfeather to follow with a quick jab. The griffon roared and lunged forward, knife poised to lance into Firefly’s chest. She grinned. The bird had taken the bait.

Firefly shifted to her right ever so slightly, catching the knife between her uniform and her combat harness. The blade bit into cloth and shallow flesh, but Firefly forced her way forward nonetheless. She slammed her forehead into Steelfeather’s head, momentarily stunning him.

Her repeater whirred as its turbopumps spooled. Snarling viciously, Firefly jammed the repeater barrel into Steelfeather’s leg and fired. The griffon screeched in agony.

Firefly hit him again with a quick jab of her off hoof before grabbing him by the arm. The joint cracked as she forced a hyperextension and threw him over her shoulder to the ground. Even in his current state, Steelfeather fought back. His good leg with claws extended swept at Firefly’s hooves, forcing her back once again. Skittering down the deck on wing, Firefly gritted her teeth and fired.

More aether bolts seared her target. Smoking lesions spread across the griffon’s remaining good arm. Steelfeather roared in anguish, the pain forcing him to drop his last weapon.

The griffon’s head fell backwards in defeat, striking the deck as labored breaths blew from his nostrils. Firefly fired one last burst, the aether bolts striking the knife, sending it skittering across the deck, out of reach of the wounded griffon.

“C’mon,” he rasped through labored breaths. “Finish the job.”

“If you wanted to die that quickly, that’s all the more reason to keep you alive,” Firefly growled. She cautiously approached, weapon remaining sighted in before shouting down to her quarry. “Lance Corporal Steelfeather! This place is locked down tight! You’re badly wounded and whoever put you up to this has left you behind! You’re coming with me!”

“That’s not an option!”

“Oh really?” Firefly scoffed. “Get up, then! Try and fight me in your current state! And after you do that, you can shoot your way through that platoon of marines that are going to come pouring into this hangar and blast your way through a meter of pyrium-reinforced armored blast door!”

Steelfeather’s eyes darted around the hangar, first to the blast door, then to the sealed hatches, then to Firefly. The determined scowl of an expert marine vanished for a split second, replaced by a grimace of dread. Firefly pounced.

“The Talons aren’t coming to save you, Steelfeather,” she growled. “Just come quietly and don’t tempt me to put a hole through your head.”

“I never wanted this, commander. I never wanted any of this!”

“Then why did you do it?” The griffon rapidly averted his gaze at Firefly’s glower. “Why did you shoot him?”

“I can’t tell you!” he blurted.

If she were certain of his infirmity, Firefly would have leaped forward and broken his beak with her bare hooves. However, she still bore the marks of the previous fight, a fight full of surprises. Even with Steelfeather’s current injuries, she wasn’t about to put herself in reach while she still had the upper hoof.

“Bullshit!” Firefly snarled, her weapon remaining trained on Steelfeather’s head. “Why are you really here, Steelfeather? What have you done?”

The griffon rolled his head to the side and looked down at the deck, muttering, “I can’t tell you.”

“You’re lying! Who are you working for, Steelfeather? How many more holes do I have to burn into you to get you to talk?”

“You don’t understand!” He suddenly shouted, wide-eyed, finally snapping his gaze to meet Firefly’s own. “I can’t tell you! I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!”

Firefly involuntarily recoiled. There was something off about Steelfeather. Those weren’t the words of a radical, a traitor, or infiltrator. Those were words of desperation, desperation bordering on madness.

“Are you getting this, Rafale?” Firefly said into the radio.

“We are recording everything. Bring him in, commander.”

“Please shoot me.” Steelfeather pleaded. “Just do it, commander. Kill me with dignity and end this.”

“You know I can’t do that, Steelfeather.”

“If you won’t do it then I will!” Anderson moved his injured arm, howling at the pain through gritted teeth, and pulled a grenade from his combat vest, keeping it close to his chest. He yanked the pin with his beak, but did not yet allow the spoon to fall.

“What are you doing, Steelfeather?” Firefly kept her weapon trained on the griffon, half-expecting him to throw it right at her.

The pin clattered to the deck.

“You don’t have any idea how it feels!” Barely restrained hysteria tore at the edges of his voice. “Not being able to talk! Not being able to think!”

Not being able to talk. Not being able to think. Over and over, the words echoed in her head. They resonated, the echoes fusing into one vicious standing wave that quickly subsumed all other thoughts.

Fear. Hate. Self-loathing. They were all things that Firefly had felt, all feelings she’d locked away and tried to burn to ash, only for them to surface again when she’d needed them gone. Steelfeather was no sadistic psychopath. He was no stone-cold hired gun. Steelfeather was her.

All of the pieces fell into place. She didn’t need to memorize the file to guess from where the disciplinary issues stemmed. Indrek was a horrible and unnecessary war for the griffons. Naval Academy had drilled into Firefly that history showed it to be a mistake of the greatest magnitude. Surely the scars of Indrek still burned in Steelfeather’s mind, scars that kept him from falling in line back home.

Firefly had dealt with disciplinary issues before; hell she had been the disciplinary issues before. Steelfeather didn’t have some ace in the hole. He was running scared. Something had happened here, something that drove him to do what he did against his will.

Against all of her training, Firefly powered down her repeater and lifted her goggles. Her tone softened substantially. “How do I help you, Anderson?”

“Eight. Four. Nine. Two.” He whispered tersely, as if someone were listening in over his shoulder.

“What is that?”

“I can’t tell you.”

It was clearly a code of some sort, perhaps a passphrase or encryption key. Firefly didn’t know, but Steelfeather wouldn’t -- or couldn’t -- tell her. Still, it was a start.

“Anderson,” she said as she approached slowly with extended hoof. “I’m going to bring you in. I’m make sure you have security and we’re going to get to the bottom of this. Together. Okay? I have medical and arcane ops teams on standby. They can help you! Just put the pin back and come with me!”

“I’ve already said all I can. I’m a dead griff either way. I’m sorry, commander, but it has to end here. If you won’t kill me, then you leave me no choice.” With a ragged and resigned sigh, the tired griffon dropped the spoon. Firefly scrambled backwards and dove for cover.

Thunder consumed the hangar.

Firefly struggled to stand, her ears still ringing. The physical trauma of the blast wave quickly passed. But the shock of what she had just witnessed still clung to her with icy claws.

“Timberwolf, SITREP!”

It took Firefly a moment before she could clear her head enough to speak. “Dispatch, situation FUBAR. Get medical in here on the double!”

“Are you wounded, ma’am?”

“Minimal injury.” Firefly stepped out from behind the hull of the ship she had hidden behind and immediately grimaced at the scene. “But our boy Steelfeather? Not so much.”

Author's Notes:

So I lied. This was a shorter chapter because the scene split was easier to put over a chapter than in the middle. The interlude that is supposed to follow will be rolled into a proper chapter. Also it allows me to get content out faster without having to wait to massage everything into place.

Musical Index
AC: Assault Horizon Legacy - Intruder
AC: Assault Horizon Legacy - Zone of Endless