open Celestial Conquest: Equestria Fallen

[Salacious B. Crumb 13]

Inky hovered out of the bar, passing by a grey stallion with a target for a cutie mark. "Assassin," he said to himself, "or maybe a hunter." He laughed, remembering the big game hunters that would come to his former home, looking to blast some hydra's brains out. "Home..." He missed it. And he was tired of seeing the equines cheer on they're leader. He looked over, and saw The Mantis was still running. "Why not?" And with that, he started the relatively long journey through the parking lot. He passed another gray colt, except this one had an orange mane. "Hey, didn't he have some purple pony with him?" he asked himself. He shrugged it off. He'd probably bump into her sometime soon.

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Smart Flank glanced at the clock by his workstation; only 25 minutes remained. But he of all people knew that that was enough time for one pony to fire a shot, for a Zebrayik extremist to crash a passing passenger liner into Canterlot Castle. There was never a right time to let your guard down when it came to security.

 

He continued scanning the crowd for that spaceship thief from earlier using the CCTV's face recognition, struggling to find anypony marked with a criminal record in the sea of faces. Until... There! By the entrance to the central spaceport!

 

The pony's face was highlighted with red, branches coming off his face specifying date of birth, name and even blood type for forensics to reference. There was only a forename available: Usaf.

 

Once again, he reached for his security radio and held it to his mouth. "Team 3, new task, we have a pony making a swift exit at the central spaceport. Engage and arrest for later interrogation on grounds of suspected robbery, over."

 

"We're on it." The team leader's somewhat exasperated voice responded, and Smart Flank watched on as the guilty stallion continued his escape.

 

@@irobern2857

 

[TheBreech 91]

Cosmo frowned, and despite being busy concealing the dead snipers they'd killed, his mood was bad enough for Tiamat to notice his concern. She asked, "Cosmo what are upset for? That's assassin #3. We're doing great!" Cosmo smirked at her enthusiasim but wasn't able to relax. "Yes, but that means three would be assassins the regular security missed. We still need to check out that bandit group over Drakor-7 remember? If the regular security can't deal with these guys..." Tiamat walked over and hugged him, telling him, "They missed these three because we got them first. Only an assassin could catch these guys as quickly as we did. But they still weren't even close to a targeting position. Sercurity isn't as good as us, but they've kept the Princesses safe so far. You can chill out and help me over here."

Cosmo smiled, only Tiamat could make him relax like that. He helped position the bodies so that anyone who found them would find the note first, and remain calm when they saw the dead changlings. Cosmo threw a tarpe over them and left a message to the Royal guards and one for any potential civillians. He conclued by marking his symbol, and Midnight blue sword with the words, "For Princess Luna," written in white ink. Cosmo wouldn't swear alligence to anypony, but his considered the CoE to be the best faction present in the galactic war and he supported them in ways like this, using his training as a former assassin to act as a guardian angel, eliminating enemies of the Coalition before they grew to become threats. It wasn't much, but it was his way, serve the light from the shadows.

Edited January 18, 2013 by TheBreech

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

Though he was confused, he shrugged off the odd stranger and decided to go meet Axel. As he approached the spaceport, trying to look discreet while carrying all of his tools and supplies, He noticed a suspicious stranger (Usaf) walking in the same direction. He also noticed that security was narrowing in on this stranger from afar. Something was up.

[irobern2857 95]

Usaf continued walking oblivius to the tail until he spotted another pony fro the cantina that had been speaking to the others.

Ok. Not coincidence anymore.

Usaf was about to walk over to the other pony when Usaf noticed that along with looking at him he was watching a group of ponies be hind Usaf. 

"BUCK!" Usaf snarled to himself. Then into his communicator he said "Simmons I got a tail, I need a distraction so I don't lead them to the ship."

 

"Same thing we did on Rammus?"

 

"Ya that should work just make it louder this time."

 

"Got it."

Thirty seconds latter a Flare gun went off on the outskirts of Canterlot with the same sound as a 50 caliber rifle. The flare sailed high over the main square.

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

He saw the stranger whisper something into his comm unit, and then a loud crack could be heard  in the distance. The guards dived down for safety. Then they all looked in the direction of the noise hesitantly. Some ran off towards the sound. Meanwhile the crowd panicked, running all about, yelling.

 

At first he was shocked like the others, but then he realized. "A distraction...He' s good," he thought to himself. He continued to tail this stranger through the chaos. He may be useful later.

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Smart Flank wached the flare detonate over the square, momentarily blinding his cameras. The situation was escalating quickly; he had to act fast.

 

He reached for the radio, keying in the frequency shared by every security team that'd been allocated to the event. "Teams 2 and 4, move in to central square to back up Team 3, we have weapon discharge, target is confirmed as hostile, shoot to disable. If target fights back, I don't give a buck what you do with him, just take him down!"

 

Two "Roger that"s later he looked up at the rest of the security centre. It was chaos. Of course he hadn't been the only one to see the flare, everyone else had cameras too. He tended to forget that.

 

He saw multiple stallions shouting down their radios, and he figured they were doing something similar to himself. Unless this "Usaf" had an army, he was in for one hell of a day.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Archi

[irobern2857 95]

Usaf and Simmons meet back up at the entrance to the Summanus.

"Good joob Simmons but now we got to go. FILIS dis engage security and open the ramp."

"Yes Sir"

 

when the ramp lowered Usaf handed the drinks to Simmions who loaded them in the cargo storage. Usaf then went to the pilots seat and began the pre-flight. Simmons returned to the gunner seat on the top of the ship.

 

"FILIS status of the ship?"

 

"Ready to fly at any time."

 

"Good. Simmions you see anyone coming?"

 

"Not yet sir."

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

As Usaf entered his ship, DeadEye had positioned himself under the ship. He took out a spherical glowing device, pulled a string from it with his teeth, and stuck it to the ship. He then got out from under the ship, walking away, looking as inconspicuous as possible. This captain may be a useful ally in the future, if not an enemy, so keeping track of him is important. The device would also allow him to contact the ship by tapping into their communication frequency if he wanted. He began to look for Axel.

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Smart Flank watched on, his face contorted with rage as the criminal made his escape.

 

"CELESTIA DAMN IT!" he screamed aloud, pounding the desk three times with his right hoof. How could this happen? Of all the little...

 

He took a breath to calm himself. The stallion hadn't been here to harm Celestia, he was sure of that now. It angered him to let a criminal escape, but it was no big deal. Celestia's safety was the highest priority; petty criminals could wait.

 

But something else was happening on screen, and that stallion who'd given him the file earlier was once again the focus of his attention as he slapped some sort of device to the bottom of Usaf's ship. What was this guy's stake? Did he have some kind of obsession with sinister and clandestine acts? 

 

The stallion was now walking away from the ship, and as he did so Smart Flank noticed a dim red glow from the ship's underbelly. Was that a tracker? Hmm... maybe he could find the frequency?

 

"Let him go," a small voice at the back of his head said, and he obeyed it. He'd stressed enough today, and while it was all worth it to serve the Royal Sisters, he frankly had no energy left at all for anything other than watching the cameras.

[Colt 555]

The wild chaos at Canterlot was a terrible sight that boasted chaos on every corner.  A weird mixture of conflicts and celebrations could be seen on from the Ragnarok’s main deck as the ship approached to the docks incrusted on the mountain.  

 

“Not a lot has changed uh?” said Cid with a sarcastic voice.

 

“You sound more and more like an old cranky fellow Cid, relax or did you really believed things would change after just 10 years?” said the dragon picking over the unicorn nerves. The maintained officer sighed and sat on his station as the ship went inside the docking area… royal docking area.

 

As soon as the crew was able to see the pathways leading from the docks to inside the castle a battalion of royal troopers came to “greet” the Ragnarock entrance. The military unit surrounded the ships exit hatches and cargo bay making the unicorn smile.

 

“HAHA pay now you fool of a dragon, a full unit fully armed waiting to say hi with their barrels, 200 credbits please ”.

 

Colt went to the main exit hatch smiling to his friend “Yeah yeah Illl pay… Ill go out fist… if they shoot on sight take your leaves by any means”

 

“WHAT” “DA BUCK” Northern Star and Brown Brown scream “Are you buking out of…”

 

“THAT’S and order crew.” He interrupted them. With this the dragon opened the hatch and walked to the not very friendly royal troopers.

[Salacious B. Crumb 13]

Inky Brick was still on his way to The Mantis when he heard what sounded like a gunshot. He looked up and to the right and saw a red flare in the sky and panicking crowds. He also spied the same black stallion he had seen earlier, trotting away from some ship. "Azalus dopa-meeky karking loca murishani." he whispered to himself. "I need to get a crewmate. Like a buffalo." he thought, "I talk and think to myself way to much." 

[irobern2857 95]

Usaf and the rest of his crew took off from the space port and did a quick flight twords Appalusa just to shake any possible tails then flew straight into a cloud and stopped useing his scanners he checked the surrounding area for any signs of a following craft. After seeing none he turned the ship around and flew back twords Canterlot. Being carful to avoid any conntact with ships or Canterlot airspace, he flew his ship back down on to the mountain overlooking the city.

 

 

"Ok now we can see how this all works out with out being spoted by every guard in the city." Usaf thought out loud.

Edited January 22, 2013 by irobern2857

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

He finally found Axel by his ship with the purple stranger from before. "Is she the new computer operator?" he asked, setting his things on the ground. He kept an eye out for any guards. After what had happened with Usaf, security was crazy, and he didn't want to get caught now. They should leave as soon as possible.

Edited January 22, 2013 by MelancholicMemory

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Finally, it seemed the speech was drawing to an end, with Celestia starting her closing statements about following the Six Tenets of Harmoy, as demonstrated by the Six Saints, and how by following their example the Coalition and the Federation could once again co-exist. The audience seemed to have calmed down somewhat though; perhaps after nothing else followed up the flare they figured that nothing was up anymore.

 

"Funny, I could've sworn she said reunification was impossible earlier," he thought to himself. Perhaps Celestia had changed her mind? He'd heard it muttered outside the Ministry that Celestia wasn't wholly sane as a result of many millenia of ruling. He even recalled hearing that Luna's cool and calculating personality was all keeping her in check these days.

 

But she didn't look insane, and the few times he'd seen her wondering the surveillance centre she'd seemed perfectly stable. On the rare occassions he'd heard her speak outside of a speech it'd been in a very moderate and professional tone. The citizens of Equestria really did come up with quite some rumors these days.

 

Back on the monitor, Celestia's head was bowed and the crowd was silent for a few seconds until she uttered a quiet "thank you" into her microphone, causing the audience to burst into glorious applause. His coworkers were on the outside the same as always, but he saw small smiles creep onto some of their faces and knew they were feeling exactly what he felt; the feeling of a job well done.

 

"Right, that's all for today," the supervisor announced "Go home and get some proper rest. We still have things to do in the aftermath."

 

Smart Flank gave a small sigh as he stood and left the CISC, escaping into the streets of Canterlot's gleaming megalopolis. He made his way to his apartment in a shiny high-rise building, and collapsed on the bed.

 

But then he looked down at the file in his hooves and remembered that he had other work to do...

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

After the flare, guards were scattering like ants in a chaotic panic, not willing to take any risks in the defense of their monarch. A group of these crazed guards spotted a group of suspicious individuals (Cosmo's group), and called out, "Hey! Get over here!"

 

Meanwhile, others scanned for Usaf's ship all over the place. Just as the speech had come to an end, they found a ship on the mountains overlooking the city, though their scanners could not identify it's exact identity. They immediately dispatched a team of soldiers to identify the ship, and dispose of them if they were Usaf's crew. They arrived shorty thereafter, calling out with weapons in hand, "Come out of the vehicle, and get on the ground!"

 

The leader of the guards who were confronting the crew of the Ragnarok said to his crew in a hushed voice, "The second he pays, open fire. We can't have a dragon here."

 

DeadEye and Axel's conversation was interrupted as a group of guards confronted a dragon and his crew. A dragon? DeadEye thought to himself. He chuckled for a moment. "Hold on, Axel. I have to go make some friends," he said with a cocky, sarcastic inflection. He stalked off behind the guards, meeting the dragon's gaze with a little nod. He walked up behind the leader of the guards, taking out his titanium tomahawk inconspicuously, before hitting him over the head with the blunt end. The guards panicked. One tried to shoot him, but DeadEye deflected he beam with his weapon, right at another one of the troops, before taking out the attacker. Hopefully, the dragon wont take advantage of the situation and run away. They better help! he thought.

[irobern2857 95]

Usaf looked at the soldiars standing outside the ship then back at his crew. "Do they really think that small arms will make us leave the ship?"

 

"No they are probably thinking that your a saint and fallow all the rules." jeered Simmons

 

"Sir logic dictates that it would be ideal to launch and fly to another location then to engage with the officers." stated FILIS

 

"Yeah it's getting a little to hot in Canterlot. FILIS take us up above the clouds then set a heading for Ponyville. Oh and put all shield power in the underside shields. I don't want a dent in my ship from some trigger happy guard."

 

"Yes, Sir"

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

The second the ship began taking off, said trigger- happy guards opened fire, aiming for anything on the ship that seemed sensitive or important. "It's them," one called out, "Call for reinforcements! Scramble some ships to go after them."

 

At these orders, another soldier started barking commands into his comm-unit. They wouldn't get away that easily.

 

Three fighter ships launched out of Canterlot and gave chase.

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

As things on the perimeter of Canterlot began to heat up, Smart Flanks was busy scanning for open ports in the servers he had worked on for years. He would be venturing through familiar file pathways and breaking through firewalls he himself had fixed. If it weren't for the fact that he worked in the Ministry he doubted he'd be able to manage even a port scan without setting off a multitude of IP detectors and viruses.

 

The computer beeped as the scan finished. Serial numbers for menial things such as interstellar trade and national GDP that were most often handled by one of the Ministry's sub-divisions, the Ministry of Statistics and Finance, were eveywhere. He highly doubted the information his "friend" was looking for would be anywhere here.

 

5 minutes of searching later and he had reached some of the more interesting database servers. Intelligence Agent registries, covert ops, and the server he was looking for; Tactical, one of the most secure folders a pony could try to penetrate.

 

This would be tricky indeed. He remembered working on Tatical firewalls last year, but he had no idea what changes he had made now when it mattered most of all.

 

He brought a hoof to his chin and tapped it thoughtfully. Perhaps if he used a proxy to simulate a clumsy attack from several other computers. Yes, Distributed Denial of Service, while unrefined, was a very useful method if one sought to appear weak and distract a system's security, if only for a moment.

 

Soon enough the proxy was set up, replacing his own IP with not one but several in order to emulate a botnet attack. He hoped the poor saps whose IPs he'd stolen didn't lose their heads for this.

 

He commenced his attack on several unimportant files at once, then shut down the proxy and quickly entered the Tactical files. He waited to be assaulted by numerous pop-ups and viruses... But none appeared. Flawless victory.

 

Now he was essentially free to do as he pleased, although whoever had changed the modifications he had made ought to be shot. He checked every file, numerous forms of tactical data including fleet movements and redeployments. But one file of them all stood out.

 

It showed the positions of Coalition forces on the western front, but what was disturbing was the amount of forces present; there were practically none. The last he'd heard publically of the western front was when the Changelings launched a major offensive, which was only held back due to the intervention of the southern fleets near the galactic core. Since then he'd been led to believe the west had been secured, and since it had been quiet there recently it seemed the Changelings thought so too.

 

Now he saw what his co-conspirator meant; if the Changelings knew about this, they would move in and wipe the entire Coalition out. And since the Changelings could be anyone, go anywhere, do anything without anyone knowing, if the Changelings wised up they could very easily get their hands on this little gem.

 

He lookd in the folder for contact details, and found a frequency for what he supposed was his co-conspirator's radio. He picked up his own personal radio, keyed in the frequency and held it to is mouth.

 

"Is this the military officer?" he asked as he watched the file downloading to his hard drive "I think I've got my hooves on those files you wanted."

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

In DeadEye's ship, the answering machine glowed into life. Smart Flank was interuppted as a cold, robotic female voice began to speak.

 

"Hello, if you are calling this number, it means you have had an encounter with a mysterious black stallion and are looking to contact him.

If you want compensation for destroyed property, press 1.

If you have uncovered a secret plot to overthrow Celestia press 2.

If you are looking to leave a threat or curse-ridden complaint, press 3 to be put on a waiting list.

For employment related issues, press 4.

If I know you personally, press 5.

If you have uncovered secret information which could change the fate of the universe, press 6 to be wired to my personal line.

 

Thank you for your patience!"

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Smart Flank pressed six on the radio. From what he'd been told this information could probably classify as "universe-changing". Although he found it a tad odd that the stallion had an answering machine for calls concening the fate of the universe. Was he some self-styled guardian of the universe?

 

He sat and waited patiently for the call to transfer, spinning in his chair nonchalantly.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Archi

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

DeadEye continued to fight off the guards, headbutting one, grabbing his blaster, and using it  as a club to hit another guard over the head. Suddenly, his comm-unit went off. He pushed the button quickly, still fighting off guards. "Hello? This better be important!"

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

On the other end of the radio there seemed to be some vicious fighting going on, and he heard what sounded like a gun splintering over somepony's head.

 

"Yeah, like I said, I've got those files you wanted." he said, and added "You sound like you're having some trouble there, where are you?

[MelancholicMemory 2,025]

"Trouble? No, no, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about," he began, taking another guard's blaster and shooting him in the foot as he cried out in pain. "Its all just routine stuff, really," he continued, hitting another guard over the head with the flat of his tomahawk, and using him as a human shield to protect against several energy blasts. He then pushed this guard into his allies, knocking them all to the ground. "Send the files to the place I specified in the folder. In the meantime, give me the short version of what you found."

Edited January 27, 2013 by MelancholicMemory

[Blitz 127]

Purplepower looked around confused as chaos suddenly erupted all around. "What the hay....?" She said to herself, trying to decern what was happening. Good grief I know Canterlot is chaotic but this can't be normal.....

(OOC: sorry I haven't been able to post in a while really busy)