Chapters
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About one hour before Event...First Lieutenant Oscar Reyes stood on the edge of the loading gantry of the Albatross Semiautonomous Heavy Carrier. The sun had set less than an hour ago, leaving enough of a glow for him to still see some of the vastly expanded mine infrastructure. What had been only a few dozen slowly rusting buildings a few years ago had changed enormously since he'd started making these runs. Well over a billion dollars had been spent here in almost total secrecy, as it had in dozens of…-
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"It's wrong," Jackie said, staring down at the little strip of cloth and plastic levitating in Ezri's magic. Two more sat beside her on the bathroom counter, each one with two dark lines in the white fabric. "It has to be wrong. It's obviously, stupidly wrong."Ezri levitated the last test down beside the others. She was currently taller than Jackie, or at least this version of her was, with reddish fur and a greenish mane. She was a unicorn currently, though since she was also a male now that wasn't the…
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“I don’t understand this, cousin! Every year the Union grows more oppressive, its ponies more enslaved. Yet our spies return with this.” The Sargon was a griffon, just like the rest of the imperial house. He was nearly a foot taller than her, one of the largest ponies she knew.Jackie stared down at the table, and the sheaf of black-and-white photographs the Sargon had brought into her office. They’d been taken on the eight-millimeter that was the very best of their day, capturing surprising detail.…
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“It’s the smallest nuclear device ever constructed,” Sargon Antonio Engels finished. “Smaller than anything that was imagined a decade ago. Small enough that even the NAU will not suspect it.”Jackie looked over the case on the table in front of her—a briefcase, slightly bulging and metallic, with sturdy hinges and an oversized lock. But it was open, and she could see the mechanism of nuclear death before her.It was cruder than anything that would’ve been constructed in the last cold war, back…
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They say that in the battle for Datong, whole nations died. Songs often tell that sacred story—of the brave who gave their lives after Earth’s rightful protectors had been struck down. Many remembered that day in their songs, pouring drink or blood into the sand to pay their respects. Time was the end of pain, and for all that battle eventually became a distant memory, it’s wounds healed.All but one.In some ways, Jackie was the oldest pony now living. She had not spent long years dead, or grown in…
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There was much to say about the battle. Yet it was doomed, and they all knew it. Even as their soldiers marched to the field, with every defensive preparation that could be made. Even as they slaughtered thousands of the enemy’s disgusting spawn without losing a dozen men. There was no victory here, only an extension of the time it would take until the end.Yet something had changed about the enemy, something Jackie could not immediately explain. They didn’t fight as intelligently as they had years ago,…
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“That’s it, Joe.” Archive was bloody, weary, and broken. She had healed so many wounds that she no longer had the magic left to spare. She had seen so many ponies die that she couldn’t abide the pain anymore. She wanted to lie down on the stone of Mundi and give up. Charybdis would sweep over them and consume all that she loved, but at least she could rest. “That’s it.”Joseph’s workshop used the same design it had back in ancient Alexandria—a university closer to its original namesake in…
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Archive passed outside the inner gate with a quick teleport. She wore the fine white armor Athena had created for her, carried Athena’s mightiest weapons. But the AI’s best tools were nothing compared to the one worn around her neck. She could sense its attention about her even now, whispering to her how easy death would be. Joseph had not realized the extent of what he had created—not a mere tool, but an intelligent thing, shouting its demands at her. If she would not obey it, then it wanted at…
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Charybdis came. The outer fortress had already lost most of its fortifications—the gates were already torn down, sections of wall had been reduced to rubble. There was no way to hold them all, and few weapons that could hit them at range anyway. Some soldiers had bows, or javelins, and the Romans had brought some of their siege weapons, but that was it. Even if nopony in the whole base ever missed, they would run out of projectiles a long time before Charybdis ran out of soldiers.Archive saw most of it…
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Archive had to stoop as she made her way out of the housing block. She was vaguely conscious of the lights popping and exploding with magic as she passed, overwhelmed by the energy surging through her. But she didn’t really care—her silted eyes could’ve seen in total darkness.Besides, it was noon outside. Even under the witch-light of necromancy, her troops would be able to see just fine.Archive could no longer see the difference between the embodied dead marshalling in the streets and the spectral…
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