A/N: Well, I've decided. I'm never working on this again…

Just kidding, though writing it is becoming more laborious than previously expected. Bad news, I'm currently enrolled in a college English class in which there will be LOTS of reading and writing… of essays; so instead of helping, it's hurting the progress of the story. I'll see if I can work around it or something. Next, modeling a Paris-class heavy frigate in detail using a combination of blender and google sketchup is HARD. Good thing though, it's almost done and when it is, a CG pic or animation will be posted on deviant and/or youtube. Secondly, if you hadn't seen it up before, I posted another drawing on deviantart a while back. I mean a WHILE back. My sister drew it. Finally, I'm going to stop promising these chapters in a given time period. I obviously suck at keeping a schedule. Well, onto review responses.

Skullcrusher206: Well, that was a rant. I feel your pain. Some classes in school can be a drag and feel like it's useless , but it's necessary. Just look at me. I've survived 12 years of it and still have college to go. Now about the battle, I mean give Michael some credit. He's traveled between multiple universes and seen more in a week than probably anyone has seen in a lifetime. Thank you as well. Happy REALLY late Hearth's warming, a late New Year, and every other day we've passed!

ShiningShadow1965: Yep, and that continues in the beginning of this chapter, mainly because I'm too lazy to go add it to the end of the last. I'm not sure Twilight could get Star strapped down. Also, thank you again for a positive review.

Mooneyboys: I don't know! I'm a hypocrite really. I hate cliffhangers, but I write them in my story. Shame on me. Thank you as well!

Major Simi: Well, not a date. He's still unsure how far the feelings run, like if it's a close friendship or is it love. That'll be resolved later. Thanks!

Apollyon602: Thanks as well! Lots of trouble later hopefully. Sorry for worrying you. I don't have any intentions on just stopping, and if I did, I would say something about it. I will keep it up.

RenaTamer: Well, the way I hope I can get the story to go, it will be some time story wise before they figure out, though they will have their suspicions. Also, nice Spaceballs reference there, got to love Mell Brooks.

Wwrig18: Thanks! I thought I was getting a bit rough with writing pace, so many more thanks.

Well, once again I manage to waste about whole page and 300 words. Time to hit the story!

Disclaimer: These disclaimers are pointless. No one but the lawyers read them, and everyone knows I don't own any copyrighted crap, but every once in a while, I have to be specific, lest I be sued. I don't own any of the My Little Pony characters or the MLP storyline. I don't own the Paris-class frigate design either. You're welcome Lauren Faust and Bungie/343i.

You know, I haven't done this part in a while.

Patterns of Speech:

"Speech"

Thoughts

Ch 11: Dragonshy

Celestia was planning on having a wonderful night's sleep. After listening to numerous arguments and confrontations, she was exhausted. It hadn't been long since she had wished her sister a good night, who was at the time feverously scanning the skies, for what, Celestia didn't know. But now, all she cared about was getting a good rest. As she was closing her eyes, though, she was startled as Luna loudly opened the door, panting a good bit.

"What is it?" Celestia asked, worried a bit at her sister's sudden appearance.

Luna took a few breaths to slow her breathing before continuing, "Tia, come quickly. There's something you need to see."

"What is it?" She asked as she quickly got out of the bed, noticing the concern in her sister's voice.

"I'll explain on the way. Hurry, before I lose it," Luna replied, starting to walk to the tower.

Celestia picked up the pace to catch up before asking again, "What is the matter?"

"For just over a week now, ever since I've been back, I've been feeling something strange in the night sky. Something unfamiliar," Luna replied.

"Well," Celestia started, "it has been a thousand years since you last had domain over the night. Things might have changed."

"Well, yes. You're right in a way," Luna continued, "Some things may be slightly different and out-of-place, but it's all still familiar. What I've been feeling is completely different. It's never been there before."

"Well, what is it?" Celestia asked, trying to get to the point.

"That's what I've been trying to figure out for the past week or so. I've been searching the skies for it every night. At points I can just barely feel it, but them at times it become blaringly obvious just for the shortest times. I was starting to let my hopes down when I finally found it," Luna explained as they arrived at the top of the tower, walking over to the telescope. She took a quick look to make sure it was still there before calling Celestia over. "Here, take a look."

Celestia did as she asked and lowered her head down to the eyepiece, peering through to see what had gotten Luna so concerned. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust, but when it did, Celestia's jaw dropped. "W...what is THAT? It's HUGE!" She asked, not taking her eye away from the telescope.

"I believe it's some form of vessel or ship, if the lights are of any indication that there's somepony or someTHING aboard it," Luna replied.

Celestia took a closer look at it and found Luna's words to be true as there were many specks of light dotting the surface, though that's not all she noticed. Although there hadn't been a war for many MANY years in Equestria, long before she came to rule, Celestia was not unfamiliar to some aspects of it. Seeing the griffons' own military machines further enlightened her on the subject. She could tell this… ship, was meant for war, as she saw what looked like many LARGE cannons on some parts of the surface along with numerous, harder to see smaller ones. Also, the fact that, if the burnt spots and holes weren't of the original design, it seemed like it had been attacked, which further reinforced her assumptions. As she made her way to what she assumed the front of the large object, something caught her eye. "Is that…?"

"Equestrian writing?" Luna finished the question. "Yes, that's one of the things that had gotten me to come get you, among more obvious reasons."

Celestia continued to look at the writing on the side, still baffled it was in their language. We could try to contact them, she thought. They MUST speak the same language if we write it the same. But, what if they're hostile and see an attempt of communication a threat? And what if whatever did this to it shows up? The more she thought about it, the more it troubled her. After a few minutes of silence, she spoke, "Luna, I think it best that we have any observatories available keep an eye one this... war-vessel and keep it a secret from the public eye. It might cause a severe panic if they knew that there is possibly another form of life drifting in the stars above." Luna nodded in agreement before Celestia continued.

"I also believe we shouldn't attempt to communicate. They might be hostile, and we don't know what whoever-they-are can do."

Again, Luna nodded in agreement, "Yes, I agree. I've cast a spell on the telescope so it will follow it if it moves, that way we won't lose track of where it is. I'll alert the observatories and make them take a vow of secrecy."

Celestia nodded before Luna took off in flight towards the closest observatory. Before she started back towards her room, she looked up to the skies for one last time, concerned on what was to come.

{-}

3 weeks later…

I eased myself out of the cot, as I had done for the past four weeks now. If there wasn't something weird going on in town, I found myself falling into a pattern. Waking up, eating one of the MREs secretly stashed away under the dresser in the basement, going up and talking with Twilight if she was home, going out and talking with a number of residents, Silent included, who refuses to give up trying to find out my full story. Then I would either head back to the library and read up on the ponies' literature and history, or I would evade Silent and head of to the pelican to continue the bothersome repairs.

A few of the days though were worth noting. One day, Applejack had worn herself to dazed with work, refusing help. On another, I met a second species that lived here, Fi labeled them griffins, like from my universe's earth's greek or roman mythology; which one, I couldn't remember. The griffon, Gilda I think her name was, was a bit of a, to put it simply, an asshole.

Looking back on the weeks, I was surprised with how much relatively happened. Well, at least it's not boring, I thought as I walked up the stairs, deciding not to eat one of the few MREs left. Need to save those. I don't want to be stuck eating grass every day.

As I exited the basement, I noticed Twilight, well, mainly Spike, packing a saddle bag. Twilight was reading over a piece of parchment she held in front of her with her magic, and noticed what I came to know as the princess' seal on it. Oh boy, it's one of THOSE days, I thought as I made my way over to Twilight.

"Good morning," I said, slightly startling Twilight as she had been too engrossed in reading the letter to notice my presence.

"Dear Celestia, you scared me," Twilight pointed out the painfully obvious fact.

"Yeah, I couldn't tell," I replied sarcastically, receiving an eye-roll from Twilight before I continued. "What's the letter for?"

"It's from Princess Celestia. She has a task of importance that she wants the girls and me to complete," she answered.

I just stood there staring, expecting her to continue, but she just turned back to Spike, telling him what to place in the bags. After a bit she turned back around and gave me a look of confusion. "Um, what?" she inquired.

"Well, what I do is when somepony is interested in something, I usually give them details," I replied.

"Oh! Well, she has asked us to handle a… 'little' problem involving a dragon. I was about to go and tell the girls."

"Wait, 'little'? When are dragons little? Wouldn't they be, I don't know, BIG problems?" I asked as Twilight made her way towards the door. "And why would she have you handle this? Wouldn't she be the one to handle problems like this?"

"Normally, yes," Twilight began, opening the door to the library, "but she's out on important business and needs us to handle it."

Now I KNEW it was going to be one of those days, I thought. "Well, I've got nothing special planned for today," I said as I started to follow Twilight.

"Um, where are you going?" Twilight asked as I walked past her.

I stopped and turned to face her. "I thought my intentions was pretty clear in that statement," I said. "But if I must elaborate, I've got nothing really to do today, so I've decided I'm coming with you."

"Um, I don-"

"And there's nothing you can say to dissuade me," I said before she could start her objection.

Twilight sighed. "Fine," she said before turning back and shouting inside. "I'm going to go tell the girls. I'll be back."

There was a muted 'ok' before she closed the door and we were on our way. As we made our way towards town, I noticed it was a bit darker than usual at this time of day. I looked up and saw a large amount of smoke obscuring the sun, all of it leading back to a mountain a ways off.

"So, what type of dragon problem are we talking about? Ravaging towns, major destruction?" I asked.

"No. There's a dragon sleeping on the mountain and his snoring is creating an enormous amount of smoke. We have to get him to find somewhere else to sleep or all of Equistria will be covered in smoke for the next hundred years," Twilight replied, slightly picking up the pace.

Oh… it's one of THOSE kind of crazy days, I thought with much exasperation as I quickened my pace to keep up with Twilight.

I soon found us nearing Fluttershy's cottage and, conveniently, the rest of the group was all there near there, babbling among themselves. Twilight continued up to the group, but I stopped when Fi's voice came from the communicator. I she spoke, I put a hoof up to muffle the voice.

"Sir, you could just use the Faith to solve this problem. We need to do some live fire tests to see the weapons system's operational status after the repairs, and a blast from one of the side guns would definitely get that dragon moving," Fi suggested.

"Yes, I know," I whispered, trying not to get the girl's attention, "but an explosion coming in the middle of nowhere originating from the sky would cause too much suspicion and panic. This is why I'm going with them, to make sure they don't get hurt. And if worse comes to worse, then we can fall back to excessive force."

"Alright sir, I'll be keep on standby and charge port guns, just in case. Faith out," Fi said, cutting the link. As I set my hoof back down and started turning back towards the group, I noticed a pegasus just a ways off staring at me with wide eyes, as if they had just realized something extremely important. After a bit, he, or at least by the way their muzzle was shaped I assumed they were a he, started waving his hoof in a gesture for me to come.

"Hey, Twilight, I'll be right back. I'm just going to talk to somepony for a bit," I stated, not waiting for an answer as I made my way towards the pegasus. As I got closer, I took in more details. He coat was green and had hazel eyes. His mane was spikey and white with a light green 'stripe' down the center, his tail the same. His… cutie mark was what looked like two candies or cough drops, one wrapped, the other unwrapped. Probably cough drops.

As came up to him, he greeted me; a bit nervous, but it was hard to tell. "Hi. My names Cough Drop." Called it.

Cough Drop extended a hoof, which I took and gave him a firm hoof-shake replying, "Star."

After we let go, there was a moment of brief silence that felt like an eternity. Since I didn't want to stand there all day, I decided to break it up. "So, what did you need? You called me over here for something, correct?"

"Well," he started," I just wanted to confirm some suspicions. You mind if I asked you a question?"

Where is this going? I thought before I replied. "No, I don't mind. Shoot."

"You see, I just wanted to know where someONE gets a low frequency ear communicator in a place like this," he said, gesturing to my ear. "I mean, you'd have to go pretty far to get one. Not really around here."

How did he- I started to think before Fi's voice came over the bud again, this time at a lower volume. "He knows something Michael."

I opened my mouth to start questioning him, but was interrupted by Twilight calling out. "Hey Star, are you coming? I'm heading back to the library to pack the rest of my stuff."

"I'll meet you there," I called back, not taking my eyes off the pegasus. Back to Cough Drop, I asked, "Can you follow me for a sec?"

"Sure" was the reply I got back before I started to lead him between the buildings. I made a quick cut down an alley and, when he followed, I tackled him, pinning the pegasus down with my knife to his throat.

"Fi, is Silent anywhere near?" I asked Fi, making sure that the guard wasn't around before I start questioning.

There was a brief pause before the AI answered, "Scans say no, he's actually in the castle on that mountain. What did they call it, Canterlot? Yeah. Anyways no, he's not."

Good, I thought before starting, "Ok. I don't know who you are or what you know, but you're going to help me find out. Who are you REALLY and how do you know about the communicator?"

"I told you, my name is Cough Drop," he answered as he tried to squirm away from the sharp edge of the knife.

"No! Who are you really? How do you know about the communicator? Are you with the UIF?" I asked, pressing the knife a bit harder, almost drawing blood.

At the implication on my stand of the UIF, he visual seemed to relax despite there being a knife pressed against his throat.

"My name," he started, "is Tanner Orenski, and no, I'm not with the UIF. Far from it. Before I lived here, I lived aboard Ishumyra Station with my parents above Centara."

With that statement I slowly began releasing the pressure of the knife on his neck, but not fully removing it, his statement still sinking in. "But, when Reighton attacked Centara, Ishumyra was-"

"Destroyed. Along with every other station and defense platform. I know, I was aboard the only escape pod to make it into an MV portal," he said, the emotional pain apparent in his voice.

"Sir, he checks out," Fi's voice again emanated from the ear bud. "I checked the onboard records. There was a Tanner Orenski on Ishumyra when the attack occurred and is listed missing, not dead."

After giving him another look over, I sheathed the knife and helped him up. Cough Drop, or Tanner, dusted himself off before continuing, "Well, you know who I am. I hope you don't mind me asking you to return the favor."

I took a quick peek around to see if any wandering eyes were watching before pulling back part of the cloak, revealing my 'cutie mark' as to extinguish any doubt he might have had over my next sentence. "I'm High Fleet Admiral Michael, leader of the First Fleet and any accompanying fleets of the UUA."

At the statement, Cough Drop's eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're THE Admiral Michael!? As in the founder of the UUA Admiral Michael!?" he questioned, a little too loudly.

"SHH! Yes, the one and only, now keep it down," I ordered in a hushed voice.

"Sorry," he replied sheepishly. "So, why are you here? Has the UIF made it out to here?"

"No, they haven't," I replied, getting a look of relief from Tanner. "As to why I'm here, I kind of got myself stranded."

This elicited a confused look from Tanner, "Um, how exactly?"

I was about to explain the entirety of the situation to him had I not heard my 'name' called out.

"Star!"

I turned my head to see Rainbow Dash not too far away. "Hey, are you coming? Twilight and the rest of the group are all ready to go!"

I turned back to Tanner before continuing, "Looks like I'll owe you a story."

He smiled, "Yeah. You might want to get going; Rainbow isn't exactly the patient type."

I gave him a nod before I began to start off on my way, but was stopped when Tanner called back out, "Hey Admiral."

I turned around as he continued, "I noticed your wings when you should me your cutie mark. You might want to learn how to use them, so you don't raise any suspicion. They're a big help too with a lot of things."

"Alright, I'll take your word on that," I replied, restarting my way back to where Rainbow was waiting.

{-}

Luna, in a word, was bored. Tia had asked her, much to her dislike, not to help with the Elements' task of regarding the dragon unless absolutely necessary, and until her nightly duties came, she had nothing to do but continue reading about the 1000 years of history she missed and keep an eye on the vessel, surprisingly still visible during the light of daytime.

During these times, she had, along with others that knew of the ship and were sworn to secrecy, worked out about how long it was, as 'huge' really isn't a viable measurement. Figuring out how long it was wasn't really that difficult, a few days after its discovery, the estimation was already at a safe 500 meters long, and hasn't changed much since, give or take a few meters.

At the current moment, Luna was delving into what the library had on griffon history, mainly their wars. She had gotten to the point where she was so engrossed into the book, she almost started to not to notice things around going on around her. So when the telescope she had enchanted to follow the ship started to move slightly, she nearly threw herself across the room to get to it. Sure enough, when she looked into the eyepiece, the ship seemed to be angling it-self, showing off more features as it brought its side parallel to the ground. As she looked closer, she noticed some of the objects that looked like the cannons from the book she was reading prior to the interruption were beginning to align themselves all to point in one direction. Luna looked up from the telescope, and following about the direction the cannons were pointing, found her gaze passing the cloud of smoke and landing on the smoke's origins, the mountain where the dragon was sleeping.

She looked back into the eyepiece at the ship, finding it once again motionless. Oh, I don't like this, Luna thought while she made her way back towards the book, hoping Celestia was right in asking her not to help.

{-}

"Guns are aligned and in position. Safeties are off and they're warming up. Awaiting orders," Fi announced as I fell back slightly from the group to answer.

"Copy that. Hold position and wait for further orders," I answered back before cutting the comm when one of the girls called out.

"Hey Star, you comin'?"

"Yeah, just stretching a bit," I called back, feigning to stretch.

Already the trip was turning into more of a hassle then I had previously planned it being. Getting up the mountain was becoming a pain. Fluttershy, the entire way so far, had been petrified at one point or another of either the dragon's snores or an obstacle in the way, and progress was slow, even to the point of crawling when the others had to push and drag her some of the way. I know she's good with animals and all, but this is ridiculous, I thought. Although I agreed with Rainbow at points when she whispered disapproval for bringing Fluttershy along, I kept my opinion about her being here unheard. If they were going to succeed in getting the dragon to move without me having to resort to the Faith, it was with her help.

I hadn't been paying attention to at the time, but was quickly broken out of my thoughts as the cave came in sight. Not soon after, there was what had been identified as a snore, which shook the ground of bit. Damn. A snore that bad can't be healthy. That dragon might want to have that checked out, I thought, amusing myself. I heard a slight fuss behind me, and as I turned, I saw the whole group had run into each other, most likely due to Fluttershy's apparent sudden stop. After many complaints, most from Rainbow, and numerous apologies, all of which originated from Fluttershy, Twilight was back into her routine, handing out orders.

As she told each of the others their roles, I stepped back and found a comfortable place to watch them. As they were getting ready, I took the moment to check up on the unofficial backup plan.

"Fi, what's your status?"

There was a pause before Fi answered, "Port-side guns are warmed up and ready to fire on your mark. The MAC is warmed up as well, just in case, but I wouldn't use it if I were you until we get some test shots off, just to make sure it won't overload and explode."

"Copy your last. Be ready if this turns sour quickly," I replied before I cut the comm-link.

As I turned back around to face the girls, Twilight was making her way up to the dragon in the cave. Here we go. I looked over towards Fluttershy and saw that she, still shaking tremendously, had taken residence behind the rock I was leaning on.

Turning back towards the cave entrance, seeing that the smoke seemed to have lightened up, I heard Twilight speaking inside the cave, though the sound was muffled and inaudible. After a bit, there was some rustling coming from inside the cave, which I assumed was the dragon. Not soon after the rustling ended, a cloud of smoke exploded from the entrance of the cave, causing all of us to have a coughing fit as Twilight made her way quickly out of the smoke filled cave.

"So much for persuading him," Rainbow said, between coughs.

Applejack was the next to speak up, "Well, now what?"

I saw Rarity was about to say something, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash, "Enough wasting time. I'm going in!"

Before any of us could object, Dash had already flown into the cave, intent on getting the dragon to move her way.

Damnit, Dash, I thought as I rushed towards the entrance of the cave. She's going to get herself ki-

I stopped just short of the entrance as there was a roar and was almost plowed over as Rainbow Dash came spinning out of the cave. After seeing her crash into the others I turned back to the cave, but found my view blocked by a large red object. My gaze continued upwards until it fell on the top of the dragon. Oh damn… was all I thought as a clawed hand slammed against my side, throwing me into the rocks that Fluttershy was hiding behind.

Every damn time, I thought as I painfully picked myself back up. A sharp pain went through my side, causing me to recoil a bit. That's a few bruised ribs. "Fi-" I started over the comm, but was quickly cut off.

"Already ahead of you. Port guns are armed and are locked on to the dragon, awaiting firing command," Fi interrupted.

I looked back to the situation at hand. The rather large dragon was making its way over to the scared shitless group of ponies. I was about to tell FI to open fire when Fluttershy beat me to the punch and did something I wasn't expecting.

She yelled at the dragon, and it worked.

"How dare you" she yelled as she came out from behind the rocks, quickly making her way up to the now astonished dragons face before continuing her rant. "Listen here, mister! Just because you're big doesn't mean you get to be a bully. You may have huge teeth, sharp scales, snore smoke, and breathe fire, but you do not—I repeat—You do NOT! Hurt! My! FRIENDS! You got that?!"

There was a slight pause where I could have sworn I heard the dragon whimper before Fluttershy asked again, "Well?"

"But that rainbow one kicked me," the dragon, not so surprisingly, said in his defense.

"And I am very sorry about that," Fluttershy answered back, a bit softer but still with a very berating tone. "But you're bigger than she is, and you should know better. You should also know better than to take a nap where your snoring can become a health hazard to other creatures."

Once again, the dragon tried arguing its stead, "But I—"

"Don't you 'but I' me, mister," Fluttershy interjected. "Now what do you have to say for yourself!?"

Just when I thought I couldn't see anything more astonishing, the dragon began to cry.

Jesus, note to self, don't piss of Fluttershy, I thought. Seeing the same astonished looks on the other's faces, I took the chance to re-contact Fi. "Fi, power down weapons and move off. Dragon is no longer hostile. Do not fire."

"Copy that. Weapons cooling off and safeties re-engaged. We will need to do some test shots to calibrate targeting and function checks at some point," Fi said.

"I know. We'll get to that later when we can. Get the Faith back into standard orbit," I ordered.

"Aye, sir" she replied, cutting the link.

Looking back up, I noticed the dragon making its way back into the cave while everyone was cheering. As Fluttershy came back down to the group, I made my way over, wincing at the pain coming from the more than likely bruised ribs. Rainbow seemed to notice the wince as she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I answered. "Just some bruised ribs." Looking back over to Fluttershy I continued, "So, what now?"

"Well, he understands he was wrong and he's packing his things," Fluttershy answered in her usual soft voice, a great contrast to what I had heard moments earlier.

"Now we go home and write to Princess Celestia," Twilight finished.

All the way back down the mountain, Rainbow had insisted on helping me every time I winced or looked uncomfortable. Finally making it back to the library, I took my leave as I headed straight down the stairs and to the comfort of the cot, soon finding myself in a deep, sleep.

{-}

Luna heaved out a sigh as she relaxed when she saw the ship move back to its previous position. As she looked at it one last time, she began to think. Why did it move and, if those are guns, how would it know there was a threat on the mountain? The thought didn't last long as she noticed the time. Oh crap, I'm late! She frantically thought as she rushed to raise the moon and usher in the night.

{-}

UUA First Fleet

SFG-0041 Under the Shroud

Location: Light of Hope, hangar 19b.

Awaiting clearance for departure

Peterson adjusted himself in his command chair as the bridge crew went over final preparations before departure. In the past 3 weeks, he hadn't seen much and was honestly a bore. He didn't have much of a problem finding a volunteer skeleton crew for the Shroud. After the announcement was made that he needed volunteers to crew the ship for a search and rescue mission to find Admiral Michael, there had surprisingly been no shortage of volunteers, a lot of which included most of all of the existing crew of the Shroud. There had even been multiple second-in-command officers from high ranking ships volunteer, which had to be turned down because of their battle experience. After all was done, he had a bit more than a skeleton crew aboard, some of them members who were already serving aboard the frigate.

Peterson let out a deep breath before ordering to Charles, "Status report."

Charles, who was probably the only one aboard who didn't want to be there, was now the tac-officer due to a lack of ones volunteering being approved. "Everything's green across the board. Generator is holding at standby power levels. Weapons are restocked and green. Engines are stable. Shields, cloak, MV drive, and FTL drives warming up. We are good to go. Any chance I can persuade you to let me off this suicide boat in the next 4 seconds?"

"Aw, and miss all the fun?" Burt chimed in as he made his way through the bridge up to Charles, giving him a rather rough pat on the back. "I just know you had so much fun on that last operation aboard the Justice with us."

Charles spun his chair around, rubbing his back. "No. That was not fun you psychotic, suicidal maniac. Hell, I'd rather live the rest of my days stranded on an unknown planet if I knew I would NEVER have to go on another mission with any of you!" He turned towards Peterson, adding, "No offense Captain."

Peterson chuckled slightly at his outburst. "None taken. If you had done that on any other ship, I'm sure you would have been court martialed, or at least thrown in the brig."

"If it gets me away from HIM," Charles stated, pointing towards Burt, "and his group of suicidal shock troopers, then PLEASE follow protocol."

Peterson gave Burt a relaxed glare, to which Burt responded to with a grin. "C'mon Burt, give him a break," Peterson ordered. "Don't you have something to do?"

"No, sir," Burt replied. "We finished loading supplies 15 minutes ago. All of it is strapped down and ready to go."

"Well go find something to do, preferably not on the bridge," Peterson said in more of a suggestive tone, rather than an order.

Burt smirked. "Aye sir."

As Burt left the bridge, the volunteer comms officer spoke up. "Message from hangar control, sir. We are clear for departure ". After a slight pause, she continued, "Heh, you should see this sir. Pulling it up on main view screen".

Most of the bridge crew diverted their eyes to said display as the video feed pulled up. There, behind the safety glass of one of the observation platforms overlooking the hangar, stood quite a bit of men and women of all ranks saluting them off, many of them admirals and fellow captains while others engineers or warrant officers. Mingled amongst the military members were some civilians who knew Admiral Michael well. Even some children who were holding up a banner reading 'GOOD LUCK, CREW OF THE SHROUD' spelled out in bold letters.

Peterson smiled a wide grin before he started handing out orders. "Well, what are we waiting for? We can't disappoint. Disengage all locking clamps and clear us out of this hangar. Once we are out, spin up the MV drive and get us on our way."

The ensign looked up from the display towards the captain saying, "But, where to sir? We have at least 32 possible locations to check with more being decoded as we speak."

"Well, close your eyes and point to one. Let's let lady luck decide where to," Peterson replied, still grinning.

With that, the Shroud shuttered as the locking clamps disengaged and the engines powered up, pushing the stealth frigate out of the shielded hangar door and into the MV portal opened moments later.

Man, this chapter is LATE. And with just under 6000 words, it's the longest one yet. Sorry about the wait again. Didn't mean to take this long, but I've been really busy the past month. I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner. Sorry if the ending felt a bit rushed. I started to run out of gas writing it. Other than that, this is Arwingmaster1, signing off with a Happy Hearts and Hooves Day!