//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The History Of The Human War // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// The First Day The First Day of the war, or “Operation Scorch Earth” as it was called among the human military, was devastating. Humanity, in it's 1500 years of exile on the moon, had managed to capture 4 asteroids, large enough to pierce through the planetary atmosphere and impact the ground with massive force. Humanity, fearing for it's own survival after The Second Cataclysm, as it is now called, moved to invade and “kill magic, by any means necessary” in a desperate attempt to prevent extinction.. Humanity moved to tow 4 asteroids towards their targets. This attack would later be, rightfully so, decried as a war crime although humanity refuses to prosecute those responsible for actions. The first asteroid hit Manehattan, completely obliterating it. The impact effectively destroyed the island Manehattan had been built on. The resulting tsunami hit the Griffin Kingdoms two days later, destroying several coastal cities. West Catsmere was also hit, although the damages were much smaller due to longer distances involved. The second asteroid, aimed at the Cloudsdale, missed it's target. Instead, it impacted north of the city, sparing it from the fate of Manehattan. Cloudsdale did not escape unharmed however, as the following blastwave and heatwave destroyed much of the city. Later analysis revealed that the guiding rockets malfunctioned, causing the asteroid to drift off-course. By the time of the arrival of the third asteroid, aimed at Canterlot, Royal Princesses were already alarmed to events by survivors from Cloudsdale and had moved to shield the city. Combined shield of two Princesses was strong enough to hold against the asteroid, although surrounding countryside suffered greatly from the debris. From here, two Princesses headed to different directions to counter possible future strikes. Final target, Los Pegasus, was able, through co-operation of unicorns and pegasis survivors from Cloudsdale , able to break the asteroid into smaller chunks. When Princess Celestia arrived in a nick of time to deploy a shield over the city, most of the debris impacted harmlessly against the shield. Small parts were, however, able to pierce through, causing large amounts of damage. All in all, Los Pegasus, fared much better than other targets of the “Operation Scorch Earth”. The attack took 16 hours to start and to conclude. During that time, over 2/5th of the total number of pony casualties of the war were suffered. At the time it was considered extremely weird event, as humans were still unknown. Initial assumptions considered possibility of an asteroid swarm and drafts were made to counter such storm. However, as it was soon revealed, a different type of storm was coming. The Second Day The Second Day saw the actual invasion begin as the spacecrafts breached atmosphere to deploy troops to the ground. Human invasion, or “Operation Planetfall” was mainly centered around Appleloosa and Dodge City, though several unconfirmed human raiding teams were reported all over Equestria. Appleloosa fell to the human army in less than a half an hour, although this time is estimate made by humans as pony witnesses are unable to give comprehensive details of the attack, some describing it lasting mere seconds, other describing it to take several hours. Canterlot was informed of the attack 3 hours later. One witness, Blackstone, describes the attack: “Large, black machines fell from the skies, like some sort of giant vultures. Two of them dropped some sort of pods over the city and from these pods, black monsters surged forward to kill and destroy. I saw my neighbor trying to run away, when suddenly... he died. Just like that. I saw one of the creatures pointing strange device at him and then turn to me. I ran. I ran faster than I had ever ran before. “All over the town, more and more monster arrived. Machines landed just outside of the town, releasing a swarm of monsters, as well as more of their machines. Those machines, they reminded me of diamond dogs, except their hands were shorter and lacked fingers. They had strange, long tube sticking from their back. “This went on and on for what felt like hours. They started to round us survivors up, taking us aside as they raided the buildings. We were all scared, especially when they started to isolate unicorns off from us. Group of them started to kill them, before another creature started to speak to them. They seemed to disagree, but in the end, they stopped killing the unicorns.” Similar stories can also be heard from survivors from Dodge City. I do not believe that I need to repeat numerous horror stories here, all with the same basic template. However, I did manage to talk one of the humans who participated in the attack. She describes the attack: “We sat in the transport. We had our orders. Get in and destroy everything that could mount resistance. I was lucky one, I was on a landing craft instead of on those drop pods. I could never stomach them. Landing on Earth... or Equestria or whatever... it was... weird. “It's different to look up in the sky and instead of blackness you see... blue. It was weird and disorienting. At least the ground was similar to that on the moon, except brown, instead of those weird... trees you call them? He had trained on the moon, but back there it was either outside in lower gravity or inside the caverns. I guess we should have felt thankful that we could feel gravity pulling us down. On the moon, outside our gravity field, you felt like one minor step, one too quick jump and the space would claim you. “Anyway, the ship landed on the edge of our target and we poured out. It was mainly Type-1s there. Earth Ponies you call them, I think. I was part of the infantry. I rushed towards the town, expecting pretty much anything. It turned out that whole place had really nothing to fight with. Oh, few ponies tried to put up a fight. We gunned them down. They were a threat and we were not taking any risks. If it fought back, kill it with extreme prejudice. That was what we were told. “I think it was 15 minutes after planetfall when we got an order to start taking prisoners. That was nearly an hour earlier than even our most positive estimates. So we gathered them. One pegasus tried to attack me, so I shot him or her. Turns out, it(sic) had been protecting a foal. Didn't care at the time. I took another shot at the body, just to be sure. “Me and Jon, we took the foal and carried it to rest of the herd. Several ACES were guarding the prisoners. It was sad to look, really. Scared ponies hurdling together, trying to piece together what was going on. Not what we had been expecting. It had not been a battle. It had been a massacre”. Humans suffered only single casualty during the initial invasion: Lieutenant Otto Kursk of the Shock Troops. His drop pod malfunctioned, causing it to hit ground sideways and causing a rupture in his suit. Magic seeped through this suit, instantly killing him. He was first human casualty of the war. In human media, he was described as having died due to attack from an unicorn while protecting his fellow soldiers. This has since become popular parody matter regarding human propaganda during the war. Canterlot response and Disaster of Ghastly Gorge After news of the invasion were heard, chaos reigned in Canterlot. Already trying to figure out events behind the asteroid drops, sudden invasion, aided by numerous different tales, caused command of the Royal Guard to make several rushed decisions. With Princesses away to help survivors of the asteroids, Royal Guard dispatched a regiment of guards to Appleloosa to fight against “sudden influx of unknown creatures”. This turned out to be one of the greatest miscalculations and one that sealed human control of Appleloosa for the rest of the war. Human ships took 3 days to move between the planet and the moon, but humans only had limited amount of ships to spare. Furthermore, ships needed repairs and refueling, leading to month long breaks between supply runs. Looking back in the history, had Royal Guard managed to dislodge humans during that first month, war could have taken whole different route. However, as it was, humans gained crucial victory in the first “battle” of the war and secured a bridgehead on the planet. Human Archives: It is often falsely claimed it takes 3 days to cross the space. In reality, it takes about 3 hour to fly and reach the moon when flying without safety systems and planning to crash into the destination. 3 days is the shortest safe travel time that humans have achieved with limited resources. It relies a lot of initial thrust and then simply taking advantage of lack of inertia in space, as well as planets gravitational field.. Most often, 1/3 of the trip is used for acceleration, 1/3 to maneuvering and gliding and 1/3 to deceleration. Royal Guard encountered human advance guard on Ghastly Gorge. The First Battle of Ghastly Gorge was mainly humans defending their positions while Royal Guard attempted to breakthrough and figure out what they were fighting against. Battle saw 3 000 ponies against 600 humans. Unaware of the threat posed by humans, Royal Guard attempted “Get close and beat them senseless” approach, as one of them put it, that had served for centuries. Against humans, however, this lead to near total destruction of the first division. Royal Guard pulled back, to re-evaluate their approach. Following attack was much more coordinated and successful, even managing to breach human defense on one location. However, this victory was short lived as humans rallied and lead counter-attack to take back their positions. Alexander Stürm, a human ACES pilot who participated in the The First Battle of Ghastly Gorge, describes the “battle” as follows: “It wasn't so much of a battle as it was a massacre. Several soldiers had to be pulled out of the service, they got so... what was that the docs called it... 'desensitized to violence'. No wonder. Ponies just rushed towards us, like the ancient human wave tactics that had gone out of use with the invention of the machine gun. They just rushed towards us, neat lines and all. “ACES suit is equipped with a tracking system that can track up to 10 000 objects size of a human head. ACES were originally designed to asteroid and meteor defense, you know? They only become 'combat' suits after The Second Cataclysm. “I didn't even turn the damn thing on. I just pointed my guns in the general direction and opened fire. We didn't need to aim. Just point and shoot. No thinking. No aiming. Just... killing. It was disturbing really. It's one thing fighting against an opponent when you got same advantages. Against an opponent that can't do anything? “Contrast what those so called 'nobles' claim, we are not bloodthirsty people. The amount of death we caused in those few hours was something human mind can barely comprehend. It was like being a machine. Point and shoot. Point and shoot. “They were brave fools. Brave, but doomed.” At the end of the day, Royal Guard regiment was sent running away, having lost 3/4th of its strength while humans suffered only 65 injuries and 44 fatalities. Defeat would make Royal Guard much more cautious, leading to month-long era of waiting before next assault would be carried out. During this time, humanity would reinforce their positions, waiting for the reinforcements that would arrive in a month. When next assault was carried out, despite being lead by Princess Celestia herself, victory could not be attained. Private Shell Shocked, who participated on both battles, describes second assault: “We were sure we would win this time. I mean, Princess Celestia herself was leading us! How could anything stand against her!? Yet... when we approached their forward base in Ghastly Gorge, we could see it was no longer just a set of small holes in the ground. Concrete walls dotted the area, forcing any ground forces to channel through them. Numerous towers rose behind those walls, giving humans clear view of us. To make matters worse, behind those walls and towers was the bridge that we had to cross to get to their main fighting force. Of course, we didn't know they were humans back then. Just some monsters who used technology. At first, generals decided to send in an air assault to soften them up. I can still hear their screams as the hidden emplacements opened fire and cut them down... and that sound... that endless, never ending 'DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA'. It never ended. During the whole battle, it never ended. It's like it was some sort of battle music for them! Always, always that same loud sound. Then, then there were those.... I think humans call them 'tracer rounds', we could see as air was filled of them. At first we thought they were only thing we had to fear, but... yeah... everyone knows how wrong that idea was. So we moved to the most insane idea of all: rush them. Princess casted a spell to shield us as we tried to break through their defenses. My friend was shot when he wandered too far from the shield. Princess tried to hold the shield up, alongside the unicorns that had come with us but... the amount of projectiles humans threw at us was truly staggering. Slowly, but surely, shield eroded on the edges and more and more guards were exposed to their weapons. Casualties mounted up. It was a nightmare. Then they started to lob explosives at us.” Human Archives: Explosives in this case refers ACES (Armored Combat Exo-Skeletons) cannon equipment. There were 15 ACES on the Ghastly Gorge FOB(Forward Observation Base) at the time of The Second Battle of Ghastly Gorge. Human troops numbered in 2 400 infantry soldiers and their supply personnel. “Now, I know people think fights between unicorns are loud and flashy. They have nothing against humans. Humans, I think half their battle style is simply cause sensory overload on the enemy. In the end, we got to the human lines. I charged against their ground side turrets and encountered my first human. I caught him with surprise... or was it her? I can't even remember anymore... I saw him trying to reach for small piece of metal. I crashed into him, before giving him strong kick to the head. I saw how his mask broke in to piece. What follow haunts me to this day. “His face... it started to melt. You heard me. It melted. As if it was on fire, first being charred, then melting... all the while this human screamed this... unnaturally high pitched scream and tried to hold his face together... then the melting reached his chest and his suit started to get loose... then his hands fell like there was nothing holding them... HE MELTED RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! It was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. Humans die like that. Expose them to outside world and... There wasn't even a skeleton left... Just this... this... puddle of goo on the ground. “It's no wonder why they hate us. We made their world a true death world to them. “We managed to take the one side of the bridge. However, we could not push forward. Unicorns were tired and Princess could not alone defend us all. To add to this, humans had perfect killzone set up for us. We would either had to push through the bridge, or be sitting ducks on the air. There were also too few of us. Then humans counter-attacked. We could not hold against them, not when they had advantage on the range. We had superior numbers and faith in Princess. They had superior firepower. In the end, superior firepower won. We retreated. At least it wasn't as chaotic as the first battle “. There were several attempts by local buffalo tribes to defeat human forces, but lacking in magic and ability to fly, they were quickly defeated and subdued. Despite the overwhelming success during the first month, human victory was not guaranteed. Humanity still had one great weakness: Their inability to exist outside their environmental suits or specially build facilities. Furthermore, their location was problematic for future expansion.