• Published 30th Nov 2011
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Call of Duty - Equestrian Warfare - ChromeRegios



After a Disastrous mission gone wrong, Jackson was left for dead at a nucler explosion when he foundhimself to be the first human... in a whole new world.

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Chapter 14 - The Storm, Part 1

Author's Note:

After several years of Hiatus, this darn story is ready to ignite back to life!!

“HIT THE DECK!” Vasquez shouts needlessly—and to his mind, pointlessly—as the Russian-made T-90 tank slews its massive 125mm main gun towards them and bullets start impacting the walls around them, fired from both the tank’s coax and the mixed human and diamond dog infantry around them.


He despairs but is not surprised by the deafening BOOM! that erupts, silently giving the Russian rebels and diamond dogs credit in what he assumes to be the final moments of his life for a superbly planned attack; one that had caught all the senior officers and human soldiers in one location where a single high-explosive tank round could take them all out.


He is very surprised, however, to discover himself still alive and unharmed afterwards as there’s a loud spattering sound that’s something like a cross between cracking glass and a wet sizzle, but the room itself remains intact. He and the rest of the humans open their eyes to behold… the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, projecting from his horn what he can only describe as a translucent spherical shield around Town Hall. It somehow held against the massive round, but is visibly cracked in places, the unicorn who created it driven to his knees by the force of the strike, a glowing hairline fracture suddenly running half the length of his horn.


“Captain!” his lower ranked officers shout, earth ponies grabbing for spears and unicorns for their longbows while two enlisted unicorns attend him.


“Shiny!” Twilight goes to him and adds her own considerable power to the spell, solidifying the shield, allowing him to withdrawal his own aura and stagger back.


“I’m fine!” he claims through a pained gasp, though his wounded horn and trembling body give lie to his own statement. “Defend the town! Don’t let them take Ponyville!” he says, pointing outside with a shaking hoof before he passes out, the vehicles moving to encircle town hall as the infantry fans out. Not immediately realizing their first round was blocked, the tank is already turning on a new target, but the flanking BMP and BTRs open up instead with their cannon instead as their infantry moves forward. Twilight strains her magic against the onslaught, the guardspony unicorns and Rarity visibly feeding her power to maintain the spell.


There’s a second BOOM! as the tank targets a neighboring building, killing a cluster of ponies that had taken shelter there.


“Murdering bastards!” Griggs shouts as the initial shock wears off the human and ponies immediately withdraw further inside, the latter carrying Shining Armor with them. Twilight is last to go as she drops her shield and teleports after them, just making it before joining her brother in passing out from the strain of maintaining the spell in the face of the massive kinetic energy delivered by such projectiles. The room they left is instantly destroyed once she departs and her protective spell is gone, the victim of another tank round that would have killed everyone inside.


“Thanks for teaching me the spell, Shiny…” is the last thing Twilight says before she falls unconscious next to him.


“Okay! That’s IT!” Rainbow says in a rage, her wings flaring in anger. “Those ultra-whatever jerks are going down!”


“You said it, Rainbow!” Applejack paws on the ground angrily. “We’ll make ‘em sorry they ever came here!” she announced, hefting a discarded blade in her mouth.


“Lieutenant! Orders?” Soap calls out as they start overturning tables and forming barricades for a hasty defense inside the cavernous Town Hall Atrium, making Vasquez realize that both the human and ponies are looking to him to lead.


“As the majority of allied forces are American, command is yours, Leftenant,” Captain Price confirms with the old British pronunciation even though he’s the ranking officer. “Though if you want some advice, our first priority should be their armor before they bring the building down on us!” he points out as another tank round impacts the building, shaking it; there’s a growing rumble as the infantry carriers approach the doors.


Agreed! But first, we need some breathing space…”

* * * * *

Caught by surprise, the Equestrian civilians and soldiers are initially easy prey for both the rebels and their diamond dog allies, who gun down nearly a score of the former immediately and set about trying to round up the latter, but start taking sporadic fire back from the two platoons of Guardsponies present, magical beams and longbow arrows from unicorns finding marks along with some thrown spears.


Russian rebels initially scoff at the sight but discover to their consternation that the projectiles have enough accuracy and power to make them a real threat—as Jackson watches, one goes down with an earth pony-thrown spear right through his chest armor while another takes an arrow to the head; a second arrow impacts against the side of a BTR and explodes like an RPG round with purple fire instead of orange, blowing one of its wheels off.


But the unicorn who fires it is quickly gunned down by the BTR-90’s top-mounted 30mm cannon and dozens more rebel soldiers and diamond dog spill out the tunnel; worse, there are more distant sounds of AK fire from the other side of town that indicate a second tunnel has been opened as well.


The British and Ponies trapped inside Town Hall are keenly aware of that fact, but can’t do anything about it until they save themselves and ward off the more immediate threat.


“Dammit, we’re pinned down! We can’t bring our missiles to bear from in here! And we can’t go topside to the balconies to target their vehicles or they’ll see us in an instant! There’s no cover up there!” Foley notes, their Javelin and Stinger missiles lying useless while popping up to fire off a few rounds before taking cover again from the rebels trying to storm the atrium, slowly pushing them back. The Diamond Dogs pop in with another small tunnel, but a single grenade takes cares of it. Given the lack of experience with modern warfare they’re taking more casualties from accurate rifle, spear, and crossbow arrows, but their sheer numbers are starting to tell.


“Can’t get to the balconies or tower either! Sure wish we could call in an airstrike!” Soap adds, firing a 40mm grenade from his weapon’s undermount at a BMP pushing its way inside only to see it detonate with a spatter against the sloped front armor, not wounding it. The metal beast retaliates with a burst from its cannon that shatters part of the improvised barricade, wounding several guardsponies with fragments


“You can!” Spitfire says as Corporal Dunn scores his own hit with a captured RPG, causing the vehicle to explode, plugging the entrance—he’s mouthy but he’s good in fight, Foley has to admit. She then grabs a red crystal from her belt and speaks into it, relaying instructions.


Within a minute a formation of five blue-suited pegasi appear in the distance and swoop down on the vehicle formation menacing town hall like dive bombers despite the danger, the lead Wonderbolt pair taking out five mixed Russian and Diamond Dog soldiers with their wingblades before shooting back up, drawing the attention and fire of the infantry and vehicles as they do so. This allows the trailing ‘Bolts to draw beads on the vehicles, magma and high-explosive crystals impacting their turrets and magazines, causing several to explode after a few seconds and the others to gun their engines and take evasive action, cannons slewing to target the elusive pegasi but far too slow to do so effectively. Infantry is another matter, however, as a hail of rifle fire brings two Wonderbolts down.


“They’ll pay for that!” Spitfire snarls at the loss of her comrades, then flares her wings for takeoff, intending to take advantage of the lull in fire on the building. “We’ll give you what cover we can! But we number just a dozen and can’t win this fight by ourselves! If you need to call out targets, speak into this crystal, and we’ll hear it!” she tosses him her red command crystal.


“Captain! Let me come!” Rainbow Dash begs, frustrated at being limited to pulling wounded ponies out of the way and helping her friends take care of Twilight and Shining Armor. “I can help!”


“Not without armor and blades, recruit!” she shakes her head sharply, but puts a comforting hoof on the other mare’s chest. “I know you can, but you’d be killed instantly if you go out there without them! But if we survive this, you’re a Wonderbolt for sure, Rainbow Dash!” she tells her, then streaks out the window with Surprise and Fleetfoot to rally and direct her remaining forces.


Despite her efforts, fresh armor support appears, a BTR pushing its way inside using the gutted BMP Dunn destroyed as a shield.


“Dammit, we need more firepower!” Griggs said as they’re forced back by sheer numbers into the rear third of the atrium, more enemy soldiers flooding in despite a steady hail of arrows, magical beams and bullets, the BTR trying to bringing its own top-mounted cannon to bear only to find it blocked by the slightly taller BMP. No grenades fly, however; the rebels haven’t tried throwing any since they discovered that Guardspony unicorns could pluck them in midflight with their magic and toss them right back. “Hey L-T! Didn’t you say there was Humvee with a mounted fifty at AJ’s farm?”


“And a flyable Sea Knight chopper with miniguns in the field east of town, but there’s no way we can get to them!” he confirms, catching a peeking Diamond Dog with a headshot as a unicorn to his right does the same with a longbow arrow to a rebel human.


“Ya mean that fancy fun carriage ya took me for a ride in? Maybe we can!” Applejack pipes up, crawling up beside the humans. “Ah reckon Ah can make it back there with one of y’all on my back, and then we can come here with it!”


The humans exchange looks. “You can carry one of us and still run fast enough to dodge all those bullets?” Griggs asks dubiously, but AJ nods quickly.


“Ah’m an Earth Pony! We got strength and gallop speed to spare!” As if to illustrate her point, there’s a sudden series of Russian shouts and a loud creaking sound followed by the unlikely sight of one of the BTR’s being lifted up from the side and shoved over on its back, its wheels spinning helplessly, rendering it useless.


A single large red-furred pony then leaps over top of it and resolved into the form of Big Macintosh, dodging rifle fire as he leaps to and fro, taking pains to trample a few rebel soldiers underhoof as he goes. He doesn’t emerge entirely unscathed as two bullets find him, causing him to grunt in pain as he dives for cover with the humans and ponies defending Town Hall. “Big Mac! You okay?she immediately asks, pulling him to safety. “Dangnabit, what were you thinking, you crazy colt? You either got some serious horse apples or screws loose trying that, you brave, stupid stallion!” she slaps him lightly with her stetson then hugs him tightly as a horrified Fluttershy attends him.


To her surprise, Big Macintosh smiles in great satisfaction despite his pain. “Eeyup…”


With that, Applejack turns back to the humans. “Listen to me! Ah can’t just stand by and do nothing! This is our town, and our friends and family! We gotta fight for ‘em!”


“And how!” Rainbow Dash calls out in frustration from behind as she helps Fluttershy attend Big Macintosh


“Think I’m with her, Lietuenant. We could really use some mobile support of our own!” Soap notes as he reloads a magazine in his GS-36. “If we could get it, we might be able to take the fight to them!”


“There’s a platoon of Guardsponies stationed at the Sweet Apple Acres orchards too!” a lower ranked earth pony officer points out as he fires a forearm-mounted crossbow tipped with a crystal that brings down part of the second floor parapet on top of some soldiers, leaving Jackson suddenly wondering why they haven’t just brought Town Hall down around them. “We could use the reinforcements, sir!”


“I know! But you can’t get out of here without cover, and lots of it!” Vasquez replies, then blinks. “Wait a second… maybe we can get you some!” he announces as he goes for the red gem that Spitfire gave him. “Captain? This is Lieutenant Vasquez! We have a plan, and we need your help…”

* * * * *

Within a minute a formation of eight Wonderbolts streaks in again, Spitfire in the lead. She weaves in and out with her wingblades, picking off individual soldiers and even slicing right through the trunk of a tree where a rebel sniper was based, toppling the tree with him in it.


“She is so cool…” Rainbow goes starry-eyed for a moment, wishing again she could join her as Griggs somewhat awkwardly climbs on Applejack’s back.


Tracer rounds chase but do not hit the Wonderbolts Captain as the remaining enemy infantry dives for cover, trying to dodge the bombing runs of her teammates as thrown crystals impact the ground around them. Some explode, or fragment, most just discharge massive amounts of pink smoke around the rear entrance, shrouding it.


On cue, the Marines pull pins on their own smoke grenades as well, and Rainbow Dash assists by generating a wind with her wings that drives it into the faces of their enemies, causing them to cough and sputter and their fire to slacken. “That’s your cue, AJ and Griggs! GO!” Vasquez orders, and the earth pony wastes no time in doing just that, charging right through the smoke and breakneck speeds as Griggs holds on to her for dear life. He can’t believe how strong and swift she is being no bigger than him, able to hold his weight like it’s nothing. They burst back the first line of rebel soldiers at the entrance to some startled shouts and some sporadic fire that misses them, and within ten seconds are clear, galloping out of town square.

* * * * *

When they reach halfway to the farm but a minute later, they reach the lines of the guardsponies platoon stationed there, tasked by their Captain with securing the orchards and covering the road exit. Both Griggs and Applejack note with satisfaction they’re fully engaged and thus far succeeding in keeping the rebel forces from taking the farm despite heavy casualties, still fighting with spear, arrow and magic despite having lost nearly half their number. Better yet, they’re well-organized and learning quickly how to fight in a modern warfare environment—the Marine Sergeant counts at least thirty dead enemy soldiers, human and diamond dog alike. There are even a pair of burned out BMPs in front of them, one having succumbed to multiple explosive arrow hits from unicorns and the other having been magically picked up and shoved on its side, the turret then torn off by earth pony soldiers and the human rebels inside yanked out and killed by spear and hoof.


They quickly explain the situation to the Sergeant in charge. “Your Captain is wounded and our forces are pinned down at Town Hall! We need you back in town! We’ll cut a path for you with our vehicle, then you need to counterattack and relieve them!


“You can count on us, sir!” he salutes the human—Griggs resists the temptation to tell him not to do so as he’s not an officer and he works for a living—then immediately starts barking orders as AJ continues on, heading for the barn they stowed the Humvee at. It had been placed there hoping it could be turned into a vehicle depot if they found more, but now he’s just glad they kept it somewhere out of harm’s way until needed.


Arriving at the barn, he hops off her and quickly shows her how to load the top-mounted gun, slamming home a bulk 100-round box of 50-cal ammunition from the back seat into the side mount, opening the top and threading the ammo belt it contains into the feed. He then grasps the gun handles to show her how it moves and fires; he demonstrates how the mount has limited traverse but can be rotated within its turret with a hand crank at hip height. “But it was designed for our hands! I don’t know how you’re gonna work it all with just your hooves!”


“Now don’t you worry about that none, partner!” she says as she clambers into the gunner’s seat and instinctively grasps the gun handles with her hoof. With that, she slips a lasso out of her hat—he had no idea she kept one in there!—and threads it through the handles so she can use it to put pressure on the thumb trigger in place of human fingers.


“We’re set! Now as y’all say, let’s get some!” She cranks the turret quickly with her hind hoof until it faces forward.


“Yes ma’am!” Griggs can’t help but smile at her enthusiasm as he starts the engine and guns, charging across the field towards the first group of enemy soldiers, this one a group of a dozen diamond dogs who have just emerged from a fresh hole in the ground, intending to surprise the Guardsponies from the rear. They appear to be immensely enjoying their new AKs even if they aren’t well-versed in proper infantry tactics; there’s a series of near-deafening cracks as the mounted .50 fires, and to his surprise, the enemy soldiers fall quickly to his pony gunner’s accurate fire, the heavy rounds all but blowing their bodies apart.


“Yee-HAW!” she shouts as the last one falls dead, waving her stetson around as she witnesses her accomplishment. “Never did like Diamond Dogs! They once coltnapped Rarity! To say nothin’ of twice robbin’ Granny Smith of her bits and her apples!”


“Can’t say I much like ‘em either!” Griggs grins. Whoa… she’s a natural at this! he realizes as he pulls up to and drives parallel to the improvised Guardspony line, letting Applejack laying down a barrage of cover fire that takes out a half-dozen more infantry. The guardponies, initially surprised by the ruckus to the rear, quickly find and plug two more holes with explosive crystals dropped down them as the human rebels scatter at the sight of the Humvee, knowing that without armored support of their own, they’re vulnerable to its mobility and top-mounted machine gun. The Diamond Dogs are slower to realize the danger and several more go down beneath its withering fire, to the cheers of remaining guardsponies, who immediately organize for an attack of their own. “Keep alert, AJ! We’re heading for town! Plenty more bad guys ahead, so stay sharp and be ready for a real bumpy ride!”


“Copy that, partner! I got your back! Now let’s take the rest of these ‘motherfuckers’ down!” she shocks him one last time by repeating an acquired human curse.


“Ooh-RAH!” Griggs shouts, deciding then he well and truly likes the country mare as he then charges down the road, leading the Armored Guardsponies in a counterattack towards Town Hall.