To Win Any Battle You Must Fight as if You Are Already Dead
This day had been very exciting and eventful so far. The crew of important REA ponies and humans had initially arrived in Appleloosa barely after the sun had risen on four airships, only to fly a few hours out into the middle of the Badlands Desert to battle for a rogue changeling hive which took three or four hours to prepare and finish, after which Logan had graciously showed that he had returned from the dead and wanted to rejoined their company and fight for the war effort, discovered that the humans had very anomalous yet incredibly potent abilities that heavily relied on their emotions, and fought two very powerful armored iron dragons. All of that had happened by the time lunch time had started! With ample daylight still remaining, they could still possibly accomplish quite the checklist.
Of the four humans, only two of them were in optimal fighting condition for direct frontline combat. While Eric looked like he had walked straight out of hell with the literal bloodbath that he previously had to go through, nothing was physically impairing him. Wilson was the only other fully capable man but as a medic, he wasn't intended for direct frontline combat. Tran was still physically recovering from his wounds and even though he helped defeat the iron dragons, he was in no physical condition for the extended physical exertion that would inevitably be demanded by frontline combat. Logan, who had freshly returned from the dead, being a literal corpse, needed time to acclimate to his new body and its currently unknown capabilities and limits. Eric was going to be the vanguard for the next combat action, as crazy as it sounded knowing that he just finished a battle that had been preceded by a arduous long distance ruck march mere hours ago.
This next battle was another major assault, once again attacking the rogue changeling hive, but this time they would try to get into the hive. They had a good hold on the outside of the hive but who knows what the defenses were like on the inside and judging from the defense the rogue changelings had put up in the initial attack, it could be just as or even more greatly fortified. To support this attack, the two still functioning airships were staged up much closer to the hive, with the airships' built-in defensive AA(Anti Air) machine guns pointed right at the hive's entrance.
Everyone had amassed in one of the airship's cargo bays for a pre-battle meeting, ie Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna, Soarin, Spitfire, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and most importantly Pharynx, where there was a small tactical map and hastily built 3d model overview of the battlefield . Rainbow Dash and Gilda weren't present as they were in a medical bay, having to contend with the new injuries they gained after being bowled by a giant iron helmet. The entrance to the hive was quite sizable for a cave entrance, but being what it was, it was still too small to plan an enormous battle around. From a distance, it looked like you could park five trains, side by side, at the entrance of the cave. All of the fliers would be useless for this battle so the pegasi were out. Soarin and Spitfire, while physically fine, were also out of this battle because they were coordinating the outside aerial security for the duration of the battle just in the unlikely but still possible situation where the rogue changelings got aerial reinforcements. The only other VIP ponies that would fight in this battle with Eric would be Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. With the nature of this battle, they expected close up tunnel fighting.
The grand majority of the forces that would primarily make up this assault would be the uninjured remainders of Eric's section of the experimental battalion, of which they were barely fully combat capable in their original guise. While very few of Eric's machine gun teams had been killed in the initial invasion battle, a grand majority had been wounded by the unintended friendly fire artillery barrage, so much so that they were at half strength. Of the ones that weren't injured, many of Eric's machine gun teams no longer had their machine guns, as they had ditched the big, heavy weapons while trying to flee the friendly fire artillery barrage where said abandoned weapons were destroyed by the incoming shells. What little machine gun teams that did have their crew served weapons had very little ammunition left, having used most of their supply in the first attack. Luckily, this last problem was easily solvable as they took some of the other airship's machine gun ammunition and by also scavenging the ammo off of the wounded that wouldn't be participating in the battle but that wasn't a perfect solution; They were not able to fully replenish their stocks from doing this.
Eric and his forces wouldn't have the company of not that many other soldiers. What fliers that had fought in the previous air battles, would be securing the sky from the outside, making sure that no one else could join in. The airship's all had hundreds of crewmembers and a small detachment of soldiers but none of them would be joining in as they were either trying to repair the one damaged airship or were providing security for the airships. Wilson's section of the experimental battalion were all swamped with carrying for the wounded from the prior battles and what little weren't busy would be staying in the background of the next battle in order to quickly respond to medical emergencies if someone got wounded. There were Tran's scouts but they were busy with keeping an eye on the captured rogue changelings or the enemy wounded they were watching out for. Also, Tran's bombers and fighters couldn't help either as this type of ground fighting was way out of their expertise. The only upside Eric could see was that every yak that he had in his section of the experimental battalion was going to be participating. None of the yaks that had been involved so far had been knocked out or killed. It wasn't that they were untouched, it was due to the heavy steel armor that they wore had prevented them from gaining any major injuries so far. Also, it might have helped that the yaks were as stubborn as they were.
Eric had an exasperated look on his face, as he took in the situation. Everyone nearby could see the stress that this battle was causing Eric, from his body language. "Sooooo," Eric started saying. "No artillery support, not even mortars, and air support because we don't want to collapse the entrance. AAAAnd I ONLY have two companies to fight a position that we can't scout out because its fucking underground, so it could be heavily built up with lots of bodies to back it up," Eric droned out with an annoyed tone. He brought a hand up and started rubbing his neck. "Anything else?"
Blueblood, still physically and magically drained, handed Eric a flare pistol and some flares, by hoof while he shook his head to answer Eric's question. "You've managed to nail your troubles on the head," Blueblood responded. Prince Blueblood wanted to join Eric in the fight but he was still recovering from his changeling cocooning so Wilson was forcing him to stay back. He trotted over to Rarity, him nuzzling her when he arrived next to her. "Stay safe, madam."
Tran looked over at Eric, handing him an empty .338 Lapua casing from his rifle. "If you need more help, fire a green parachute flare and I'll try to bring in some aerial forces to try to reinforce you. I also have a machine gun but it might not help much," Tran offered.
Pharynx looked at the 3d model of the cave's entrance. He was currently in his REA officer disguise, so he wouldn't cause any alarm while trotting around. "If it's like every other hive, once you've taken the doors, you control the hive. We, er, changelings, build them all pretty much the same, aside from small differences for the hive to meet a specific demand," Pharynx added in.
Princess Luna, who was still suspicious of the changelings, narrowed her eyes at the changeling. "And pray tell, what is the purpose of this hive?" she demanded.
Pharynx could sense the hostility in her voice but he pushed away the sense of unease it caused him. Since he was a changeling fighting this secret war, he knew details that even these ponies didn't know. Those details that he knew made him antsy, which everypony could see from his body language with how much he was twitching and shifting around in place he stood. "With it being this close to Appleloosa, it might be a farm," Pharynx responded.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at Pharynx and held up a hoof. "A farm? What kinda farm we talkin' bout 'ere? What could they possibly be growin' in an underground cave?" she asked.
Pharynx grimaced, knowing that the truth was going to be unsettling for the ponies. He pointed at the Prince Blueblood and everyone immediately knew the answer. "Love farm," Pharynx soon responded.
Rarity, the most dramatic of the bunch, audibly gasped. "So are we going to find a myriad of cocooned ponies?" she asked.
Pharynx rubbed his neck and nodded. He looked over at Tran who, while appearing to be emotionless, seemed to be staring into Pharynx's soul, greatly unnerving him. "We could find something worse but let's hope we don't run into that situation," he explained. Before anyone could ask further questions, he opened his mouth to continue and everypony closed their mouths to let him speak. "I'd prefer not to explain what's worse, but you'll know it if you run into it." Mentally, Pharynx was praying to the gods of harmony that they wouldn't run into worse, for the sake of changeling kind in Equestria.
Eric, sighing, unslung his AK and pulled back on the bolt, checking that it was loaded. Satisfied, he turned to leave. He cut a very imposing figure, as he was still covered head to toe in blood. He had yet to clean himself off from the day's earlier events, only wiping the blood off of his face. He cut a very imposing figure into everypony/ling's minds. "Let's get this over with," he announced to everyone.
-X-X-X-
Eric and his troops staged themselves at the many defensive areas that they had taken earlier today and when everyone was sufficiently positioned, the battle started with Eric blowing a whistle and charging forth, where he was quickly joined in by many other leaders blowing their trench whistles where soldiers quickly started charging forth. Machine guns from all directions started firing, most of it coming from the Equestrian side. From the inside of the cave's mouth, machine guns could be seen firing where the muzzle flashes lit up the darkness of the cave's entrance, occasionally lighting up the figure of the quadruple defenders.
Something immediately felt wrong, to Eric. It was going too easy, unexpectedly effortless. The return machine gun fire that came from the defenders was very... Ineffective. It was almost like whoever was firing back at them were firing blind. True, the Equestrians were putting up a good wall of lead that made return accurate fire virtually impossible but it seemed like the return fire they got was not up to snuff, for a trained military force. When they made it into the cave mouth, it was difficult to discern targets with the lower levels of light inside. All Eric and the attackers could do was to fire at any moving or pony/changeling shaped silhouettes.
Before anyone knew it, the attack was over and the Equestrians had taken over the entrance of the cave mouth. None of them could continue further into the rogue changeling hive as they were stopped by a tremendous wall of concrete blocking any further entry. There was only one set of doors on the concrete wall, a giant behemoth example, a set of double doors made of steel that looked impossibly thick. It was easily fifteen meters tall, reaching the top of the cave roof, and each door being twenty meters wide. None of the bunker door's hinges were on the outside and there was a giant visible section of the door's middle where the ends of giant steel rivets stuck out, signaling where the door's locking bar would be positioned on the other side of the door. Eric looked at the door in irritation, as he was now stuck between a rock and a hard place.
With the attack over, Eric had signaled to the airships that the entrance had been taken. They made sure that the cave entrance wasn't booby trapped, in case the changelings would have wanted to collapse the cave in on the REA forces. When it was deemed safe, the rest of the command team started to gather at the entrance of the cave, to plan what to do next. While waiting for everyone else, Eric made sure his soldiers were fine. There were very few casualties expected for something like this. Only a handful of ponies had been struck by return machine gun fire, where their armor protected their vitals preventing them from being killed, leaving no deaths were found on the Equestrian side. On the defending side, there were hundreds of casualties.
An officer trotted up to Eric to deliver some news. To survey the door, Eric had a lit torch that he was using to light up the general area. The instant the officer stepped into the torch's light, Eric could see a haunted visage on the pony's face. "Yes?" Eric asked.
The officer gulped. "Sir, you have to see this," the officer announced. "The changelings we just fought for the entrance..." The officer trailed off from there, refusing to speak, as if he didn't believe what he thought about saying next. Instead, the officer started trotting away instead. "Just, you have to see this."
Eric had many questions, especially with how horrified the pony looked but he opted to follow the pony. The officer led Eric to where a group of his soldiers, a machine gun team, was gathered. The ponies(with a few secretly being allied disguised changelings) and yak were standing around one of the erected fortified machine gun positions that the hive's entrance's defenders. The machine team had a few torches of their own lighting up the fortified position, in addition to a few torches having been set up at the defensive position by the prior defenders.
The machine gun team, in the dark, had moved all of the changeling defender's corpses into a pile before lighting torches of their own so they could see. When they could actually see inside the cave, they were shocked. The corpses that they had piled up, weren't the corpses of changelings. These were the corpses of ponies. They weren't disguised changelings, as some of them had thought, a few just-in-case bullets having proved that hypothesis wrong.
Eric could now understand why the officer looked haunted. He went to some of the other defensive positions inside the cave's mouth and he found the same thing, the grand majority of the defenders' corpses were ununiformed pony corpses. Overall, there were only a minimal number of rogue changeling corpses mixed in with the pony corpses, outnumbering them twenty to one.
As more and more questions popped up into Eric's mind, the rest of the command team had finally arrived in the cave's mouth. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, when the attack had ended, had immediately gone to grab the rest of the command team, meaning they hadn't seen the carnage yet. The command team arriving, Tran, Wilson, Logan, being led by Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity found Eric standing near a pile of corpses along with one of his machine gun teams. Eric immediately turned to focus on the command team. "We've got a problem," Eric loudly stated and before anyone could ask questions, he threw the torch down next to the pile of pony corpses.
Everypony gasped while the humans(and one ex-human now a griffon) looked indifferent. None of the pony corpses looked right and the sight of them made the ponies rather anxious. The carcasses' coats looked dull and greyed out unlike what normal ponies usually looked like with their usual extravagantly cartoonish pastel coat colors. Something else that was quite alarming to the ponies was that every single one of the rogue changeling hive's pony corpses showed no emotion on their faces. The faces of the rogue changeling corpses that were mixed in with the pony corpses showed emotions such as fear, pain, terror, and or shock, faces with emotions that would normally be on the faces of a casualty of war but the pony corpses displayed nothing. It was like they had reacted to dying as if it was a mere common day task, their dead faces essentially mimicking Tran's usual emotionless face.
While everypony was shocked to see all of this, knowing that they had slaughtered members of their own kind, Pharynx was looking at the pony corpses with eyes filled with sadness and weariness. Wilson noticed that Pharynx had reacted to the pony corpses differently and thought that he knew something about this situation. He drew his pistol and pointed it at Pharynx. "You!" he shouted with an accusatory tone in his voice. "You know something about this!" he shouted.
Pharynx looked at the pistol aimed at his head with the same look of emotional pain in eyes. "Parasites," Pharynx stated. "These ponies had all of their love and emotions drained. If a changeling drains everything out of a pony, they become an emotionless drone with no drive, they eventually die from starvation or dehydration. However, a changeling can then control them like a machine, to do anything."
Wilson growled, looking at Pharynx with an angry drive. Before things could escalate, Eric walked over to Wilson and put a hand on Wilson's drawn pistol. Eric gave Wilson a look of compassion on his face while shaking his head. Wilson grit his teeth before lowering the pistol.
Pharynx trotted over to one of the pony corpses and used a hoof to close its eyes. "This is one of the reasons why we broke away from the hive, why we fight our own family. We couldn't stand the cruelty. My brother was one of the first to speak out against the queen and things escalated from there," Pharynx explained. Pharynx looked into Wilsons angry eyes. "We wanted to be better. They are the real parasites, not us."
Pinkie Pie trotted up to Pharynx and looked the disguised changeling up and down. She then charged forward, scaring the changeling and causing him to flinch, but was then surprised to find the party pony hugging him. Pharynx could feel love radiating off of the party planner , giving the changeling a boost. It wasn't emotional love but a familial type of love which was still contributive to the changeling's being. When Pinkie broke away, she looked to Wilson. "He's not our enemy, sir, Wilson," Pinkie announced. She looked back at Pharynx. "You're our friend!" Pinkie Pie announced with her usual bubbly voice.
Pharynx smiled before looking back to Eric. "Even though we didn't do this, this isn't going to look good for changeling kind once the rest of Equestria finds out about this," Pharynx stated.
Eric snorted before looking at the big metal doors. "So what are we going to find once we're inside the hive?" Eric asked.
Pharynx's face dropped and the same look of weariness came back. "Worse," Pharynx answered. His eyes and face showed centuries of mental exhaustion again, like earlier. He pointed at the section of the door where the locking bar would be. "They're either waiting for reinforcements or are gathering everything to evacuate the hive through possibly a secret escape route," Pharynx explained. "We don't have much time for either direction so we have to get in quick."
Pinkie pronked/skipped up to the metal door and gave it a tap with her hoof, only getting a dull thud in response. It was obvious that the door was very, very thick. "So how are we going to get through?" she asked.
Eric, Wilson and Logan looked at Tran while doing and saying nothing else. When the ponies saw that the humans were standing still, staring at each other, one by one, they started doing the same thing, staring at Tran. When all eyes were on Tran, he smirked. "I might have an idea," Tran stated.
-X-X-X-
The ponies looked at the door after Tran's first attempt of blasting through the door had seemingly done nothing to the door. He had placed a few of his EFP bombs on the door, roughly where the rivets of the giant door's locking bar were bolted in place. While he had been doing that, ponies of all sorts were bringing giant containers of water to the door. Although the first bombs that Tran had detonated weren't able to punch all the way through the door, they did manage to put neat little holes into the door, holes that were barely six centimeters wide, that were angled slightly downwards so they weren't completely horizontal. Even with this damage to the rivets, the door still held firm with the locking bar still in place on the other side.
This was to be expected so the next thing Tran did was that he stuck a rod in each of those blast holes. The ponies were quite confused when Tran had lit the fuses on the rods and only took a few steps back to watch the explosive go off. Naturally, the ponies took cover to protect themselves from the explosives, even if the human wasn't going to. Even more confusing was that when the "explosives" went off, there was no explosion. When the fuses had been lit, they had heard a sound that was akin to something sizzling, like when you were cooking, but significantly more intense and also, the entire cave was lit up with a light that was akin to someone placing the sun on the door. The loud sizzling sound and the bright light lasted quite a while and once both had stopped, the ponies got out from their cover to see what had happened.
They were quite surprised to see large chunks of the door had been melted away, positioned right where the rivets of the door's locking bar held it in place. Of course, this "explosive" hadn't eaten all the way through the door but had obviously melted away a significant amount off it. Tran looked at his handiwork and smiled. Eric walked over to Tran and squinted to look at the white hot iron slag that was pooling on the ground. "I didn't know you made thermite?" Eric asked.
Tran looked at Eric and then back at his handiwork. "Aluminum powder small enough for it was annoying to source but yeah. Prepped a good amount, just in case," Tran answered. Thermite was an explosive, but instead of being a high explosive, it was a low explosive. This meant it didn't explode, instead only just burning. However, just because it "only" burned, it didn't mean it wasn't capable of doing damage. Thermite burned at 2500 degrees Celsius(4500 F), easily being hot enough to easily melt through steel or iron. For the Equestrians and Griffons, thermite wasn't unknown to them but it was still too relatively new and untested for its use in military applications. The biggest thing holding back its usage in military applications was the fact that it needed finely powdered aluminum, while common in the modern world, was much rarer in this world's industrial era.
Eric looked at Tran with a flat expression on his face. "You really need a hobby," Eric joked. He looked back to the door, trying to figure out what Tran was going to do next. He had obviously seen the water containers being gathered, so he had a good inkling of what was going to happen next. "Water impulse charge?" Eric asked. Tran nodded. "I'll get the men ready for a charge."
The Other Side of The Armored Door
There were a few teams of changelings in defensive positions set up near the armored door that isolated them from the Equestrians. They were there for the hive's defenses, just in case anything came through the door. Of course, all of the changelings defending the door thought their roles were pointless. The door was a dozen centimeters (about 5 inches) thick and was essentially invulnerable, with no way for the Equestrians to break it down. Unfortunately for them, Equestrians weren't the ones trying to break down the door, Americans were.
The first thing that would have keyed them into realizing they were about to have a very bad time, was the first explosion. Of course, the explosion seemingly looked like it did nothing against the door, as the view from this side of the tunnel showed that no damage had been done to the door. Naturally, some of the rogue changelings scoffed or laughed at the Equestrian's attempts at blasting through the door as the giant metal gates stood firm where they were.
The next thing that should have keyed them into realizing their soon-to-be predicament was the large amount of light that suddenly came from the other side of the door, from the slits from the imperfect seal of the top, bottom, and center of the door. It was brighter than any torch or light bulb they had ever seen. This had been the thermite charge that had detonated but the defending changelings wouldn't have known what was happening.
Nothing major happened for a few more minutes, other than the obvious sounds of hoofsteps from troop movements and objects being moved, whatever it was they had no idea what was going on the other side. Unfortunately for the rogue changeling defenders, they didn't know that the Americans had severely damaged the rivets holding in the locking bar that was locking the door in place. Of course, the door was still locked as the Americanss hadn't completely destroyed the rivets but they were close to being almost completely melted through.
With the doors being this massive, twelve centimeters thick all the way along the doors, the defenders assumed the doors were impregnable. This was their folly, to which they were very laxed with their ordered surveillance of the door. After the door's locking system had been substantially damaged, the 'Muricans were preparing to breach the door with a technique that was completely unknown to anyone in this world, other than the 'Muricans obviously. It was a breaching technique where you used water to back up the explosives intended to blow in/breach the door. Due to many of water's properties, such as being incapable of being compressible unlike air, this technique considerably boosted the effectiveness of any explosives used to breach a door. This was a breaching technique discovered in the modern world and it was easily applicable with this world's technology and resources, so the rogue changeling defenders were about to have a rather significant surprise.
And dazed and bewildered the defenders were, the doors that they once thought to be impenetrable, were blown open at the speeds of Equestria's fastest dogfighter. The doors weren't blown off of the hinges but they did swing open with the force of every dragon on this world combined, haplessly striking and pulverizing a few ill-fated changelings who had been obstructing the colossal door's swing path. With something as massive as those two doors swinging open at the velocities they had gone, a massive pressure and air wave, in addition to the breaching charge's blast wave, had rushed down through the caverns of this hive, to which it had knocked over many of the closer unlucky flabbergasted defenders of this rogue changeling hive.
Despite this rather unfortuitous event happening, the defenders of the rogue changeling hive weren't immediately dominated by the attackers they faced. The defenders had distanced themselves from the explosives, for safety, so far that they had to travel a significant distance, a distance so long that it had given enough time for the defenders to recover from this surprise. Machine guns on both sides roared but none of it was effective fire, the caverns that this latest battle took place in were dark enough that it was nigh impossible to see anyone to accurately shoot at, as every torch had been extinguished from the blast wave. That didn't mean it wasn't difficult to get a bead on where to fire. The attackers only had a singular path that they could take, meaning the defenders had a very good idea on where to shoot to stall these raiders.
The entrance was large, being a dozen and a half meters(60 ft) wide, but at the same time small. Being the only path the assailants could take, the army that was attacking was severely handicapped in their attempts to make any headway. With everyone recklessly firing in the dark, it was impossibly dangerous for anyone to attempt any movement. Essentially, it was a death sentence for anyone to expose themselves, ie, get out from behind cover. Due to the darkness of the caves, everyone on both sides were unable to see the sights on their weapons but they still knew they had to lay down some covering fire. This meant that everyone on both sides were forced to the only option of blindly firing their weapons in the general direction of each other, with fruitless results other than making it a hazard to be up and out of cover.
That was when the defending side used their trump card. The entire cave system was temporarily lit up with the muzzle flashes of a cannon going off, which was quickly followed by a different second other artillery piece firing off that also lit up the caverns with a hellishly bright muzzle flash. The first shell had worthlessly impacted the massive bunker wall but the second shot had managed to go through the open doors. This shot managed to hit the ground somewhere barely past the bunker door's entrance, where it exploded in a deadly blast, throwing shrapnel in every direction.
If machine gun and rifle fire hadn't been filling the air, everyone involved in the battle would have heard the screams of some of the REA soldiers screaming in pain. Whether they were killed, severely wounded, or lightly injured, it was impossible to tell and any rescue attempts would have been death sentences with the threat of the random bullets flying through the air. This meant they were solitary to their health and rescue, all they could do was hide behind some cover and treat themselves, hoping they would survive long enough for future salvation.
The sounds of the cannons, in addition to the obvious muzzle flash, had been a wakeup call to the assaulting REA forces. They felt like they were in over their heads with this battle, as if they had been forced to push a boulder up a hill. Still, they continued their attack, continuing their return fire. At least they now knew that the defending forces had at least two artillery pieces and were willing to use them, despite the significant risk of a cave-in or perhaps the defending forces wanted a cave-in as it would cut them off from advancing further into the hive.
The darkness severely handicapped their usage of those artillery pieces, slowing their rate of fire and reload, and hindering their ability to aim. As the battle continued, both sides were still stuck in the same positions and hadn't let up on the wild blind return fire. It seemed like this battle was going to be won by whoever had more ammunition.
As the defending changelings were working hard to reload their two cannons, something extraordinary happened. Far in the back of the battle on the attacking side, it suddenly seemed like something had exploded near the REA rear line. This explosion was abnormally intense. It wasn't as if the explosion was massive. What had made this explosion unique was that it was long and never ending. It was as if an unknown monster was continuously roaring and where this explosion was happening, it looked like a dragon was breathing fire nonstop.
Down at the defending side where one of the defending changeling's artillery guns were at, the crew that was operating the artillery gun were hard at work. One of the cannon's crewmembers had opened the breech, ejecting the previous shell's spent casing. The instant the breech of the cannon had opened and the casing had been ejected, a stream of bullets shot down the barrel and out of the breech of the artillery gun and struck several of the crew members! Bullets had started raining down on their position with the intensity of a swarm of hungry locust. The remaining crewmembers grabbed their weapons and scrambled for cover, thinking that maybe some of the REA forces had managed to sneak up on them. However, what they experienced was impossible to pinpoint how many or even what had managed to attack them, the battlefield was too loud from the gunfire. One changeling crewmember took cover behind a big metal shield that was attached to the artillery cannon. In an instant, all of the gunfire hitting that cannon crew ceased, to which the few remaining crewmembers of that artillery piece breathed a sigh of relief.
While that artillery gun position had been ravaged by unknown shooters, the other artillery gun that the rogue changeling hive owned, had been working hard to reload their cannon. Even though they were working in the dark, they were almost ready to fire another devastating HE(High Explosive) shell. Before they could complete the final steps, they were immediately bombarded by a hail of gunfire that they never could have imagined. In the matter of seconds, hundreds upon hundreds of bullets were hitting absolutely everything in mere seconds. Some of the artillery gun's crewmembers were somewhat safe, being protected by the artillery gun and the protective shield that was built into the artillery piece but still, several of the crewmembers were cut down by the gunfire causing the rest of the crewmembers to scramble for their weapons and safety, them thinking that, just like the other artillery gun's crewmembers, they had been ambushed by a squad of REA soldiers. All of the incoming fire was coming from the general direction of where the Equestrians had been attacking from. They knew the direction of their assailant, but just like the other artillery crew, they couldn't determine how many or even what had attacked them for the same reason.
The crewmembers of the artillery guns had foolishly thought they had been safe as their positions were far from the main battle, at the open gate, but now they were proven wrong. The second crew, having been interrupted in the process of reloading their cannon for another shot, had a few steps left before firing. Unfortunately for the artillery piece's crewmembers, those final few steps were now much more challenging to complete. An HE shell was loaded in the artillery gun's breech and its propellant charge had also been stuffed into the gun, leaving the last steps left being a primer needing to be inserted into the propellant charge and to close the breach.
Miraculously, they were suddenly unable to finish reloading the gun due to a sudden series of unfortunate events that rendered the task impossible. The sheer amount of firepower that was being rained down on their position had done something disastrous for this cannon's crewmembers. So many bullets had been fired at them that nothing was safe from being hit by a stray bullet. A definitely-not-insignificant number of bullets had managed to find a path down the barrel of the aimed cannon where they impacted the front of the HE shell that was loaded in the gun. Normally, a single bullet wouldn't be able to detonate an HE artillery shell, even if it hit the tip. The problem was, the HE shell wasn't hit by a singular stray round, but an uncountable number.
Naturally, the shell exploded in the chamber of the artillery gun which also detonated the powder charge behind it and since the breech wasn't closed due to the reload process having been interrupted, the explosion traveled further outwards in its path of destruction. On the attacking side of this battle, all of the attackers got to watch a massive series of explosions as that single HE shell's detonation had manage to travel far enough to detonate the cannon's spare ammunition and propellant charges that were nearby which was then big enough to take out the other artillery cannon and also detonating its spare ammunition. The explosion rocked the defending side, taking out heaps of the changelings and severely stunning many others. For a short moment, it felt like the earth was shaking with the intensity of the chain of explosions rocking the cave system, it being a miracle that there were still no cave-ins. The blind gunfire coming from the defending side effectively died out as many of the rogue changeling hive's defending forces were affected by the explosions.
With this lull in the return fire, the REA forces started charging forth and making leeway. In a matter of minutes, the rogue changeling hive's final defenses had been taken over.
-X-X-X-
While REA forces were mopping things up, such as dealing with POWs or wounded soldiers(of both sides), Eric, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were gathering up at the cave's entrance where their "rear line" was which was where Tran was stationed during the battle, not being able to directly "participate" in the fighting. As Eric and Co. walked, all of the ponies talked to one another while Eric was thinking about what had happened during the battle. They had been fighting through a bottleneck, which had cost them many casualties and when the rogue changelings revealed that they had cannons, Eric had thought they came close to losing the battle.
After the two cannons had fired their first and only rounds, Eric had been planning a maneuver with some teams of soldiers to try to make any headway. Before he could initiate his plan, it seemed like they had suddenly gained a lot more firepower on their side, small arms wise, to help fire on the defending rogue changelings. He had an inkling of an idea of where it came from and what it was, the sound being somewhat familiar to him.
When Eric and Co. found Tran, it confirmed Eric's idea of where the extra firepower had come from. Tran, due to the fact that he was still recovering from prior injuries, didn't have 100% of his strength to participate in the up close direct combat they had just gone through, but that didn't mean he wasn't completely incapable of assisting the battle. The other ponies, upon seeing Tran, were astounded, but not Eric.
The unkillable human was standing atop a platform built onto a large carriage, where he was standing behind a massive gun contraption device mounted to a massive tripod. The gun had 10 barrels and had many mechanisms, gears, and objects attached to it. The top of the gun had an absolutely massive corrugated steel drum that Eric assumed was the magazine and attached to the side of the gun's receiver was a glass bottle attached to a mechanism. It wasn't any regular glass bottle but one that contained a bolt of lightning.
Applejack was awestruck at the sight of the massive gun, which was currently steaming from substantial heat. "Dadgum, Ah didn't know yah had a genuiiiine Gatlin' Gun!" she exclaimed.
Tran nodded and patted the Gatling Gun with his left hand. "Kind of, it's been changed."
Eric ran up to the gun to get a better look. He had an inkling of an idea of what Tran had used in the battle, before he saw it and was walking to here, as the roar sounded somewhat familiar, its rate of fire. He shot Tran an irritated look. "When you said you had a machine gun, why didn’t you say it was a minigun?!" Eric demanded. ”And Why the hell didn't you spring this earlier in the morning?!”
Tran turned the Gatling Gun so it's back was exposed. Upon seeing the back of the Gatling Gun, Eric immediately understood why it was kept hidden. The rear of the gun had many, many controls, knobs, and dials. It looked like an intricate mess that barely functioned. "It's a work in progress, but it works, barely, if you guys noticed."
Eric turned to look back into the cave system before looking at Tran. He sighed, knowing that his friend was right. "Is that what took out their arty?" he asked.
Tran nodded in response and proceeded to remove the drum off the top of the gun, setting it on the ground. "Yeah, I've tested it before but I thought now would be a good first field use," Tran answered. "It still needs more refinement for further future use. It's too complicated to be carried by anything at the moment."
Eric continued looking at the gun, then smirked. He couldn't deny it, it was an awesome weapon. "What's it clock in at and why no belt feed?" Eric asked.
"4500 rounds per minute and I tried but, making a belt feed mechanism to work with the REA ammo belts was basically impossible," Tran answered. "So, for now, I just went with a big drum like the Lewis gun's, ‘cepted scaled up to hold 600 rounds instead of 47. I might be able to add a belt feed in the future with more handiwork."
Applejack whistled and she trotted over to the Gatling Gun, tapping the side with a hoof. "4500 rounds a minute? Holy Celestia, that has tah be a record!" she exclaimed. "Only time Ah ever tried one, it took me bout five seconds tah fire forty rounds, but with this thing, that'd be a cake walk, wouldn't it?"
Tran nodded to Applejack's question, patting the weapon. "Forty rounds, gone in half a second with this," Tran responded.
Applejack was stupefied at Tran's statement, that answer she was given seemed impossible but knowing him, impossible was what he did. "Where'd you get somethin' like this? Most ah dem are gone, destroyed! They're relics now," Applejack asked.
Tran chuckled and hand-spun the barrels to clear it. He looked over to Applejack and waved at her to come closer. She trotted over to him and then, looked closer at the Gatling Gun, somewhere that Tran was now pointing at. Tran was pointing out a section of the Gatling Gun's receiver that would be hidden by the magazine. Looking, Applejack could see several names engraved into it, very crudely as if someone had done it with a knife. Of the names engraved, she saw a familiar one. "Calamity Mane?" Applejack read out loud. "Nah, it can't be!"
Tran nodded again. "Yep. Ah got dis 'ere Gatlin' Gun from yer Granny Smith," Tran replied, copying her drawl.
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Granny Smith had a Gatling Gun? And she once went by "Calamity Mare"? I have SEVERAL questions right now.
Bro you good??
Author note v4 got me worried here
11900541
Grenade Pin...?
11900568
Calamity Mare
F Troop?
I may not know how he got it, admittedly I may have skipped a bit to catch up after being gone for a while. But that's why you need to be careful. You make something and stop, lose ability/knowledge to make, ban, or otherwise get rid of. Someone, somewhere either has one stashed or has the parts/knowledge to make it work.
11900568
11900883
Calamity Mane not Mare
and what does F troop mean?
Premature chapter posting?
11903409
Calamity Jane was a character on an old western comedy called F Troop... (Think of Dances With Wolves in the 1960s as a Comedy)
Mare?! My bad , Calamity Main = Calamity Jane
Too bad Discord & Fluttershy didn't have a hybrid foal , Annarchy Shy of Chaos....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K4BvF_sb3Y
11903481
yep
11904154
ah, i dont know too much bout calamity jane aside from western legend. also, I used mane, not main
11904253
It's ok... It happens to the best of writes
11904253
More of "My bad."
Calamity Mane ...
got it! 
11904258
ye, the edit button is next to the publish button making it way too easy to do, specially when I'm high
11905264
Understandable, still great military fic, got time to read it all on the weekend after was on my to read list for a long time.
Also, I also must do this
11906700
More like boiled and seared on both outsides (regular outside and inside-outside) while still raw, bloody, and very much aware in the middle.
Think of the sort of damage the old WWI chemical weapons could do to a persons lungs. Now imagine that sort of damage while also have every surface that was exposed to the steam having severe 2nd or even 3rd degree burns over it. Yet right below that the tissue is almost untouched so all the pain receptors etc are very much intact and working.
I've been told it is a horrible way to die as the victims could linger for hours or days in agony before either dying of sepsis or (if they breathed any of the steam in) effectively drowning from the inflammatory fluid that filled their lungs.