//------------------------------// // 18) The War Begins Pt 2 // Story: Fireteam Odium // by EchoTheFloof //------------------------------// The five guardians stood around a large table, joined by three ponies. At Kervis’ side, the War Mage leader stood, a stern look on her face, and to her left, Chrome also stood. Flame was the last one to arrive, sticking beside Kalis as they spoke. “Are you absolutely sure of this?” The War Mage asked. “Positive. All the Ghosts have followed their trajectory, and the carriers are making a beeline straight for the city of Canterlot.” Kervis replied, pointing at some dots on a large map. The was a straight line drawn from them to a larger dot marked ‘Canterlot’. “Then how are we to prevent this? There could be millions of those monsters.” The guardians were quiet for a moment. They already knew what the outcome of the battle would be, but none of them wanted to say it. “We can’t prevent it.” Chrome said, looking at the robed pony, “All we can do is slow it, and hope the city can evacuate in time.” “So what’s the plan here? We all understand the severity of this, but what are we gonna do when we arrive?” Kalis questioned. “First, the princesses.” Exodus started, “They are looked upon with admiration and respect. If they were to die, the morale of the remaining ponies would plummet. After that, the women and children. I assume the city has a defence force?” “Yes. It isn’t large, but it should be enough to help move ponies to the ships.” Chrome replied. “Good enough. We’ll split up, each guardian takes a partner and gathers as many ponies as they can, before bringing them to the ships for evac.” “I guess one of us will be doing something else?” Kalis asked, indicating the uneven number of guardians. “Yes. Kalis, how good are you at mobile support?” Exodus said, looking at the Hunter. “Not bad. What exactly would you want me to do?” “I need you to defend the ships. The Cabal will know what we are doing, and will try to stop us. We need the ponies protected for as long as possible while we get them out of there.” “Easy. Just let me know where you will be setting up when you arrive and I’ll be there.” Exodus nodded at that, turning to Chrome, “Alright, and I need you to take a team of Mages into the city.” Chrome gave him a confused look, “Why? Surely five guardians are enough?” “You will need to create a distraction, something to pull the bulk of the enemy away from us. You are skilled in shield magic, and you have been given guardian abilities and armour. You would be perfect to draw the attention of the Primus.” Chrome pondered on the situation for a second, before nodding and standing tall, “I’ll do my best. Who will I have with me?” “You can choose your Mages personally, but I ask you bring the new pony along as well.” Flame looked up at the Warlock in shock, almost not believing what he had heard, “Me? Why me?” “You are the second pony to be given guardian abilities, and so, you are invaluable in this situation. If you use it correctly, you can tear the enemy apart using invisibility alone.” “I-I dont think I can-” “I swear, if you pussy out now, I’m gonna kick your ass. The capital of the country is at stake here, and you are chickening out?” Kalis exclaimed. “Kalis, please.” Exodus said, “Flame, we need you in this. You wanted to help us fight, and here is your opportunity.” Flame looked around at the faces before him. Each one was looking at him, not with a malicious look, but one of hope. Well, barring Kalis, of course. “Alright,” He said after a moment, “I’ll help the best I can.” “Good. We all know what we are doing then?” “What will the remaining Mages do?” The Mage’s leader asked. “We will have to use this town as the evac destination. Have your ponies ready to defend against any Cabal that manage to follow us, and get ready for a large amount of ponies to be on your doorstep.” She nodded in agreement and left the room quickly, her guards following her out. The remaining guardians and ponies remained at the table, awaiting something from Exodus. “Okay. We all know what we are doing. If we are going to beat the Cabal there and warn the city, we will have to leave in fifteen minutes. Make sure you are ready by then.” The Warlock explained, walking out of the building, towards the fields. The others dispersed instantly, moving to their various bunks or homes to gather their equipment, or say their goodbyes. Flame and Elana were the only ones that were ready almost instantly. Flame had nothing with him, so all he had to do was check the light Kalis gave him was still there. Elana, on the other hand, had only needed to check her ammo and she was set. “Nervous?” She asked, looking at the pony. “Yeah… a little.” He replied. “It’s okay to be. This is my first actual battle since being reborn, so I am the exact same way. We had that little fight in the village, but that was nothing compared to this.” Flame didn’t say anything, instead looking down at the map before him. ‘I wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t given Kalis that map...’ He thought to himself, looking over the various dots that signified towns and villages. Catching himself daydreaming, he shook his head and tried to prepare himself for the coming events. He still wasn’t sure of how he was going to be of any help, but Exodus was right in saying that he wanted to help. “We should probably start heading out.” Elana commented, loading a fresh magazine into her sniper. “Yeah. See you down there?” “Yup, see you there.” With his mind slightly more focused, Flame left the building to find Chrome. A few minutes passed before he found him hugging a pink pony. They were standing in front of a large house, and with the way the pink pony was standing, he guessed she owned it. He didn’t want to disturb them, so he waited until they had finished. When Chrome started walking away, he trotted over to catch up. “Chrome?” He called out, drawing the attention of the unicorn. “Yeah, Flame right?” He said in response. “That’s right. I was hoping to find out where we would be going.” “Just stick with me. I’m gonna grab the Mages, and then we’ll hitch a ride with Exodus or Procor.” They continued walking in silence, looking around them as the many ponies of the town went about their day. Not a single one of them knew of the coming terror, it was almost peaceful. They eventually arrived at another large building. Chrome ran inside, glancing over the lines of War Mages that had been standing at attention since their leader had called for them. “You, you, you, you and you. Everyone else can stay here.” He said, pointing at five individual Mages. The five followed closely, none of them speaking up. There were three mares and two stallions, each dressed in varying coloured robes to show their ranking in the town. “We should be able to get aboard Exodus’ ship, if not we can-” Chrome was cut off by the sound of an engine, one he didn’t recognise as a guardian ship. He raced forward, fearing the worst, to find a Cabal dropship hovering above the five guardians. They all had huge weapons pointed at the craft, a couple of them shrouded in light. The rear of the ship opened, revealing the huge Cabal leader they had met before. “Guardians! The carriers!” It called out over the sound of the engines. “We know!” Kervis called back, “You here to help?” “We are. This ship can carry many more. Load the ponies you need with us, we can move out together!” “Got it!” The guardians scrambled to call in their ships, Exodus whirling around to see Chrome coming over with his six team mates. “Alright, you lot, we need you on the dropship. Tell the Val what you need to do, and he should drop you off there.” Exodus commanded, his Ghost looking up as his ship dropped in from orbit. “Understood.” Chrome replied, running over to the low-flying ship. When they arrived, a few Cabal lowered their hands to start pulling the ponies up into it. As they boarded, the Cabal leader spoke up, “Just seven of you?” “Yeah. We are gonna be creating a diversion to lure as many of the enemy away from the ships as possible.” Chrome said. “I see. We will help where we can. Do you know where your landing zone is in the city?” Chrome shook his head, “No, we are going to work with where the guardians land.” The Val grunted and walked back to the cockpit, where two much smaller Cabal sat in their seats, their eyes focused in front of them. He said something to the two before turning back to Chrome and his team, “We will drop you wherever you need us to, and will assist in your diversion.” “Thank you. The more help we can get, the better. Alright, team, as soon as we land, we are going to be setting up ready for the Cabal army. As soon as it arrives, we have to make as much noise and light as possible. If we can attract enough soldiers, the guardians may just have a chance of getting a lot more ponies out of there.” The Mages saluted in response, each of them finding a seat on the sides of the drop ship’s cargo area. “Odium! We good?” A voice said through the ship’s comms. “We’re good, Kervis. Ready to move when you are.” Kalis said. “Then let’s get over there. Move at the max speed of the Cabal ship, and don’t rush forward.” “Understood.” - - - Twilight Sparkle walked slowly through the halls of Canterlot Castle. She had been waiting for Celestia’s armies to ready since she had arrived, but they were taking a lot longer than they expected. Much of her army was spread across Equestria, and so they had to be pulled from their posts to return to the capital. “Is something wrong, Twilight?” She turned to see Princess Luna following her, catching up fairly quickly. “Not really, Luna. I just- I’m worried about what could happen to Equestria.” Twilight replied. “You shouldn’t worry yourself. The Royal Guard are the finest in the land, and the guardians are working to recruit the War Mages, right?” “Yeah, but you saw how many of them there was. They destroyed one of the biggest cities in the world within hours. I just can’t see how we could ever fight back against them.” Luna sighed, looking away slightly, “We have to trust the guardians have a plan. They know our enemy better than we ever could, they’ll find a way.” Twilight was about to say something, when they were interrupted by a guard calling for them. They looked up to find a stallion running as fast as he could, dressed in full combat armour. “Your majesties, we have detected six craft heading straight to the city!” He cried out when he reached them. Luna’s face switched to one of panic, “Are they hostile?” “We don’t know, it may be better if you come see them for yourselves.” She nodded, and turned to Twilight, “Come up to my tower. You can teleport straight there, I’ll remove the spell that prevents it.” “Okay,” Twilight said, charging a teleport spell. When she cast it, she was in a beautiful room, with Luna standing on the balcony. She trotted over and looked up. There were six ships flying at breakneck speeds that would even give Rainbow a run for her money. One of them was significantly more bulky than the others, but they all looked like the ships the guardians used. As they drew closer, one of the ships pulled away from their formation to fly towards Luna’s tower. As it flew over it, a guardian materialised next to them. “Princesses, I apologise for dropping in like this, but your city is in grave danger.” The guardian said. Twilight remembered him being referred to as ‘Exodus’. “What is going on?” Luna questioned, taking a step towards the Warlock. “Three of the Cabal carriers are moving towards the city. We need to evacuate as many ponies as we can right now.” “W-what? Can’t you fight them off?” Twilight asked. “No. Not this many. Our only hope is to get your ponies out of here and to Solacium before the carriers arrive.” “I see...” Luna trailed off, looking over at the bustling city, “What do you wish for us to do?” “We are going to get you and any other royalty out first. After that, we will focus on getting the ponies that live in the city away.” Luna looked at him, horrified at the simple thought of what he had proposed, “You are asking me to leave my ponies when they need me? I cannot do that!” “The Cabal won’t just come in, kill the ponies and leave, Luna. They will very likely wipe out the city itself. We need to get the royalty out so the evacuated ponies have someone to look up to. Now, we don’t have time for this, I need you to get any other royalty in Canterlot and get them to my ship. I will be waiting in the courtyard.” With his part now done, the guardian disappeared from sight, his ship flying down into the front courtyard of the castle. “What should we do, Luna?” Twilight said, worry coursing through her voice. “As much as I despise the thought, I understand what he is saying. Go get Celestia and Blueblood and take them to the ship. Grab as many maids and castle workers as you can on the way out.” “But what about you?” “I will remain. I have the highest combat experience out of the three of us, I’ll hold them off for as long as I can.” Twilight hesitated, but eventually gave a nod and teleported from the room, leaving the Lunar princess on the balcony alone. She sighed as she watched the guardian ships land in separate areas of the city. For one thousand years, she had wanted to come home, now, she had to watch as her home was torn apart by monsters. A tear rolled down her cheek as she turned, leaving the room to find her battle armour. - - - In the direct centre of the city, four ships hovered above the buildings. Kervis, Kalis, Procor and Elana were spreading out, moving civilians up to the craft. Many of them resisted, but were forced on board. As they worked, their Ghosts kept an eye on the incoming Cabal. “The carriers will arrive in five minutes.” Kervis’ Ghost called out to the other guardians. “Got it. Keep moving these ponies, as soon as your ship fills, transit them back to Solacium and bring it back.” Kervis commanded, pushing a mare and her child towards the Vienna. They worked tirelessly, filling their ships up multiple times. As they loaded their third wave of civilians, the Ghost called out. “The Carriers are in range! We need to move faster!” “Ah shit. Chrome, you hear me?” Kervis said through his comms. “Yeah, what’s up?” Chrome replied. “The Cabal are here. We need the distraction asap.” “Got it. Good luck.” “Same to you.” As the carriers came into view, the swarms of fighter craft swooped down on the city, devastating whatever they hit with their cannons. Behind them, drop ships flew in low, dropping Cabal foot soldiers down into the streets. The ponies immediately went into a blind panic, some running closer to the guardians, others running away. “Kalis, you got the evac zone protected?” Procor shouted over the noise. “Yeah, just focus on getting them out of there.” Was the response he got. They continued to work on getting the ponies away. Many had left the zone to find safety in their homes, but as they left Kalis’ protection, they were mowed down by the hundreds of Cabal soldiers that surged through the streets. The landing zone itself remained fairly free of Cabal, as the distraction did its work. Huge explosions and lights flew from the area they had set up, drawing many of the Cabal over to see what was going on. Up above, Kalis’ ship was working to divert the Cabal fighters from the battle. It was unarmed, and so it had to use evasive tactics to try and crash them into the mountain, or the evacuated towers. “We are doing good, Odium! Keep it up!” Kervis said through their comms. “Gladly, how many poni-” Elana was instantly cut off, drawing attention to her. A shot had landed on the back of her head, killing her in a split second. “Elana’s down! Procor!” “Got it!” Procor shouted, rushing over to Elana’s Ghost. When he reached it, he channelled light into the orb until it had enough to begin the revive process, Elana appearing before them. She gasped as she hit the ground, looking around quickly. “C’mon, Elana! We gotta get you back in the fight!” Procor said, pulling her to her feet. She nodded and raised her rifle, picking off a couple of Cabal that Kalis hadn’t gotten to yet. Up in one of the towers, a lone Hunter watched the battle through her scope. She was scanning the rooftops for the source of the shot that killed Elana, eventually finding three Psions posted on a tall building, each of them armed with Cabal styled sniper rifles. She dropped them all with a shot to the head, ignoring the sounds her sniper made as it reloaded itself, “Snipers are down. Keep your eyes peeled for more,” She said to the team, switching her gaze down to the landing zone again. The distraction seemed to be failing, as the zone had gained quite a few more Cabal to defend against. A quick glance towards the light show could provide a view of hundreds of Cabal surrounding it, gunshots and explosions reigning down on either side. As much as she hoped otherwise, she knew the distraction wouldn’t hold. The Primus would quickly realise what was going on and would shift his forces over to the evac zone. If that happened, she was unsure if she could keep them back long enough for the guardians to get the rest of the city out. She was about to take a shot at another Legionary, when whirring brought her eyes up. A Cabal fighter had seen her and was bearing down on her. She tried to bring her rifle up but wasn’t fast enough. It fired upon the flimsy tower, decimating the supports and causing it to fall. Before she could hit the ground, however, she was caught by something. She looked around to find one of the Princesses flying alongside her, her horn lit up as she carried the heavy Hunter away from the falling debris. “Holy shit, nice catch,” Kalis said as she got closer to her. The Princess had put a full suit of armour on, that covered almost all her body in metal. “Thank you. Is there anywhere I can leave you that those craft cannot hit you?” The Princess questioned, shielding them both from stray fire. “The top of the mountain will do, if that’s possible.” She didn’t say anything else. Within a moment, Kalis found herself standing at the top of the mountain, looking down at the chaos the Cabal had caused. “Perfect.” She muttered, crouching and lowering her rifle to look down at the landing zone. - - - “We can’t keep this up, Kervis!” Procor shouted, reloading his auto-rifle and dropping a trio of legionaries. “We have to, keep moving the ponies to the ships. These are the last of the ponies that came over here. The others are a lost cause.” Kervis said, slamming a Sol hammer into the face of a Centurion. “Copy. We gonna move out at the same time?” “Yeah, send all the ships back at the same time and cloak them. Move them as fast as they can go.” “Exodus, have the princesses been evacuated?” Procor questioned. “All but one. The blue one decided to stay and help fight. We got the rest of the royalty out of the city.” Exodus explained. “Then where are you? We could do with some support!” Their answer came as a fighter tried to fire upon the landing zone. Before it could open fire, however, the Galliot flew in and fired a single missile, the Cabal craft easily being torn apart by the guardian weaponry. “You have support, now get moving!” Exodus said, moving his ship around to continue fighting the enemy ships. The rest of the evacuation went fairly smoothly, all things considering. As the last pony boarded the ships, the Ghosts got to work cloaking the craft and sending them back to Solacium. “All right! Now we just have to-” Nothing could be said by the guardians as the ground around them shook. They turned their heads to find a Goliath tearing through the streets, straight at the ships. “Ghosts! Get the ships cloaked and out of here now!” Kervis yelled, forcing more solar light into his hammers. “The cloaks are still charging, this technology is still in a prototype phase and Elana’s ship doesn’t even have it.” Kervis Ghost replied, his segments spinning as he worked. “I don’t care, get those ships out of here one way or the other. We can’t afford to lose any of them!” The three guardians got to work keeping the Cabal tank at bay. Procor and Kervis circled around using the buildings that still stood to get a better angle on the engines. Elana stayed on the ground, behind cover, firing upon the gun’s sensor in the hopes of disabling it. Just like the one in Manehattan, it remained hovering until two sniper rounds tore through its front-left engine. It tilted over, throwing its gun off of the shot it was about to take. “They really don’t stop, huh?” Kalis commented, firing twice more, straight into the front-right engine. Procor and Kervis gave no reply, instead deciding to pummel the hull of the vehicle with hammers. The armour plating started to buckle, before the entire thing exploded, a hammer striking the ammo supply of the vehicle. “Goliath’s down. Kalis, keep an eye out for more of them, we will need to know about them as early as possible.” Kervis commanded, returning to the landing zone. “Can do.” The guardians tirelessly continued to defend the area, their guns repeatedly running dry and requiring a synth top-up. As they defended, however, the Ghosts noticed one of the carriers doing something he hadn’t seen before. “Kervis, I think we are in trouble.” He said. “What’s up?” The Titan asked, still firing upon the hordes of legionaries. “Look up.” - - - “My Primus, the Goliath was destroyed by the guardians before it could reach their ships.” A Psion said, the Primus standing in the centre of the room. There were screens across the walls displaying the camera feeds of each of the soldiers. “Switch to plan B.” The Primus replied, waving his hand dismissively. “B-but sir! We still have soldiers down there!” “Do it, Psion. Notify me when the order has been fulfilled.” The Psion sighed and opened his comms with the weapon and engine crew, “We have been ordered to follow plan B. Charge forward cannons and get us aimed below the city.” The crew grunted in confirmation, the ship tilting forward to point the weapons at the city’s supports. “Fire forward cannons.” - - - A huge earthquake rocked the city as the carrier fired a round into the stone supports under the city. The effects were immediate, as large chunks of the ground began falling away to the bottom of the mountain. “Odium! We have to move!” Kervis shouted, getting up and running towards the side of the city, his team in tow. “The fuck is going on?” Kalis asked, watching through her scope. “Fucking Cabal destroyed the supports to the city. Without them, it has nothing holding it up on the mountain face!” “Shit, I’m coming down. Get ready.” “No, do not try to get us out of here, the debris will tear your ship apart. Just fly back to Solacium and tell the princesses what has happened.” “Like hell I will.” With that, Kalis closed her comms, her ship flying in and picking her up. She flew straight at the side of the city, following the blips on her radar that marked her team. She was so focused on them, that she didn’t notice the three Cabal fighters tailing her. An explosion rocked the ship as a shot from the enemy ships landed on the Inquisitor, igniting its engines. Shrapnel sprayed from the broken metal, the now damaged ship starting to whir down. “Ah, fuck! They got my engine, snuck up on me or somethin',” She cried out, trying to pull the ship up. But with her ship's drives now offline, it was on a downward plummet that she couldn’t recover from. “You okay, Kalis?” Kervis asked. “I don’t think so.” She muttered, realising her situation. “What? No! You gotta pull up, Kalis!” “Main engines are fried, and the others are following. I’m moving too fast to teleport out onto the ground, and my Ghost is in the cabin with me.” “Please, Kalis, do something then!” The ground was approaching fast. The ship just skimmed the edge of the city, giving her a short glimpse of the rest of her team. “Kick their asses.” Her ship crashed into the ground in a plume of fire, the only sound from her being static. “Kalis! No!” Kervis shouted, trying to run closer. “Kervis, we gotta get out of here. We can’t afford to wait around here.” Procor said, pulling his fellow Titan back. “Fuck that, she could be alive!” “I’m sorry, Kervis, but we don’t have time to check.” The green Titan was about to say something when a new sound rang out. A familiar drop ship flew in front of them, the distraction team waiting in the back of it. “Get in!” Chrome called out. The guardians wasted no time getting into the ship, standing beside the others as they flew away from the mountain. With the rear door open, they could only watch as the once great city collapsed down to the ground. Kervis fell down, removing his helmet. Tears were streaming down his face as he looked at the wreck of his friend’s ship. Before he could say anything, a piece of rubble crashed down on top of the smouldering ship, removing it from view. And for the first time since he was reborn. He cried.