//------------------------------// // The Arrival // Story: The Guardian // by NYChris824 //------------------------------// We arrived outside of Appleloosa, taking only eight hours to arrive. I wasn't sure if any other units had arrived from the other divisions. We were to set up a defensive line four miles in front of the town, with the left flank being held by an apple orchard. We were on the right, close to a rock formation, but not touching it. Then me and General Awe were to meet a changeling who was against the changeling queen. At which point it should take a week beofre we leave. I looked out across the desert, just my luck I would fight in the one part of the country was a fucking desert. Like I haven't fought in sand enough. I had half the men digging defensive positions, foxholes since I saw them better than trenches and the other half setting up tents. Evening was pushing in. "Sir, I just heard from General Awe." Sentry said, walking up next to me. "And?" "He will be arriving in ten and wants to know if you had heard from General Shell. Also he'd like to meet you." "Tell him I have not, but have made contact with his men. Also send a truck over to pick him up. Any word from the patrols?" "Yes, the first few are on the way back. They haven't seen anything of interest yet." "Okay, thank you Sentry. That'll be all. I'll be in my tent." I retired to my tent, eager for my first large combat command. I was expecting some sort of attack tonight, just to probe us and test the defense. Being concerned about tonight wasn't being paranoid. "Am I supposed to knock or just enter?" A voice asked from outside. "Enter." I answered. Vivid Headlines opened a flap and walked in. "Evening, General." "Evening yourself, Vivid. What can I help you with tonight?" "I was wondering if you could tell me some more about the operation here. Also, I'd like to do a small article about you, help folks back home get to know you." I couldn't help but laugh, "No offense Vivid, but Equestria seems a little too peaceful to care about generals, much less learn about them and even less what soldiers do. The same few military commanders here are known and most of them are from the Wonderbolts. Back home, dozens of generals were quite well known. Hell, I could list twenty off and another twenty from other nations." "On the contrary, interest in the military as grown over the last few years. In timing with Princess Luna's return. But getting back to the point. What can you tell me?" "Most of the men are here, a few thousand more will arrive by midnight and that should be all. Unless there was a delay. We're holding here and making contact with a changeling who is against the current queen. Also, I want to see anything you write before to send it off, I want to make sure it's not too revealing." "Of course, sir. Now about that interview." Before I could answer, the tent flap opened up and in walked General Awe. "Some other point, I'll see you around." I said to him. We exchanged goodbyes and he left. "Welcome to the desert, General. Have all of your man arrived?" "Thank you, and thank you for the truck ride over. Amazing machines, but the last train is arriving in ten minutes. I have our plans for tomorrow. At noon, we're going to a saloon to meet with the dissident and get some info about the hives." "Oh goodie, I get paid to enjoy some drinks. Who's in charge of the whole thing? It better not be me. "This isn't drinking time, this is an actual fight and it's coming soon. I'm the one in command." "No offense, sir. I've been in well over a hundred firefights." I went over to my desk and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. "Besides, if we don't drink in a saloon, we'll stick out. Drink?" "Alright and you are going to be the only non-pony in the saloon. People will already be staring at us." "Then we'll try and blend in. I'm saying we have a few drinks and something to eat. Not act like some college fratboys The way I see it, we're allowed to have a few beers in the name of national security." He mulled it over, before nodding, "Yeah. Wonder if changelings can drink alcohol? I mean, look like us but they're way different from us." Shock pulled out some papers. "Here's the battle plan. My biggest concern is if we actually have to go inside a hive. That's basically urban fighting." "Sun Tzu says that the worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities when there is no alternative." I quoted. "But I agree, they'll know their way around and we'll be struggling. Unless we can get the layout from the informative. Plus, they're underground." I let out a sigh, "God, it feels like every little thing that could be an issue is an issue." I quickly finished off my whiskey. "Anything can can go wrong..." General Awe started to say. "Will go wrong." I finished. "Would you care to join me on an inspection of the front? I want. My boys to get settled and be ready for an attack." "I would love to, but I must return to my own soldiers and do the same. It wouldn't be too much of a bother to get a ride back, would it?" I laughed. "I do you one better, I have a few hundred too many trucks. I'll give you a hundred and fifty, do what you want with the. I'll do the same with the Fourth Division. I'll send them out in the morning." I offered him as we walked out of my tent. "I need a driver!" A soldier walked over to us. "I can drive, Dan." He stated. "Perfect. You'll take General Awe here back to his base and return here." "You got it." "Excellent! I'll meet at, say ten in the morning?" General Awe asked. "Sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow." I answered. He and the driver walked off, to the motor pool. I turned and went to the front, a glance at my watch told me it was almost nine o'clock. The patrols I sent out should be returning soon. I was hoping to find some evidence that the canceling were nearby. The fact we had no clue of where they were concerned me. We could have put our whole line on top on one of them or dug in facing the wrong way, which intel said we had the right way. But military intelligence is an oxymoron, so the saying goes. I walked through the defensive lines. The foxholes were several layers deep and scattered about some. This made it just that much harder to clear. The sand pulled out was pushed up front of the holes. Tomorrow, I wanted to dig deep holes a few hundred yards out to trip up any attackers. I talked to a few men who were on night guard. I gave instructions that if they saw anything that looked odd, to shoot a few times. Although, bright blue eyes that the changeling had would give them away. I retired to my tent, eager to see what fate would bring tomorrow. The next morning I was on my way to the Tenth's part of the line, leading a convoy of spare trucks over. A few hundred yards separated us and we had a few gun positions and artillery pointed at a small opening in the line. It was about eleven and we had to go to town soon. I left Michael in charge and had hourly patrols running, nothing should happen. We pulled in and made our way to the middle. I caught a few glimpses of the defenses set up. I saw wood scattered and some dug-in positions. General Awe spotted us and ran over. "Head three tents over and take a left." He told me. "Then head all the way back." "Tell the guy behind me! I'll pull over and wait for you." I told him. "You got it." He jumped off the side and I pulled off to the side. He told the truck driver behind me where to go. I jumped out and watched the rest of the convoy go. I had told General Shell would loan him some trucks and he agreed, those trucks have already left. We met in the middle of the sand path. "Good to see you again, General." He greeted me. "You as well. Have any issues over night?" "None. Why? Did you?" "No. I was just curious. Are you being a sidearm? I have one with me, but it would seem weird going to this peaceful meeting armed." "I was actually going to ask you that on the trip into town. I think so, just in case things go west." Another slight change in metaphors popped up. "Speaking of, want to head over?" "Yeah. Jump in, won't take us twenty minutes." We climbed aboard and swung through camp, heading back to town. "So tell me Awe, how long have you been in the army?" "Oh, about thirty years? You've been in a force for five?" "Yep. Four in the Corps and one here. Here's another question, and its goes to sound weird. What's your cutie mark?" Cutie marks weren't hidden from eye, but with a name of Shock'n Awe. Had to be an interesting one. "Nothing too exciting, I guess. It's a white flash. I got it when I was giving a presentation in school. Growing up I was a nervous colt. One day I had present, bang! Got it. Why?" I shrugged, "Just curious. You see, back home there's a military strategy called Shock and Awe. It's basically just bombing the shit of your enemy." "You're bullshitting me!" "I'm not lying. There were two more, both were named military operations. Arc Light and Urgent Fury." That got a laugh out of him. "No kidding! They will get a kick out of that." "I'll bet. Town ahoy. Where's the saloon at?" Awe rubbed his head. "No idea. Let's ask, here comes one." He rolled down the window, "Hey, buddy! Where the saloon?" "Just up ahead, sir!" "Thanks. You heard him, General." I kept going down the road and saw washed to be the town's only car. In front of was the saloon, even equipped with the swinging doors. "If I don't get to throw at least one person through those doors, I'll going to really fuck something up." I uttered. "Only if you're good." Awe answered. "It's eleven forty five. Should we head in?" I thought it over for a moment. "Yeah, why not. What's he supposed to look like?" "Earth pony, green fur with a light gray mane. Name of Marble Shine." As we walked up, I took a glance around, see if he was almost here. All I saw were locals, then a Griffon and another pony, both in military uniforms. They were looking at us and talking to each other. As we walked in I told Awe about it the two military men. "I'm not surprised. Equestria hasn't seen war in a century and the weapons in this battle have never been used. I could even go as far and say you're here, the tactics of using trucks. I wouldn't be surprised if Saddle Arabia sent somepony as well." Awe explained as we sat down at a table in the corner. Already there were a few other people inside. A waitress came over to over table. "What can Ah get ya'll?" She asked "I'll take a double whiskey, neat." I said "I'll have a hard cider." Awe ordered. "Ah'll have those in a minute." She replied and left. I grabbed a menu and looked it over. "Care to get something to eat with me? I kinda skipped breakfast this morning." Awe debated for a moment before grabbing another menu "Yeah, why not. It's going to be the only fresh food we eat. What do humans eat?" "Anything but grass, flowers and metal. Pretzel bites sound good." "That they do and beer cheese with them. Let's see fries, housemate chips and nachos sound good too. I'm feeling pretzels and fries, you?" "Sounds excellent." We decided not a moment too soon. "Here you fellows go. One double whiskey, neat and a hard cider. Lookin' for something to eat." "Yes, we are going to get the pretzels and fries." Awe ordered. "Alright! Ah'll put them in for ya." And the waitress left again. "Can changelings even eat food. Or do they just live off emotions?" "We can survive on food, but it doesn't do as good as our regular stuff." A new voice explained. I looked up. Green pony, gray mane. 'Marble' took a seat, "we do grow our own food as well." "In all places?" Awe asked. "All towns. I never worked on mine. I was in healthcare. But let's get down to brass tacks." Marble said, "There are five hives in total. Her's is to the north, halfway into the Badlands and others are layered almost. There are two in front of you, two more, then hers." "Can we get any others to defect?" I asked, "Obviously there must be a few like you in your hive." "Most do, but they are afraid of her. Even my queen, Pollux, wants us freed." "Hold on. You have a queen? But you're also being ruled by another queen? How does that work?" "She conquered us and all the others. She orders us around, we all harvest emotions for her nice, then ours. In our gives are those are watch us for her, report if anything seems wrong. She makes us fight for her and if we don't." Marble paused for a moment, "She attacks with the other hives." The waitress came back with our food, "Here ya'll are. Can I get anything else for ya?" We all said no, "If ya need anything, wave me down." "Who is 'she'? What's her name?" I asked, "I'm not a big fan of the pronoun game." "Saying it, around here? That's like saying Discord three times in the bathroom at four in the morning. I'll tell you in the truck." Awe pointed out. "Or Bloody Mary." I said. "So, General, you have more experience with planning these things out." Awe nodded. "Realistically, two divisions hit the first two hives, clear them out of baddies and move on. But since any attack with be met by reinforcements, it'll be a little rough. Only good news is that it would take days before help arrives, plus who knows how many want freedom." He let out a sigh, "I might have to call for help." "Perhaps not." I said. "We have a wild card. Me, or well my division. It takes days to walk, but I bet a few hours to drive. This is a textbook case for motorized warfare. We'll strike at her, whoever she is. She calls for help, which would also reduce those in the first two hives. Then you attack, boom, two front war." "Alright, I say we call this meeting for now." Awe said, "I'll have my staff start working out the operation." We paid and left. Marble went one way and went to the trucks. I noted the two military officers were gone, no doubt reporting they saw us enter the saloon. As we got back in the truck, I turned to Awe. "So what this changeling queen's name?" "Still not saying it in town."