MLP FIM/Halo: Towards the broken dawn…

by Evident Disaster


CH12

CH12

XXXXX

Solaris Complex

XXXXX

9:10 PM

Ponyville- Makeshift Base- Alpha

At the requisitions officer's bulldog transport the corporal was busy trying outfit a whole group of foreign beings with human equipment, which turned out to be the worst thing that had happened since the Viking King Skull Splitter ordered a thousand helmets with the horns on the inside. The Equestrians had no room for their wings and it was proving to be a very annoying problem, and after a while, the corporal decided on the one thing that could fix it.

He took a plasma cutter and sliced holes into the armour for the pegasi, it didn't take long, as he knew how to cut the sections out without ruining too much of the armour, of course there was the fear that the armour now being open and with pegasi wings would make them easy targets for enemy fire.

Short on time, the corporal didn't think about it and just gave them a warning about being struck from behind, and also what not to get hit by.
"Okay, the MKVIII BDU wasn't made for heavy combat, so it's pretty light compared to what I'm wearing, but as a word of warning, the suit's armour plating is made out of energised titanium alloys and gel layers to protect against specifically plasma weapons, you'll be safe from medium powered hits and light plasma fire. If you take fire, cool down the armour by diving, because if the armour gets heated in one section it can melt to your skin." The warnings made some of them wince at the thought of having their skin melted to the suit's interior.
"And also, you're going up against enemy banshees, they're light and fast, they can hit up to 450km/h in under 3 minutes so for the love of all things sane don't go chasing them, not unless you can travel at those speeds. Now they do technically have to slow down to engage low targets and enemy fighters. So you'll have the chance to fight them, but keep an eye out for enemy fuel weaponry, they're green bursts of energy and your suits are useless against that kind of attack, so dodge the green things." They nodded.
"Okay so that's all I can provide as a quick introduction into using the suits, take a couple of sprays if you need to cool a hit, they're over there, and take these medical injectors, they'll heal any wound as long as it isn't life threatening." He motioned to a crate filled with green and blue vials.

"Any questions before you do quick gun and run?" He asked rubbing his hands in the cold.

"Can I get a better crotch piece for my suit? This one kind of rubs inside…" A light purple Pegasus said embarrassed.

"Okay, aside from the crotch pieces, I'll take it that there's absolutely nothing else that's relevant to the mission?" He asked everyone.

No one answered and he said.
"Okay you I'll fix the crotch piece for, the rest of you hurry up and get going." The group dispersed with the one mare hurrying over to get the uncomfortable itch patched up.

In the pegasi cluster, RD had a blast; she felt the adrenaline rush, just like when she performed the Sonic Rainboom, or the time she got into that fight with that dragon or all of those other adventures. She was taking this mission rather well. She felt like she was important now. Of course not everyone was in the same mood, a few seemed rather passive considering what they planned to do, and the military fellows seemed the most focused. The wonderbolt members had their own idea to the whole thing, and Spitfire arrived to see RD.

"So, I guess we're finally teaming up, eh Rainbow?" Spitfire asked.

"Yeah, this is really something; I've never been in battle, except those small things the princess asked of me and the girls." RD replied ecstatically.

Spitfire had a very grim look on her face when she said that.
"Something wrong?" RD asked.

"No, not much, but I don't think going into a war is the best thing that's happened RD. Equestria's been in minor incidents from time to time, but full scale war is something you shouldn't take lightly, especially since the enemy we're going up against is very dangerous. It's a bad idea to get cocky out in the field." Spitfire replied warningly.

RD felt as if her optimism was misplaced, and she felt rather disappointed.
"Oh, well, I thought that this was something we would all you know… be interested, in war isn't something we've ever experienced."

"Yeah, well make sure not to get distracted, there are enough odds being stacked against us as it is. Make sure to keep an eye out for the others. Me and the other wonderbolts will be flying in a tight formation, I'm sure all of the royal fliers will be doing likewise, for you and those unexperienced fliers, try to keep on course and do not let the carriers get hit." She advised.

"Right, I'll keep an eye out." She replied thinking deeply to herself.

"And relax, a little, don't stress yourself or you'll get distracted, these hostiles from what we heard should be rather predictable at least that's what they say." Spitfire reassured RD.

RD understood and replied aptly.
"Okay let's get to target practice."

The group of pegasi ended up at a sandbagged and walled area, it was 90 meters in length and 30 meters across. There were a number of target markers being set up on auto guide and activation, these markers would record hits. The instructor was a nameless fellow who had a full BDU; he didn't go with name introductions and just said.

"I'm sure all of you know what you need to do, but first take a practice run on the targets, then do a quick reflex test and then finish up. The requisitions officer will hand out extra ammunition, but that's as much as he'll give you. After that you're on your own." He advised.

They began in rows of 4, firing off in bursts; of course it didn't take long for them to see the number of good shooters. The first row of targets were close together and then the next row was spaced apart from each other, and the final was a row of moving targets, they didn't have time for much of actual range due to time. But from what RD and Spitfire observed, they could tell that they were a mite in trouble.

"How in the buck did only half of these guys get hits?" RD face palmed.

The situation was about as bad as it could get, the non-coms couldn't shoot for crap, and RD felt like this was becoming a rather serious problem, if they ever got engaged only half of them would be able to shoot. But there were heading into town, so if they did engage, at least some members would be able to head to shelter while the rest fought above.

But the fact that they were now only down to half their numbers didn't reassure her that things weren't going to go too well. Spitfire sighed.
"We better get going." She motioned for them to follow.

They regrouped at the Bulldog transport, the Corporal handed them their spare ammo and gave them a quick goodbye.
"Don't get killed, and also congratulations you've just graduated short term training."

They looked at each other when he said the statement rather ominously. They all bunched up and prepared to lift off; picking up their crates of ammo and weapons they took off in a whole group, Spitfire commanded one group and RD followed behind her. Sure Steel took her own force and they split into two groups.

RD felt the rush of the night wind, it wasn't uncomfortable thanks to Pegasi biology of living in high atmospheric conditions they could survive the extremities of night temperatures. The groups headed directly to Appleloosa, RD was about to get her first taste of war.

XXXXX

9:45 PM

Appleloosa

Miguel fired into another cluster of freshly deployed grunts, the stubby bastards shredded under the stream of HEAP rounds, the bullets bursting chunks of their flesh away or blowing open skulls. The whole field was littered with the corpses of covenant troopers which attempted to overwhelm their position in the past 10 minutes.

Of course this tactic hadn't worked to their advantage and they were repulsed constantly. But the marines and helldivers were now running short on ammunition aside for the marksmen and Equestrians. The locals seemed to be doing well even though using antiquities to fight with; the rifles were lever action 40-70 ammo and packed a punch, kinetically speaking.

The covenant shields tended to fold after 10 shots from the rifles, but those were regular elites, which did leave the marines most of the covenant officers to deal with. It didn't take long to deal with them, but infantry forces were the damn problem, they had no means to deal with sheer numbers.

Miguel calculated the situation in his head, the rate in which they were going at; they had least another hour's worth of ammo to deal with the constant stream of covenant troops, which in honest opinion wasn't the best of things to be stuck with. The wraiths were busy raining death from afar and fliers strafing their position.

Miguel had a feeling that this battle was getting worse, the marines had suffered multiple wounds, 2 serious ones and a few less serious, as for one helldiver he was downed by melee suffering fractured ribs and a few bleeding organs. As for the rest of them, low ammo and wall of covvies wasn't the way they'd like to go down.

Jace-

Jace fired from his elevated position trying to provide cover, of course that wasn't as helpful dealing with the various cannon fodders attempting to overwhelm them. Grunts seemed to pile onto each other into a meat wall around their position, of course this was nothing new, the covenant used this tactic when sieging an enemy.

Running low on mags, Miguel got onto the com.
"Jace any signs of our support?" He yelled over the roar of the battle.

"Not yet, but I did receive a short range chatter, supports on their way." He replied as he picked off a few more grunts.

Miguel watched the skies as the figures in the distance became clear, the silhouettes of multiple pegasi, he didn't need to tell the marines, they probably care after the wall of enemies stopped pouring onto them.

XXXXX

RD was starting to feel the burn of flying in a line for a full 20 minutes, the reason it took them a while longer was due to some rather annoying amount of smoke and dust in the skies, the team had to duck lower to spot the town, and also to note was that the fliers were not used to carrying canisters as heavy as they were.

They reached the skies above Appleloosa in short order, but they faced a new threat, the covenant fliers in the skies that they could see seemed to break formation and engage them. The non-coms panicked in the initial volley scattering them, RD had to help her fellow pegasi to head to the target location.
"Okay Flitter, straight down. The rest of you follow her!" She barked at the nervous fliers.

The pegasi acknowledged and dove after Flitter, meanwhile the military trained pegasi broke to engage, and Spitfire had been itching for this fight. The first fliers went in close to fire their ARs, the attack seemed rather effective, but the banshees scattered to engage them in one on one dogfights instead.

They broke off into their own attack; RD quickly joined the fray. Being the fastest flier she found that she could chase down the covenant fliers with ease, but the only problem was trying to drop them quickly enough. She fired in heavy sustained bursts, chewing through the light armoured banshee canopy, the rounds punctured enough to cripple the fighter and send it barrel rolling down to the ground.

She cheered at her first confirmed kill; it seemed rather exhilarating at first.
"Take that alien scumbag!" She remarked.

But that wasn't the end, RD had to duck as a score of fighters went to engage her, she found herself on the receiving end of a wall of plasma fire. She arced through the skies keen on being blown out of the sky by the concentrated wall of fire. She spiralled downwards avoiding a green bolt of energy, it detonated after it missed her, and she could only assume that was a heavy weapon of the fighter.

As for the other pegasi, the fight wasn't going so well. Spitfire had dropped 2 in the engagement but found that she couldn't oust the 3 others chasing her down. Soarin was having his own time trying to get away from the fighters and the various other pegasi were busy dealing with their own problem, Sure Steel was picking the fighters off, but surely she wasn't dealing with the scale of the battle too well.

Thunderlane was hit by plasma and had withdrawn to the town; Cloudchaser had a rough time keeping pace with an enemy fighter, to the extent that she gave up and tried with another enemy fighter. The whole mess above the skies were sure impressive, but not exactly the best situation, the pegasi were just out numbered.

RD caught up with Spitfire as they were pursued by 5 fliers.
"Spitfire, what's going on with that ground support?" RD asked as they both dodged plasma fire.

"Not a clue, the teams have dropped them off, but I think they're having trouble getting locks on the enemy fighters." Spitfire replied unloading another clip into a pursuing fighter.

Time wasn't on their side and it was easy to see that they were going to get knocked out of the skies with the constant pursuit of enemy fliers. RD thought of a half-baked plan, and then smiled as she turned and faced Spitfire.
"I've got an idea, but it might not work." She exclaimed.

"Well better than nothing." Spitfire replied with a smile.

XXXXX

Miguel and the marines were happy to have the pegasi here, it was a sure sight. They unloaded all of the heavy weapons and began to arm themselves with HEAT-M280 missile launchers, the variants were multi-fire missiles added guidance systems for short and medium range targets. They each weighed a total of 7.2kg without the missiles; each missile was weighed in at 5.9kg each, the weight of the weapon required someone with sturdy construct or with exo-skeleton armour. The launcher fires a total of 3 missiles all are Invictus class missiles, each missile carries a high explosive charge capable of ripping apart 450mm of covenant armour. Multiple variations of shaped explosives are available for use.

He loaded the explosives up and handed it over to the heavy weapons specialist, it was then that his com rang.
"This is Miguel." He answered as he looked above.

"Miguel, this is RD, I've got a few bogies tailing me and Spitfire. We need help." RD exclaimed as she and Spitfire danced through the skies.

RD explained her idea.
"We're going to flyby the town hall, when we approach the south side, open up."

Miguel replied.
"Roger that."

He tapped on Jace's shoulder.
"Jace I've got a few Pegasi coming around the town hall, the bell tower's south side, I need you to take 4 others and cover their approach, take them while their still in the air."

The Sargent acknowledged.
"I'll get the young bloods on it."

Jace sprinted off to grab a few extra weapons, he barked out.
"I need 4 volunteers to provide support."

A raise of hands from his left and he waved them over. The 4 marines followed after him as they dodged through the town as continuous plasma fire rained down, it had dulled a little since the arrival of the pegasi but still the covenant were pressing. It was merely now whoever had weathered the fight would prevail.

Jace held his team until they were in range, as RD and Spitfire passed by the team got their sights on the targets, the Banshees closed in and they waited for his order.
As they closed the distance he yelled.
"Fire!"

The skies erupted in a fury of light as rounds penetrated the night skies, the fighters were perforated by the hail of fire, AP rounds tore into the light armoured hulls tearing the pilots on the inside to shreds, and the fighters were quickly dispersed. Veering off to withdraw or crash into the ground nearby. Jace reported over the coms to Miguel.
"Fliers are down."

"Good keep your team up there and spot for the missile teams they're going to need clear locks on enemy vehicles, also target any additional fliers that are still engaged. I'm sure the pegasi would like to keep their tails from being singed." Miguel replied.

Jace did as he was ordered, meanwhile Miguel received communication from RD.
"Thanks for the assist Miguel, awesome timing." The rainbow maned Pegasus thanked.

"RD how many more fighters can you see above?" He asked.

"Not many, I think that was the last of their reinforcements, I'd say that's a good kill. I'll be on the ground with Spitfire soon; we'll mop up the rest up here." She reported.

"Good, I'm going to need all of the help I can get down here." He replied.

RD zoomed around in the skies with the remaining pegasi, it wouldn't be much longer.

XXXXX

"Infidels, filth of the universe, pathetic and weak, and yet… how have they managed to repulse more than 2 attacks?" An angered voice cut into the silence of the command deck of the 'Armour of Contempt'.

The elites inside the room looked at each other nervously; they knew that failure was assured death at the hands of their fleet master. Then one zealot commander stepped forwards to face judgement.
"Fleet Master, I had underestimated the sheer brutal stubbornness of these human filth, and their alien allies, I will not fail you again." Commander Okuros Yuvai bowed in shame.

Vesdarea stood up off of his command chair, he strode forwards down the throne like command chair and to his subordinate. The elite zealot master stood towering over his minor and grabbed him by the throat in a swift motion and Okuros began to choke as he was hoisted above.
He growled.
"You have failed me more than enough Okuros…" He watched as his subordinate began to suffocate.

His senior command was apprehensive at the thought of just letting their superior openly killing another one of their officers, especially when they were starting to run short on capable commanders. But after a moment's thought the commander seemed distracted as if he was discussing something with someone else, then he frowned and he dropped the commander onto the deck and let him breathe before stating ominously.
"You have one more chance Okuros, fail me and consider yourself spent."

Okuros coughed a reply and then bowed shakily as he exited the command deck. Vesdarea then turned away from his commanders and ordered them.
"Dismissed, and be this as a warning, you will pay if you fail me on any given task!"

His command staff nodded and departed from the command deck to their stations, they knew that there was something strange with their commander, especially since their initial arrival. His aggressiveness was something that was to be feared, he should have killed the incapable officer, but this time he seemed distracted by something.

Unbeknownst to his commanders there was something else on the mind of Vesdarea. In the silence of the command deck he growled out.
"That fool deserved to die for his failure."

The echoing of a feminine voice replied presumptuously. "That fool is necessary for your survival, and as such it is bad morale for your troops to hear of further depletion of capable officers. And here I thought I was with an actual officer." She remarked snidely.

His temper flared and he smashed his fist into the command chair and vented.
"Do not give me a reason to purge you!"

The room's shadows shifted and rippled and a corporeal form appeared and stated.
"As you wish, but I criticise your skills as an actual officer, not some holy warrior, your overblown religion has nothing that could interest me, and I have my own score to settle, trust me, if I was trying to try your skills as a warrior, you would know." She smirked.

Vesdarea growled and settled back in his chair, he knew trying to attack this being was pointless, her ability to remain intangible was outside of his control, he was no human vanguard nor was he a prophet with access to the holy technology to devastate the incorporeal beings that plagued him. He simply went on with whatever he had been doing since the beginning, seeking vengeance and completing the journey.

For moment he wondered why he even bothered to send a squad out to retrieve that blasted piece of scrap in the ruins of what his specialists had told him was a safe house of knowledge, it was anything but, stone works and a pile of scrap. But his team brought back the scrap that had energy readings similar to the forerunner immense psycho-reactive tech. He assumed it was a piece of armour destroyed years ago.

He ordered a small team of engineers to place the pieces inside of a casing and seal it in his room. After a day or two he began to notice shadows in the corners of his eyes and dreams of a human like being that had a horn and a pair of wings, she taunted him and caressed his dreams with his nightmares. He finally gave in and accessed the armour; this entity called itself Nightmare Moon. Why in the name of the light it even had such a name baffled him.

He took it upon himself to aid the being, and it promised him that it would give him access to all of the ancient knowledge that he wanted, he had his doubts but this being seemed to know a lot of what the forerunners were. It made him cautious either way, there was unlikely something else that this being wanted, and she intended to get it.

He then stated into the darkness.
"The end of the journey begins at the dawn."

XXXXX

Appleloosa 10:05 PM

The marines had beaten the living crap out of the covenant and it wasn't much longer until reinforcements arrived from the falcon flight. Miguel had emptied his 4th last mag wiping off the ash from his brow, he could tell that the rest of his men were getting equally tired as he was, even if he didn't look like it, he had his adrenal glands running hot since he and the others landed.

His adrenaline rush was ending and he could hear the buzz of exhausting nearing, beating the covenant back more than once wasn't a task for the average marine company alone. He looked above and noted that RD and Spitfire had come down with all of the remaining pegasi, he counted 3 dead and 4 wounded, and the non-coms had remained out of sight helping with ammo distribution.

Jace and his AA team were still picking out anything above for the snipers, there wasn't too many things left around the town that was for sure, most of the covenant were either stragglers or desperate bands of loyalists out of options. It was a matter of waiting for the falcons to arrive to sweep the remains away.

At least that was the plan… it was then a dull roar seemed to emanate over a plateau nearby and a shadow seemed to approach from the surrounding wilderness. Anything that could see the shadow being cast immediately either ran or hid from this shadow. But as the shadow was cast the marines in Appleloosa began to notice something was coming.

"Major, I've got movement, silhouette incoming from points E-F, too large for normal transport, estimate size and shape 'corvette'." Jace advised urgently over the coms.

"Corvette? Does he mean a small naval ship?" Sure Steel asked quizzically.

Miguel felt his blood drain out, if the covenant were bringing out a corvette there were 3 possibilities and he didn't like either one of them.
"Corvette means that they're dropping in something heavy, very heavy."

[Tips- Covenant Military Tactics UCAF: N3324]

In the course of any given battle, the covenant fleets have a large disposable class of corvettes specifically for short range transport of heavy armour or shock forces, this tactic was utilised by the covenant in 2541 after the gruelling campaign on Ovoro Ili, the covenant adapted the UCAF rapid assault deployment of spider tanks 'Tarantula MATV-179'.

The method of rapid deployment by light ships made the battle of Ili by far the most rapid and bloodiest conflicts in the Tantering Cluster to date. Large forces could be quickly deployed by simply dropping them from a manageable height and speed; usually vehicles have a drop threshold to deploy and eliminate any dangers to vehicle or persons.

Deployment has however adapted for multitude of fields, UCAF shock amour, MVFs Mobile Versatile Frame Exo-skeletons were the next combat force to be adapted for shock drops, and the covenant also adapted similar methods of deployment. Then there was the reconnaissance deployment which enabled easy deployment of large recon forces to scour vast regions quickly and secure early objectives.

There are a multitude of various tactics involved; these mark only a handful…

[End Transcript]

Miguel went over his coms and alerted his troops.
"Contact, repeat contact with possible heavy armour, Class Type possibly platform 24, get your asses into cover!" He yelled.

The marines seemed to shout out orders to take cover, RD and the others did likewise whatever was coming that had the marines ducking for cover wasn't going to be good. In the distance the rumble of the earth increased, it was still dark, but it seemed as if a massive shadow had engulfed the moon in the night skies.

The humming of engines of the 1.1km ship continued to vibrate the ground, but the one thing it needed to do was drop off its package, coming to glass the town would be time consuming, so sending off something else to clean up was easier, also corvettes like the one coming didn't have a powerful enough energy projector, carrying large cargo was its purpose.

But even so, that didn't make the marines nervous at the sight of the oncoming ship, they'd all had plenty of combat experience in the field with enemy vessels and it didn't tend to end well for the defenders. The ship reached half a kilometre outside of the town and then slowed down to release its package.

Everyone heard the heavy groan of metal as it released itself from the grasp of the ship, it hurtled towards the ground at a few hundred meters and crashed into the desert ground with enough force to nearly topple the old wooden structures, everyone felt the earth seem to tremble at the feeling of the landing.

"What in the hell is that?" RD asked as she regained her balance.

"That is the sound of death on 4 legs." Miguel grimly replied.

From the landing a body of metal rose above the dust cloud and seemingly roared into the night sky. The sound was deafening, the marines on the other hand found this melancholy the sound of an old foe coming back to bite them in the ass.
"Jace I need coms back to command tell them to scratch the support orders arm those damn falcons with heavy weapons and lancer cannons anything with HEAT is better than nothing at all!" Miguel shouted.

Jace acknowledged and began yelling through com channels back to command team back at Ponyville. As for the marines and surviving defenders of the Appleloosa this was going to be one hell of a ride. The Scarab that was now awake seemed to fix its attention squarely on the defenders. RD and the other ponies stared at the monstrosity as the shadow moved away.

It was a dull green and purple armoured monster, 4 legs and over 60 meters high, it had a two eyes, both lime green, one situated above and the other situated below, the top one was mounted on some sort of pivot mount that had an elongated beak it shone bright enough to blind them, while the other eye was in a maw like mouth which emanated light the whole body length was bigger than the town.

Miguel examined the machine and stated ominously.
"We've got an incoming platform 24, light assault scarab infantry compliment on board…"

"Heavy weapons won't do shit to that thing unless we aim directly for the projectors or the energy reactor." Jace reported.

"Then aim for the legs, I'll get the Equestrians the hell clear of this place before we all turn to ash." He replied before facing RD and the other ponies.

"Well I've got good news, we've repelled the covenant troops, bad news is that they've decided to cut losses and have decided to just burn the town with a scarab instead. I suggest you clear out as many people as you can, you've got no chance of fighting that thing with normal weapons at this point in time." Miguel advised them.

"Wait, but this is my home, damn it this is our home!" Braeburn gestured to the various Applelossians gathered.

"Well I'm sorry to tell you this, but this town's going to be a massive smoking crater in about 15 minutes, you can't stay because those things would shred you to pieces in seconds, I've got my men going at this thing with weapons barely effective at this range on something like that, so unless you could magically summon a tactical nuke or a heavy rail battery you're as good as dead." He told them aptly.

RD looked at him angrily she wasn't one to back down, but he was being damn serious about the scarab, she had a cool head next to her though. Spitfire agreed.
"Come on RD, he's got a point, we can't get in close, we should help everyone else get to safety."

RD saw the reason, she wasn't really convinced that this was the best option, but she really didn't have much of a choice. The scarab reared its head and opened its glowing maw of a head; it brightened enough to blind anyone without proper protection as it fired. A huge stream of fiery plasma spewed forth, it slammed into a building nearby and tore into with ease and then began to move into the nearby surrounding structures.

Marines bolted from the plasma shouting out screams of profanity and annoyance as they tried to regroup. Jace and his team guided a wave of missiles out to hit the walker; of course this didn't do much, the scarab simply searched for more targets. Miguel urged them to leave.
"You better get going now!"

They nodded and got the hell out of there with the others to the evacuation point, hopefully help would arrive and soon.

XXXXX

Ponyville 10:05 PM

Ponyville was still in a state of rush and hush, ponies wondering where in Equestria an army of aliens had materialised from. As for the UCAF their presence here left them rather stumped, they'd never been in the presence of many other species or races, aside from their mutually lethal allies of the Separatist Elites.

This place was rather quiet, too quiet, and it made a perfect place to start making noise, when they got the report in that the battle at Appleloosa was nearly over, it made them cheer. They had held off a chunk of the covenant loyalists off by themselves. Which is no easy feat, and to add to this, the Equestrians would be feeling the thrill of victory, even if it was a small one.

The Falcons had departed with the pack of reinforcements to help secure the remains of the damaged settlement, at least that what was supposed to happen, the base command centre was packed with marines setting up equipment and communication lines. Jackson in the midst of this mess was listening to reports from the settlement as Miguel came over the line.

"This is Major Miguel; command we've got a problem!" Miguel shouted.

Jackson answered the call.
"Miguel what's the problem?"

"Scarab, type 24 platform, this one's packing heat!" Miguel replied as another wave of plasma decimated another building.

Jackson felt his blood boil; he damn near hated the covenant for this, always bitter after a fight. He didn't have much of a choice, he'd have to send in something heavy, he replied.
"What is that you need?"

"Heavy support, air support or mobile armour!" Miguel replied.

"Acknowledged, hold your position, we're sending out what we've got." Jackson cut the line and addressed his chief engineer.

"Ken, you've got 10 minutes to rearm the falcons, get every available marine on that now!" He shouted.

Twilight Sparkle was inside the command centre as well, she was here purely as the liaison for the Equestrians, and also she reported straight to Celestia about the situation here. And then there was Rarity dealing with image and relations with the UCAF. Fluttershy was out gathering some medical supplies and had volunteered to help with wounded. Twilight didn't entirely believe that was the best choice for the Pegasus, the wounded she'd soon face would not be exactly suffering from small broken limbs or cuts and concussions.

Pinkie Pie had gone off saying something about helping a group of marines out with looking for some R&R, she said they were pretty young but she did know where to take them, and then she vanished from view as if she stepped in through a hole in the universe. Trixie was off stomping around Ponyville again and Twilight was sure she was going to start trouble sooner or later.

As for the UNSC, they've been watching the whole situation intently, the woman named Anders had been picking over the combat reports in the centre and noting down pieces on paper what was going on, she did things sort of like Twilight, she might be OCD, but she wasn't sure yet. Twilight only observed the good doctor when she could.

The chief engineer with his orders exited the command tent and began to shout out for the falcons to be stripped down. However the number of marines required to rearm the fighters weren't enough, they had to call out for off duty men. Ken also noted one of the strongest members of the marines weren't exactly present, Ken asked to one marine.
"Hey where the hell did the Tankers go?"

"I dunno sir; they said they'd be getting a few drinks from a local pony with pink hair and some crazy curves." He replied with a shrug.

Ken figured that wherever they had gotten to, they'd better not start causing shit.

Meanwhile…

In Ponyville's only bar the 'Singing Liquors' a lot of ponies were observing the chaos that was unfolding inside the bar. It was as if two trains had collided and were busy grinding against each other with startling pauses.

"I really love my Alcohol…" A chorus of voices shouted.

"It makes me really Queer, I start myself with Bourbon, Wash it down with some cheap beer…" They drank and then continued. "And then I chug some Red Wine… Drinking Vodka is not enough; don't give me Gin and Tonic. Man that drink is pussy stuff, and then I go for some Jack Daniels, but I add a little twist I throw some Absinthe in the cup to make the bestest mix…" A whole lot of cups hitting each other as it the chorus continued. "Now I'm starting to feel the buzz, but I'm still a ways away, man I better drink this Green Label, six glasses makes my day…" There was another clatter of cups before it continued. "Now I think it's safe to say, that I'm no longer in a funk *hic*, cause I've drunk enough to kill a horse… I'm finally fucking drunk! *thud*"

Ponies stepped into the bar to see in one corner a group of humans sharing a table with a purple haired mare with the fruit bowl cutie mark and the pink haired ball of energy, they had all consumed what could be assumed would be around 90 litres of alcohol. Now what surprised them was the fact that the humans in question looked no older than teens barely old enough to get their drivers licence let alone drink.

As the crowd began to pick out the various bottles of alcohol a human marine appeared and strode towards the table with what looked like a fire extinguisher. He stopped about a few feet from the table and then raised an eyebrow at the scene and then aimed the fire extinguisher before starting to spray them.

The group shot up in surprise at the feeling of cold water hitting them.
"What?" One marine stated as he grasped his head.

"You consumed about more alcohol to feed a fucking truck, now get the hell up!" The marine shouted.

"Ah not to loud gunny!" One marine groaned.

"Oh?" He picked up a horn and then before they could say anything the horn blared.
"You've got 5 minutes to get the fuck up and help with rearming the damned falcons now rise and shine marines!"

The response from the marines was instant, obviously years of training and also the reminder that their sergeant was not someone to be pissed with.
"Sir yes sir!" They shot up as weary as they were.

Pinkie Pie and Berry Punch were looking around in utter pain as the marines marched out of the bar and then they looked at each other before falling back into an alcohol induced coma.

XXXXX

Carousel Boutique had a buzz of ponies looking inside watching the unicorn fashionista do her thing, of course this wasn't entirely comfortable for the marines, but they kept their mouth shut about going back to get deployed so they remained. Rarity had gone through a whole team of marines in short order; she worked her magic rather quickly.

And also the marines don't tend to complain or move as much as her other customers do, this made her job a breeze, considerably more so because of the colour schemes she had designed, they were simple utilitarian and very formal. There was her planned formal uniform that she wanted to test soon on Miguel when he got back or the dark Naval uniform she had, and then there was the technical officer uniform she wanted to try.

For her this was going to be an experience alright.

XXXXX

On the other side of town near the hospital the marines had set up their medical operations, it wasn't active much, there were just wounded from the previous engagement and that was it. But they were preparing for heavy wounded to arrive from Appleloosa pretty soon. The medical hospital was busy giving the Equestrians a quick rundown of medical situations to be faced with when facing the covenant, of course many doctors and volunteer nurses and others didn't exactly like the sight they were going to be faced with.

Sure the Ponyville doctors had their work cut out at times, but never to the sheer extent of what the UCAF had, there were procedures that even they hadn't seen in their lifetimes, and the amount of blood they'd be seeing was enough to put a knot in their stomachs. The volunteers didn't exactly like the sight of what they'd be facing, a few exited, but a lot of them stayed.

Fluttershy was in the back preparing for the worst; she had her notes out taking careful observations of what she'd be doing pretty soon. It was strange that Fluttershy had decided to join in volunteer medical operations; the other ponies honestly thought that she'd have been the first one to exit as soon as introductions began.

But she remained quiet in the back row watching silently at the number of procedures and operations for wounded. This was going to be a long night for the Equestrian volunteer medical corps.

XXXXX

Appleloosa 10:15 PM

Miguel ducked around a corner with his fellow helldivers; Jace had abandoned the post and was now joining in on the fight on the ground. The UCAF troops agreed on another plan of action, they had to lure the covenant walker into the town, and this was the best way, they'd hit from various blind spots and get the walker in closer. This was a hell of a risk considering that there were a number of things that could go wrong.

Miguel was taking the risk, but it was surely better than having to wait out the damn attack. As the marines waited patiently for the arrival of the walker, they felt the earth shaking as it strode into the edges of the town crushing anything underneath its legs. Miguel waited with his marines in the shadow of a broken building.

However something happened, the sound of the legs had stopped, either that meant it was looking or it was preparing to fire. Miguel only heard the sharp ionisation of the air as the building that he and his marines were hiding behind exploded; Miguel was thrown forwards into the walls of the opposing building. His suit absorbed most of the impact, but his body still felt the crushing force.

He slammed into the wall and then felt the world come back into focus, he could hear the shouts of the remaining members of Echo shouting and screaming out profanity and retreating from their position. Miguel's com was busted as he tried to call over to the commander of Echo. It was then that he realised that the walker was still on the edge of town, and it seemed to have decided to just burn the town from there instead.

He swore at his luck, he figured as much, the covenant weren't that stupid, especially when they lose a battle. The walker prepared to charge again, its maw glowing brightly as it aimed for the next row of buildings. But as it was about to fire, a high pitched whine rang through the air. Miguel watched as the head of the walker suddenly exploded, it didn't destroy the plasma projector, but it did knock it away.

The plasma fire sprayed sporadically as it lost cohesion. As the plasma cleared, Miguel noticed the face of the scarab had lost a chunk of its projector piece. That sort of firepower required to punch through half a meter of plating could only have come from a tank, a UCAF Death Adder class tank hunter.

It was then he also heard a variety of other weapons soon join the attack, 4 more shells impacted the armour of the walker sending it stumbling sideways. 30mm heavy machine guns, and 50cal mini-guns, a few Lancer M188 Anti-tank missiles as well as a barrage of 180mm moving artillery guns, all of these weapons he could identify as a technical unit.

It was then that he could hear a distorted message on his damaged com.
"Confirm- its, al-l units, eng-age an- route enemy walker."

He could hear the sounds of UCAF armour, but not only armour a UCAF MVF-MKIII it was Titus class assault armour, a whole unit and some tanks. This was a damn welcoming sight for the marines.
"The Dragoons are here." Was the last communication he heard before passing out. The battle finally begun.

XXXXX

Okay lots to say little time to do all else, the images are from Sttheo I asked his permission to use these items months ago, and he's still allowed me to and yes, I've put a lot of time into this fic for some reason. Rather than just going on with all of my Halo/ME fics that are desperately needing updates.

Also beta readers please contact me on my PM, because I do have skype and if you'd like to receive any of my work, please PM first and then I'll give you access to things I've done, because pre-reading on the actual webpages have been a pain in the ass.