The enemy was coming again, waves of armoured vehicles making the climb up the winding mountain road toward the gates of Canterlot. The trio of surviving Leman Russ tanks protecting the city wall continued to fire, targeting the incoming vehicles with their armour-piercing rounds. Despite the damage to the city wall, the Imperials had relocated and continued to operate a pair of lascannons from atop it, as well as man-portable missile launchers, all set up to engage enemy armour and protect the approaches. There were soldiers out there, too, and the small arms of both ponies and men were called into action to keep them at bay. There was a hole in the wall, and if the enemy infantry could reach it, they might be able to force a breach. If they could force a breach through the rubble-strewn and smoking hole, then they could potentially open the gate from within and allow the enemy vehicles through into the streets of the city.
Allowing tanks to rumble freely around the city could be the death knell for Canterlot, already besieged and under heavy assault from above and from within. The Imperial commander in the city, Major Barritt, who had arrived with the initial set of reinforcements called for from the main western landing zone, had set up his headquarters in the palace to co-locate with the pony command centre also situated there. The defence of the city had to be co-ordinated, or it could fall completely. The defenders, while not exactly taken by surprise by another attack coming in, had been wrong-footed by the speed of it, and the fact that enemies had materialised inside the city walls, as well as attacking from without. Barritt knew that the Princesses were dealing with the Daemons, or at least with their leader, as best they could. He had to co-operate with the pony commander, Shining Armour, to direct their forces to defend key points, take back captured districts, and hold a strong line, to not allow the enemy ground forces to link up with their airborne allies. Chaos infantry were being dropped all across the city, dropships and shuttles settling down on rooftops and open spaces, disgorging their cargo, and taking off again, defensive guns spitting las-fire. Anti-air positions brought down several of them, but the majority were able to make their drops successfully, supported by ground attack aircraft that attempted to suppress the air defences and give their transports a clear run.
The two commanders had agreed on a basic strategy. There were more ponies than Guardsmen in the city, but the ponies lacked heavy portable firepower, other than their magic, and they also lacked proper communications equipment. As a result, Barritt and Shining Armour had agreed to attach at least one Imperial squad to every pony platoon, so that the ponies, the bulk of the city's defenders, could be properly coordinated and directed from HQ, with orders issued through the vox sets carried by every squad of Guardsmen. That caused some resentment and confusion among the Imperials who had never fought alongside the ponies before, but some of their number were drawn from units which had fought to recapture Canterlot from the Chaos occupying forces, and thus had experience of working with the Equestrian military forces in a cooperative effort. They had been sent for that very reason, to help with coordination and interoperability between the two forces, who used completely disparate equipment, methods of communication, weaponry and tactics.
Corporal Breeze was among the ponies to be assigned to work in direct cooperation with some of the Imperial forces. Fresh from his previous encounters with the Chaos enemy during the last attack, the young NCO and what had become his unit had been chosen, folded in with an understrength platoon, and found a human squad of Imperial Guard attached to their Royal Guard unit. Already their communications gear had proven its worth, allowing them to receive rapid orders from city headquarters to move to the corner of 5th Street and Baltimare Avenue and take up defensive positions around the hospital building there. Other units were also directed in from elsewhere, with the intention of forestalling an enemy push from the public park where numerous enemy dropships had landed. Their likely target was the palace, and the hospital lay in between the two. Several units had already been stationed there, as it was a good point to fortify and a sizeable building with good fields of fire, but now reinforcements, including Breeze's unit, were being rushed there to support the defences.
While the fog of war was lifted somewhat for the ponies by having instant communication with headquarters, thanks to the vox set their human allies carried, that was not enough to compensate for the scale of the fighting that was erupting all around them. There were jets roaring by overhead, explosions in the distance, crackling gunfire. There were shouts of dismay and anger on the vox, from human infantry requesting reinforcements, calling out enemy locations, asking for air support or mortar fire. The city was well and truly under siege by the enemy, and not just from the air like in the last attack. Knowing their capital was being besieged again lent renewed purpose to the ponies, filling their hearts with a sense of righteous anger. This was holy ground. This was Celestia's home, and they would fight for every inch of it, as they had done every time danger threatened.
The hospital was a squat, modern building, concrete and glass and metal, quite a contrast with the old historic buildings around it, though one wing, the original and much smaller Smallpox Hospital of Canterlot, was constructed of brick and wood. The structure dominated the intersection, occupying the southwestern corner of the junction of 5th Street and Baltimare Avenue. The two streets were already littered with debris from previous attacks, with several of the hospital's neighbouring buildings having been struck by bombs or shells and either partially or completely destroyed. There were broken structural members, roof crossbeams, tiles, brick, masonry and glass strewn across the junction and the roads that led off of it.
Being a key location, a single Imperial tank had been assigned to the hospital's defence, in addition to the infantry provided. The Leman Russ idled on the street that placed it between the hospital and the palace, nestled in behind a small but substantial mount of brick debris from a collapsed shop that had spilled out across the road like a landslide, and now offered some concealment and, hopefully, cover for the tank, taking the edge off of any incoming armour-piercing rounds and potentially detonating lascannon fire and missiles before impact with the vehicle itself. The tank was hull-down behind the mound, meaning its turret and its main cannon could still engage targets, though its sponson-mounted heavy bolters could not.
Corporal Breeze had never been up close and personal with such a mechanical beast before, and it both impressed and scared him. It looked so impersonal; just cold metal, though he knew that there were men inside it who would fire the guns and make the tracks turn. The machine belched out smoke when in motion, but while idling, its engine note dropped to a low throbbing rumble, with nothing from the exhausts except a heat haze that distorted the air above the twin vent stacks at the rear of the vehicle. The turret-mounted cannon was surprisingly short and stubby; what Breeze knew about artillery ballistics told him that a longer barrel generally meant a higher muzzle velocity and greater range. What this tank seemed to be mounting was more akin to a field howitzer fielded by the Equestrian Army. Its other weapons seemed even more alien and deadly to him. The two side-mounted guns reminded him of the repeating anti-air cannons and machine-cannons mounted on airships and ground facilities by Equestrian troops, but with some kind of belt feed system, rather than the box magazines the ponies used on their similar weapons. The gun on the front of the hull looked like nothing else he had seen up close, with slatted grooves and vents, suggesting it produced a tremendous amount of heat rather rapidly during firing that required dissipating. Equestrian machine-cannons had small enough magazines that heat buildup was not a major problem, while the anti-air cannons were fitted with water-cooled jackets that went around the barrel for just such a purpose.
All in all, the war machine left Breeze feeling that he was very glad it was on their side, though reports over the human communications system- the vox, it was apparently called- indicated that the enemy had similar vehicles, known as tanks, outside the walls. Breeze hoped they did not make it inside. They had enough to deal with as it was. There were infantry coming in, and that was what the defenders had to concern themselves with. That, and the enemy air forces, which consisted not just of jets and dropships, but also Daemons.
Breeze tried not to look up too often, for the sky was filled with terror. There was the potential for a jet to come swooping down, as it had before just outside the palace walls, where he and the rest of his unit had been spared death by the quick thinking of the unicorn Captain. But there, high above, was also a fight unfolding on an altogether more momentous scale. Princess Celestia and her sister were engaged in combat with some kind of huge birdlike snake monster. When Breeze had first laid eyes upon it, he had been convinced that Discord had returned, such was the resemblance it bore to the Draconequus from a distance. On closer inspection, though looking at it for more than a few seconds made him feel nauseous, it became apparent that it was not the Lord of Chaos and former ruler of Equestria, but merely some creature with rather similar features. It must be, he reasoned, what Celestia had been fighting down in Fillydelphia. The details of that event had not been widely disseminated around Canterlot, but some facts had trickled down. Celestia had gone to Fillydelphia because a human attack on the city with the intent to recapture it had broken down due to the arrival of a monstrous creature. The Princess had fought the thing to a standstill. That was all that Breeze had heard, and while it was possible that it was all lies or incomplete information, the arrival of this thing above the capital strongly suggested that it may have been the creature in question which Celestia had been engaged with.
Now she was fighting it again, along with Princess Luna. Both royal sisters were swirling around, teleporting in and out of the area, and lighting up the sky with blasts and flashes of magic. Deep booms rolled across the city as stray magic struck the ground. Breeze had no idea what the creature was capable of, but he knew what the Princesses could do, and they were demonstrating it once again in the skies above their home city. If the Daemon truly was a great threat, then it was likely that only the Princesses could protect the rest of them from it. While it warmed Breeze's heart to see his leaders putting their lives on the line for their citizens, he could not help but feel some small amount of fear; what if they failed? What if the creature was more powerful than they were? What if things did not go the way that Celestia planned?
Even apart from the winged thing they were fighting, there were still many other enemies that needed defeating before Canterlot could be safe. They had Imperial help, yes, and that was very much appreciated, especially by those who had seen the humans fight before, but the city was understaffed before, and it was still understaffed now. There were simply not enough troops in Canterlot to ensure a full and effective defence of every quarter, every neighbourhood and every street. That was why they were being concentrated at key points, such as the hospital.
Breeze and his unit were ushered into the hospital's maternity ward, which directly overlooked the crossroads. Breeze climbed the stairs with his rifle in his hooves, up to the fourth floor. There were several rooms that had windows out onto the junction. The humans already had several heavy weapons set up on lower levels; missiles launchers on the corner, and a single lascannon partway down the line, aimed at the other side of the street.
Breeze's platoon moved in and took up positions along the string of patients' rooms, looking out over the street. There were good sight lines across the road toward the park where the Chaos troops had landed. Even now, more dropships were swinging in, setting down in the park for a few seconds before taking to the air again, their passengers delivered along with their weapons and equipment. It may have been the last roll of the dice for the Chaos occupying forces, but it was far from a futile effort. They clearly still had plentiful numbers of infantry, to say nothing of the Daemons. Breeze didn't know how many tanks and other forces the enemy had outside of the city, but if it was anything like the numbers that seemed to be landing inside it, then Canterlot was certainly in a lot of potential trouble.
At the direction of the platoon's Lieutenant, Breeze and his section were directed to occupy two of the patient rooms near the corner of the building. The rooms were connected by an interior door, allowing passage directly between them. Most of the windows had been blown out by previous explosions, and the remaining glass was knocked out by rifle butts as ponies positioned themselves, crouching down with their weapons aimed out of the windows, keeping the crossroads covered. Not only was the landing area in the park a threat to the palace, but the main city gate was not too far away, and any enemy force which broke through from the outside would likely spread out to try and encircle the palace as best they could, which could bring them down to this crossroads, too.
Gunfire was crackling from the vicinity of the park. There were friendly elements in contact who had been defending the park, a company of human infantry and a battery of Equestrian field artillery. The effectiveness of the pony guns was made evident by the two smoke plumes rising from the park that represented the funeral pyres of a pair of dropships which had been struck by shells as they attempted to make their approaches. What had become of the artillery since, however, was unknown, but no more dropships had been shot down and they seemed to be having no difficulty in making their landings any longer. The force at the park had reported over the vox that they were in danger of being overrun, and had called for reinforcements, but no forces could safely reach them without leaving either the city wall or the palace perimeter dangerously exposed. The best that could be offered by Major Barritt and Shining Armour was to reinforce the backstop position at the hospital crossroads and allow the force at the park to fall back to it. That was exactly what was planned, and what was now being carried out.
Breeze kept a watchful eye over his ponies, and also over the crossroads. He wondered if the enemy knew they were there; if they did, then the defenders could expect bombs to rain down on them at any time, just like the last attack. He remembered vividly the destruction of the city headquarters at the library, being covered in brick dust and debris. He remembered the last-ditch save made by the unicorn Captain, to protect the defensive position at the palace walls from an air strike. Breeze had developed a strong hatred of enemy aircraft, and not without good reason. He hoped that they would not draw the attention or the ire of the enemy flyers again.
At least they had plenty of other targets, including Imperial vehicles, the pony airships, and the anti-air weaponry which would threaten their own survival. The palace itself was now under Cadence's shield; while it was always possible the enemy could force a breach in it the way they had done so twice with the city shield, they had not yet shown the ability to shut down the shield or the magic powering it entirely. It was deemed prudent to keep the palace protected from enemy bombing or artillery since the command of the whole defensive operation was being conducted from there, as well as it being the location of the civilians, huddled in fear in the catacombs below.
'Contact!'
Breeze looked down the street as the shout was repeated. 'Contact, front! 500 yards!'
He sighted in with his rifle. There were indeed figures on the move. The human vox operator, stationed in the hospital corridor behind the patient rooms, called out. 'Friendlies incoming from the front, check fire!' The cry was relayed along the line, to every unit guarding the crossroads. The troops defending the park were on the move, pulling back as per the plan. Breeze took out his binoculars and peered through them. There were human troops, Imperial Guardsmen moving at a steady pace, though looking weary. More than that, they looked bedraggled; some were missing their helmets, while a few were even lacking their weapons. Many had wounds, blood smeared on their uniforms or on their faces. Clearly they had been through a fight, and it was a fight that was now heading for the hospital.
A company of Imperial Guard should have had somewhere between eighty and two hundred members, depending on the Regiment and type of unit they were from. There were only a few dozen coming back down the street. Of the pony gunners, there was almost no sign, save for four earth ponies running alongside the humans. Evidently the defenders had taken heavy casualties in the fight for the park, and while they had ultimately lost control of it to the enemy, nobody could accuse them of having surrendered possession easily. They had fought to buy time, if nothing else, for the main line of defence around the palace to be strengthened, which was exactly why Breeze's unit had been moved up. The hospital's defenders would now be further bolstered by the remnants of the force from the park.
The main hospital block was not the only building occupied. The ruin which was providing cover for the tank had heavy weapons teams located among the rubble, while the buildings on the other side of the street, mostly specialised hospital departments and nursing accommodation, also had small units on their upper floors which overlooked the junction. It was hoped that the first enemy units could be lured into the killzone, and then the rest of them kept at bay. Road junctions to the left and right of their position were also covered, forming a great semicircle of defences around the palace, with the rear wall of the complex also forming the edge of the city, preventing the palace from ever being truly surrounded by ground forces. An inner cordon around the palace complex provided a second line of defence if the first should be breached.
With the bedraggled survivors coming into the fold, Corporal Breeze returned his attention to the street ahead. The building on the corner opposite, a six storey housing block for nurses and trainees, obscured his complete vision of the road that led to the park, but he could see a fair distance down it fro his fourth floor perch. The enemy were out there, and they would be coming. Perhaps not for a while, perhaps in mere moments. he did not know. But he did know that the defenders would be ready for them whenever they did.
They did not have long to wait. Shouts of, 'Contact!' rang out again after a few minutes. Troops were advancing down the street from the park, and the units in the buildings across the road reported that there were also enemy units moving into back alleys between the buildings, in an attempt to subvert the defences and find a way through. Every alleyway was covered, however, by at least one squad. There were no easy holes in the ring of steel around the palace. The enemy would have to fight to break through.
The defenders held their fire, hoping to lure the enemy in. It worked, up to a point. One of the enemy soldiers spotted something; scope glint, a rifle barrel, the tank turret; and shouted a warning. The men advancing up the street began to scatter, and shouts to open fire rang out around the hospital. Several hundred lasguns and pony rifles blazed away, cutting down a dozen Chaos soldiers in the first volley. The survivors scrambled for cover, which was limited on the street. There were a couple of buildings into which some of the infantry were able to run, but from those buildings they could hardly engage any of the defensive positions. Those caught on the street had to crouch as low as they could behind a couple of wooden carts and street furniture, lampposts and planters. There was nothing else. A heavy bolter tore one of the carts to splinters in seconds, blowing chunks out of both the cobbled stones and the bodies of the men trying to hide behind it.
Breeze fired a couple of shots from his rifle, but it was not long before he could no longer see any targets. The enemy had retreated into the buildings alongside the street, and those who had been caught far enough along that Breeze could see them were all dead or dying. There was heavy gunfire from the other defensive positions as they could still engage the targets. The vox broadcast alerts to units in the two corner buildings, the accommodation block and the radiography building on the other side of the junction that the enemy could potentially gain access to their buildings from the structures they had taken cover in.
Shortly after, that proved to be the case. There were messages exchanged from the human teams; the enemy had found some way to get into the nursing block, either through a back door, a lower window, or perhaps by breaching a wall. There was audible gunfire inside the structure, and the flashes of weapons fire could be seen through the windows. A minute later, they were inside the radiology block as well.
Several more squads were sent running across the street to assist, trying to keep both buildings in friendly hands, but the enemy were able to pour their entire attacking force through the two buildings, funneling them into the fight, the meat grinder of urban combat, going room to room and floor to floor. The defenders were isolated on the top floors, and their reinforcements were unable to break through to link up with them. Men and ponies fired in through the windows, but they were taking casualties. Breeze could see them falling, lying motionless in the street, and the rest of them were pulled back, crossing the street again in the other direction. There was no sense expending more men and ponies than necessary in trying to hold the buildings. They still had a defensive line, and the more that died, the weaker it would be.
The enemy began appearing in the windows of the buildings they had captured, and finally Breeze had a target again. He drew a bead on one man, in the fourth floor, the same as him. The man wore a snarling face mask, no doubt mirroring his real features beneath. Breeze put a round through his upper chest as the man was aiming down at some other pony or human elsewhere in the main hospital building. The man dropped from view, but there were more targets in other windows, and now the enemy was starting to push up the street again toward the crossroads. The tank roared into action along with the heavy weaponry, trying to keep them at bay.
Breeze picked another target and fired, ducking down below the window to move along to give orders to his ponies in the other room next door. As he passed between the two rooms, he heard a shout of warning. 'Missile launcher, fifth floor!'
He stepped into the next room, and saw three ponies diving for cover. A fraction of a second later, he saw why, then he felt it. A missile streaked in through the window and exploded. Breeze was hurled back, the wind knocked out of him, and then everything went black.