//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Under The Shadow Of The Iron Sky // Story: Battlefield 2145: Strike on Equestria // by TheMossiah //------------------------------// 10 Minutes Before The Explosion. "Sir our forces are sweeping the base for any survivors. We suffered only minor casualties." The marshal stood up from his chair. "Good, I want our men to secure the area. I also want some communication towers set up immediately." The marshal looked down through the observing platform. The captain also watched the ground below. The first thing that caught his eye was a PAC soldier trying to crawl away from the scene with his crippled legs. An EU soldier simply walked up to him and put a bullet through his head. The captain cringed at the sight. Suddenly the navigators console pinged rapidly. "Sir! Incoming anomalies to our right! Possible PAC Titans!" The marshal turned his head to the right view port. A large portal opened and three PAC Titans came through at an amazing speed. The navigator continued to watch the console. "Ugh sir! The enemy Titans seem to be coming towards us at ramming speed sir!" The captain shook the marshal "ORDERS SIR!" The captain stared into the horrified marshal's eyes. The marshal ripped away and calmly sat down on his chair. His eyes filled with rage. He grabbed the special microphone that was used to speak to Earth. He calmly spoke into the microphone. "This is Field Marshal Logan signing off. My final order consists of this and only this... Send. Everything." He crushed the microphone and he eased up and watched as the Titan's neared the flagship. The captain swung to the waiting crew members. "Fire full broadside! Destroy them damn it!" The flagship fired all its weapons at the incoming Titans. The left most Titan began to succumb to the broadside barrage and exploded in a massive fireball as it crashed towards the ground. The ships AI's monotone voice rang through the ship. "Ten seconds to impact." The captain felt time slowdown. "Six seconds to impact." He watched people run away from the right side of the ship attempting to stay away from the impact zone. "Four seconds to impact." By now people were on the ground praying for their lives. "One second to impact." He closed his eyes. He felt like he was hit by a car. His eyes flung open as he flew to the ground. He saw a pipe rip through the wall spewing fire on his fellow crew members. He saw the marshal screaming as he rolled on the ground attempting to put out the fire that engulfed him. Finally he watched as the second Titan soared for the bridge, meters from where he lay sprawled out across the deck. The Titan drew closer and closer. "I'll see you in hell." He whispered as the Titan neared the bridge. He shut his eyes and everything went numb, seconds later the pain left him... The Titan impacted with the bridge section of the Dawn Bringer. The massive flagship shifted its weight to the left causing it to begin to topple over. Once again the monotone voice just barely audible from all the explosions rang through the ship. "Reac-ZZZZzZZz- Core 3 is critical. Reactor C-zzzZ- 2 is critical Reactor-ZZZZZZ-" The AI shut down. The cores simultaniously detonated. The master core's shield was unable to keep out the explosions causing the core to explode. The Dawn Bringer exploded, taking everything within a 2 mile radius with it. Three EU Titan's managed to escape the blast radius and continued to fly their separate ways. One flew straight towards the location they lost contact with the dropship. The other two were not so lucky... A massive portal opened up 5 miles from the base much deeper in the forest. Hundreds of PAC Titans came through. Two of the surviving EU Titans were annihilated. The remaining Titan's captain hoped for the best and activated cloaking systems. It flew towards the forest edge. The PAC Titan's seemed to block out the sun from the distant sunset. "So this is what its like to be in the shadow of the iron sky." Brian sat back into his chair and closed his eyes. He hoped this was just a nightmare. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I continued to run to the cottage. I quickly dodged ponies that seemed to sit there staring at the explosion with a mix of awe and fear. I finally spotted the cottage. I sucked in a large ammount of air and doubled my speed. I accidentally clipped a tree, and to my surprise the tree seemed to splinter and collapse. I shook it off as I ripped to door of the cottage open. The 3 ponies and my three squad members darted their heads at me. "Whats wrong?" Callaghan shot. "Thought you would miss my cooking?" He silently chuckled. "This is very bad. No one here noticed the big ass explosion outside?" Fluttershy covered her bunny's ears. He ripped himself out of her grasp and stuck its tongue out at her. 'What explosion? What happened?" Ford began to get up now. I pointed outside. He ran to the doorway. "Holy shit! Is that what I think it is?" Now Twilight and Rarity scrambled to the door. Callaghan with the help of Nicholas limped over to the door. The ponies looked with awe while Callaghan, Nicholas and Ford looked with terror. "It most certainly is! Only one thing can make that size of an explosion without leaving a massive cloud of fallout. That had to be caused by the Dawn Bringer's super reactor!" Ford continued to stare at the cloud with terror. "But... But how did PAC destroy Dawn Bringer! If PAC destroyed Dawn Bringer then... My god..." Ford fell to the ground. Callaghan stood by himself now and helped Nicholas drag Ford's unconscious body into the room. I fell silent. Callaghan spoke out. "But wait, Harrison your brother... Oh shit man..." I clenched my fists in rage, my eyes went bloodshot. I turned to the explosion. "I... I am going to kill every fucking one of those waste of space pieces of shit." I stomped off towards the library. "But first, I have one already." Callaghan tried to limp after me. We were half way to the library when he shouted to me. "Nicholas told me about the guy you captured! You can't do this to him!" I gave a laugh. "Ha! But I can." I now saw the library. "Comon Harrison just think about it for a second!" I picked up my pace as I neared the door. "I already have thought about it." I kicked the door down revealing the startled and very awake PAC soldier. "Ugh, I didn't mean what I said earlier!" I laughed. I picked him up holding him by the throat. "The hell you didn't" I threw him outside onto the dirt. He scrambled trying to get to his feet. I walked up to him and slammed my boot into his chest. I felt some of his ribs crack. He flew into the air and then slammed into the ground. "Please don't kill me!" He painfully muscled out. Once again I picked him up. This time I threw him into the nearby wall of a building. The impact caused the wall to warp inwards. I drew my P33 revolver. "Please! Please don't!" He yelled. I laughed. "Ever wonder if there is such thing as the afterlife? Well I guess you're going to find out." I began to pull my trigger as something slammed into me. "Stop!" I was thrown to the ground. The round dispersed and landed just an inch from the soldier's head. He fainted. I looked to see who knocked me over. It was Rainbow Dash. I snapped out of my blood rage. I dropped the revolver and stood up. I inspected the fainted PAC soldier. Other than a few broken ribs he would be fine. "I'm sorry, I wanted those bastards to pay." She stood there staring daggers into me. "What made you get so mad?" She blurted out. I dropped my head in silence. My brother was serving on the Dawn Bringer. Since it was a secret at the time I couldn't tell anybody I knew, not even Callaghan. "My Brother was on the Dawn Bringer." I said calmly. She tilted her head in confusion. "So what point are you getting at?" I shook my head. "Didn't you hear me back there? The Dawn Bringer has been destroyed. My Brother is now dead. That means now my entire family is dead. Get it now? I'm the last Harrison of my line. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I HAVE EVER LOVED IS DEAD!" I slammed my foot into the wall next to the fainted soldier. She seemed to lower her head in regret. "I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't know..." She moved away from me. I was confused of why. "But what about me?" She asked. Then it hit me, shit... "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She continued to back away. After a few steps back she took off in the sky and flew up to her house in the clouds. 'Damn it' I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar. I looked up in the sky to see a sight I thought I would never see again. It was 'Legacy'. I stared at the Titan with disbelief. Was our Titan here? My intercom sparked to life. "This is Captain Brian of the HMS Legacy. Does anyone come in? Over." It was Legacy! I spoke into the intercom. "This is First Lieutenant Harrison of the EU marines. Good to hear you Captain." I heard a gasp over the intercom. Not only by the captain, but by the entire crew that heard me. "Holy shit! Harrison? We all thought you were killed by that gunship! I'll send a dropship down right away!" With that I happily nodded to myself. "Good to hear, I'll be down here. Also, a tip. Hold your fire." With that Ford, Nicholas ran over. Callaghan limped over. Callaghan seemed to be glad I didn't kill that soldier. He had a huge smile over his face. "My god! Legacy is here! I never thought I'd see her again!" Callaghan just stared at the Titan with a warm smile. Twilight and Rarity trotted over. Fluttershy must have stayed back in the cottage still scared from my sudden outrage. "Be careful, stay behind me. The Captain may think of you as a threat, I need to speak with him." They gladly nodded and trotted behind Ford and Nicholas. The dropship flew out of the barrier and descended to the ground. With a satisfying *Thump* the dropship's doors slid open. Brian left the doors with a warm smile and it changed to a frown as he unholstered his revolver. "Harrison! Behind you!" His gun was at the ready. "Its ok Brian. They're friendlies. They are some of the inhabitants of this world." At first he continued to be ready to fire but after about ten seconds he finally realizing what I said. He nodded and holstered his revolver. "What are they?" He ask as he curiously studied Rarity and Twilight. "They are ponies. They are also sentient and are capable of speech. The best part is they speak English." The Captain was still eying them over. "Speak pony." Twilight moved out from behind Ford. "Ugh... Hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle." Brian moved back, amazed that she spoke. He dropped back into his leader-like stance. He extended an arm. "I am Captain Brian of the EU Navy." She shook his hand with her hoof. "Good to meet you Captain Brian." She moved back but not too much to show that she was afraid. "Now, Harrison. What have you been doing since the crash?" I laughed. "Well its a long story. Come I'll explain it." With that, the majestic white Princess landed close by. "Oh and this is Princess Celestia." He looked at her with awe. "Nice to meet you Brian." He stumbled over his words. "Ugh nice to meet you... Princess?" We moved to the library and I told Brian all that had happened since the crash. The encounter with the wooden wolves, the half lion half scorpion creature and the attacking rock monster. And finally the PAC soldier who arrived in the EU command walker. He was amazed we have survived that long. "Well Harrison, it sounds like you have been through hell and back." I laughed. "I just need to know, what happened? You know, with Dawn Bringer." Brian lowered his head. "PAC Titans rammed the Dawn Bringer. After the reactor detonation ten more of our Titans fell. Only three survived. After that I was on one side of the base and two others were on the other side. A massive armada of PAC Titans arrived and destroyed the two other Titans. We're the last one left." I sat there in disbelief. How could this be happening? "Thank you, I just hope my brother died gloriously." I gave a salute to Brian. He respectively threw one back and continued to speak with the Princess. Before I left I had to ask Brian one more thing. "Think I could borrow a Talon?" Brian was caught off guard by this. "Ugh, just ask the pilot to send you up to retrieve it." I smiled and gave another salute and left the library. I found Twilight first. She was speaking to Ford outside just meters away from the library. I called out to her. "Hey ugh, Twilight? Can I speak to you for a moment?" She nodded and moved away from Ford. "What do you need?" She asked curiously. "So whats the deal with walking on clouds? Can anyone do it?" She shook her head. "No, only pegasai can do it. BUT, I can place a spell on you that will allow you to stand on the clouds. I don't know how long it will work for humans though." This put a smile on my face. I nodded my head. "Do it." She nodded and lowered her head. Her horn glowed bright and a strange purple light enveloped me. This went on for about ten seconds and it dispersed. She was extremely surprised. "Something is wrong. It is much more powerful on humans." I tilted my head with curiosity. "What do you mean?" I waited eagerly for a reply. "Well it seems that instead of the normal three days it will last on you for a week, maybe even two." I was amazed, even three days would be fine. She continued to speak. "I might even be able to make it permanent later." I was amazed. Ford overheard what she said. "What?! You mean Harrison could walk on the clouds permanently? That's amazing! I wish we humans had this magic." I turned away from them and jogged to the dropship. "Thanks Twilight! I owe you one!" I turned my head to see Twilight and Ford speaking again, totally oblivious to what I had just said. 'Couple of bookworms' I thought then let out a laugh. I hurried up to the Pilot. He looked at me with a warm smile. "Welcome back Harrison, good to see you." I gave him a salute and slid into the dropship. "Take me up to the Titan, a talon is calling my name!" With a laugh the pilot engaged the thrusters. We lifted off the ground. I finally got to take a look at the town from a birds eye view. It looked beautiful. Multi-colored ponies everywhere walked the streets of the calm town. We neared the docking bay. "Preparing to land, enjoy yourself Harrison" With that the dropship hovered over the landing pad. I shot him a salute and hopped out onto the pad. The dropship left the bay and went back down towards the ground. I marveled at the sight of the talon. "Never thought I would get to see you again." I said cheerfully as I climbed into the cockpit. I engaged the thrusters and hovered out of the bay. As I got a safe distance from the Titan I went into full flight mode. I could move at amazing speeds in this world. I decided to do a few loops for fun sake. I neared Rainbow Dash's amazing house in the sky and brought the ship to a hover. As I brought the ship down to the clouds I had expected I would have had to kept it in hover. That was not the case. The talon seemed to easily rest on the cloud like a big cushion. I hopped out of the talon half expecting to fall through the clouds. Instead I seemed to bounce for a second before settling. With a smile I bounced my way towards the door. As I neared the house the door swung open revealing a startled pegasus. "How- How did you... What?" I laughed and continued to bounce towards the house. "What? I like the sky too!" I said sarcastically. I finally came to a complete stop meters away from her. "Look, I came to apologize. I didn't think you felt anything for me, I mean I'm a human and your a pony! How was I suppose to know?!" She began to laugh. "Its ok, I should have let you speak." I was surprised. Much easier than I thought this was going to be. "Well that was easy. I thought I was going to have to convince you otherwise. Come on! I want you to meet the Captain of the Titan that's here. I hope you were able to notice the massive warship that entered this air space!" I gave a laugh. She nodded. "Ok lets go." I ran and hopped into the talon. I took it into a hover and moved towards the ground. I set it down in the grass and once again hopped out. She flew down after me and we entered the library. The Princess and Brian turned to see who entered. "Hey Brian? I'd like you to meet Rainbow Dash." He extended an arm. She happily shook it. "Nice to meet you." He said as he turned again to the Princess. I turned to Rainbow Dash and shrugged. We left the library. "Well that was awkward" She said with a laugh. I also laughed. "I have never seen Brian so engaged in a convorsation since... Ever!" I continued to laugh. My laughing was cut short by the sound of a large *Boom*. I turned to the location from which the sound came from. It was another portal. Brian and the Princess ran out of the library. "What was that Harrison!" Brian grabbed my shoulder. I shrugged it off. "I don't know, more PAC?" He shook his head. "I don't think so, back at the base it looked like the entire PAC armada was there. No way they have anymore." I continued to stare at the dark-purple portal. White EU Titans poured through by the hundreds. "Holy shit." I thought the same thing. "My god, thats the entire EU navy! Command must really want this place if this is happening!" Ford yelled as he and Twilight motioned over. Nicholas and Rarity also came over. "Hey don't forget about me!" Callaghan yelled as Fluttershy helped him move towards the now growing crowd. We watched as almost immediately the Titans opened fire. They all fired at the now uncloaking PAC force. "Get communications up! I need to speak with whoever is in charge with that fleet!" Brian yelled as he hopped into the dropship. The pilot quickly took off and sped for the docking bay. Every thing else on the ground watched the battle with awe and a mix of terror. This was a full fledged strike on Equestria.