The Captain had expected it to be a fairly average day at Fort 52.
Project 722 had set this facility up in the early days of its existence as part of its extensive research program into an entity that the Army had encountered in 2019 called 'Subject X'. Whilst various accounts on the internet had existed of this mysterious being, often referred to as 'Jimmy', there had long been assumptions that these stories were the products of people with overactive imaginations and far too much spare time available to them. It was only after an encounter with a pegasus and a creature from mythology that had convinced the Government otherwise.
As a result, the former Defence Secretary James Mattis had authorised the creation of Project 722 in February 2019, shortly before his resignation. Initially, they were created to investigate Subject X and the Pyramid Incident, but they soon were forced to expand the scope of their operation after more sightings were confirmed across the world. Not only of Subject X, but of five others, dubbed 'Y', 'Z', 'A', 'B', and 'C'. The tracking of a massive energy blast off the coast of North Carolina and the discovery of an interdimensional portal between Earth and Equestria by the USS Porter had only provided more evidence for Project 722 to work with. As a result, they accelerated their work and gained a new commanding officer, attached to the operation after the discovery that a blue horse had been seen in Louisiana.
Colonel Peterson had previously been attached to NORAD, but his decades of military experience meant that he was perfectly suited to run the daily operations of Project 722. To this end, there had been another individual who was running proceedings from even higher up.
The Captain had sometimes received his transmissions. He was only referred to on the radio as 'The Benefactor', and never showed his face, instead communicating via a mostly blank screen with the text AUDIO ONLY on it. He seemed to be running the show, and most of them assumed he was a government official, and that 'The Benefactor' was merely some sort of callsign for the person.
At least, they assumed it to be a person. Still, it was a fairly quiet morning at first in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The radio seemed to be pretty quiet, and there was nothing going on nearby. Although he had been told of these beings called 'The Pillars' by his superiors, the Captain had only ever seen one of them in the area. They went by the name of Somnambula, for some reason. What a stupid name. Increasing numbers of ponies had been popping up in various places and they had no idea why, but it wasn't considered to be a source of much concern. They had other things to worry about, such as keeping the base secure.
Which was why putting it here in the middle of the desert seemed so sensible. It was secluded and in the middle of nowhere, so nobody would ever think to look for it, right? Besides, the base was incredibly well fortified. Project 722 had superior armament and armour to the conventional military, as they had the capacity to operate and test weaponry far beyond what the military had available. And much of it was developed from studying enemy artefacts and Equestrian technology.
"Run a sweep, all Radar screens and towers," he ordered.
"Aye, sir," one of the technical officers replied, and started pushing some switches. The screens buzzed into life and started scanning the area for incoming objects. There was nothing. No real surprise. Airliners had been rerouted out of the area, and any unauthorised traffic was simply shot down or intercepted.
"Sir!" called another voice. "Objects have begun to materialise from various directions. Approaching at attack speed."
"How many?" the Captain asked.
"At least 1,000 blips approaching. Wait, make that 2,000. Coming from the north. Correction; make that 3,000; 2,000 from the north and 1,000 from the northeast."
"We've got hot and heavy incoming from the east and west!" called another. "At least 3,000 airborne hostiles, no IFF ping."
"Unauthorised objects approaching our airspace!" called yet another. "6,000 confirmed bogies."
The Captain nodded. This was the Legion that had camped in the local area. The question of how they knew where the base was could be answered later. Right now, they had some flies to swat.
"Prepare all anti aircraft batteries and SAM towers."
"Towers locked and loaded."
"FIRE!"
Flash Magnus flew in from the Northeast alongside the rest of the 3rd Cohort. It was not an easy duty, basically playing as ducks, for the enemy to shoot at, but it was a very important duty. The hope was that all the fire on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Cohorts would leave the enemy unable to detect 4th and 5th, as well as the others, who would fly in and knock out critical structures and enemy positions allowing them to roll into the pyramid and find out what was going on inside.
He glanced over to his Sergeant, who glanced back. "Good luck," he said. "We'll need that shield of yours to hold off much of the enemy fire."
"Understood," Flash replied, nodding. They fully anticipated heavy enemy fire, and they knew that it would come.
The sergeant motioned with his left hoof. "DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!"
At that moment, each pony rolled into the dive, each forming a column on top of the other. This ripple effect was repeating on masse across the entire assault formation, until a cloud of pegasi descended toward the enemy base.
It was only then they realised this was precisely what the enemy wanted them to do. In that moment, the sky was abruptly lit up with flak fire, with large shells and smaller bullets flying through the air as they dived.
"KEEP GOING! THEY CAN'T HIT ALL OF US!"
Flash soon doubted the accuracy of that statement as one of the pegasi next to him was blown apart by a hail of shells, his body exploding in a cloud of gore. The sky was soon black with smoke from the relentless fire of the enemy guns, the explosions lighting up the sky. Flash brought his shield up and only just managed to block heavy fire from a flak gun, the heavy shells smashing into Invictus, but being unable to break the mighty shield. The others were not so lucky. All over the place, Legionaries were dropping like flies, the intensity of the gunfire never ceasing.
Flash continued his dive, bodies falling all over and around him, with heavy firepower continuing to light up the sky. As he cleared the smoke cloud, he suddenly saw there was another set of weapons they hadn't accounted for.
Below them, stationed in the compound, were several Surface to Air Missile batteries. He suddenly saw two soldiers shout, and the missile launchers suddenly started firing through the cloud and above.
Soldiers on the towers were firing rifles and machine guns up into the air, seemingly not needing to aim as they could see the skies were jammed full of pegasi in such tight formation they couldn't maneuvre properly.
"BREAK UP THE FORMATIONS!" he shouted. "WE'RE TOO CLOSE TOGETHER!"
His attention was drawn back to the battle when a hail of bullets slammed into his shield. He turned to see two soldiers standing there. He threw his javelin at one, stalling them if nothing else, before flying at the other and bucking him in the face as hard as he could. Said soldier plummeted to the ground, unmoving. Flash tried to get moving again, but the SAM batteries suddenly had a lock on him again, and the first fired off a missile at him. He blocked it successfully, but the force of the explosion through him backwards and out of control. He flew backwards through the air and back into the smoke cloud, the explosions and smoke all around him as bullets whistled all around.
He attempted to fly back in, but the smoke left him unable to navigate properly. Suddenly, he heard cries for help below.
He flew in the direction, to see another Legionary in the air. "HELP!" he shouted. "WE'RE TRA-"
He never finished his sentence. A bullet punched clean through his helmet, ending his life in that instant. On the ground, soldiers with flamethrowers and fuel tanks on their backs were setting Pegasi who had landed and were trying to fight in ground formation ablaze. Their screams as they were consumed by flames were terrifying, but what seemed to be more shocking were the soldiers carrying the flamethrowers seemed to be laughing and shouting insults.
Flash saw another missile incoming as the machine and flak guns continued to reap a deadly toll on the enemy. He raised his shield again, and was thrown back through the cloud and outside the field of engagement. Black smoke surrounded the area, but it was all too clear what was going on.
They had flown straight into a massacre.